Whatever the Reason
Stacie’s got her fitbit. I’ve got Pokemon GO. Don’t judge; I bet I’ll walk more steps than her today, since the next wave of Pokemon are being released. My dog has never gotten so much exercise in her life.
It doesn’t matter, in the end, what gets you to do a thing. What matters is you Did The Thing. Like writing: Do contests float your boat? Enter a weekly challenge or Super Challenge (good luck tonight, Super Challenge writers!). Want to see your name in print? Submit, submit, submit, spreadsheet, submit. Want feedback and kudos? Build community around your blog, in the coffeehouse, on the weekend showcase, wherever you can find those connections. Or start a reading group or workshop. Want to learn? Sign up for a class at a local community college or online. In fact, Editor Nate is kicking off a poetry class right here, in just a few weeks. And our fabulous Super Challenge guest judge Cindy Reed, who some of you may have been around long enough to remember seeing on the YeahWrite grids, teaches writing courses online too! Check out the Super Challenge winners’ post for the rest of Cindy’s writing resume.
And of course, there’s that badge over there in the sidebar. We all like winning the popular vote. 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 #356 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Fiction|Poetry
Some stories flourish writing prompts at readers like strobe lights. The prompts either stand out graphically or aren’t blended well into scenes; they draw attention away from the plot. Other stories, such as MM Schreier’s, allow the prompts to stand in the background as setting and tone and push their conflict to the forefront. MM does this, oddly enough, by sketching enough of the photograph prompt into the story so readers don’t have to see it to imagine the scene. She makes sure the sentences containing the three word prompts further the plot and aren’t merely included to fit the word into the tale. The result is an engaging, dramatic reunion between two characters we care about that could end at the last word or go on to fill the pages of an entire novel.
YeahWrite #356 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Microprose
This gritty retelling of Red Riding Hood framed the fairy tale in a current setting. Shannon’s deliberate use of specific vernacular language (AAE/AAVE) in her story brought a depth and strength of voice to the characters. Through the careful juxtaposition of dialogue and exposition, Shannon was able to convey backstory and details about the characters while remaining within the tight word limit. The twist of giving Red agency, strength and confidence rather than forcing her to wait for a (male) rescuer recast this familiar tale and placed it firmly within the current socio-political environment.
Coming up with prompts is never easy. We always wonder, will writers hate the ones we love? Will we explain well enough what we’re looking for? Laura got everything out of this week’s prompt we hoped for, and more. She took just enough of the critical elements of the original story – slippers, lake, princes – to evoke exactly and only that fairytale, although so many stories share tropes. She didn’t even have to enumerate how many dancing princesses there were; the one pronoun “ours” was enough. But her story was more than a summary, it was a complete perspective shift that gave us a new understanding of the characters. The original tale focused on the king’s need to know why his daughters were wearing out all their shoes. Laura gave us instead the queen’s own girlhood, a sweet conspiracy, and the completely relatable feeling you get watching your child grow up, letting them be their own person. It’s not just a story about princesses dancing, it’s a story about a mother’s love for her daughters. This both timely and timeless retelling gets my pick.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #356
I’d ask where the nonfictioneers were this week but the answer is probably “having an ulcer over the persuasive essay round of the Super Challenge.” So let’s talk about this week’s grid.
Tons of folks are starting to play with structure. That’s exciting! I love changing up the traditional essay format, making it shorter, cataloguing (but not a listicle, please, listicles generally don’t have a so-what, they’re just an aggregation of similar things), teaching, or whatever. A few tips: Give your reader an anchor point, like Asha did this week with her bolded headings and repetitive format, so that they can stick with your jumps. And if you’re going to do a major time or character jump, remember that your pronouns have already been assigned to people so you can’t just jump in with “he, she, we, I” if those are now different people. Reassign them by opening with real names (or at least designations) so your reader knows your dad isn’t your toddler!
Prompt tip for this month: Folks, don’t feel constrained by the caption on the photo. That’s just there for sweet copyrighty legal love reasons. Don’t worry about what the photo is. Imagine what it could be.
Writing tip for this week: a) Give me a reason to care why things are happening to your character, and then b) make something happen. Do both of those things. I’m not going to care that a bad thing is happening to a character just because the thing is bad; I don’t know if they deserve it. And without some plot, I’m often left thinking “that’s an interesting character. I wonder what they’d do if something bad happened?”
This month’s microprose prompt really made you do the most with the least. It took all the tricks we know to come up with a complete story in only 49 words AND give it our own unique twist.
As you read back through the grid look at the places the stories you loved most added context and character. Was it the title? Shannon, Laura, Kathunk, and Asha (off the top of my head) gave immediate contextual clues in the story title that gave the reader a chance to at least narrow down which fairy tale they might be referencing. Others buried names (or puns on names) in the story to give the reader after-the-fact context. Even more used an iconic object or moment from the original story to give the reader an anchor. Tricks like these pack more story into less room – think about using them in your other writing, too!
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 #356
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.
