It’s the most wonderful time of the year
About once a year, I get to steal my favorite writing partner (and second-favorite editor) and go out for happy hour. Of course, all we end up doing is talking about work; I’d say that’s how much we love this job but let’s be real neither of us really has a life. The best part? I’m just going to hand her my computer and tell her to proofread this post.
This week, of course, we’re chatting about the microprose challenge. You know: the one she started and the one that sucked me into YeahWrite and reminded me how much I love writing. Microprose feels easy and manageable, even though it’s probably the hardest challenge to do well, and we’re excited to have it back! Of course, it’s also our fullest grid, so commenting can feel overwhelming, especially when comments can get longer than the story itself. Still, it’s worth making the rounds as you read and vote this week. Let folks know what they’re doing well, and what needs some work.
Popular voting for the YeahWrite #329 weekly writing challenge is now open! Vote by 10pm ET on Thursday for your favorite nonfiction, fiction|poetry, and microprose entries!
Before you vote
The feedback from the vote is great to have, but without your personal touch, we won’t know what we’re doing right and what areas we can focus on to do better next week. Please take a moment to make a thoughtful comment on each post you read. This is about community. We want to encourage constructive criticism as well as applause. We all want to improve our writing and you can help! Don’t just say “I liked it” – get specific!
Tips for constructive criticism that doesn’t hurt:
- Do more than say you liked what the story or poem was about. The writer worked hard to deliver their message in a certain way and it’s useful to them to know if that technique worked for them or if they should try something else.
- Open with a positive comment or idea.
- Pick out a sentence or paragraph that really worked for you and explain why: instead of “I love ‘the sky turned the color of Pepto Bismol.’” say “Using an unconventional metaphor for the color of the sky helped bring out more of the narrator’s background and culture.”
- If there’s a spot that’s unclear, bear the burden of the misunderstanding: “I struggled a little in the middle when you used a lot of pronouns. For a minute there I couldn’t tell if Gwen was with Art or Lance.”
- Try to steer toward positive or neutral feedback unless you know the writer welcomes public criticism. (hint: do you see our constructive criticism badge?) You can convey a lot of useful information about what they did right rather than focusing on what didn’t work!
How do I vote?
All three challenges are open below for your voting pleasure. The rules are simple:
- Everyone gets three votes on each grid. Use those votes to pick out the best writing for the popular vote!
- Self-voting is not allowed. That’s cheating. You want an honest win, right? And if you do it too often, we’ll have to ask you to step back and think about what you’re doing and whether you’re making a positive contribution to the community.
- Targeted votes (soliciting votes for your piece via social media contacts) are not allowed. That’s also cheating. Voters must read all the entries on a grid before voting for their top three.
- Votes must be based on the quality of writing, not your friendship with the author. If you’re torn between two posts, vote for the one that has better writing, no matter who it belongs to. That means grammar, punctuation and spelling as well as sentence structure and concept. The hard work of becoming a better writer structurally is important, and we want you all to feel like you earned every vote!
To vote for a post, scroll down to each grid and click on the heart within the thumbnail. Once you’ve voted for your favorite, you will be able to view the vote tallies after refreshing the page.
Have fun!
Loading InLinkz ... Loading InLinkz ... Loading InLinkz ...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.
