Short and sweet
Is anyone else feeling like they just can’t find the time or headspace to write? Between having everyone in my family at home all the time, and either trying to read everything COVID_19 related or worrying about everything COVID_19 related, I’m struggling to settle my thoughts enough to write anything substantive. Last week’s micro was exactly the boost I needed though. Forty-eight words? Fifty words? One hundred words? I can do that! If you’re struggling like I am, here’s my completely and totally optional nonfiction challenge for you; take me on a tour with you in fewer than 100 words. Take me shopping with you, take me on your morning walk, show me your garden (I have a container garden I’m very proud of), introduce me to your pets, show me the puzzles you’re working on, or your latest craft project, or your family, or whatever inspires you. Be my tour guide and bring me into your world, but do it all in 100 words (or under)! Good luck, and I’ll see you on the grids.
– Asha
Welcome to Week 471
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. We don’t know about you, but right now we’re finding it pretty soothing to just edit a story that already exists.
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 in the intro. You did read the intro, didn’t you?
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 mystery-style story with a plot twist.
This week we’re doing another mystery (remember the household mysteries from YeahWrite Fiction|Poetry #469?), but this time we want you to put a twist in your tale. You’ll still need to include clues and solutions, and make your characters follow a plot, but this time the clues should lead your characters initially to some incorrect conclusions. Throw them off the trail with red herrings (the explanation at that link is great but you have to keep scrolling and scrolling, sorry; it’s an important lesson about site design) and dead ends before you lead them to the right solution.
You will still need to have an exciting, early hook to draw the reader in, suspenseful pacing to keep them interested, and a satisfying, authentic conclusion that ties up all the loose ends (no strange acts of magic, no convenient plot devices). Your resolution has to make sense and be possible, the characters have to follow the clues in good faith, and red herrings should feel initially plausible.
For example, the detective might suspect the principal of the local high school of murder because her footprint was found in the mud outside the victim’s house. How could this become a red herring? The principal and the victim were best friends and the principal would regularly visit. On the day of the victim’s death, it had been raining, causing the path up to the victim’s house to become muddy. The principal had visited her friend despite the rain.
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 of your own. Or write a different style of poem incorporating a twist, which in poetry is often called a tornada.
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:
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.
Asha, thank you SO much for the 100 words non-fiction challenge! It’s just what I needed. My mind was blank all these days and apart from making art pieces, I couldn’t manage anything else creative–like writing. 😛