[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Depending on where you were on our spinning ball of rock, the shortest or longest night of your year just slipped past.
No matter what your faith – if any – these seasonal markers, the systolic and diastolic pulse of the planet we live on, are ticking by, measuring out the time we have to spend with each other. Usually when one of them passes, we take a moment and think about what we’ve accomplished in the past six months, or the past year, and what we want to do in the upcoming season. What promises have you made to yourself? Which promises will you make?
It’s a season of giving for most of us, so here’s my gift to you: a reminder to be gentle with yourself about the promises you had to break this year, to allow yourself to be hopeful still about what’s to come, and to trust that there is no darkness without light.
Your gift to me, of course, was the fantastic batch of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that filled this week’s grids. I know it’s hard to find time just now to write, and I love that we all press forward anyway. Let’s see who won the popular vote this week, shall we? But it’s not all about the popular vote at yeah write, folks. We also have our editorial staff picks to hand out. See, while there’s a popular vote winner every week, we don’t always give out a staff pick. 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! The great part is that we don’t have a finite number of picks to hand out. That means that if two, three, five, or even all the works on one grid are fantastic, we can give them all kudos.
Speaking of reading the grids, keep an eye on our roundup for a quick rundown of trends we see each week. We try to highlight the good stuff and point out problems that more than one writer is struggling with. There’s probably a handy tip in there for you right now, so check it out!
Once you’re done reading through the staff picks and roundup (and congratulating the winners in the comments), keep scrolling down to check out who won the popular vote on both 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? Both grids 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![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]
Yeah write #297 weekly writing challenge staff picks: fiction|poetry
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
fires begin to burn from shore to shore by cole gearing
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Ballades, to my ear, have a intense, almost epic tone. Like François Villon, Cole Gearing uses the inherent formality of the form to his advantage, harkening back to an earlier age of political protest. But don’t let the formality fool you – there’s a lot of passion tucked in between the lines. On a technical note, the scansion might not be completely perfect from line to line, but it flows nicely and the iambic meter has a quasi-military feel, which is perfect for the subject matter. This is a poem that deserves to be read out loud.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”22657″ style=”vc_box_circle” title=”christine”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
solstice by tamara
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I think of Tamara’s haiku this week as a suitcase filled with the Sun. The first line says so much more than I thought five syllables could express: “Darkness is still light.” The second and third lines are meant to comfort the author, but that pulsing energy seeps like light to the readers as well. This little lullaby of a poem is a reminder many of us need to hear right now.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”22650″ style=”vc_box_circle” title=”nate”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Rowan’s roundup: yeah write weekly writing challenge #297
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”19872″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle_2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
nonfiction
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]”Cite your primary source” my teachers always told me. “Avoid secondary sources.” But sometimes secondary sources aren’t avoidable: say, when you want to discuss an article or thinkpiece that you think has it all wrong, or critique a story in a different way than a very famous critique that you can’t just skip addressing. So what are the rules for including and discussing others’ work in your own?
Same as critical feedback. Discuss the faults in the writing, not the author, unless you’re going to specifically discuss how the writing is problematic and what that says about the author. Don’t just recap the other piece, because you’ve probably got a link to it, right? Include enough details that your reader doesn’t have to read two articles to make sense of yours, of course, but keep it tight and include only the salient facts and not a blow-by-blow summary of the entire piece. Think about movie reviews and recaps, and how those authors handle their need to include, critique and discuss their source material.
And then go write about (someone’s) writing![/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
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]There’s a lot of poetry on the grid this week that functions because of deliberate word choice. Whether it’s a tritina with its terminal recombinations or a ballade with a refrain that sticks with you after you stop reading, the author took time and effort to make sure that the hook was set deep with those words.
Poetic word choice often functions because of a deliberate ambiguity in the word itself. Look at scales and amber; or leaves in the sense of remaining or causing; or even the temporal ambiguity in begin. The poem falls back on context to place the word more precisely, letting the metaphor shift and flow around it. In fiction it’s often tempting to just dash through because there are so many words to get out, but deliberate word choice is just as important. You can bring some of this same poetic sensibility to your writing, using ambiguous but evocative word choices that you make deliberately to encourage the reader to linger with your words.[/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! Remember, we don’t always give out a pick on both grids; if we were impressed by several posts on one grid we’ll give them all picks, and if nothing really stood out for us we’ll hold off. If you didn’t get a pick this week, read back through the roundup to see if you can use some of this week’s tips and tricks.
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 #297
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]
Loading InLinkz ...
Loading InLinkz ...
