Holidays, Micros, and Whatnot
So, here in the US, July 4th is a holiday. As a nation, we’ll be celebrating Independence Day with fireworks and barbeques and stuff. Frankly, I’m just grateful for a day off from my day job. In the rest of the world, I presume it’ll just be a regular Wednesday. But is it? NO! It’s a Micro Day! Not sure what that’s all about? Keep reading – we’re getting to it!
Welcome to Week 377
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.
Microprose Challenge Opens Wednesday
This week has the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means: our tiniest challenge will be open for under 24 hours, starting Wednesday at midnight! Every microprose challenge has different rules, so you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled and your fingers fast. Need a quick link to the challenge? This one goes live when the microprose grid opens.
Nonfiction Challenge
Stacie Has Left the Building
I’m kidding. There’s no building. Hey, it’s Michelle again. Stacie’s off on vacation, no doubt sipping some wine. Good on her! Vacations are a great way to break out of your routine so that you can freshen your writing. Or, if you haven’t been writing too much because life, a vacation can help you kickstart a new practice or jump back into an old one. If you can’t spend your vacation writing, try to pick up a book. Readers are better writers, so take advantage of free time by checking out someone else’s writing. Try a new genre even to broaden your horizons. Rest assured that Stacie will be back soon, hopefully well-rested herself!
Technique Toolbox: Writing About Writing (Part III)
Ready to start reading critically, and learning how to describe what you see when you do read? Check out Part III of our vocabulary and skill-building critique series in this month’s Technique Toolbox! This month we’ll dive into substantive issues: the stuff that’s frustrating to read, how to spot big problems and plot holes, and a few gentle ways to break that news to the author who trusted you with a work they care a lot about in its current form.
Nonfiction Challenge Grid: Basic YeahWrite Guidelines
Loading InLinkz ...Fiction|Poetry Challenge
That Place Within You
Every year during the first week of August, my college friends and I meet at a resort in northern Michigan and hang out. We bring our families, lots of food, firewood for the nightly bonfire, and several sets of beach towels and swimming suits. For 12 years now, this is how I’ve checked in with these particular friends. We share meals and books and board games. We’ve watched each other’s families grow up.
I absolutely become a different person there. So much more relaxed. I laugh more, sing more, dance more. The nagging voices in my head telling me I should be doing other things are gone. If I want to read, I read. If I want to spend all day playing tag in the lake with the kids, I play tag.
So I have first-hand experience that where someone is changes how they behave, and that’s exactly why I picked setting as our only prompt for this month.
July Poetry Slam: Chant
Same old, same old. But the same old can be brand new when you read it in a different context. This month we’re exploring chants, a kind of singsong poetry with a line that stays the same and keeps changing, depending on where you read it in the poem. Join us!
Prompt Up!
Prompt Up is our mandatory weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here's How It Works!
For those of you who appreciate a looser prompt, July is the month for you! This month we’re only giving you a setting prompt to frame your story around. However, more than half of your story MUST take place at this location. Characters, plot, genre, voice are all up to you!
The prompt, from YeahWrite #375 fiction|poetry winner Margaret, is: a bridge.*
*This is where I’m going to tell you a little secret. I like writing to more than one prompt. So I will probably Google “random prompt generator” and give myself a second prompt, but that’s just me. Shhh! No one needs to know.
Poets: Write a poem set on a bridge or write a chant (or combine the two).
Fiction|Poetry Challenge Grid: Basic YeahWrite Guidelines
Loading InLinkz ...YeahWrite Super Challenge
Registration for Super Challenge #9 (nonfiction) is only open through July 11! Don’t miss out. Register today! Make sure you also sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any Super Challenge announcements.
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.
YeahWrite in the Wild
You read their words every week, but it's not often you get to see the people behind those words. Browse through our gallery and see if you can spot regular contributors or editors.
If you'd like to be featured in the gallery, simply head over to our Swag shop, make your purchase, then when it arrives send us a photo of you in/with your YeahWrite swag to editors@yeahwrite.me.
About the author:
Michelle submitted her first entry to YeahWrite in March 2012 and was brought on staff shortly thereafter. Over the years, Michelle has been an integral figure at YeahWrite, but in 2016, we were thrilled to have her step into the role of Editor-In-Chief. Personally, she has worked in the insurance/employee benefits industry for over twenty years and also fills her time as a freelance writer. 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.
