FINALLY
I love the photo Arden chose for this week’s post. The light slanting through the trees, the hint of frost (or rain, if you’re in the Pacific Northwest) in the air, the swooshing sound of the leaves as you wade through them: these are some of the most beautiful moments. Even though Rowan likes to tease me for actually (yes, actually) loving summer, early fall is my favorite time of year.
I’m feeling a little restless lately. The outdoors is calling, but so are my stories, and then there’s the stack of other tasks I need to slog through. My question, as always, is where to start? Should I wade through those unwanted tasks like they’re a pile of leaves, or should I bask in the filtered sunlight and work on the story that’s rattling around my head? Is creativity a reward for getting through all that other stuff, or is it a reward for being human? My answer varies from day to day. What do you think? Come start a conversation in the Coffeehouse so I can put off my chore list a little while longer.
~Christine
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: The Creepy Cemetery
We’re taking a cue from this year’s Scarlet Quill Society and getting some practice incorporating – or subverting – popular tropes. We’re sticking with the seasonal theme, and giving you one of the tropiest settings out there: the creepy cemetery. Are your star-crossed lovers meeting after dark for a clandestine tryst? Or is your hero out hunting monsters? Cliches are great fun, but maybe you’d like to wander a little farther afield: a zombie birthday party, a Grim Reaper on a smoke break – whatever it is, we’re here for it. If you need more information on the prompt, click the link and check out the description!
What will your take be on this trope? Play with the prompt, and when you’ve got your story down, come tell us about it! Bonus points if you do it on WIP Wednesday! 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 October’s post, containing not just our new trope but a serious lesson in how many ways Rowan can say “monsterfucker” without actually saying “monsterfucker.” From the works of Chuck Tingle to the many faces of Ganondorf, get ready for our hottest monster lineup ever. We’ve got a killer panel of horror writers lined up for you, coming atcha this month for the low low price of $5 (or free with your YW membership). This month’s live discussion took place on October 16; the recording will be available soon.
Did you miss September’s post? This one was about why the physical and mental injuries you’re putting in your stories might not be doing what you think they’re doing, and how to work with them more realistically. And you can always hop on over to YouTube watch the recording and check out what our expert had to say on a pay-what-you-can basis! If you have a good time, leave a tip and we’ll love you forever.
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.
2023 Anthology? WATCH THIS SPACE!
That’s why we’re excited to help them shine in print for the first time! Our 2023 anthology, opening soon for submissions, will include 20 flash stories (fiction and creative nonfiction) that have a clear authorial voice and an innovative structure: braided stories, epistolaries, stories told as logbooks or news articles – these are just examples of the sorts of stories we are excited to publish. Can’t figure out your genre? Not a problem, we’re not genre-limiting this one! So dig back into your archive for that special story to dust off and tune up, or get ready to put pen to paper for that new idea that will help you procrastinate on the other writing you should be doing.
Because we love our newsletter subscribers, we’ll give them an early heads up with all the submissions guidelines. We’ll also send you details on the Kickstarter we’re planning that should help make our anthology even better!
Spontaneous Writing Challenges
About the author:
Christine Hanolsy is a (primarily) science fiction and fantasy writer who simply cannot resist a love story. She joined the YeahWrite team in 2014 as the microstory editor and stepped into the role of Editor-In-Chief in 2020. Christine was a 2015 BlogHer Voices of the Year award recipient and Community Keynote speaker for her YeahWrite essay, “Rights and Privileges.” Her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and periodicals and her creative nonfiction at Dead Housekeeping and in the Timberline Review. Outside of YeahWrite, Christine’s past roles have included Russian language scholar, composer, interpreter, and general cat herder. Find her online at christinehanolsy.com.
