Wait, hang on…
I know it’s Asha’s turn to write the intro, and I’ll let her do that in just a second, but have you heard about NaNoDoMore yet? It’s YeahWrite’s annual challenge to you. Well. To all of us who look at NaBloPoMo or NaNoWriMo and say… um… have you heard it’s November and I have a week of family to host and presents to buy and the kids are barely in school at all and who are you trying to fool, who can do all this and write 50,000 words? Yeah, us too. That’s why our challenge focuses on doing something – anything – this month to keep you in the writing game. We don’t care how much or how little. We’ve put together a 30-item scavenger hunt list and we dare you to do just one thing on it this month. Plus, there’s a prize. Which, by the way, doesn’t depend on how many items you complete. We’re serious about just doing anything. Sound doable? Pop over to the NaNoDoMore page and check it out.
-Rowan
Shifting focus
Last week I went to see a Kathakali Indian dance performance, which got me thinking about how a change in focus can bring a whole new perspective to your work and revitalise it. Kathakali (literally katha – story and kali – play) conveys the stories of Hindu gods, demons, and heroes. Traditionally, the performances last around 12 hours, the makeup takes half a day to apply, and it’s a physically gruelling dance form. All the roles are usually played by men and dancers start their training at a very young age (around four years old). The performance I went to see departed from all of those conventions in important ways; the dancer, Dr. Haripriya Nambudri, left her chemistry teaching job to focus on learning Kathakali at the age of twenty-five, the performance lasted an hour, and the story was one act of a larger story. At the end of her performance, Haripriya talked about how she focused on the women’s stories, the stories that usually receive little attention. This week, why not try taking a different perspective in your work? Try telling the story from a secondary character’s perspective, or write the essay from the point of view of someone who we don’t usually hear from.
–Asha
Welcome to Week 447
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 – Time Confetti
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 November, we’re focusing on time. Do you have time to write? How can you find or make it? One way is to schedule dedicated writing time, but another is to assemble it out of the time confetti all around you. If you don’t have enough time to do what you want, there’s still probably something you can fit into the time you have. Take a look at some ways to free up your time to write!
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.
With a new month comes a new poetry form. And between that and last week’s grid, we’re thinking a lot about poems. So this week’s optional prompt challenges you to do just that: write about a poem. Don’t write a poem (well, you can if you want, this prompt’s optional) but write about one. Did your mom always read Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening this time of the year? Did you win a poetry prize in third grade? Is that just me? Let us know.
Fiction|Poetry Mandatory Prompt
November is here and it’s a busy month for writers; there are competitions galore including NaNoWriMo and even our own NaNoDoMore. This month we’re bringing back a familiar prompt format to make things a little easier. We still have two prompts and both prompts are mandatory. The first prompt is a picture prompt, and the second is an emotion that you will need to convey through your writing. This prompt pairing is a good challenge to see how well you can show, rather than tell emotion.
The first prompt to incorporate into your story, a photo prompt, is this image by Subham Dash at Pexels. You can access a downloadable version of the photo by clicking on it.
Image by Subham Dash/Pexels
When we say incorporate the photo, we mean “use the image to inspire your plot, setting and character(s).” Some questions you might want to consider: Who is this lone person? Why are they walking alone at sunset? Where are they walking? Is there significance in the birds? Consider taking five minutes to look carefully at the photograph. Don’t write during this time. Set a timer on your computer, phone, watch, or an old fashioned egg timer to help you keep track. Start writing only once the five minutes are up.
The second prompt, from YeahWrite Editors, is to use the following emotion: tenacious. For the purposes of this week’s story, we’ll be using definition 2a from the Merriam-Webster dictionary — you can find it here.
Remember with the emotion prompt not to use the word itself in your story. Instead, try to convey a sense of the emotion in other ways. For example, you might consider how the emotion is physically or verbally expressed; how a character might hold their hands or set their jaw, what a character’s posture is like or their tone of voice or their behavior. Show the reader how this emotion manifests, don’t just tell us that the character is feeling the emotion.
Poets: We’re exploring the kimo, a three-line counted form, over at the poetry slam this month. Since this form has a “no motion” requirement, the image prompt is a nice pairing for it, isn’t it? Or write a kimo about anything else, or another form of poetry incorporating either of our prompts. If you want to write something that’s neither a kimo nor uses the prompts, our nonfiction grid does also accept poetry that expresses your truths.
Poetry Slam - Kimo
Between NaNoWriMo and family visits, who has time for a long poetry form? Not us, anyway. This November we’re focusing on the kimo, a three-line counted form with just a little more breathing room than the three-line counted form you probably already know. Come string some syllables together with us on the grid!
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, and are looking into alternative services. Thank you for your patience!
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Loading InLinkz ...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!
YeahWrite Super Challenge
Super Challenge #14 (fiction!) is officially underway! Good luck to all our participants as they anxiously await the Round 1 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:
Asha lives near the beach in Perth, Western Australia, but hates sand between her toes. She began blogging at YeahWrite in October 2014 with this post, and YeahWrite was lucky to pull her on board as a Contributing Editor in December 2016. In addition to short stories and personal essays, she is currently working on a novel set in the Perth hills. Asha is published in a variety of places including Modern Loss, PANK, Dead Housekeeping, and SheKnows. You can find her inconsistent blogging at Asha Rajan Writer.
