Happy Birthday Eve To… US!
It’s been a big week here at YeahWrite: we opened registration for Super Challenge #4 (what are you waiting for? go sign up! winners get cash prizes and everyone gets great feedback!) and we’re closing out this month’s poetry slam and nonfiction knowhow and starting new ones tomorrow. But next week is even bigger: check out our kickoff post on Sunday for details and to see why describing it like that made me laugh.
In the meantime, though, we’ve got this week’s crowd faves and staff picks to hand out. Our editors comb the grids to find, not just the best writing on our grid this week, but what we think is pretty darn great writing anywhere anytime. 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.
The other benefit of the editors’ pick, of course, is that unlike the popular vote we’ll tell you why we liked that post. So don’t just skip reading the blurb if it’s not about your post; you’ll pick up some handy pointers about what makes good writing great that you can apply to your own work. For more of that critical feedback, 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 Editorial 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, Editorial Staff Pick, and Top Three badges. It doesn’t clutter up our sidebar, and they’ll still look pretty on yours!
YeahWrite #311 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Nonfiction
A lot of nonfiction writers look for the Most Dramatic Thing That Ever Happened and build an essay out of that, piling on the drama. This week my pick goes to Amy, who did almost exactly the opposite. She took what could have been an overwritten, overdramatized scene and made it heartbreakingly mundane. Her use of simple declarative sentences, sprinkled with just enough description, keeps the reader engaged throughout. She doesn’t rely on heavy foreshadowing (except for the clue in her title), simply builds and then dashes hope in the most sympathetic way possible. It’s this simplicity and sympathy that make the essay possible and turn it from potential clickbait into memoir.
YeahWrite #311 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Fiction|Poetry
This week, my pick goes to Tara for her flash fiction piece, A Night Ride. Tara set and maintained a cracking pace through her story, and kept the reader engaged throughout. Her beautifully vivid details brought us into the confined space of a moving vehicle (mostly), while also painting a believable backstory. The story arc was clear and smooth and Tara incorporated the prompt up very organically into her story. This is exactly the sort of piece that’s suitable for publication in an anthology.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #311
I love when I get to talk about things going right, and a lot was going right on the nonfic grid this week, y’all. Pay attention. Especially pay attention to what folks are doing with sentence and paragraph length, letting descriptions run into longer paragraphs to lull you and then breaking everything up with short, emphatic lines. That’s how you keep your writing from getting monotonous. Keep it up, but don’t overuse it: few things are harder to read than an essay composed of single lines. It might as well be one solid paragraph. Variety is the spice of life so make sure your writing doesn’t get bland on either end of the spectrum. That’s a really terrible metaphor; I’m so sorry.
With next week’s microgrid about to open, it’s time to practice something the fic|po grid could have used this week: trimming down. This week as I was skimming through the grid I kept thinking “everyone’s building these gorgeous plots and wonderful characters, but quite a few folks would have had more room for those things – and images, y’all, central images and themes, it was so great – if they hadn’t spent the first couple paragraphs of their story saying the same thing in three different ways. As you read through your work, remember to ask yourself: Have I already said this? Does the reader know?
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, the Weekend Writing Showcase opens tonight at 6pm Eastern US Time!
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #311
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.
Loading InLinkz ... Loading InLinkz ...About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
