Round 2 Closes in:
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SPECIAL NOTE: This weekend, the US marks the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, which means we lose an hour. Because we don’t want to penalize our writers, we will close submissions at 11:00 pm US Eastern Time on Sunday, March 12 (instead of 10:00 pm).
We said 48 hours and we meant it, ok? We will never penalize you for a time change, even though ugh, are you kidding me? Why do I have to get up an hour early? You’ll have every minute we promised you to sit with what we hope is an exciting prompt for you. The final round of YeahWrite’s 27th Super Challenge starts, well, now. Our judges are waiting with bated (not baited, ew, check those homophones) breath for your essays.
If you’re still in this round, you’re with the best of the best. That means you can’t afford to lose the easy points. This round is a phrase prompt. Don’t type it out! Use copy and paste! That way you know it’s right. Review what your title page should look like. Hint: It’s not fancy. You don’t have to change the font. You don’t have to change the size. You don’t even have to bold or underline anything! Just put the words on the paper. It’ll be fine, we promise. Now use a hard page break instead of hitting enter a bunch of times.
There, now you’re still looking at a blank page, but you’ve already scored some points with the judges. On to the hard part! You’ve got this! Come back at the end and make sure the title is what you want and that you’ve got the relevant content warnings, if any, on there, so our judges can fully engage with your work at a time they’re prepared to read it. Oh, and make sure you’ve accepted (or rejected) all those changes from your beta readers. Back and forth comments still count as putting your name on it!
In the final round of the Super Challenge, your prompt is a phrase. You’ll be incorporating it into your essay wherever you like. You can use it as the first or last sentence, repeat it throughout as a hook, or just slip it in somewhere in the middle. The catch is, it should sound like your sentence. If the mere idea of a sentence that isn’t yours invading your work makes you want to cry like the last ten memes I saved in my phone, we’ve put some great tips in this Navigating Prompts post.
Your essay can be personal or persuasive, but it can’t be over 1,000 words! Fortunately, your title page and any content warning you think is appropriate for your work don’t count.
Ready? Here’s the prompt you’ll be swearing at us about all weekend:
Final round prompt
I have a system for finding lost things:
This is a phrase, not a sentence. You’ll need to put something after that colon to finish the sentence. Other than that, you can’t make any changes. No changing punctuation (yes it can be part of dialogue though), no adding or subtracting words. No changing up the verb tenses. I know I’m hammering on this but every Super Challenge it breaks our heart to see someone try to expand the prompt and get DQ’ed. It’s not “I had a system for finding things” and it’s not “I use a system when something is lost.” It’s exactly what you see up there. Please, just copy and paste it, okay? (I mean, make it not bold, but there are so many chances to make a mistake retyping, protect yourself as best you can. Highlight it if you have a beta reader to let them know that they cannot edit that sentence. Every other sentence, but not that one. Don’t forget to take the highlight off before you submit!)
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Don’t post your essay 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 essay in the judge- (and judgment-) free Super Challenge channel on Discord.
Your essays are due Sunday at 11pm 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, prompt, and any content warning you think is appropriate.
Example:
The Bobsled
Prompt: “We called her Rosebud, because we could.”
CW: medical trauma, hospitalization.
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, March 29, and we’ll announce the winners on Friday, March 31, 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.
