There’s No Better Time
On Saturday morning I finally cashed in a gift card for a massage that I received 18 months ago. I’d kept meaning to use it, but I was trying to find the best day to go. I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity for relaxation and not have the tranquility shattered immediately after. I wanted a day when I had time to really immerse myself in calm. Turns out, that doesn’t really exist. So I scheduled the appointment and enjoyed my 60 minutes of peace before jumping back into real life.
It’s kind of like writing. If you wait for the perfect day or the best chunk of time, you’ll never get anything done. Instead, you need to write when you can. Sometimes that might be in stolen moments between conference calls or for the 8 minutes you manage to get your kid down for a nap. But you’ll be amazed at what you can do in small bursts once you get over the idea you need a solid block of time.
Welcome to Week 353
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
Catching My Breath
My life is always super-duper busy between U.S. Thanksgiving and mid-January. Not only do I have Turkey Day and Christmas (for me a commercial holiday) to contend with, but everyone in my family of four has birthdays between these dates as well. As I write this, five fourteen-year-old boys celebrating my youngest son’s birthday are, I assume, wreaking havoc in my basement. At least that’s how it sounds. I’m honestly surprised that I managed to write over the last few weeks but I’m glad I did. Sometimes that’s just what you need during your busy times. We all have an infinite number of nonfiction stories in our day to day lives. Won’t you write one for us this week?
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
Change is Good
It’s week three of the new fiction|poetry challenge, and I’m hoping the prompts are revving your writing engines, helping you generate work, and convincing you that your writing goals for the year are achievable. We will be mixing things up every month, so don’t get too used to this set-up. We hope you read the other responses on the grid to learn how others interpreted the prompts. There’s much to be learned from this community!
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 clerk at a gas station.
The second prompt, the sentence that your story must contain, from YeahWrite #351 fiction|poetry winner Lisa, is: “Something’s always missing.”
Poets: write a poem that includes a clerk at a gas station, 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.
