Marathon Shopping
In Massachusetts, we now have a rule that grocery stores have to operate at 40% capacity relative to how many people are normally permitted inside. I had to shop today and it was a two-hour ordeal because it took 50 minutes of waiting in the line outside just to get into the store. Now, mind you, I get it. I do. But my normal shopping habits are to go every other day and, for the most part, checkout in the express lane. I’m all about efficiency under normal circumstances, and now I have to be patient. Shopping is a marathon now, not a sprint. Speaking of which, the store now has a single checkout line that wraps around the perimeter of the store, with tape on the floor 6 feet apart. On each piece of tape is written one of the locations the Boston marathoners run through, starting at the beginning and ending at the finish line, which means you’re next! Even though the marathon has been postponed from April until September, Wellesley residents can all do that “26.2” once per week at the store. Lucky us!
How is your writing going? Are you finding the social distancing makes it harder or easier? If it’s harder, what if you aim for 40% of the words you normally feel you need? You don’t need to use the entire wordcount we allow. Just write something short and sweet, as long as it’s a complete story. (And hey, it can help you pass the time while you’re waiting for the next microprose challenge!)
–Stacie
Welcome to Week 470
We’re kicking off the week in style at YeahWrite with 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: 20/20 Hindsight
For 2020 we’re looking back at stories. Didn’t get a chance to write one in January? That’s fine: jump in whenever you can.
If you have a story or essay to work on, tag in: April’s challenge is to rewrite your story using only dialogue.
Check out this month’s challenge and some suggestions for how to succeed 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 use the interruptions around you as part of your storytelling. Need an example? Check this article out. Have fun!
Fiction|Poetry Mandatory Prompt
For April, we wanted to keep things light and simple, maybe provide a bit of escape. So we’re going to give you a prompt (just one now) based on the characteristic of a genre of fiction.
We’re going to what now?
So, all genres have many or several or at least a few characteristics that define them. Just off the top of my head here: Fantasy stories have witches. Action Adventure stories have flinches. Medical crimes stories have stitches. Got it? Instead of giving you a prompt like “Mystery” and making you come up with a story that invokes all or most of the characteristics that define the genre, we are just going to ask you to meet one of the characteristics. Examples include: Write a story that includes a witch. Write a story that includes a bomb explosion. Write a story that involves surgery. See what I did there?
Okay. Now for the prompt:
Write a story that explores, as Matthew Strecher put it, “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something ‘too strange to believe.'”
The genre we’re basing this prompt on is “magical realism.” Magical realism isn’t a fairy story or fantasy, it’s a separate genre that’s far closer to literary fiction than it is to, say, Harry Potter. In a magical realist work, the magical isn’t presented as magical, it’s just the way things are. Take, for example, The Sixth Sense, where (spoilers) one character is a ghost the entire time, and all the other characters simply work around that. There’s no perception that anything supernatural is going on at all for the majority of the movie. That’s the feeling we want to explore this week: the extraordinary, living as ordinary.
Has a surly teenaged eagle taken up residence in your house? Do cockroaches suddenly materialize and prophesy doom like a Greek chorus? Is the dog reciting angst-filled poetry about his unrequited love for the poodle next door? Did your main character walk in on the cat wearing their grandmother’s apron and baking a cake in the kitchen at midnight?
Remember that the characters in your story don’t find anything unusual about these magical events. To them, there’s nothing odd about a cat with a penchant for footwear who dispenses advice (Puss in Boots), or a sartorially elegant, perpetually late rabbit (the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland). Magical realism (or magic realism — the terms are used interchangeably) depends on the characters behaving as if everything is perfectly normal and expected. It’s the reader’s perceptions of what the characters ought to feel that you want to play with.
Poets: For National Poetry Month, we’re playing with metaphor and micropoetry in a slam that should stay fresh all month for you. Check out our technique-based April slam, then explore that technique to write a poem (well, 13 micropoems) of your own. Or write a different style of poem incorporating the prompt above. Or both? You might be able to do both.
Poetry Slam - 13 Ways
In 2020, we’re turning from “how to write a poem” to “what is a poem?” with technique-based slams. It’s National Poetry Month, and we’re investigating micropoetry and repeated metaphor through the lens of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Check it out.
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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Our tiniest challenge with the biggest bang is open the first Saturday of every month for exactly 48 hours.
YeahWrite Super Challenge
Super Challenge #16 is now open for registration! This time, we’re heading back to the land of flash fiction. Sign up today! Make sure you also 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:
Stacie joined YeahWrite as its Fiction Editor in early 2013 before becoming YeahWrite’s Executive Editor in 2016. She blogs at Stacie’s Snapshots and Tidbits and was thrilled to be honored as a 2015 BlogHer Voice of the Year (VOTY) for this post. Before retiring, Stacie’s career involved developing new medicines for cancer and autoimmune diseases, work that resulted in more than twenty publications in scientific journals. Now, she enjoys daily hikes with her dogs and spending more time with her youngest son while her oldest is off at college.
