Priorities
The book I spent the final quarter of last year editing just came back from the publishers (with! my! name! in! the! credits! (that will never, ever, get old)). I mean, obviously the author did some work too. The novel I’m editing needs a scene moved and continuity checked for the last 50 pages. The massive 2017 report I’m helping with is in what we hope are the last throes of cleanup. The Super Challenge starts this weekend (good luck, writers! we hope you like the prompts!). Both dogs need their rabies boosters and the kitten needs her last round of kitten shots. So obviously, I’m knitting a hat.
Sometimes what we really need is a manageable project, something that we can do from start to finish in the free time we have, instead of the free time we wish we had. That’s what I love about our weekly challenge grids: with no lower limit and an upper limit of only 750 words, I know I can manage something each week in time to make the grid. Won’t you join me?
Besides the popular vote, we also have the option of handing out an editorial staff pick to any post on our grids. Our editors comb the grids to find, not just the best writing on this 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. 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- and we’d love to, so keep that great work coming!
On weeks when we don’t award a staff pick, keep an extra close eye on the Roundup. That’s our rundown of trends we see from week to 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 Roundup, 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!
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #354
I talk a lot about making a connection between writer and reader, finding shared experiences and universalities. This week I want to talk about your reader’s own experience, and why you should remember it exists separate from yours. First, ugh, I know, content warnings are lame.
Wait. Hold up. Let’s talk about everything that’s wrong with that sentence, starting with the word “lame.” See, what I just did there was use someone’s real life experience with a disability to insult something else. That is, if someone with difficulty walking sees that sentence, they know that I’m so dismissive of their experience that I’m willing to use them as a way to describe something I don’t like. See how I drew a parallel between “lame” and “useless, unworthy, do not want?” Don’t do that. If you wouldn’t do it with race, if you wouldn’t do it with gender (and oh, how I cringe when I see the gendered slurs in some of my old writing – not the deliberate ones, that I used to make a point, but the ones where I casually implied that being me or a person like me was inferior) don’t do it with someone’s mental or physical disability. Want a more comprehensive list of ableist terms to be aware of (you don’t always have to avoid them, and reasonable people disagree on what’s harmful, but you should at least be aware) and some guidance ? Check this out.
The other thing that’s wrong with that sentence is there’s nothing wrong with a content warning. It takes ten seconds to write, doesn’t even count toward your word count, and lets readers who might have a strong reaction to your writing pick the time and place to read it. This goes for fiction, too – if the only way you know how to describe a bad guy is “rapist” or the way you want to demonstrate how mean someone is, is to have them punch their kid in front of the protagonist, maybe give folks who’ve been victims of sexual or domestic violence a heads up that they might not want to read this in front of their boss while they’re pretending to be at work? You actually will get and maintain a wider readership with the occasional content warning, because folks will know they can trust you to keep their secret work reading habit safe and won’t just say “well I never know what I’ll get here so I’m not going to follow this content.”
Y’all are really into this erasure thing! Uh, no pressure on us to come up with something as good for February’s slam, right? Anyway. When you’re making your erasure poem, remember that you’re not just deleting. You’re making something new, not trying to edit the original text down to its shortest self. One way to help keep that in mind is to think of your poem as a plot twist: what word meaning can you change when the reader sees it in a poem as opposed to a sentence on a page?
Fictioneers, I know 750 words isn’t a lot of room, but remember to hide some plot in them somewhere. More than one story on the grid this week left us feeling like “well, this was the windup but where’s the pitch?” We know a lot about the characters and their backstories, but we never feel the tension that drives plot. If you took my summary class you know what I’m talking about: what does your character want, why should we care if they get it, and what’s stopping them?
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! If you’re more the self-help type, remember to scroll through our writing help section for tips and tricks. Even if a post isn’t directed at your favorite grid, there’s probably a handy hint for you in there anyway!
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 #354
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.
