You Win Some, You Lose Some

There are two things we always tell our writers: Everyone, even the editors, tank in the popular vote sometimes and we all get love letters. In case you think that’s not true, go check out last week’s winners post. Scroll down to Fiction|Poetry and Microprose. There you will find a cartoon likeness of me in last place and almost last place respectively. I got a note from Rowan that I messed up the prompt on Micro. And I got a note on a submission I made to another site that my work wasn’t quite right and it needed to be fixed before being considered for publication.

Here’s what you can’t see: Me smiling. Don’t get me wrong, I’d have loved to have placed better on those two grids and had my essay published on the first try. But that is not how life works. I’m smiling because I wrote more last week than I have in months and I’m inspired to keep doing it. We all mess up sometimes or our work doesn’t quite… work. It’s how you handle it and what you do with that information that matters.

Keep on keeping on, dear writers, and I’ll see you on the grids!

Welcome to Week 348

We’re kicking off the week in style at YeahWrite with both our competitive challenge grids in one post, plus prompts, tips, tricks and more. You asked, we answered! Keep scrolling down cause it’s all right here.

Submissions for this week’s challenges open on Monday at 12 midnight and close on Wednesday at 10pm ET. Voting will then open immediately thereafter and close on Thursday at 10pm ET. The winners, as always, will be celebrated on Friday.

Having trouble getting started? Hop on over to our quick guide. And don’t forget to doublecheck the full submission guidelines before you hit that button.

Looking For Microprose?

Our tiniest challenge with the biggest bang is open the first Wednesday of every month from midnight to 10 p.m.

Nonfiction Challenge

Keep On Writin’

Boy was it fun to see the grids hopping this week! No thanks to me though. I have resolved to write more in 2018, and you will see me then, voted into various grid positions, sometimes at or near the bottom and hopefully occasionally near the top. It doesn’t matter how you place, as long as you are writing and getting advice on how to improve. This month, all I can guarantee is a single tritina, which I promised to write for Rowan. If I don’t, she will have my head; this is serious. If you aren’t sure you can write this month, take baby steps. Say you will write one thing, and then do it. I haven’t written in forever. If I can commit to one piece before the new year, so can you!

Nonfiction Know-How: How I Spent 2017

It’s been a long year, and you’re almost ready to write about it. Get started with Rowan’s roundup of some of our favorite technical knowhow posts from past months. She’s even organized them into pre-writing, writing, and post-production tips to make your journey through your essay smoother than 2017 has been.

Nonfiction challenge grid:

Basic YeahWrite guidelines: 750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; nonfiction personal or persuasive essay, creative opinion piece or mostly true story based on actual events.

Check the submission guidelines for our full set of rules. If you’re not sure how to link up, hop over to our quick tutorial for getting started at YeahWrite! Otherwise, click that blue button when the challenge is open, and good luck! Come back to vote starting Wednesday at 10pm, and check out our winners on Friday!

Fiction|Poetry Challenge

My Cup Runneth Way Over

First of all, congratulations and thank you to everyone who submitted to the last fiction|poetry and microprose grids! What a stellar turnout.

Confession time: I haven’t been able to write more than a birthday greeting for months. I’d even gotten to the point of wondering whether I should just give up this whole writing business and go back to teaching. What finally snapped me out of it, and brought those words gushing from me again was my writing community who held me to account.

Support, empathy, and a willingness to tell hard truths are some of the most rewarding features of having this online community at YeahWrite. If you’re stuck, if you’re feeling uncertain about what you’re writing, utilise the community of writers around you (psst, the YeahWrite Coffeehouse is a great place to put calls for help).

December Poetry Slam: It’s a free-for-all!

Got a favorite form of poetry? So do we. Rowan rounds up some of our best-loved poetry tutorials for the end of the year, including short forms for those stolen holiday moments, and a few refrains for the carolers out there. Catch her in the coffeehouse if you need a prompt or line!

Prompt Up!

Prompt Up is our optional weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here’s how it works: we choose a sentence prompt from last week’s winning nonfiction post. It’s your job to use that prompt in your poem or story and then run with it. The prompt is just a springboard, though: feel free to use it as your first sentence, move it, change it, or float it down to other territories.

Michelle showed us some of the frustrations and the joys of being a parent in Clean Up in Aisle One. This week’s prompt from her essay is: “He told me it hadn’t broken the first time he’d dropped it.”

Fiction|poetry challenge grid:

Basic YeahWrite guidelines: 750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; fiction or poetry only.

Check the submission guidelines for our full set of rules. If you’re not sure how to link up, hop over to our quick tutorial for getting started at YeahWrite! Otherwise, click that blue button when the challenge is open, and good luck! Come back to vote starting Wednesday at 10pm, and check out our winners on Friday!

YeahWrite Super Challenge

Our sixth Super Challenge is officially over! Congrats to Laura Duerr who took the top spot and to Christina Grant and Gail Webber for rounding out the top three! Ready for the next one? Registration for Super Challenge #7 (Nonfiction) is open now, and make sure you sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any announcements for the Super Challenge.

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 last Friday’s winners’ post. Leave the winners some love in the comments. They will love you right back, we guarantee it.

Last call: This week’s Weekend Writing Showcase is still open for business until the challenge grids start at midnight! 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.