We can’t stop

No dog days of summer here at yeah write. The challenge grid was hopping again — featuring a whopping EIGHT yeah write virgins. Thank you for joining us and bringing your best stuff! Once again we crested over the 30-post mark, so our fancy curated invitational grid appeared like magic on your screens. This week, we celebrate Pam, Kirsten, Cynthia, Lizzi, Rachel, and Aly as our editor’s picks. Congratulations! Pick up an editors’ pick badge in the sidebar to display on your blog.

Jury prize winner

“When Will I Feel My Mouth Again and How did You Become a Dentist?” by Aly at I’d Like a Redo

One of our virgins this week takes the Jury Prize! Aly at “I’d Like a Redo” wins this week with a trip to the dentist that is an exercise in writing with one’s authentic voice. Finding one’s true voice is a much more difficult task that it appears, but Aly succeeds as she moves closer to her self-stated goal of becoming Mindy Kaling’s BFF and writing partner. With references to the Kardashians, dental training videos, and the Matrix, every line is packed with clever turns of phrase that are never showy.

Instead, she brings the freestyling ease of stream of consciousness into a tight three-part structure while deftly creating characters in a phrase, or a sentence. She’s pondering inviting the cool receptionist to her wedding because of her awesome eyewear and expressing gratitude to the dental tech for acknowledging her jokes: “I’m immediately grateful for all the life decisions that brought him to this moment.” And the dentist? Did he “need to take a course in condescension to graduate?”

Look, we’ve all been to the dentist. We know the drill (ugh, sorry). But to make it a fresh experience, we bring our own life experiences and inner narrative. We might come up with a  funny line or two, but Aly manages to write the story like your really funny best friend is telling it to you over lunch. It’s the writing craft at its best. Congratulations Aly! And there are prizes! Email Erica M with your mailing address and she’ll send you Chad Simpson’s new book “Tell Everyone I Said Hi”, “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield, and Ron Carlson’s craft book “Ron Carlson Writes a Story.” Plus, you get a one-of-a-kind “I won the yeah write #119 jury prize” badge from the sidebar.

Crowd favorite

“I Scream for Ice Cream” by Alisa at Ice Scream Mama

Last week, I was apparently just foreshadowing when I accidentally congratulated Alisa on a two-week crowd favorite streak. Now Alisa makes it two in a row as she wins crowd favorite on the challenge grid again this week with “I Scream for Ice Cream” an ode to her favorite treat and her on-screen persona with some sprinkles of family history thrown in. It’s filled with sensory writing at its finest and I, for one, found myself reaching for the scoop—and a snuggie—after I read it. Congratulations, Alisa! Your crowd favorite badge awaits you in the sidebar. 

Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time!

I bet you have more posts you can share with your yeah write family, don’t you? Come to our weekend no-pressure party and link up to the moonshine grid, hosted by yeah writer Michelle Longo. You can share just about any post, unless it’s commercial or sponsored. Grab a badge in the sidebar and join us!

The moonshine grid opens at 6 p.m. eastern time each Friday and will close by 12:01 a.m. each Monday.

Win-win

The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most votes to the least. In the case of a tie, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views. Part of the top row five? Please grab a winners’ badge from the sidebar and display it proudly on your own blog. Congrats!

Do not be discouraged if your blog has landed near the bottom of the grid; it is always a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and in the spirit of competition as incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Thanks again, everybody, for linking up, for reading, for accepting the weekly writing challenge. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.

Don’t leave yet!

Stop by the comment section and congratulate this week’s winners—the jury prize, editors’ picks, crowd favorite, and our top row 5 and start saying goodbye to the amazing Flood G who leaves us next week for other cheese shops, different swill. Yeah write #120 opens Tuesday.

There are still days left in July, which means there are still days left in yeah write’s summer series continues in full swing. Every day we’re following ProBlogger’s 31 days to build a better blog to become better writers and better bloggers. Read, learn, comment, and link up.

[hr]