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Hello, Darkness…

I’ll admit it. I’m a weirdo. I am one of the few people in this country who love the end of Daylight Saving Time. The bright, early mornings have me bouncing out of bed and ready to take on the day (as a non-morning person, this is a miraculous thing to experience). But the dark? Sunset at 4:30? That’s where I thrive. My nights take on an endless quality, chasing away the Sunday (or Monday, Tuesday, etc.) scaries, but there is a special sort of creative spark that ignites at night for me, and Standard Time grants me more of it! What’s not to love?

So what’s your preference? Hit me up in Discord. Let’s fight* about it.

~Arden Ruth

*Politely argue

Welcome to Week #553

Here’s where you’ll find everything you need to get yourself ready to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)! Use our prompts—or don’t—and share links to your essays, stories, and poems in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord.

This Week’s Writing Prompt is:

Click each button for descriptions of each genre prompt:

Genre 1: Science Fiction   Genre 2: Romance

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story or essay using the above combination prompt. Stuck? We’ve gone into detail about unraveling combination prompts in this month’s Technique Toolbox on Navigating Prompts.

There are no word limits. You can write fiction or nonfiction; you may interpret the prompt any way you like. Share your response in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord, by linking your blog post, Google Doc, or other file. Check out your fellow YeahWriters’ responses, and don’t forget to leave them some love in the comments!

Looking for our weekly grids? After nearly ten years, they’ve been retired. Read more about the latest changes to YeahWrite in the #500 Weekly Writing Challenge Kickoff Post.

The Schedule

We will release a new prompt on our blog every Friday at 12pm Eastern.

Then it’s up to you! Write your response to the prompt on your own blog or website and share the link in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord. If you prefer to keep your work under wraps (and away from the eyes of potential publishers), you can still ask for beta readers in the Coffeehouse and share your work privately!

Every Monday, we’ll check in to see how you’re doing and what your writing goals are for the week.

Wednesdays are “Work-in-Progress Wednesdays.” Share a few sentences or even a paragraph or two in the Coffeehouse (no more than 250 words, please). Even if you’re not done writing, this could be the boost you need to stay motivated.

Did you publish a book? Do you have a story in a magazine? The First Friday of every month is for self-promotion, where you can share commercial links to your work for purchase. (You can always share the news that you’ve been accepted for publication, though!)

And of course, the entire community is here 24-7 to share your victories and setbacks, challenges and accomplishments. So come on in, pull up a chair, and say hello. We’re all writers here.

Upcoming and Ongoing

Sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any upcoming classes, workshops, or competitions. 

Ongoing: Navigating Prompts - Combination Prompts (Free Workshop)

In our monthly Navigating Prompts series, we’ll talk you through how to analyze and respond to a specific prompt style. We’ll coordinate the weekly prompts with the monthly post so you’ll have a chance to practice, compare notes with other writers in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord, and get advice from beta readers and YeahWrite editors. You’ll get to hone your skills when you’re not in crisis mode, trying to meet that fast-approaching deadline. And who knows—maybe you’ll end up with a new story or two in your back pocket!

In November, we’re putting it all together with combination prompts. If one prompt is good, two are better, right? But sometimes two (or three, or four) prompts just make your job more complex. Still, a little bit of analysis will help you fit those puzzle pieces together to make a solid, coherent story. Check out the post to see what we mean!

Super Challenge #22 - Flash Fiction

Super Challenge #22 officially kicks off tonight (Friday) with Round 1! This time around it’s our ever-popular flash fiction competition, so good luck to all our contestants. Miss out on registration? Sign up for our email blast so that you don’t miss out on any Super Challenge announcements. 

WIP Write-Ins, AKA Co-Working Hours

Last summer, you all joined the YeahWrite editors (and writers like you) for a series of laid-back, low-key co-working sessions. We chatted, we brainstormed, we got to know one another, and arguably most importantly, we wrote actual words! Once summer ended, we weren’t ready for co-working to disappear like the hot weather, so starting in October, co-working is back!

Join Christine every Wednesday from 9:00am – 11:00am Pacific Time and Arden every other Friday from 12:00 – 2:00pm Pacific Time for regular WIP Write-ins. Other sessions will be scheduled in the future, so keep an eye on our calendar and we’ll be sure to post announcements of pop-up sessions in our Discord and Facebook groups. See you there!

[Ed’s note: if you add that calendar to your own Google calendar, it’ll change the times to match your time zone automagically. No more searching “what time is 9am Pacific in Warsaw?” You’re welcome. /RBG]

About the author:

Arden Ruth is a paralegal by day, fantasy author by night. When she isn’t diving into worlds of magic and mythical creatures, you can find her eating her way through all the tacos in town. Arden joined YeahWrite in early 2014 as a contributing editor and social media manager, which later merged into the role of Executive Editor in 2020. Behind the scenes, Arden is currently working on the first novel of her Fated Paths trilogy. She also published a number of short stories and a fantasy anthology which can all be purchased on Amazon. Arden lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and two rescue pups. To read more of her stories, visit her website.

arden@yeahwrite.me

Science Fiction

Science fiction is a genre based on writing rationally about possible worlds or futures. It is related to, but different from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imagined elements are plausible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated physical laws (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation). The imagined future might be as near as next week or as far as millions of years from now. For the purposes of this competition, your story should be set at least 50 years in the future. 

It is important to note that science fiction has a relationship with the principles of science. These stories involve partially true and partially fictitious laws or theories of science. It should not be completely unbelievable, because it then ventures into the genre fantasy. Science fiction stories may be set in the near or far future, on Earth or elsewhere. They are not alternate history stories: changes in the world should be explained by changes in technology, not “someone killed Hitler” unless the change in technology is a time machine. Some attempt should be made to rationalize and explain the hand-wavy elements of the story with real or made-up science. New and different sociopolitical systems like utopias, dystopias, etc. are fair game, although keep an eye out for technological focus.

Science fiction is often divided into “hard” and “soft” categories, with hard science fiction depending heavily on realistic or at least thoroughly detailed and plausible principles of physics and technology. Soft science fiction doesn’t care how the spaceships work, although you know they’re not traveling faster than light because of magic; there’s some kind of “positronium drive” at work. Either will do for purposes of this prompt.

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Romance

Notice that this isn’t rom-com. We’re looking for a classic romance, and you’ll find tons of resources for that on the ‘net. You’ll even find romance plot generators! On the other hand, those generators are, well, pretty normative. And it’s Pride. Our baseline definition of romance is “two or more people overcoming obstacles to form a lifelong nurturing connection” not “a man and woman eventually having a baby.” We’re not going to require you to keep it G rated, although we caution you that a thousand words of smut doesn’t leave much room for plot, and we’d encourage you to put a content warning on anything you’d feel awkward about your parent(s) reading. We’re not going to demand that the endgame for your characters be [insert euphemism for sex here], either. We’re not going to require you to keep it cis, het, or even monogamous. Romance can look like a lot of things.

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