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Y’all. After 10 days away from my day job office and a subsequently painful reentry to my corporate life, Christmas, New Year, my kid’s 11th birthday, a bomb cyclone, a polar vortex, and a birthday celebration for the aforementioned 11 year old, my brain is fried. I’m so tired my eyeballs are about to fall out of my head. I wish I had a better intro for you, but I do not.
Whether your new year got off to a smooth start or a rocky one, it’s time to buck up and get some writing done! If you were barraged by nonsense, use it as inspiration. Things going well? Great! Use that too! No excuses – get writing!
Welcome to Week 352
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
Writing a Wrong
I resolved to write more this year, and I’m off to a great start if I do say so myself. Sure, it’s easy to write more than nothing, like I did in 2017 (Stitch Fix Reviews don’t count). But I’m proud of myself for posting to the fiction|poetry grid last week and to both nonfiction and fiction|poetry the week before. I’ve been stuck in the wrongness of not writing for so long that I feared I’d never be able to craft a story or poem ever again. Well guess what? I’m back. If you’ve been part of the most recent uptick in writing, reading, commenting that makes our community so great, I hope you’ll keep it up! If you’ve been away from the grids, please come back. If I can do it, you can too!
Technique Toolbox
New year, new look: we’ve revamped the old Nonfiction Know-how to include our fictioneers. We’re kicking the year off with a bang, too! We know you’ve sworn to write more this year, and that you’re combing the ‘net for inspiration. But how do you acknowledge those linkups, prompts, and accountability buddies without losing your reader’s interest? Rowan has some ideas for you right here.
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!
Loading InLinkz ...Fiction|Poetry Challenge
Come, follow me…
The last month of 2017 was so much fun on the fiction|poetry grids. There’s nothing that makes us happier at YeahWrite than seeing our community growing and interacting. So, let’s keep that wonderful energy going through 2018. I’m very excited about the changes we’re bringing to the grids this year, and I hope you are too. You’ll have more input to the weekly prompts, and the poetry slams are already off to a great start. I’ll be stepping out of my comfort zone this year and trying on more poetry for size. Come, join me!
January Poetry Slam: Erasure
Out with the old, in with the new. Or rather, let’s make something old into something new this month, as Rowan teaches us to experiment with erasure poems. These no-meter no-rhyme poems are made by deleting words from an existing text. Rowan’s even got some fun ideas for how to show the difference between the original text and your poem. Won’t you join us?
Prompt Up!
Prompt Up is our weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here’s how it works:
For Fiction
- there will be two prompts each week: a prompt generated by the YeahWrite editors and a prompt generated by a previous winner of the fiction|poetry challenge. That’s right! Winners decide one of the prompts! If you’re a crowd fave winner on the fiction|poetry grid, keep an eye out for an email from us. If we don’t hear back from you by the deadline, we’ll pick our own prompt, and what fun is that? Generally, winners will decide the prompt for the challenge two after the one they won (so 349 picks 351, and so forth).
- the two prompts are MANDATORY for flash fiction submissions.
- the two prompt styles will vary month to month; they may include emotions, specific words, a specific sentence, genres, photographs, etc. There is no limit to how we can change it up.
- the prompts will be posted in the kick-off on Sunday. Submissions will be accepted through Wednesday at 10pm EST (same as before). Everyone will have a little less than 4 days to write and edit a story.
- YeahWrite editors reserve the right to alter the winner’s prompt. We’ll give you some suggestions for what makes a prompt inspiring and functional, but we’ve noticed that some work better than others, and if we think folks will struggle with yours, we might need to tweak it.
For Poetry
- You’ll need to incorporate at least one of the three possible prompts. Each fiction prompt counts as a single prompt, and the poetry slam counts as a prompt.
- This means you can write poetry about one of the two fiction prompts, in any form you like, or about anything you like, using the form given in that month’s poetry slam.
- Yes, you can use more than one of our prompts in your poem!
We’re very excited about our new challenge, and we hope you are, too!
The first prompt is: your story must include a character whose occupation is a florist.
The second prompt, the sentence that your story must contain, from YeahWrite #350 fiction|poetry winner Rowan, is: “Her hands were hooked in her belt, as though she could prevent them wanting to roam.”
Poets: write a poem that includes a florist, a poem that includes the prompt sentence, or an erasure poem.
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!
Loading InLinkz ...YeahWrite Super Challenge
Registration for Super Challenge #7 (Nonfiction) is open now! 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.
