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Vote for your favorite nonfiction, fiction and microstories here. Also, Rowan swears in this post.

[editor’s note: this rant has been sitting in my drafts folder for several months. I reached critical mass this week but that doesn’t mean it’s directed at any single writer or at anyone in particular who received a love letter this week. I care about all of you as writers, but you kids make me crazy sometimes. /rbg]

Hi! This is your weekly lecture wherein Rowan tells you to fucking take yourself seriously as a writer.

Look, I made a swear. That means I’m serious too. I’d say “serious as cancer” but I’ve lost three friends in the last six months to cancer and I have no patience for cancer’s shit any more.

I swore again.

OK. Put the laptop down. Find a reflective surface. Put your phone down, or turn the camera on and flip it like a selfie in the making. Look yourself in the eye and say “I am a writer.”

Now treat yourself like a goddamn professional. Edit your shit, or find an editor to work with you. Read all the submissions rules before you waste your valuable time clicking the blue frog. Use spellcheck. Then check your shit again because spellcheck gives no fucks whether you’re using the correct your or its/it’s.

Take one more look at your post. Ask yourself “would I submit this to a competition where the prize was money instead of a 200×200 pixel badge?” If the answer is no, save it for the moonshine grid, we’d love to see you there. If the answer is maybe, give it one more proofread and put it on the grid – at worst, you’ll get a letter from me letting you know how you can get better.

I’ve been here almost a year now. I know that doesn’t seem like a ton of time, but in that time I have read every one of your posts, every week, and I damn well know what your – yes, yours, personally – best work is and when you’re bringing it. I know who’s been around long enough to have read and understood the rules. If it’s your very first time on the microstories grid? Hey. Maybe you didn’t understand that when we said we count every word we meant we count every word. No, really every word. All of them. Yes, that one too. And those. So I can take the time to send you a little reminder.

But you are a grownup and a professional and – really, I believe this about you, rant notwithstanding – a damn fine writer when you put in the time and effort to be. And that means you don’t get five hundred warnings and a whole bunch of hand holding on the rules. I will by God, Goddess, or Deity of Your Choice hold your hand and walk you through grammar and storytelling principles as often as you need it. I will carry you through scansion and rhyme and teach you what it feels like to really nail that one sentence, when you’re actually flying instead of writing. That helps you and me and everyone.

But that fifth note about your word count steals time and energy from other people who genuinely need a hand and a kind word and a little nudge toward some resources that can actually help them. And that’s not fair to them.

I believe in you, and that means treating you like a grownup and a professional and a writer. Even if it hurts sometimes.

Annnnnd now that my head has stopped exploding, here’s how our schedule works: our three challenges open on separate days – Monday for nonfiction, Tuesday for fiction and poetry, and Wednesday for microstories – but instead of separate days for voting, we’ve combined them all into one big voting post every Thursday.

All three challenges are open below for your voting pleasure. If you want to vote on a grid, please take the time to read all the entries on the grid before voting for the best three. To do that, you might have to take a step back and read the rules for each grid: for example, does that microstory really answer the ultimate question, or did it just make you laugh?

You get three votes on each separate grid. If you’d like to reveal the current vote tallies, just refresh the page after you’ve finished voting. Just a reminder: if you want to see the vote tallies, please use the device you voted from originally. Don’t double-vote just to see how your post is doing; it’s not fair to anyone and we’ll remove your votes. I mean it. Clearly I am taking no shit this week.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

I got a love letter. Now what?

Trust me, it’s not any more fun to write love letters than it is to get them. I know that on the other end of that letter is someone who’s hearing “my post wasn’t good enough this week.” I’m not going to say this hurts us more than it hurts you, but we do know what rejection feels like. That’s why we never tell you that you didn’t make the grid without explaining what you need to improve.

Did you break a rule? Miss too many typos? Just skip that last proofread? Remember, there are no points for being first in line. All the entries you see on the grids down there are in random order. Take the time to give your post that last bit of polish that makes the difference between “okay” and “great.” Read the rules one more time before you submit to make sure you are following all of them. Bring your best, most careful work to the grid, and it will pay off.

If you are reading your love letter and you think the advice conflicts with other advice you’ve received on your writing, remember that we’re not the absolute overlords of writing but we do know what’s going to improve your chances in the voting and competition here at yeah write, from structure to grammar to visual elements in your post. Take a minute to listen carefully, even though it hurts, and see how you might be able to use that advice.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Thanks to those of you who took the time to write and submit to our grids this week. Thanks also to those of you who may not have had the time or inspiration to write a new post but who dropped by to read and vote – we love you! And welcome to those who may just be showing up to our little corner of the web. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.

Voting closes on Thursday at 10 p.m. US eastern daylight time. [-4 GMT]

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