Thankful
This week is Thanksgiving here in the US. It’s a time to be grateful for what we have (or not, I’m not going to tell you what to do). It might be a happy time for you and your crew or maybe it’s not so easy. Either way, here at YeahWrite, we are thankful for all of you. Without you, we wouldn’t be here. I mean, we’d still exist and all, but YeahWrite wouldn’t be much fun if no one participated. So thanks for your support, for hanging out with us, and for bringing your friends. If you celebrate, happy Thanksgiving. If you don’t, happy Thursday. Either way, that’s when you should be voting on this week’s entries, so make it a point to do that, ok?
Welcome to Week 397
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
Family Affair
U.S. Thanksgiving is very early this year. We are having family over, but it’s a low-key affair, with everyone pitching in. I’m thankful for that because the chaos of cooking such a big meal would stress me out otherwise. Would you like to write about something you are thankful for? I’d be thankful if you submitted your writing to the nonfiction grid this week! And if you aren’t feeling thankful, that’s okay. You can write about whatever you’d like as prompts are completely optional for your mostly-true stories. Happy writing!
Technique Toolbox: Metaphors
Metaphors can take your plain, boring, book-report-style writing to the next level. But overembellishing can be as bad as underreporting, from a reader’s standpoint. How do you use metaphors properly? What are the rules? When do you stop? Find out in this month’s Technique Toolbox!
Nonfiction Challenge Grid: Basic YeahWrite Guidelines
Loading InLinkz ...Fiction|Poetry Challenge
Who’s There?
We often talk about voice in writing. It’s a broad term that can refer to author voice, narrator voice, or character voice. Let’s talk about character voice a little bit. Learning to differentiate your characters’ voices from each other, and from your own voice, is tricky. We try to give them individual personalities, motivations, and desires. Sometimes those are the same as our own, sometimes they’re not, but always they should aim to give the character depth.
An actor friend of mine told me that when he gets a script, he reads through his character’s lines and then creates a whole backstory for the character: who they are, how they got to this point in time, etc. It helps him figure out their motivations and imbue the written character with life. This was such good advice that I’ve started adopting a version of it with my own characters. I give them backstory, which may never appear on the page, but will flesh them out. Remember, your reader doesn’t need to know your character had a root canal when they were eight which gave them a permanent fear of dentists; they just need to know your character is terrified of dentists (that’s a very specific example, but you get what I mean). While you are writing for this week’s grid, I’d like you to consider (but not write as part of your story) your characters beyond the story. Who are they? What were their childhood experiences? What are their hopes and dreams? Give them life beyond their momentary appearance in your story.
November Poetry Slam: Sestina
It’s Rowan’s birthday month, and we’re celebrating with a poetry slam of one of her favorite forms: the sestina! This unrhymed seven-verse poem depends on rearranging the last words in each line according to a set of easy-to-follow rules. If the sestina sounds overwhelming, you can also join us with its little sister the tritina: a four-verse poem following the same structure with fewer lines. Join us!
Prompt Up!
Prompt Up is our mandatory weekly writing prompts for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here's How It Works!
For November we’re asking you to focus on showing, not telling, in your stories. We’re giving you a single one-word prompt and asking you to use the word and its meaning as the basis for a plot element. You may not use the word itself in your story. For example, if the one-word prompt is “sonar”, then your story could describe how a superhero catches a villain in a dark cave by hiccoughing and interpreting the sound feedback to see the bad guy peeking out from behind a stalagmite (not sure what a stalagmite is? Click here to find out).
The one-word prompt, from YeahWrite #395 fiction|poetry winner Jen, is:
conspiracy
noun
con·spir·a·cy
\kən-ˈspir-ə-sē\
1: the act of conspiring together
They were accused of conspiracy to commit murder.
Poets: Write a poem incorporating the meaning of the one-word prompt, or write a poem in this month’s poetry slam form, the Sestina.
Fiction|Poetry Challenge Grid: Basic YeahWrite Guidelines
Loading InLinkz ...YeahWrite Super Challenge
Congrats to Laura Duerr, our Super Challenge #10 champion, and to Myna Chang and Trish Tuthill for rounding out the top three! Super Challenge #10 may be a wrap, but Super Challenge #11 (nonfiction!) is right around the corner (check back on say, Wednesday?). Make sure you 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 YeahWriters.
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.
