While the cat’s away…
My kids were away at camp last week, giving me almost seven glorious hours to myself each day. I had plans, people. Plans. Big writing plans. Unfortunately, those plans didn’t take into account the couch cover that needed washing, the forms I forgot to drop off at the kids’ school, the extra trips to the grocery store to pick up the things I forgot to write down, the extra trip to the chiropractor about the knee I tweaked, the live feed of the Hugo Awards (so many good authors, you guys, and some great speeches), the rabbithole I fell down researching riparian flora and fauna, or the two hours I spent cleaning up my computer’s desktop.
What I’m trying to say here is that plans don’t survive contact with the real world. Should we abandon plans altogether? Don’t be silly. The trick is to stay flexible and to find ways to recapture your focus (and discipline!) in between distractions. Try setting a timer, and stick to it: 20 minutes of housework, and then 20 minutes of writing. Or 20 minutes of writing, then the grocery store trip. At the end of the day (or week) you might not have hit your planned word count, but some words are better than none. Don’t stop just because life got in the way.
Now, you’ll have to excuse me. I’m off to read some Hugo-award-winning fiction over at AO3. (Come on, it’s research.)
–Christine
Welcome to Week 437
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 – Pitch Perfect
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.”
In August we’re beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together, looking at how you assemble “this is who I am and what I write” into a tempting pitch or query for editors and agents. Not even sure what pitching means and how to do it? Stop by!
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, our fiction prompt has us thinking about locks. Whether it’s on a box, a vehicle, or the door to your new home, locks serve the important purpose of… er… sometimes preventing you from getting to the stuff you locked up in the first place. Tell us about a lock in your life? Or feel free to share whatever you’re thinking about this week, the prompt isn’t mandatory on this grid.
Fiction|Poetry Mandatory Prompt
It’s August, and while it’s not quite back-to-school we’re getting back to work on the fiction|poetry grid.
This month we’ll have two mandatory prompts: an occupation and the first sentence of your story.
You must use our prompt sentence as the first sentence of your story. No changing tenses or punctuation, although you can add quotes around it to make it a line of dialogue.
One (or more) characters in your story must have the occupation, but it doesn’t have to be the main or point of view character.
Stories that make the prompts integral to the story and use them naturally will be favored by the editors. Hint: You may have to change up your writing style to become an author that would write the opening sentence. We encourage that!
This week’s occupation prompt, from YeahWrite #435 winner, Ruby Bastille, is : locksmith.
This week’s first sentence prompt, from YeahWrite editors, is: If I could change one thing, it would be meeting Maxim.
Poets: It’s back to brevity for August with the sevenling. Write this three-stanza, seven-line poem, or write a poem in the form of your choice starting with our first line or featuring the occupation prompt. At least one of these three things is mandatory! But remember, our nonfiction grid also welcomes poetry that expresses your truth.
Poetry Slam - Sevenlings
August’s poetry slam returns to a short form, with strict requirements but not a required meter or rhyme. The sevenling has three stanzas and seven lines, each of which works to affect the meaning of the others. Come play in the sevenling sandbox with us as summer (or winter) draws to an end.
A QUICK NOTE REGARDING OUR GRIDS: Inlinkz, which supports our grid format, is currently upgrading its offerings and website which can sometimes result in a glitch or two. If you upload a piece to the grid and notice it disappears later on, please email us and let us know. This has been happening to one or two pieces each week. We will happily add it manually once we are notified. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience!
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Our tiniest challenge with the biggest bang is open the first Wednesday of every month from midnight to 10 p.m.
YeahWrite Super Challenge
Super Challenge #13 (nonfiction!) is officially underway! Good luck to all our participants as they anxiously await the final round results. Miss out on registration? 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.
About the author:
Christine Hanolsy is a (primarily) science fiction and fantasy writer who simply cannot resist a love story. She joined the YeahWrite team in 2014 as the microstory editor and stepped into the role of Editor-In-Chief in 2020. Christine was a 2015 BlogHer Voices of the Year award recipient and Community Keynote speaker for her YeahWrite essay, “Rights and Privileges.” Her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and periodicals and her creative nonfiction at Dead Housekeeping and in the Timberline Review. Outside of YeahWrite, Christine’s past roles have included Russian language scholar, composer, interpreter, and general cat herder. Find her online at christinehanolsy.com.
