UFOs and YOU
I’m a knitter. Anyone who knows me in person, however tangentially, has seen me with needles and yarn in my hands. My yarn stash is at the point where i have to have rules like “the pretty yarn is allowed to be in the living room and the ugly yarn lives in the upstairs bins.” (what? you didn’t think I was going to make a silly rule like “no more yarn until you knit what you have” did you?)
So I was organizing the stash this week in a fit of anxiety-induced compulsive cleaning (the kind where you clean everything except the parts of the house that actually need it), and do you know what else besides yarn breeds in dark corners? What knitters call UFOs: Un-Finished Objects. I found 90% of a sweater that was never going to fit me, what was I thinking, and three rows of one I’ve always wanted.
Stories can do that to you, too. I’ve got 90% of a mythic horror story that I wrote for a competition a while back, and the opening paragraph of a charming little steampunk murder mystery. I should go back through my story stash to see what else is lurking. Who knows? I might find most of a novel in there to rescue! (Kidding. I already know there’s most of a novel; I just couldn’t decide if one character was a Good Bond Girl or a Bad Bond Girl and I froze, gave up, and wrote three other novels’ worth of material in a spasm of avoidance.) I should also read back through my posts for the fiction grid here to see if there’s something I want to work on again, take my comments and make a polished story out of it for an anthology somewhere. Those comments (or love letters) can help me work my piece into something great, even if it was nowhere near the top of the popular vote.
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 #367
Nonfictioneers, you’ve got your birthday love letters, and I hope you’re not out there gathering torches to storm my castle and drive me out. While I wait to see, let’s talk about something more than one of you heard about this week: lists. A good personal essay with a strong “so what” needs to be more than a long list of events. As you edit your work, take the time to really consider whether you’re including an event “because it happened” rather than “because it contributes to my story or the reader’s ability to understand it.” If it’s in that first basket, no matter how well you write about it your readers’ eyes will start to glaze over eventually!
Fictioneers and Poets, your love letters are on their way, I promise. While you wait, here are two little exercises to try:
- Look at a story and say “If I take out everything that’s a memory and every time my character felt some kinda way, would there be anything left?” Sometimes it’s so interesting in our characters’ heads that we forget to leave their brain and make a story happen to them. My writing partner has this problem, and the way we ended up resolving it was for me to write the events that happen to the character and hand over that segment to her and say “okay, now have some feelings about this.” She fills in the feels, the plot is already there, and a story ends up happening.
- Go through a story and physically act it out. Make sure you don’t have weird editing artifacts hanging out in there like “Asha paced the wooden floor, her bare feet clattering along” or “Nate ate breakfast and a Rockstar energy drink.” I’m assuming that in the first draft of this story Asha had shoes on; since she doesn’t now she’s not going to “clatter.” And Nate can’t eat a Rockstar unless it’s frozen, and I’m at least 99.9% sure this thing has too many chemicals in it to freeze. (It’s the lemonade one, y’all.)
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 #367
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.
