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It’s the final round of the 20th Super Challenge and is your brain as tired of coming up with ideas as mine? Probably. The good news is, your story doesn’t have to be the most innovative thing ever written. In fact, trying too hard to do too much with the prompts will probably hurt your story as much as help it–after all, you only have a thousand words to say everything you have to say about the world and your characters. Yikes. So just relax and lean into the middle of the prompts and let the story happen. If you’re not sure how to do that, we’re spending all year this year on a free workshop called Navigating Prompts that unpacks exactly what competition judges and anthology editors are thinking when they prepare prompts, and how you can give them what they want. (The bad news is, we’re only halfway through. But hey, we’ve covered one style of genre prompt already, and you’ve got two genre prompts to work with this weekend, so maybe give that a quick read if you’re feeling stuck. It won’t cover every genre, and as far as I know there’s nothing specifically about your prompt in there, but it’ll give you some hints.) (You don’t have to read that if you don’t want to, we just thought you might like to. We don’t require you to seek out other, hidden posts. That would just be mean; you’re already stressed out.)
This round, you’ll be combining tropes from two genres to make a blended-genre story. A few tips and pointers about this round:
- Look. Up. Your. Genres.
- Even if you know one of the genres well, even if your name is actually Ngaio Marsh and we assigned you “mystery,” it’s good to think about not only what you believe is in the genre but what your judges might be expecting to see. Both genres need to be easily identifiable, so think about which elements of the two will work together and which will not.
- Don’t go offroading with your genres. Sure, there are noir stories that don’t incorporate crime, femme fatales, or hardboiled main characters… but this isn’t the time to be trying to write one. Stick to the main tropes for your assigned genres and let the interplay between the two provide the sense of freshness and innovation you’re looking for to show off your creativity.
- You don’t need to include a group number on your title page; just the title, summary, and any applicable content warnings.
Ready? Here’s the prompt you’ll be swearing at us about all weekend:
Final round prompt
GENRES: Clockpunk, romance
Clockpunk: If you’re familiar with steampunk, this is going to be a breeze. If you’re not, here’s a quick breakdown: the only technology you can use in your story is clockwork. You can do anything you want with clockwork, up to and including space travel, but you cannot use: electricity, steam, combustion engines, magic (beyond the willing suspension of disbelief and physics necessary to get a clockwork spaceship into orbit), fusion, etc. Clockpunk stories don’t have to take place in the past; in fact, they are often modern or futuristic (or more often the futuristic settings envisioned by writers from an era when clockwork was in its primacy: retrofuturistic). For purposes of this competition, “clockwork” will mean any spring- or water-driven device which works primarily by gears, such as a watch or water clock or mill or music box. You may also use any technology older than or contemporary with clockwork, such as blacksmithing or optical lenses or selective breeding for plants and animals. Writers frequently adopt the aesthetics of the era of technology used in -punk stories, as Victorian aesthetics for steampunk, WWII aesthetics for dieselpunk, etc.
Romance: Notice that this isn’t rom-com. We’re looking for a classic romance, and you’ll find tons of resources for that on the ‘net. You’ll even find romance plot generators! On the other hand, those generators are, well, pretty normative. And it’s Pride. Our baseline definition of romance is “two or more people overcoming obstacles to form a lifelong nurturing connection” not “a man and woman eventually having a baby.” We’re not going to require you to keep it G rated, although we caution you that a thousand words of smut doesn’t leave much room for plot, and we’d encourage you to put a content warning on anything you’d feel awkward about your parent(s) reading. We’re not going to demand that the endgame for your characters be [insert euphemism for sex here], either. We’re not going to require you to keep it cis, het, or even monogamous. Romance can look like a lot of things.
So without limiting your imagination, we’d rather lay out a few things that aren’t romantic.
- Wearing someone’s resistance down. For one thing you’ve only got a thousand words and it would be hard to do realistically, but for another, when one character doesn’t want to be with the other character, that’s not romance. It’s just exhaustion.
- Not listening to “no.” While it’s not uncommon for one character in a romance book to “know what someone wants better than they themself do,” ignoring a clearly stated preference isn’t romantic.
- Stalking. Pining is great, pining is a trope that drives romances all the time. Sitting in a library gazing longingly? go for it. But following another character around for the purpose of isolating and harassing them is not particularly romantic.
- Insisting that a character ignore the red flags they recognize from their history of abuse because “other character is different.”
If you’re not sure if your romance is romantic, we suggest asking your beta reader to zip through it keeping the signs of abuse in mind. While there’s no such thing as a “green flag” for a relationship, your romance shouldn’t be covered in red flags.
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Don’t post your story anywhere on the Internet until after our judges are done and you get your feedback! But if you want to talk up the competition or live-tweet your writing process, use the hashtag #YWsuper. Just remember not to include identifying details about which story is yours! You can also discuss your story in the judge- (and judgment-) free Super Challenge channel on Discord.
Your stories are due Sunday, June 6 at 10pm US Eastern Time. Remember to check the rules for formatting, including all those fiddly details like title page, font, and filename. Don’t get disqualified on a technicality! We know it seems really useless at times, but all those rules have a purpose, from helping get your file where it needs to be to making sure you’re read anonymously and fairly.
For the final round, the title page should include only your title, summary, and any content warning you think is appropriate. (No group number is necessary.)
Email your questions to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me or post them in the Super Challenge channel on Discord—we will not be reviewing other email addresses or social media for your questions over the weekend and we want to make sure you get the answers you need! (Also, we don’t want you to accidentally email your questions to a judge; it’s happened! Don’t be that guy!)
You’ll receive your feedback on Wednesday, June 23, and we’ll announce the winners on Friday, June 25, at 3pm US Eastern Time.
We hope you have as much fun with the prompt as we had picking it out. Good luck, and good writing!
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
