Suck it in suck it in suck it in if you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn
The hook. The gotta. The lede. The so what. Whatever you call it, it’s the reason your readers keep reading. And guess what? It’s probably not the same reason that you keep writing. To succeed as a writer you’ll need a firm handle on both why you write, and why someone would want to read it. That’s where we come in. From weekly prompts to quarterly challenges, from immediate workshopping to beta reading to editing, we’re here to help you sort that out. It’s a painful process at times – I certainly remember the first time I wrote something deeply heartfelt and put it out into the world, expecting the same fawning reception I’d gotten from English teachers in high school. And then nobody connected with it. Or commented on it. Because no matter how intensely I felt about what I was writing, I wasn’t good yet at putting the same urgency there for my readers. If that’s you, don’t worry. This is a swampy part of being a writer, but there is a path to the other side, and you can get there. You might have to leave some pieces of your ego in the muck, though.
~Rowan
This Week’s Writing Prompt is:
This week, your job, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story, essay, or poem incorporating the following prompt:
Trope: Action Prologue [but! no flashbacks allowed!]
We’re taking a cue from this year’s Scarlet Quill Society and getting some practice incorporating – or subverting – popular tropes. This week we’re using one of the techniques often employed to begin a story in medias res, the technical term for “not chattering on about the backstory of your characters for the whole first chapter, but dropping you right into the action.” The Action Prologue doesn’t just drop you into the action of the story, it drops you into real action: a fight scene, a chase, a quarrel, a heist. And we’re adding a twist: once you get through that action scene, you have to keep going. No jumping right to a flashback to tell the reader how you got there, you have to weave the plot details in as you go on with the story. Got through the action scene but not sure how to go on? Tell us about it, and get some help! Share snippets of or links to your best story in Discord or on Facebook! 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. Check out June’s post, in which we take a look at tropes every submissions editor hopes never to see again, and then join us on Monday, June 12 at 1pm US Eastern for a live conversation with submissions reader (and frequent Super Challenge judge!) Genevra Hsu.
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 gatherings to delve into the topics and answer your questions, and an editorial backroom on Discord! And for a bonus, if you’re a paid SQS member and you can’t make it to a meeting, you can still send us questions beforehand and we’ll make sure to cover them.
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 #28 (Fiction)
YeahWrite’s Super Challenge #28 (flash fiction) is officially underway! Good luck to all our remaining participants as they anxiously await the final results. 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
NOTE: NO WIP WRITE-IN ON MAY 17!
Spontaneous Writing Challenges
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
