Return of the Vermin
Everywhere I look, at least if I’m looking out of a window in my house, I see chipmunks. They’ve been digging vast tunnel-networks underneath my lawn, apparently. And I have SO many rabbits, I’m just waiting to discover some nests. Rabbit nests are worse since the dogs can get right at the babies. Two years ago, Buster had a baby in his mouth, but luckily I was able to free it, unharmed, before he even realized it might make a tasty snack (in his defense, I was very fast). Last year, I didn’t see any rabbits or chipmunks in my yard. Not one. Their absence was hardly a mystery. I had a pair of red-tailed hawks nesting in one of my trees. I was hoping they’d return because I like the hawks much better than the vermin. No such luck. I guess they’ve taken up residence in someone else’s tree. But you are in luck since it’s time to read and vote on the grids!
Popular voting for the YeahWrite #476 weekly writing challenge is now open! Vote by 10pm ET on Thursday for your favorite nonfiction and fiction|poetry 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! Also, you might just win our new commentariat commendation award!
What are you looking for?
- For nonfiction, a strong “so what.” This is the reason to care what happens, and can make or break a personal story.
- For fiction, a well-told story that incorporates the prompts smoothly. Prompts should feel like they belong there, not were shoehorned awkwardly in at the last moment, and should ideally be integrated into the plot and characters in a way that makes the prompts important enough that the story would turn out differently if they weren’t there.
- For poetry, a work that’s more than just a sentence broken up with the enter key. Poems should either incorporate at least one of the prompts in a meaningful way or follow this month’s slam form. Whatever form the poem is in, it should follow the structural rules of the form like rhyme and meter (whether that’s the no-rules of free verse or the strict rules of a sonnet).
- On both grids, a good balance of emotion and some show-don’t-tell. Good writing makes you have feelings without over-cueing you, and avoids cliche.
- Balanced structure and storytelling style, without overdependence on gimmicks like ellipses, short sentences, long paragraphs – all of these things are great, but no one technique should overwhelm the writing.
- Work that has not only been written but edited on a more-than-casual basis.
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.” Bonus points if you identified that song lyric without looking it up.
- 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?
Both nonfiction and fiction|poetry challenges are open below for your voting pleasure. The rules are simple:
- Everyone gets two 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?
- Targeted votes (social media contacts coming in and voting just for you) 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. 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!
Nonfiction Challenge
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