Time keeps on ticking
The Christmas kitten is more than twice as big now as she was a month ago; she’s had two rounds of kitten shots and it’s starting to be actively unpleasant when she tries to sleep draped over my throat. She’s also making a break for it every time the door opens. So that should turn out well. You’d think something else would have happened in the past couple weeks to give me a topic to write about, but apparently not. Or maybe it’s just that so much has happened that I’m paralyzed by it. It often takes me a while to wrap my brain around what I need to say about a thing; if I worked as a journalist I’d be toast. Still, it all goes into my brain, and I’ll reach the end of a workout or a long walk or bus ride with the entire idea, fully formed, sitting in my head and it feels like all I have to do at that point is transcribe it. Brains are pretty great. Hug your brain today! Or tomorrow. Or don’t touch it, it’s probably actually bad to touch your brain.
You’re not here to listen to me ramble, are you? You’re here for the popular vote results. 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? 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 #353 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Nonfiction
This essay finds its power in the space between personal and persuasive. From the lushly descriptive first paragraphs to the clean narration of the middle, the reader finds themself nodding along with an all-too-common story. When the slap comes, it’s as unexpected to the reader as to Roger – and gives the narrator a chance to take a break from the story, share the wisdom that’s come in the intervening years and a few well-placed links to show where she reached those understandings, beyond merely “I fought back because I was a strong, clever woman.” When the story slides back into narrative, though, it finds its real power in a certain exhausted inevitability, letting us know in only a few sentences that unlike in a made-up story, sometimes that moment of power and catharsis changes nothing unless those around you are willing to do the work too.
YeahWrite #353 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Fiction|Poetry
This week, my pick goes to Cheney for Switcharoo. Through tight phrasing, careful use of dialogue to enhance the exposition, and descriptive humour, she leads us down a winding path to a gas station bathroom. One mistake emerging authors often make when writing in third person is to suppose that because they’ve got the option to include everyone’s thoughts and feelings, they should. Instead, Cheney uses the third person limited point of view to give us only the thoughts and feelings of Huck, an archetypal Everyman. We empathise with Huck’s plight in being disrupted at an ungodly hour, at potentially having to clean a bathroom, and at potentially having to move customers along. By revealing only Huck’s thoughts, Cheney was able to build in mystery about the other characters’ actions and keep us engaged as readers.
Finding the right metaphors and similes for a story is so difficult. Not only do they have to clearly connect two disparate ideas, they also have to avoid cliché and match the tone of the story. One of the many techniques that made MM Schreier’s story of an addict staring at a young woman through a gas station window so resonant was: “I’m a stretched balloon filled with stale air.” It is the only metaphor in the story, which makes it stand out, and the image it elicits and its placement push the reader to look beyond what the strong voice of the narrator is describing to see the person desperately seeking connection.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #353
When we’re writing our editors’ picks, we have to describe in only a few sentences what an essay was about – and what it was really about. The next time you write, try doing that for yourself: can you describe in 2-3 sentences what you’re writing about, without summarizing or re-iterating anything in your essay? Probably you can. Now ask yourself: are those 2-3 sentences interesting? Because that’s your so-what. If your so-what is “I described cooking dinner on Tuesday” then you might have a “meh” essay on your hands. If your so-what is “I described how my bond with my mother changed over time by comparing how we cook dinner” then you’ve probably gotten a lot closer to where you want to be as an essayist rather than a journaler.
Which reminds me: did you know there’s less than a week remaining to sign up for the Super Challenge? Tell your friends: the more folks sign up the more fun it is, but also the more sweet cash the winner gets!
Y’all, I am loving these erasure poems, so I can’t let this week go by without giving all the poets a shoutout – this grid was full of poems that had solid structure, thoughtful response to the source text (I see what you did there, Melony) and tight imagery. Heck, if we keep this up we might have enough consistent poetry to consider giving poets their own grid. What would you think of that?
Sliding over to the fiction end of the scale, this week was about voice and view. You have a lot of options for point of view, although sometimes the prompt can constrain them a bit. Choose the one that reveals the right amount and type of information to the reader to keep them engaged with the plot, and you might have a winner on your hands. Similarly, voice isn’t just about dialogue. It can help set your story in place and time, like optimisticauthor’s lonely gas station – there’s no need to describe the station and scenery and road and area of the country when you can do it with a few well-chosen nouns or descriptions from your character’s POV. That means saving space, which lets you put more story in. It’s a win-win! (Be careful, though, not to slip into stereotypes and cliches – it’s more telling, and easier on the reader, to use alternate word orders or the occasional non-english word to show a character’s first language isn’t the one your story is told in than to give them a heavily written “accent” or slip a bunch of “catchphrases” into their dialogue.)
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 #353
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 ...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.
Thank you so much to everyone who read, commented, and voted on my piece, and to the editors for their recognition. I’ve been having a hard time coming back to writing and Yeah Write always feels like a safe and happy writing home for me. Thank you so much for keeping up the work to run this site! 🙂