You didn’t even notice I was gone
While I’m out of the Coffeehouse for the duration of the Super Challenge (see you next week!!!), I miss everyone. Mostly I miss being able to spam you with pictures of the vacation I took, in forests and river canyons where there’s no internet. You’d think I would have been an adult about this mini writer’s retreat and gotten some poetry done or something, but actually I took advantage of the silence in my head to hike, swim, and reconnect with Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books. While there are some books that I can’t read anymore because I can’t turn off the editorial part of my brain that completely, the Nero Wolfe books just keep getting better. My spouse is so tired of being interrupted with a “listen to this description this is the most perfect description ever written.” If I could write like that I’d die happy. I might even win the popular vote one of these days.
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 #383
I talk a lot about the up side to YeahWrite. Let’s talk about the down for a second. It can freeze you up, without meaning to and while remaining positive. When you’re getting popular acclaim, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of “oh I write like THIS” and get stuck in a topic or style. The trouble is, doing the same thing week after week has diminishing returns – you run out of the focus that got you the initial positive results, and folks start to feel more like your essay is a checkbox “oh that’s Rowan, she’s gonna write about social justice and her dogs” deal. A great way to game that system, especially on nonfic where we don’t have a prompt, is that if you see yourself writing an essay that’s very similar to what you submitted last week, write the essay, save it for a week where you’re slammed and feeling uninspired (call those editing weeks, you’ll be in a better headspace to be ruthless with your work then, and you’ll get amazing results) and write an experimental style piece like MM Schreier’s Recipe. You get all the benefits of experimentation, and you’ll have a rainy day essay to polish up besides!
I love a full and diverse grid, but it sure does make it hard to write the roundup. Thanks for welcoming me back with a challenge! As I was telling my students in the Deconstructing Prompts class, one of the hardest things about single-word prompts (like “gregarious” and yes I know it’s a character trait but it’s a single word and we need to treat it like that) is that unlike long descriptions you have to pull all the possible nuance out of that word. “Gregarious” doesn’t just mean “knows a lot of people” or “goes out” – implicit in the word is that the person is attracted to these things and enjoys them like a sociable extrovert (yes there are antisocial extroverts and I feel sorry for them because it’s hard to have to do a thing you’re not thrilled with in order to recharge). The social clustering has a positive connotation. You can see this nuance in places like the first half of Ryleigh’s poem, where the narrator presents a gregarious personality at odds with their inner self: the implication that the world sees that sociable presentation as positive is there. Don’t lose half the meaning of your prompt by picking a synonym! If the word was “whisper” you’d know instinctively that “speak” wasn’t the same thing, so bring that same care and sensibility to every single-word prompt and you’ll be well on your way.
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 #383
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.
