SNOW. (I know, I know)
Friends in the Midwest and on the East Coast have been sending me snow pictures like “did you ask for snow for your birthday BECAUSE HERE IS SNOW AND NOW I HAVE TO SHOVEL SNOW AND I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY.” I am, friends. I am happy. I will never be too old, too inconvenienced, or too have-to-shovel-this-walk to appreciate snow. It instantly turns me into a kid in a Disney movie and I’m not sorry.
I kind of wrote myself into a corner there: the natural segue point to the rest of this post would have been “you know what else makes me happy? winning the popular vote.” Only, I did. And there’s a weird stigma to talking about how good it feels to have done well when you are actually doing well. But you know what? There’s only an artificial scarcity to “doing well” in writing. Everyone can do well. There are enough readers that your book which is good can be published and so can someone else’s and it won’t hurt either of your potential sales in the slightest. Be happy when you do well, and try to be happy when others do well, because there’s enough success out there to go around. (Also my other piece this week came in at exactly zero votes and I am appropriately humbled about that. It was not my finest work and y’all knew it, plus there were great pieces on that grid which deserved to do well. See? Enough to go round.)
And it’s not all about the popular vote at YeahWrite, folks. See what I mean about artificial scarcity? We also have our editorial staff picks to hand out, and we can give as many of them as we want. But 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 the trends we’re seeing. 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 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 #396 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Fiction|Poetry
Keep You Safe by Marcy Dilworth
When writing backstory for a character there’s a lot to consider. Key is how you’ll show the time frame of events. It can get messy. In this piece, Marcy indicates the time jump effectively by placing the first section in the POV of the main character as an adult, and the rest of the story in the POV of the main character as a child. She conveys the physical perspective of a child by showing us what the child sees (bottoms and shoes and cracked heels). The simple repetitive phrasing of “Mama said/I said” also mimics the language structures that children use. Marcy shows us a harried mother through the way the child is yanked over potholes and the way produce is thrown into the shopping cart.
Though we never learn what it is the mother is keeping the child safe from, it doesn’t matter. Her repeated assertion works to signal that she’s saying it as much to convince herself as to convince her daughter. Marcy does a good job of showing us the emotions of the characters, and circling back to the image of the shoulder injury ties the history to the present.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #396
I talk a lot about “finding your so what” and about “making sure you’ve let a story marinate long enough” but not as much about “caring.” Partly, that’s because I know that when we care too much about something, it’s hard to write about. But “I care about this” is a powerful reason to write, and especially if you’re writing on short notice it can help you find your so-what. When you care deeply about what you’re writing about, it will shine through and connect to the reader. My essay this week was relatively dry. It was full of statistics and it wasn’t written in a tremendously poetic style. But I took something that mattered to me (protip: if you’ve already written about something once for work, think about writing it for yourself too, in ways that matter to you and in your own style rather than the way your boss wants to frame it) and I showed readers why those stats were important to real people in real ways. The other advice I give out frequently (which you probably know if you’ve ever gotten me for an editorial review) is “let it be a little raw.” Let the way you care shine through, even if it means your writing isn’t perfectly polished and distant. Put a real person (you) in the room with the real person who’s your reader, and make them care, too.
This week’s prompt – paradox – was a good warmup for one of the classic literary devices you may not have explored yet: the unreliable narrator. What’s an unreliable narrator? It’s a point of view character (either first or third person) whose perceptions, as told to the reader, don’t match what the reader sees objectively happening in the story. For example, a child might think of the infinite distance to the water from the diving board, but the reader knows that the diving board isn’t even the high board. In order to successfully write an unreliable narrator you need to prime the reader with two things: the narrator’s version of the story, and enough actual facts for them to realize that the narrator’s perceptions aren’t accurate. The “moral” or “hook” of the story is in the tension between these two things: is the child actually about to die? (I’d end that story at the jump, letting the child’s fear and the reader’s confidence play off each other.) Now that you’ve already tried putting two opposing concepts in a story, why not take it one step further? Give it a shot! Remember: the narrator should never know that their version of the truth isn’t true, so you’re going to have to be careful weaving in the “real” truth.
That’s it for this week! Remember, we don’t always give out a pick on each grid; 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 #396
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
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