Wandering Into the Cornfields
Yeah, I wasn’t even close to making my 2019 writing goals, but that’s okay. I made them before I knew what the year had in store for me and sometimes health, career, and relationships need to take precedence. I’m confident I did the best I could, and, I’m certain if you didn’t quite hit your writing goals it was because you were also juggling other important things.
The thing is, missing writing goals isn’t a personal failure.
I’ll say it again for those in the back. MISSING WRITING GOALS DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON/WRITER.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a little quiz for you:
You make a personal goal to drive from New York City to San Francisco in four days. Your car breaks down somewhere in Nebraska. Do you:
A. beat yourself up over something that happens to everyone at some point, decide to wander into the cornfields, steal from farmers, kill small woodland creatures for food and clothing, and never, ever, ever write another word drive another mile; or
B. fix the damn car and keep driving, even if it means arriving later.
That’s what I thought. Think about those goals!
–Nate
Welcome to Week 453
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 – So you’re a writer; now what?
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.”
For December, we’re putting it all together, breaking this year’s lessons into craft, publishing, and career moves. As the year draws to a close it’s a great chance to revisit what it means to be a writer, and to see which areas you might want to focus more on going into next year. Oh yeah, and we have some great homework for you.
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 summer. That’s right, summer. For one thing, it’s practically midsummer in Australia and it’s flat-out mean to our antipodean writers to make them keep thinking about snow. And for another… it’s not summer here, and some people (not Rowan, but some people) are tired of thinking about snow. (Australia, if you’re tired of summer, feel free to write about winter–the prompt is optional, after all!)
Fiction|Poetry Mandatory Prompt
The last month of the year is a time for reflection and hope. So, while we’re pondering heavy things, let’s make our two mandatory prompts simple.
The first prompt to incorporate into your story is the first line: Outside the cabin, the wind howled through the trees, while inside, the old woman’s fire was nearly out.
The sentence must be the first sentence in your story. Do not alter the sentence. Don’t add words at the beginning. Leave the period where it is. Stick to the sentence’s forboding tone. Show us who this woman is. Tell us a story.
The second prompt is a noun: clown.
Use it anywhere in your story, however you want.
Poets: Our December tradition is a free-for-all of poetic forms we explored during the last year. For our fiction|poetry grid you’re welcome to utilize any one of this year’s forms, or to write in any form you prefer using one or both of our fiction prompts. Won’t you join us on the grid?
Poetry Slam - It was a very good year
If you, like us, are sitting around with a bunch of random lines of poetry and half-finished things you meant to get on the grid this year but just couldn’t find the time or energy to finish, have we got good news for you: December is a free-for-all of this year’s slams. Pick any one of the forms or techniques we explored this year and write the poem you meant to write, or revisit your favorite form!
A QUICK NOTE REGARDING OUR GRIDS: Inlinkz, which supports our grid format, is currently upgrading its offerings and may not be able to support image-based grids for a brief period of time. Don’t be worried if your link and other links appear as text over the coming weeks (or perhaps even months) during this transition. Thank you for your patience!
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Our tiniest challenge with the biggest bang is open the first weekend of every month!
YeahWrite Super Challenge
Congrats to Chrissie Rohrman, our Super Challenge #14 champion, as well as Charlie Rogers and Gail Webber for rounding out the top three! Did you 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:
As a professional editor and writer, Nate has published his work in numerous English and history textbooks and in online reading programs. In February 2014, he found his way back to creative writing and began submitting to YeahWrite. Soon after, he became an editor of the Fiction|Poetry challenge. You can read his work at northwest journals, a blog that has been recognized by WordPress Discover, Five Star Mix-tape, Genealogy á la Carte, The Drabble, and BlogHer’s Voice of the Year. He lives in Chicago with his partner and a mini-Bengal tiger.
