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Welcome to YeahWrite’s Weekly Writing Challenge #416

by | Mar 30, 2019 | Fiction|Poetry, Kickoff, Microprose, Nonfiction, YeahWrite

{Insert Clever April Fools Joke Here}

So how did your first part of the year go? Did you accomplish what you want or is April Fool’s Day just another day for your goals to taunt you?

Sometimes I see my friends and aquaintances launching their books, attending events, and just doing what I want to be doing and it gets me down. Other times I think about how in college I wanted to be a poet, a memoirist, and a novelist, but then I gave it all up to study social work and then enter the insurance field. So much wasted time. Maybe you feel that way, too. Well, I have great news! There is a cure for this and it’s a very simple one: Write. That’s all you have to do to get back in the right direction. Easy peasy, no? What are you waiting for?

You know what’s a great way for fiction writers (who are not me because I’m not eligible) to jump start their writing while also competing for cash prizes? Our Super Challenge! Early registration closes on April 3, so sign up before the entry fee goes up! Regular registration ends on April 24, in case you (or maybe I’m actually talking about me now) like to procrastinate. Prizes are guaranteed to be at least $150 for 1st place, $100 for 2nd place, and $50 for 3rd, but remember – the more entries we have, the higher the prize pool gets, so sign up and tell a friend! 

-Michelle

Welcome to Week 416

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 Saturday 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.

Technique Toolbox: Year of Fearless Writing – Finding and working with an editor

Ready to take yourself seriously as a writer? Not sure how, or not convinced you’re ready? We think you can, and are, and will be. This year is our Year of Fearless Writing, where we’re going to focus on the craft of writing, not the art, to take you from “I write” to “I’m a writer.”

Our March focus is on finding and working with a professional editor. No matter how good you are at writing, your work needs the final polish that comes from having an outsider review it for your habitual tics, grammar errors, and blind spots. But not all editing is equal: learn how to find an editor who helps you sound like the best version of you, and take this month’s YFW challenge, right here!

Nonfiction: Optional Prompt

The nonfiction grid has no mandatory prompts. However, each week, we will give you an optional prompt in case that helps your mostly-true story juices flow. This week’s prompt is to write about a time you found something. It could be an object, a person, or even an idea – just find it in under 750 words! Have fun!

Fiction|Poetry Mandatory Prompt

Prompt Up is our mandatory weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here's How It Works!

After two months of some pretty challenging prompts, we’re steering this ship back to familiar waters. Two prompts! Woo hoo! The first prompt, selected by the winner of the Fiction|Poetry challenge two weeks ago, will be an occupation. The second prompt, selected by the YeahWrite editors, will be a line of dialogue that must be included somewhere in the story.

The occupation prompt, chosen by our YeahWrite #414 fiction|poetry winner, Jen, is:  a dancer. One of your characters must have this as their primary occupation (although they don’t have to be paid for it). The character doesn’t have to be your main or point-of-view character, but they shouldn’t be a throwaway character that’s only in your story for one line. They should matter to the story.

The dialogue prompt is, which must not be changed in any way, is: “What’s the significance of that hip movement?” This prompt pretty much requires a description of a dance, so haul out your adjectives and active verbs, peops.

Poets: In March we’re working with synesthesia – playing with sensory input to pack additional meaning into your work. Write a poem using this device (learn more about it here). Or you can write a poem that answers our question prompt. Or, OR, you can wait a few hours until April’s Poetry slam form hits and write to that. Weeeeeee!

Poetry Slam - Synesthesia

This month’s poetry “slam” isn’t going to focus on a form, but on a technique. Learn about incorporating a literary device called synesthesia to pack more meaning into your poetry this month!

April’s poetry slam will also be fair game when it appears on the first, so keep your eyes peeled!

NOTE REGARDING BELOW GRIDS: Inlinkz, who supports our grid format, is currently transitioning to a new website and has announced that, beginning April 3, the old Inlinkz will no longer support image-based grids. Therefore, do not be suprised if the below only shows text over the coming weeks (or perhaps even months) during this transition. Thank you for your patience!

NONFICTION

CHALLENGE

Basic YeahWrite Guidelines

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Fiction|Poetry

Challenge

Basic YeahWrite Guidelines

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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.

Micro Weeks are Moderated Weeks!

What does that mean?

YeahWrite Super Challenge

Super Challenge #12 (fiction!) is now open for registration! Early registration is open until April 3 (this Wednesday!), so sign up today to take advantage of the discounted rate. Make sure you also sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss 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.

About the author:

Michelle submitted her first entry to YeahWrite in March 2012 and was brought on staff shortly thereafter. In 2016, she stepped into the role of Editor-In-Chief. Outside of YeahWrite, she is a freelance writer working with a variety of corporate clients, primarily in the insurance and employee benefits space. Her work has been featured on The Huffington Post, Cosplay Culture, and xoJane, as well as several local websites near her former home in northern NJ home. She now lives in Southern California, enjoying the sunshine. She sometimes blogs at themichellelongo.com.

michelle@yeahwrite.me

 

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!

750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Saturday; 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!

750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Saturday; 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!

That’s right – with the microprose grid comes moderation on all three grids. That means that on any grid with more than five entries, we’ll be looking for more than just the bare minimum required to meet the submission guidelines. We want to see your best writing, with a strong so-what on the nonfiction grid and smooth prompt integration on the fiction|poetry grid. We’ll also be checking adherence to the poetry slam form, and keeping an eye out for persistent grammar issues in your work. That doesn’t mean you need to write the way your eighth grade English teacher told you, though! That would be pretty boring. Voice is the way in which a writer breaks the rules of grammar deliberately to advance a point. So break the rules – but do it on purpose and know which rule you’re breaking.

It’s not as scary as it sounds! If your writing is struggling in a moderated week, one of our editors will send you a “love letter” explaining where you lost us and making a few editing suggestions. We won’t move you forward to the vote, but you’ll get specific, personal feedback on your writing. And don’t worry. All of our editors have gotten at least one “love letter” on a post too!

So what are we looking for?

Posts for the nonfiction grid should be anecdotes that contain one clear idea, the reason for telling the story. More than a journal entry, submissions are required to have what we refer to as a “so what.” Posts can also be personal or persuasive essays that give your perspective on the world and communicate a clear idea to the reader. All nonfiction challenge posts must adhere to the basic rules of grammar and punctuation.

Posts for the fiction|poetry challenge must be self-contained stories or poetry. Chapters or ongoing work can be submitted so long as the submission tells a complete story and does not require knowledge or understanding of the remainder of the work in order to read the individual submission that week.

Poetry must be structurally sound within the rules of the form chosen; that is, a sonnet must follow the form of a sonnet and not have errors in rhyme and scansion.

Posts for the microprose grid must adhere to the microprose rules laid out in that month’s challenge.

And of course, all the ordinary submission guidelines like word count still apply!

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