Going for the Gut
We are about to start renovating our kitchen. We’ve lived here a little over seven years, and the kitchen has needed to be renovated for at least the last 20. At first, we thought we might be able to do it piecemeal. Update one thing here, another there, and spread out the joy of having a home under construction while simultaneously trying to live in it and keep up on life. The ceiling is the biggest woe – it’s a drop ceiling made of those ugly popcorn tiles you found in offices in the 70s. But if we pull that down, we have to pull down the paneling between the ceiling and the cabinets that was installed for some unknown reason. And if we pull the paneling down, we need to spruce up the walls behind them.
The other problem is our counters. They are also hideous, but putting new ones in means also redoing the back splash. And it would be silly to not put in new cabinets since ours are almost at the end of their life. Then there’s the floor. Basically, each little thing that needs doing can’t be done without doing the rest of the things at the same time, so next week we will be gutting the whole kitchen and essentially starting from scratch.
Writing is like that sometimes. You can write a story, a book, or anything in between and find that one piece isn’t working. If you change that, then you set off a ripple effect of changes across the whole thing. Before you know it, you’ve written something entirely different. It could very well be that the new piece is a vast improvement on the old, but you’ve got to be willing to trust that tearing it down and reworking everything is going to yield the results that you want. It’s a scary undertaking, but I’m confident it’s worth it in the end.
YeahWrite Super Challenge
Congrats to Laura Neill, the winner of Super Challenge #5 and to Trish Tuthill and Sarah Grey on their runner-up finishes! We’re already gearing up for Super Challenge #6 where we’re returning to the land of fiction. Register today and be sure to sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any announcements for the YeahWrite Super Challenge.
Bring us your personal essays and creative nonfiction!
The Nonfiction Challenge grid opens on Monday at midnight EST. This is the best place on the ‘net to showcase your best writing. Make us laugh, make us cry, make us think, and above all: make us care.
Nonfiction Know-How: Tutorials
How often have you heard “the best way to learn a thing is to teach it?” This month’s Nonfiction Know-How focuses on a specific type of essay – tutorials – and how to show the lessons beneath the lessons to your audience. Get your Nonfiction Know-How right here.
Is fiction more your thing?
The Fiction|Poetry Challenge grid opens on Tuesday. Grab a mic and join our monthly poetry slam or check out our weekly prompt up!
Prompt up!
Prompt up is our optional weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here’s how it works: we announce a sentence prompt from last week’s winning nonfiction post. It’s your job to use that prompt in your story or poem in some way. Feel free to use it as your first sentence, move it somewhere else, change it, or float it down to other territories.
This week’s prompt comes from Anusha’s essay Forgetting to Fly: “I want to know how his hair is still black.”
September Poetry Slam: Sijo
What poem blends the best elements of haiku, sonnet, and ballad? The Korean form called sijo! Busy with back-to-school? Don’t worry. It’s also short! Learn to write a 3-6 line, 40-50 syllable poem – with a twist – in this month’s slam.
Winners’ Round-Up
In case you missed them, you can find last week’s YeahWrite staff picks and crowd favorites all laid out for you on Friday’s winners’ post. Leave the winners some love in the comments. They will love you right back, we guarantee it.
Weekend Writing Showcase
The weekend’s not over: the yeah write Weekend Writing Showcase is still open. Have something to add? Old posts and new are welcome. No moderation, no voting. It’s a laid-back relaxed kind of place. Just leave your commercial or sponsored posts at home. Drop by, share your work, and while you’re there, visit your fellow yeah writers.
About the author:
Michelle submitted her first entry to YeahWrite in March 2012 and they haven’t been able to get rid of her since. After nearly 20 years in the insurance/employee benefits industry, she decided to give it all up to pursue writing full time. Her work has been featured on The Huffington Post and xoJane, as well as several local sites near her northern NJ home. She blogs at Michelle Longo.
