[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last week my writing partner and I were gifted with the most amazing present: a weekend away to do nothing but edit.
Maybe that doesn’t sound like much of a present, but I assure you it is. There’s nothing like 72 uninterrupted hours to spend in a hot tub on a mountain editing your novel. Editing piecemeal can lead to a loss of focus; when you can’t remember what you’ve just taken out, sometimes you add the same thing in later. And on our grids, that can lead to, well, not doing so well in the popular vote.
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 we don’t give out a staff pick on a grid one week, it means nothing really stood out for us. Maybe the best stories had a bunch of typos or the grammatically perfect ones didn’t have much there there. You’ve really got to nail both elements – structure and storytelling – to earn a staff pick.
If there isn’t a staff pick one week, check out Rowan’s Roundup (man, it’s weird to refer to myself in the third person). Probably there’s a clue in there why that post you liked didn’t make the cut. Then keep scrolling down to check out who won the popular vote on all three grids. If you earned the highest number of votes in any 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? Our challenges share the same winner, staff pick, and top three badges. It doesn’t clutter up our sidebar, and they’ll still look pretty on yours![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Rowan’s roundup: yeah write weekly writing challenge #266
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nonfiction
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]If you haven’t gotten a love letter from me, you probably don’t have the link to the original “so what” post at your fingertips. When I have to give a quick elevator speech about “what’s a so what” I usually say “well, I need to know the reason that the author felt it was important to share this with the world. That is, what does the author want me to take away from this reading, in terms of explaining her worldview or changing mine?” Ultimately, we’re looking for a reason to care about or connect with the subject matter of a post, even if we disagree with a persuasive essay or a personal essay is outside our experience. If your reader doesn’t care by sentence five, you’ve probably lost them.
One quick way (ok not that quick) to kill your so what, if you’ve got one, is to surround it with a thousand words that say nothing. While we changed our upper word limit from 500 to 1,000 words, I strongly recommend that if you’re on the cusp of 1,000 you try editing your post back to 500. What you learn about concise, effective writing will serve you well in all your work.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”29344″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
fiction|poetry
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I can’t say it often enough: a story is more than a list of events.
If your plot looks like a day planner, you’re probably not telling a story. With only 750 words to work with, you should be examining every one of them to make sure it drives your story forward to a climax, keeps your reader interested, and is relevant to what you’re trying to say. On the other hand, if your story looks like “this happened and then that happened and then that happened” you should probably consider focusing on a single event so that you’ll have room to develop the plot around that event. Give us characters we can care about, make us worry that something’s going to happen to them, and resolve the tension – or not, I’m looking at you, Ruby Bastille, leave us wanting more – and you’ve got a story.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”29345″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]That’s it for this week! If you’re lost in the middle of the grid and wondering how you can get a little more feedback on your posts, check out our membership perks!
Everybody: before you go, please take some time to leave your favorites a little love in the comments, and don’t forget, our weekend grid opens tonight at 6pm Eastern US Time![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Congratulations to the crowd favorites at yeah write #266
The thumbnails are now sorted in order of most votes to fewest. Ties in the overall number of votes are broken by number of editor votes.
Congratulations if you’re at or near the top! Writing well is hard work, and we’re honored you’ve chosen us this week to showcase your entry.
If you’re at or near the bottom, don’t be discouraged. You’re in the right community for learning and growing as a writer, and we are always available with resources for those who ask nicely.
To our readers and voters: thank you! See you next week.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
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