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Everything old is new again
When you’ve read quite a few things, you start to notice patterns. Stories that are told over and over again, plus or minus a few tweaks. Hamlet and the Lion King, for example. If you’re as enamored of yourself as Joseph Campbell was, you might try to codify that sameness. (A note, whether in Campbell’s defense or incrimination, up to you: He doesn’t seem to have examined much of a breadth of stories or storytelling traditions in assembling his assumption that all stories are or ought to be the same.) On the other hand, maybe you’d also notice that even when a story is nearly identical to another, the manner of storytelling matters. The way you get to the end of the story matters. Who you journey with matters.
That was a very long intro to tell you that the YeahWrite editors are as enamored of Dracula Daily as the rest of y’all are. Turning an epistolary into, well, another epistolary? And treating it as a serial? It’s a fascinating exploration of the methodology of storytelling. Also, it means that one of our favorite genres is in the middle of the public consciousness again, and we’re not too proud to take advantage of that.
This round, you’ll be combining tropes from two genres to make a blended-genre story. As you probably just guessed, one of them is an epistolary. You’ll have to keep scrolling for the other one. In the meantime, though, a few tips and pointers about this round:
- Look. Up. Your. Genres.
- Pay attention to our definitions if we’ve defined the genres, since those are the ones the judges will be using!
- Even if you know one of the genres well, even if your name is actually Ngaio Marsh and we assigned “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.
- If you’re frustrated, remember to check out our free workshops on analyzing genre prompts from May and October last year.
Ready? Here’s the prompt you’ll be swearing at us about all weekend:
Final round prompt
GENRES: Epistolary + Alt History
Epistolary: Although you’ll find an expanded definition of “epistolary” in Wikipedia now, we’re looking for a traditional epistolary work: “stories constructed as a series of letters exchanged between characters.” “Letters” could mean letters, texts, emails, or any other form of communication meant to go from one person to another one or several people with a time lag between generation and consumption, but not blog posts, newspaper articles, transcripts, or forms of communication posted by one person publicly for a general audience. So “reply all” on a work email is fair game, but a newsletter with a subscription list is not. A voice mail transcript starts to get iffy; a radio broadcast is right out, as is a telephone call.
Alt History: Your story’s setting should be the world we live in (not necessarily the time period we’re in, though), with one important difference: a(n) historical event should be different. Maybe an earthquake didn’t happen. Maybe someone assassinated Hitler. Maybe Columbus didn’t make it. Maybe Zhang Yi never went to Qin. Maybe Mary Queen of Scots supplanted Elizabeth I as Queen of England. Pick an event and change it, then let history take its course. For this round, the changed event must happen prior to the year 2000, but not before the beginning of written history for the setting of the event. (While we know that oral histories are available for many areas before written records were imposed on the cultures there, confirming that an author has the necessary cultural relevance to access those histories, and finding a judge who is versed in that history, is too likely to result in de-anonymizing your work.)
Your story should not be about your characters doing a thing that changes the event (no time travelers here, and even if you manage it without time travel we want to see the fallout from the change, not the change itself), but the setting of your story should follow naturally from the changed event. That is, if the changed event is that a specific invasion of Europe was successful, your story demographics should reflect that, and so forth. Saying “the Challenger never exploded” and then going straight to “and in 2019 we all have flying cars” is less plausible. The changed event should be integral to your story. That is, you could write a story set in 2019 about someone Jewish whose family had lived in Warsaw for 15 continuous generations if your changed event was “Hitler decided to pursue an art career instead,” but you shouldn’t write a story about someone living in modern Turkey if your changed event is “Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t assassinated” unless you can somehow make that relevant to the plot. Your story can be set at any time after the altered event up to the present, but should not be set in the future.
IMPORTANT TITLE PAGE RULE: Because it’s not fair to make you tell all the backstory of your world, add a line to your title page saying “Alternate History: [description of change].” This doesn’t count toward your total words, but it should still be brief. Examples: “Alternate History: Hurricane Katrina misses the Gulf Coast.” “Alternate History: Jan III Sobieski does not command troops at Vienna.” “Alternate History: Watergate never happens.” This doesn’t get you off the hook for giving detail about the change in your story; it allows the judges to confirm that their interpretation of what happened matches what you were trying to do.
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 5 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, the special note from the prompt description, and any content warning you think is appropriate. (No group number is necessary.) Don’t skip the title page, y’all. At least one person has failed to move on or place because they missed out on those points in a close round!
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 22, and we’ll announce the winners on Friday, June 24, 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.
