Editor’s Note
As I write this, thousands of people are in the streets in cities nationwide. Worldwide. The US President is calling for the use of military force against citizens. As writers, readers, and editors we know how a story is told matters. “Protesters were injured” is a wildly different story than “Police attacked protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas.” I work in US justice system reform and I know how the system unevenly impacts Black and Latinx families and communities. But it’s not just the justice system. The narrative of white supremacy in the United States is written into our textbooks. Into our counting rhymes. Into our housing laws, our lending laws. Not everyone can be in the streets this week; we know that. But the work of telling the story right is also vital. We challenge you as writers to do that. We challenge writers to examine the ways in which they are privileged and to elevate the stories of the marginalized. And we especially challenge white writers to tell stories where people who don’t look like them are fully realized and human characters with the option of being right and wrong and complicated. Until Black lives matter, we cannot have justice. And without justice, there is no true peace; only silence.
-Rowan Beckett Grigsby, Managing Editor
Community is also important in times of uncertainty and fear. We appreciate that you have chosen to be a part of our community here, and hope that we can provide some support to you. It feels strange to say “now let’s all vote” on a week like this, but maybe that act, voting and commenting, is what you can manage for your community this week. Every bit counts.
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 one vote 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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