Happy, happy birthday, yeah write editor Stacie D!

Stacie turns the big 5-0 today, and she is very excited about it. Her family has big plans for her this weekend, and her yeah write family will soon enough smother her with hugs and kisses and a nice afternoon meal. Please stop by her blog at Stacie’s Snaps and Bits to wish her a happy day or leave your best wishes in the comments of this post. We love you, Stacie, and we’re so glad to count you among our circle of wonderful friends.

Are you here as a reader and voter? Welcome!

Please choose the five best on the grid based on technical and artistic merit. Is it a well-told narrative, free of typographical or structural error? Does the writer demonstrate passion for the subject or does it feel dry and clinical? Were you captivated until the very end or did your eyes glaze over by the second sentence? Think of your vote as an endorsement of a well-written piece, not as a favor to a friend who asked you to stop by and scroll down to his or her thumbnail.

Are you into spreadsheets? Quantifying your votes?

Here’s how yeah write editors score each entry, one point for each “yes” answer, then awarding extra points for our individual top three:

1. Does the post have a central conflict? What’s the revving engine moving the story forward? If the story just sits there, then ends, it doesn’t have a central conflict. If it reads like a listing of events, it doesn’t have a central conflict.
2. Is the central conflict, the “so what,” clearly written? The reader shouldn’t have to assume author intent or what the author is trying to say.
3. Is the clear idea introduced early? It shouldn’t be dropped into the story like a drug bust at 3 a.m. or tucked inside a closet somewhere.
4. Is the beginning of the story engaging and inviting?
5. Does the post show the author’s passion for the subject?
6. Does the author write creatively without using clichés and trite phrases?
7. Does the author take care to properly transition new ideas and subjects within the post? It shouldn’t read like numerous, disconnected stories disguised as one narrative.
8. Is the story tightly told without digressions or superfluous adjectives and adverbs? Sunshine yellow, bright yellow and really really yellow are all yellow.
9. Does the post have a strong ending supporting the author’s original reason for telling the story?
10. Does the author write in what seemed to be his or her authentic voice? It shouldn’t sound forced.
11. Is the post free of spelling and grammar errors? Seriously. Is it?
12. Does the post follow the submission guidelines? Word count, prompt (if mandatory), current topic or theme (if provided)

Then we add them up for a score based on the yeah write guidelines, called a YWG

Challenge grid voting starts here

The challenge grid crowd favorite and top row five winners will be determined by popular vote.

Everybody gets five votes

Click on the thumbnail to read the post before voting. Click on the voting icon to vote for the post after reading. Do not vote for your own post, please. (Some of you guys are trying to kill me)

Read the posts before voting

We are responsible voters here at yeah write. Read, evaluate, vote on merit. We’re still writing the yeah write way, and we want the votes to reflect it.

Voting is open until Thursday, 10:00 p.m. EST

Winners’ post published Friday by noon EST

Once the voting ends, the challenge grid will sort itself from highest number of votes to the fewest. Ties are broken by number of page views. Until the winners’ post is published, none of the sorting will be official, but you can still get a good idea of where everyone ended up until the votes are validated.

Refreshing the page, watching the votes go up or down?

When the votes go down, that’s Erica M eliminating targeted or duplicate votes from enthusiastic BFFs and people accidentally voting for their own posts. The vote tallies show only from the same IP address you voted from the first time, so if you leave home and get to the gym and, oops, now can’t see who’s in the lead, please wait until you get back home. Your voting again to reveal the new tallies just makes much more work for Erica M who, in exasperation, may delete first and ask no questions later. One voting round per IP address, one voting round per person. Thanks.

Yeah write #138 voting is open…