[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Holy smokes, you guys. Who’s ready for the holiday week next week, with a break from the competition and an unmoderated grid? This editor is, that’s for sure. So far this week has had an ice storm, an unplanned truckload of servers that needed to be driven to Nevada, a funeral, a 5K race, and bagpipes. Not at the same time. Somewhere in there the grids managed to open and close on time, though, and you guys all got your entries in. Hopefully you even took the time to read and vote on all those posts!
Now what?
During our November writing competition there are two (yes, two) votes happening every week. First, there’s the good old crowd favorite! Yay! If you scroll down and see your name in first place on the grid, grab your crowd fave badge! The next two? Grab your top three badge!
The other important vote this month is the staff vote. Our editors are elbows-deep in spreadsheets, rubrics and other important-sounding voting tools, picking out the best of the best for the November writing competition. When the editors read your posts, they’re not just checking to see if you told a good story. They’re scoring you on everything from basic spelling and grammar to how well you read and understood the rules of each challenge. So if you’ve been skimming all that “boilerplate” every week describing exactly how to win on each grid, this might be a good time to go back and read it thoroughly. We don’t just put those words on the page to fill space; we tell you exactly what we’re looking for, and what will disqualify you from the grid each week.
Down below you’ll see each staff voter’s favorite three posts on a grid (in no particular order) and a quick note about something they found particularly memorable. So check out the top three picks, grab your staff pick badge if you see your name, and take a minute to check out what we think of our favorite posts this week. In just a couple weeks, you’ll find out who won our cash and chocolate prizes. In the meantime, I’m just gonna spread all this filthy lucre out and roll in it. Hope you don’t mind. (It’s ok. I’ll leave the chocolate in the fridge.)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Yeah write #188 weekly writing challenge staff picks: nonfiction
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Discussing grief can be very difficult but it’s especially challenging with an eight year old who has recently lost a beloved pet as Snapper points out in her piece this week. There’s the desire to comfort, but also to be honest. Here, we are offered a snapshot of those she’s lost and what they meant to her. A mother, a cousin, a friend, each loss tips the scale of relationships filled with those around us and those who are no longer there. This poignant and honest look at loss reminds us that we always hold those dear to us in our hearts and we can remember them always, even the cat of a young friend.
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Liz opened her post with a real punch and closed it with a metaphorical one this week. In between she discussed how the world strips our bravery away, and how desperately she wants to protect that sense of self for her children. Although she quotes statistics, she never lapses into dry numbers, reminding the reader again and again that these numbers are counting human beings- human beings who are entitled to a sense of worth.
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Like the microaggressions it describes, Asha’s post is built on pebbles, grains of sand that build an eventual structure. Each pebble, each phrase, is insignificant in itself, briefly and dispassionately described. It’s not until the reader is already deeply engrossed in the piece that they see the overarching structure, the road that is being built to the inexorable conclusion. And yet, for all that, each phrase also captures the reader’s attention. This interplay of micro and macro structure comes together to create a whole that truly is more than the sum of its parts.
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Yeah write #188 weekly writing challenge staff picks: fiction challenge
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Asha’s voice modulates a perfect balance of descriptiveness. While many writers are tempted to go adjective-happy in their work, Asha uses other literary devices instead, creating a mood of disappointment and resignation. By personifying certain emotions, she conveys far more emotion than if she simply described them. After the bride is abandoned, “Joy and excitement were packed neatly away with the folding chairs. Hope was swept up with the flowers and thrown into the rubbish pile behind the kitchens.” By equating such cheerful emotions with rubbish and folding chairs, she sets us up to be surprised by the twist at the end.
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Silverleaf gets my vote this week for her lyrical
sestina. This poetic form restricts and repeats the last word of each line in a prescribed pattern that challenges the writer to think creatively about lyricism, voice, subject matter and imagery. Silverleaf pulls it off by focusing her poem on the start of a new season, the “preface” to winter. The poem doesn’t just describe the changing landscape, it calls on us to celebrate it—no minor feat for someone like me who dreads the piling on of t-shirt, sweater, heavy coat. In a formal voice that appropriately echoes the rigid line endings, Silverleaf shows us the silver lining within these grey days: “Think not that she is only a gloom which spreads / darkness, for to see her thus is to miss the paradox of life.”
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When writing a piece set during wartime, it is so easy to just haphazardly throw your characters into a big fight and be done with it. J. Edward Benoit, however, took a quiet moment between two commanders and wrote a beautiful piece on the inner workings of war. The two characters could have been talking about the weather for all I knew, with how easily their dialogue flowed. And of course, the tie-in of the tea throughout the whole piece, especially the punch of the last line, made the post really shine for me. Well done!
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Yeah write #188 weekly writing challenge staff picks: microstories challenge
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Silverleaf’s answer to the ultimate question is subtle, but oh, so romantic: you, in my dreams, will stop the rain. She balances the dreamy tone with tangible details – the azure tiles of the fountain, the scent of the jasmine – invoking a sense of nostalgia, longing and wishful thinking that really hit home for me.
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So, Nate is a big yeah write helper, running the coffeehouse, but he’s not officially an editor, which makes him eligible for editor picks [But not eligible to win the contest. Sorry, Nate! -Ed.]. And this week, he wins my pick. Nate’s entry answers the exact question (who will? the pissed off actor, of course) which many found difficult to pull off in the proper tense. Technicalities aside, Nate creates a palpable animosity between two people, the “star” and the more important “behind the scenes guy.” His piece is fun, full of emotion and revenge and sticking it to the man. It’s hard to create such a big story in 42 words and Nathan does it perfectly.
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Despite warnings from Christine in Wednesday’s post, many participants didn’t answer this week’s ultimate question in the proper tense. Other participants struggled to use rain as a metaphor with mixed results. J. Edward Benoit handled both issues well in The Champ is Tapped Out. While I stumbled over the first word, (and admit I had to look up Avaritia to get the reference), I enjoyed the portrayal of the champ’s hangers-on as being equally greedy. Josh chose his title well, using it to define the character and incorporating a play on words.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Congratulations to this week’s winners! If you earned the highest number of votes in either challenge, you are this week’s crowd favorite. If you came in second or third, you get top row honors along with the crowd fave. Grab your winner’s badge from our sidebar!
Looking for your badge? Now that all our writers are under one roof, we’re sharing our badges as well as our drinks. That’s right: fiction|poetry, nonfiction and microstories have the same badges. It doesn’t clutter up our sidebar, and they’ll still look pretty on yours!
Everybody: before you go, please take some time to leave your favorites a little love in the comments.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time
When your commute ends today, park your car at the moonshine grid. That’s right, at 6 p.m. today Natalie throws open the secret doors to the weekend bar and you’re all welcome. Bring a non-commercial post as your plus-one. Have a drink on the house and stick around to read your neighbors’ posts. Just don’t forget to tip your waitress![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
Yeah write #188 challenge results
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Thank you Michelle – I was very surprised and very happy to see my name on your list. I have been struggling with writing about gender/feminist issues from a long time ago because it’s so hard to convey the context. A story about being stuck without a man around probably doesn’t resonate with younger people (which is a good thing and what we’ve been wanting all these years). I’m glad you saw something worthwhile in the piece.
Congrats you guys!!
I can’t wait to read the rest from the other grids this weekend. Such great writing.. so little time.. lol xo’s
Today is Friday, which makes it a good day by default, but after seeing the results I’m having an even better day. Thanks folks. I’m happy to have found this writing community.
Such great writing! Congratulations to the winners!
Congrats to all the winners! Do I see my post in the Top 3? Am I really seeing this??!! I am so thrilled 🙂
Thank you everyone!