Round 2 Closes in:
Day(s)
:
Hour(s)
:
Minute(s)
:
Second(s)
So you’ve got 48 hours…
to finish a story. From plot to pinnacle. That’s not a lot of time. So while you’re mulling over our mixed-genre prompt and trying to find your way into the story you’ll submit, take a few minutes and make yourself a little housekeeping checklist of the things you need to recheck right before you submit. Mine looks a little like this:
- Spellcheck
- Make sure any reader comments are deleted
- Accept/reject all changes
- Font (global)
- Title page style (use page break)
- Paragraph style
- How many times did you say “grin”
- If the prompt is an exact phrase, search it.
This does two things for me: it reassures me that I’m done, and it ensures I don’t accidentally DQ a story I’m proud of. It can do the same thing for you! The points in the final round of the Super Challenge are almost always tight, so don’t lose the easy ones.
As long as we’re on bulleted lists (and there’s another reminder list coming up) let’s take a quick rueful laugh break for a short list of places we’ve found people’s names on their stories. Don’t let this be you! Doublecheck that you’re anonymized, and trust our admin team to match your story to your points.
- On the title page. Oops! If you’ve got this habit from school or years of manuscript subs, make sure you don’t do it here.
- In headers and footers. Remember to use a view that shows headers and footers when you’re looking your story over for the last time.
- In comments. Both in the comments themselves and in the “who made this comment” label. If you’re going to reply to your beta readers in comments, make sure they’re ALLLLLL deleted!
- In the filename. Some publications want this. We’re not them! Don’t do it! Save yourself!
- In an author note at the end of the story.
- In a watermark. That one was in a very fancy, and very disqualifying, font.
If you recognize yourself in any of these, just know that you’re in good company, clearly, since there are examples that aren’t you, and we’ve seen many of these more than once over the seven or so years we’ve been doing the Super Challenge. But we don’t WANT it to be you, so help us out here!
Okay, let’s jump into the IMPORTANT list. This round, you’ll be combining tropes from two genres to make a blended-genre story. Here are a few tips and pointers about this round:
- Pay attention to our genre definitions. The ones we give you are the ones the judges are going to 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: Braided Story / Low Fantasy
We’re not joking about taking the time to read these definitions, because we’ve put some limits on them and cleared up some things that have confused writers in the past.
Braided Story is a story that’s told from several different perspectives, whether in time or in character, weaving what look like disparate narratives together with a common thread so that the climax of the story involves them coming together to make a unified point. Basically, we’re looking for the structure of a classic braided essay, but fiction. Here’s another tutorial and samples for a braided essay. A good braided story will make the perspective and topic jumps clear but not obtrusive, and will have smooth parallels in concept between each strand of the “braid.” There is no limit to the number of “strands” but there must be at least two.
Low Fantasy is set on Earth in any time period. It is characterized by the presence of magic, although this magic can take many forms such as magical creatures, real ghosts, or the act of casting spells. It is also characterized by its prosaic style, in contrast to high fantasy such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy which features complex archaic language.
Hopefully you’ve got a handle on these genres and are starting to have ideas already. If you don’t, go to bed or take a shower or a walk, or brainstorm with the other Super Challenge writers in our Discord channel (please just the locked Super Challenge channels, don’t DQ yourself). You’ve got this! And if you really, really, don’t, you can ask in the Discord or email superchallenge@yeahwrite.me (NO OTHER EMAILS, PLEASE, speaking of easy ways to DQ). Remember, we can answer general questions (“Do there have to be magic spells you can cast to show that it’s low fantasy?” (no, but you must include magic in some form)) but not specific questions about your story (“If I put in…”).
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 4 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.) 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 21, and we’ll announce the winners on Friday, June 23, 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.
