The Big Bang
We often refer to microprose as the tiniest stories with the biggest bang. But you have to work for the bang. Micros don’t have to pack less of a punch than a full-length short story or even a novella, but to get that emotional payload in, every word has to count. That’s what you’ll see with the best of the best in this Super Challenge: they don’t waste a ton of space on words that don’t advance the story or increase the reader’s understanding. Instead, they keep a solid focus on the story they’re telling… and the one they’re RE-telling. The best stories in this Super Challenge were also written by authors who were able to identify and replicate the critical plot elements from the source ballad while still putting their own original spin on the tale. Combine those two challenges and… that’s why it’s a Super Challenge.
We hope the writers had as much fun writing as we had coming up with this prompt set and reading the results. Once again, anything that went right is entirely due to our admin team’s untiring work behind the scenes, and anything you hate (yes, including the prompt) is probably my fault. Unless it’s your feedback, because hating feedback for a month or two and then sighing and working with it is every writer’s prerogative and destiny. Yes, I know you’ve heard most of that before. You can sit through it one more time on your way to…. the part you’ve been waiting for.
The part you actually came here to read….
I’ll quit chattering. I know why you’re here. I’ll keep it short and sweet like a micro.
First Place
$150
Jen Mierisch
The Longtown Road
Second Place
$100
Kate Goodheart
Don’t Believe What a Bad Girl Tells You
Third Place
$50
Leila Murton Poole
The Highwayman’s Secret
Honorable Mention:
- Jennifer Palmer – No Mo
- Carrie Beckwith – Annabel Lee
Runners-up:
(in alphabetical order)
- Cecil Beckett
- Katie Battaglia Delay
- Brittany Fernandez
- Lydia C. Lee
Congratulations again to everyone who entered. Hopefully you’re finding your feedback useful and relevant! If you’re mad at your feedback right now, try walking away from it. Everything about your story is fresh and feels personal, and that’s a hard time to hear feedback. Set a reminder and look at it again in a month or so, or get a trusted reader to help you make the connections or see if it’s fair, even if you don’t like it or disagree with a decision or suggestion. In the meantime…
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Writers, if you don’t have your feedback, please send us an email at superchallenge@yeahwrite.me, ’cause that email should have reached you on Wednesday.
Now that this round of the competition is over, you’re free to post your work anywhere on the Internet you like, or take our judges’ suggestions and rework your submission to send on to other venues.
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.
