How to have a problematic fave
Boy, the United States sure does love making holidays about murder. And when murder’s not enough, there’s always genocide. But you know what? There’s probably nothing you love that doesn’t have a problematic history. Nothing. All your faves are problematic. The real issue arises when you try to erase the history because you like an aspect of the thing. (That link is an oldie but a goodie, spend some time with it.)
Thanksgiving is one of my problematic faves. The history is HORRIBLE. It’s absolutely wretched when you think about what we’re ostensibly celebrating. But at the same time, it’s a long weekend and a chance to spend time coming together with people you don’t see often. And that’s a modern-day positive that we can enjoy even while, IDK, donating to the legal funds for water protectors or whatever your heart tends toward. It can also be a time to be reminded of the good in our lives, the things that make our hearts whole.
Like this little family here. I don’t know how to tell y’all what YeahWrite means to me, or how huge it’s been in my life. It’s not a “job” although I refer to it that way. It’s one of those things where when the little quiz pops up like “what’s your ideal career” you fill in “the one I have” and move on with your day. This family of editors: we’ve been there for each other through job changes, births, deaths (parents? pets? we got you covered. it’s been a hard couple years.) and every week we still get to come here as our constant. I’m grateful for this place. Grateful for the editors we have now (especially Michelle, who is too busy to read this right now, and Arden, who, like, y’all don’t even understand how much she does around here but I promise you she’s our secret puppetmaster shadow government) and the ones who came before: Erica, Cyn, Cindy, Suzanne, Flood… Everyone who has helped build this community into a place we can grow together. And I’m grateful for you, for everyone who makes coming here worthwhile, and grateful that you share your work and your words with us – and your concrit, because that’s how we grow!
And I’m ridiculously grateful for my co-author and best friend (do we still get to have those as adults?) Christine, who’s going to send me a text in like 30 seconds about how sappy I’m being and am I feeling well. Without her instigation and influence I’d be two books and one writing site short of where I am in life and I’m deliberately not breaking that tie in the popular vote on the fic|po grid today because I share everything else with her, so why not this, too?
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 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 #397 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Nonfiction
As long as we’re telling secrets, I might as well spill the beans on a YeahWrite one: Sometimes editors are super busy with their not-for-free jobs. So I occasionally get a note on Thursday like “working late, can you write my ed’s pick, I liked X and Y about story Z.” I got two of those notes last night, unsurprisingly on a Thanksgiving, but joke’s on you, suckers, I wanted to write this one so it’s mine. See, I’m not really into sentimental stuff (I actually grossed myself out writing that intro) but this essay is *exactly* how it should be handled. It’s never over-the-top cloying, and through a lot of showing and very little telling Michelle manages to explain what that cake meant to every single family member. The pacing is fantastic- the backstory doesn’t take up so much room that the cake itself is lost, and half of it is woven into dialogue. But what I really wanted to take advantage of this pick to talk about is the way she acknowledged the subjective nature of repetitive memory. It’s okay to not remember every little thing about an event when you’re writing an essay! The “was it that year or some other year” framing works incredibly well here, and it’s not important what year each particular bit of dialogue or even took place, because what’s relevant to the essay is how those events surrounded the cake. And there’s more to unpack here about how it’s written: did you notice that the cake itself is never described? We know it’s “banana” and that there’s cream cheese frosting. But beyond that there’s no description of flavor, texture, color, nothing. This lets us as readers map our own favorite cake experience into the essay and connect with it on that level, where a more exacting description might have held us at arms length. And of course it doesn’t hurt that the story underlying all this good writing has its own charm, right? That’s the best part about literary technique well-used. You probably didn’t even notice everything I just discussed, because it stayed out of the way of the story.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #397
Ever read something and think “Oh, that’s a quintessentially Danielle essay?” (I’m picking on Danielle because I’ve edited quite a few of her pieces and had a chance to see the similarities. And cause I like her and I missed seeing her on the grid. But I could say this about a couple of the other essays this week as well.) As the year draws down, this is a great time to look back at your body of work and see if there’s a pattern emerging. Ask a friend, if you can’t see it, but some things to look for are: common topics and themes, phrases you use a lot, or types of events you keep returning to.
Once you’ve identified your themes, decide what you want to do about them in 2019. Do you want to embrace what it means to “write a Danielle essay” and really polish your ability to do your “on brand” themes? Or do you want to try something that’s completely different, like writing for humor even though you’re out of your comfort zone doing it? (I mean, you can do both, just do them consciously.) Either one will help polish your writing, and you’ll learn a lot about yourself and your work doing it!
When you’ve only got three days to write, it’s hard to find time for an edit – and especially an in-depth edit – but I’m going to let you in on a little trade secret this week: you can make your work look like it’s had a thorough edit by skimming for words. What does that mean? Without reading for meaning, look at your story. If you’ve used the same descriptive word or meaningful verb twice in a paragraph, change one. (This week’s culprits: longer. curled.) It’s especially important to do this if you’re the sort of writer that ends up 500 words over count and has to edit down, because words that didn’t start out close to each other can end up in tight proximity (my Achilles heel is apparently “shoulders”).
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 #397
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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