Hard reset
I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions or intentions or words. I start off enthusiastically enough, but fold pretty quickly under the pressure to conform to some imaginary standard. You know, that goal that’s just a little too high, a little too far out of reach? But I do love giving myself the opportunity to restart a quest for a goal. Since I started this calendar year with Covid (ugh, it’s everywhere folks! Wear a mask, wash your hands, keep your distance if you can), I̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶i̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶c̶e̶ I was too exhausted to get started on any of the many projects I had lined up. Instead, I completed small tasks so I wouldn’t be afflicted with acute boredom, and napped when I could. The lunar new year (Year of the Water Rabbit in the Chinese calendar and Year of the Water Cat in the Vietnamese calendar) presented the perfect opportunity to reset and restart my year. So, last week I managed to start and finish a first draft of a story — my first for this year. I’m thrilled. I’m also still napping every afternoon.
How’s your writing coming along? Do you need a reset? Have you considered registering for Super Challenge #27 (nonfiction) or #28 (fiction) to give you a goal? Super Challenge #27 kicks off in February and Super Challenge #28 starts up in May. For the first time ever, the top three winners of each of these contests will receive automatic publication in our anthology (another first!). Register today!
~Asha
This Week’s Writing Prompt is:
Theme prompt: Overcoming the monster
This week, your job, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story, essay, or poem incorporating the above prompt. Stuck? Check out last year’s — no, year before last! — series on responding to prompts!
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.
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, we’ll be focusing on tropes! Love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t avoid ’em. For the purpose of this year’s workshop, we’re defining a trope as a building block of storytelling. It’s a device or pattern of events that is used to solve plot or character problems or communicate meaning efficiently and effectively. Read the January post, and then join YeahWrite’s Managing Editor Rowan Becket Grigsby as she helps us understand how tropes can help or hurt our writing.
January’s meeting took place on Wednesday, January 18. Rowan went over what is and what isn’t a trope, and started to delve into the positive and negative aspects of using them. It was a lively discussion, and the video will soon be up on our YouTube page.
Scarlet Quill Society workshop posts are always free. In addition, we are offering a couple add-ons that we think you’ll find exciting and worth a few bucks a month: face-to-face (okay, virtual) monthly meetings to delve into the topics and answer your questions, and an editorial backroom on Discord!
Sign up for a membership today to join the Scarlet Quill Society and automatically receive the Zoom link and password for every meeting. One-off monthly 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 #27 (Nonfiction) AND #28 (Fiction)
Did you hear the news? You asked, we listened. YeahWrite is publishing its first anthology for both fiction AND creative nonfiction, and the top three winners of Super Challenge #27 and #28 will be automatically published! With all this excitement in the air, we opened registration for both contests a tad earlier than usual. Register today!
Register for Super Challenge #27 (Nonfiction) Register for Super Challenge #28 (Fiction)
Don’t want to miss out on all the fun? Be sure to sign up for our mailing list so you don’t miss out on any future Super Challenge updates.
WIP Write-Ins, AKA Co-Working Hours
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!
If you’ve been meaning to join us but can’t do Wednesdays, we’re checking our calendars now so make sure you’ve responded to the Discord poll for times!
[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 prompts forum. 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:
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. Asha writes flash fiction, short stories, and creative nonfiction. She is published in a variety of places and you can find links to her work at Asha Rajan Writer.
