Artists Need to Celebrate and To Be Celebrated
A few years ago a large writers conference invited me to read an essay I wrote. Being in the spotlight is not my thing. The idea of subjecting my work to a room full of peers gave me hives. When I told my partner about it, he couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t want to go. “Artists like us,” he said, “don’t get celebrated very often. You worked very hard on this piece, and your writing should be celebrated.”
I decided he was right; I went and read my essay, and it was worth it despite the pre-presentation panic attack. I saw firsthand the effect my little childhood memory had on the audience. People stopped me in the hallways afterward and told me stories about similar situations in their lives. They were very excited to know they weren’t the only ones who had experienced that experience. They celebrated my writing. I took the feeling of resonating with readers back to my little writing cocoon in my apartment, and had this whole new community in mind to spark more writing.
In the YeahWrite Facebook group and the Discord server, we encourage you to share your big and small writing wins with us so we can celebrate you and the work you’re putting in. Please tell us when you got your butt in the chair and wrote 25 words for the first time in a month, when a dream explained how you should end a story, how a museum visit ignited a new writing idea… all of it. Please let’s celebrate you and your writing. It’s not completely selfless. Your wins are motivating us, too. They remind those of us in the little rejection pits we dig ourselves that friends are being published, getting stories accepted, winning contests, and successfully balancing work/life/WIP.
~Nate
This Week’s Writing Prompt is:
learning a new language
This week, your job, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story or essay smoothly incorporating the above action prompt into your work in an integral way. That is, the story would not make sense without the action. Stuck? We’ve gone into detail about unraveling this sort of prompt style in this Technique Toolbox post on action 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: Scarlet Quill Society (Free Workshop w/ Optional Paid Benefits)
Welcome to the secret back room where the Scarlet Quill Society meets. In this year-long workshop, the YeahWrite editors will help you hone your own editing skills so that you can feel confident that the work you are submitting is at its absolute best. We’re experimenting a little with our workshop format in 2022, and offering a couple add-ons to our always-free posts that we think you’ll find exciting and worth a few bucks a month: The Scarlet Quill Society will have actual face-to-face (okay, virtual) monthly meetings to delve into the topics and answer your questions, and an editorial backroom on Discord!
Whether as a writer or an editor, there are going to be things that you just aren’t positioned to catch in a story or essay: harmful tropes, outdated assumptions, or unexamined stereotypes. That’s where sensitivity readers come in. Check out our July post, where we have interviewed a panel of expert sensitivity readers to get the scoop on what they do and why.
The July SQS meeting was held on Monday, July 11. The recording has been posted to our YouTube channel! Sign up for a membership today to automatically receive the Zoom link and password for next month’s meeting. One-off meeting tickets can also be purchased on Kofi.
At YeahWrite we believe information wants to be shared. If you can’t afford to join us for society meetings, we post the recording about a week later, and you’re welcome to leave the tip you can afford (even if that’s just a nice thank you comment). Check out our YouTube channel for more.
Super Challenge #25 - Microfiction
Registration is open for our summer microfiction challenge! This is a one-round MICROfiction competition with all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from our contests: fun, unique prompts; feedback on every entry; and cash prizes! We hope you’ll join us. Sign up for our email blast today so you don’t miss any important 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 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]
Spontaneous Writing Challenges
Looking for a bit of inspiration? Missing the grids? Then join the Coffeehouse on Discord (where the stories are made up and the points don’t matter) and head to the #spontaneous-challenge channel. Each day, anyone can post a micro writing challenge (but just one per day!). Share your responses within the thread and earn XP within the server. We hope to see you there!
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.
