[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]So, now you’ve had your coffee, and your vote, and you’re all wide awake and ready to hear some Very Good Advice, right? Right?

Quit while you’re ahead.

I know, right? When was the last time you heard me say “quit” when talking about your writing? And yet, here we are. So what do I mean by quit while you’re ahead?

Stop when you’ve said everything you have to say.

It’s as simple as that. How often do you read a post and discover that the last third is re-explaining the first two-thirds of the post? If that’s you, and you’re worried that the reader might not have gotten your point out of the first part of your post, the answer isn’t to keep going and explain what you meant in the first bit; the answer is to go back and rework the first bit until it says what you mean.

Maybe that means you won’t use your whole permitted word count. Maybe all you have to say this week can be summed up in one, concise, fantastic paragraph. Do it. Write that paragraph. And then… quit while you’re ahead. Don’t bog your reader down in explanations or reiterations just because you’ve got another 400 words available to you.

Examples, you say? Sure. We’ve got a gorgeous one on the fiction|poetry grid this week. Read Shannon’s story Secrets and Scars and then ask yourself: What would another 471 words have added?

Check out this exchange:

“Dope?”

I nodded. I could only whisper.

“Yeah. I fucked up a lot.”

Sure, Shannon could have written hundreds more words about which drugs the narrator used, her slow fall into abuse and addiction, crimes committed, sordid stories… but all that is summed up in “Yeah. I fucked up a lot.” Using crisp, brief language like this, Shannon lets readers bring their own experiences to the story – building empathy instead of preaching.

The same concept applies to poetry: If you’ve got a great image, and you’re not working in a form that requires a certain number of lines, why not stop? It’s like looking at photos: your friends love that one great photo from your vacation, but who wants to sit through a slideshow?

Okay, speaking of quitting, I’m going to quit lecturing and give you what you really want: the popular vote results on all three of our grids – nonfiction, fiction|poetry, and microstories!

But it’s not all about the popular vote, folks. We also have our editorial staff picks to hand out. Every week our editors comb through your submissions looking for their favorites. Picks are based on writing quality, how successful the author is in conveying information, and just plain style. If you got a staff pick this week, grab your badge from the sidebar and wear it with pride!

Once you’re done reading through the staff picks (and congratulating the winners in the comments), keep scrolling down to check out who won the popular vote on all three grids.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Yeah write #206 weekly writing challenge staff picks: nonfiction

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

thawing at the moon’s feet by searching for substance

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”22652″ style=”vc_box_circle” border_color=”grey” img_link_target=”_self” title=”michelle”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator color=”grey”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Yeah write #206 weekly writing challenge staff picks: fiction|poetry

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

sweetness by plenty plenty

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”22650″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle” border_color=”grey” img_link_target=”_self” title=”nate” img_link_large=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator color=”grey”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Yeah write #206 weekly writing challenge staff picks: microstories

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

private liam in ward no. 212 by yeshu

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”22657″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle” border_color=”grey” img_link_target=”_self” title=”christine”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

[/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 first, second or third, you get “top three” honors. Grab your badge from our sidebar!

Looking for your badge? The fiction|poetry, nonfiction and microstories challenges all have the same winner, staff pick, and top three 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]

What’s up this weekend?

moonshine grid opens at 6pm eastern time

Every Friday Natalie kicks the boards off the windows, takes the “police line do not cross” tape down, and opens up the sweetest unauthorized home for your writing on the net. Just don’t try to sneak in a commercial post- down with Big Corporations! Up the proletariat!

stay tuned for sneak peeks at the April poetry slam, and a special surprise for fictioneers

That’s right. Not only will we be revealing the form for the April poetry slam (on March 31, in case anyone was going to accuse me of a terrible joke), we’ll be rolling out our first fiction genre slam. Keep an eye on the coffeehouse and kickoff posts for details![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]