Firsts and Lasts
The first week of the month is always a big one, especially since we brought moderation back. Three challenges, a mod queue, and the new poetry slams always make for an exciting grid. But you know what? This one was especially exciting. It’s incredible to see everyone rediscovering their energy and joy in writing. Welcome, or welcome back, y’all. I missed you, even if I don’t know you yet. Let’s see how you did in the vote, ok?
But it’s not all about the popular vote at YeahWrite, 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. 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? All three 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 #347 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Fiction|Poetry
Geometry by Courtenay
This week, in a strong grid, Courtenay gets my pick.The reader encounters the work in medias res (with no preamble to establish histories), and the backstory is established through Cora’s first person narration. Courtenay created believable characters and conveyed their voices with authenticity. For those of us who have teens in our lives, the conversation between Josie and Cora felt both natural and real. The addition of little details, like the minutiae of peeling the orange, helped to ground the story in the present, and to convey the immediacy of a teenaged existence where everything that happens is magnified and urgent.
YeahWrite #347 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Microprose
Youth by Donna-Louise
Lies by Cyn K
Sometimes the beauty of a microstory is in its ambiguity – the way the author leaves it open to interpretation. Sometimes the beauty is in the story’s clarity. Cyn’s story falls into the latter category. In the time it takes to flip a switch, for our eyes to focus, Cyn gives us the entire backstory. We can hear the conversation we were not privy to. There’s no discrepancy between the implicit and the explicit – Cyn doesn’t make the reader work to understand what happened or force us to insert our own experiences into the words to make a complete story. And in spite of its brevity, it is not stagnant – we can feel the narrator’s emotional weather change in that brief pause. Finally, Cyn’s incorporation of the prompt words was so natural that I hardly even remembered to look for them.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #347
“I can write stories all day,” a friend said to me this week. “Why are essays so much harder?”
The biggest difference between fiction and creative nonfiction is that in fiction you start with nothing, and add your story. When you write fiction one of your biggest challenges will always be making sure you’ve put enough in that a reader knows what’s going on. In creative nonfiction, you start with everything, and your challenge is to strip away all the nonessentials and leave only the story you’re trying to tell. If you miss this mark you’ll end up with one of two things: extra stories, or just a list of chronological events with whatever stories you wanted to tell still hidden in there somewhere and obscured by all the other junk that happened that day. As you re-read your work, ask yourself: am I including this because it happened, or because it’s part of the story I’m trying to tell?
There’s a thing I’m fighting in a set of novel edits right now, and I need to do it. It’s good advice that I got a long time ago: start with your story, and then throw the first part away. All three of the top three writers on the Fiction|poetry grid this week did just that, starting in the action at the heart of their stories and letting the backstory take care of itself as characters thought or talked about it. If you’re starting your story with a long explanation of who everyone is, you may be losing as many readers as what I used to call “the begats section” of the Bible, before you ever get to the story you’re trying to tell.
I always know what I mean when I write. Don’t you? Unfortunately, what I mean and what I write don’t always match up, especially after a few rounds of edits. Nowhere is this more dangerous than in a microstory, where most of the story may take place implicitly rather than being described in the 40 words I have available. Sure, I start out with 60 words that say exactly what I mean, but I have to get rid of them, and oh, here’s a pretty way to say this, and a nice word I can use for the other thing, and before I know it I’ve stacked two phrases together to imply something I never meant to say.
One way to avoid this is to get a beta reader or mean friend (not a nice friend, you want someone who cares more about the story than about how you feel) to describe back to you what they think happened. Don’t talk to them about it first. You may discover that some people think ‘light’ in ‘her kisses are light’ is a metaphorical noun and others think it’s an adjective. If it’s important to you – or your story – to clarify that, it’s time for another round of edits.
That’s it for this week! Remember, we don’t always give out a pick on every grid; 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! Bring your old posts, write something new, or stop by the coffeehouse for a doubleshot of inspiration!
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #347
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.
Nonfiction Challenge
Loading InLinkz ...Fiction|Poetry Challenge
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.
