Magic beans?
Stacie may have her bean soup, but I prefer bean tea. Or as you plebians probably call it, coffee. It lets me go about my day without killing anyone, although those 40+ research tabs I have open in my browser for this story have convinced me I could get away with it. All I need is a lime pit or a pig farm. After all, doing away with the competition is a time-honored tradition, and sure to get me to the top of the popular vote, right?
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 #411 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Fiction|Poetry
In this poignant story, Elle used a variety of devices to clearly convey a couple who knew each other’s minds intimately over a lifetime. Repeated images gave a strong sense of place and helped to tie together the two sections. She gave us bright, vibrant descriptions in the first half that conveyed the youth and energy of her characters. The careful pacing and short sentences enhanced this sense of urgency and verve. In the second half, the images were repeated, but were slightly duller—the sun was threatened by a cloud, the waves crashed more heavily, the movements of the protagonists were slower and more ponderous—heightening the effects of the passage of time. Longer sentences and more internal dialogue also added to that slowing of pace. Elle used archetypal symbols effectively throughout, but especially in the second half to represent memory, loss and death. The grass that became gravel, the damaged picnic basket, Ada’s fading memory, photographs, and a child’s rattle all signified the losses and deaths the characters endured, and foreshadowed the denouement. In the final moments of this story, Elle allowed us the relief of Ada being present and aware, before suggesting that both characters stepped off the cliff.
Katie did so many things well here. She used pop culture references and brand names to reflect the modern elements of the multimedia painting she chose. Phrases like “Motley-triad Netflix cast,” and “new balance,” added energy to her ideas, as did coupling extremely long lines with extremely short ones. For me, that structure mimicked the sound of a tv playing in a quiet room-constant chatter then silence between commercials. The narrator manages to describe the painting by describing what it was like to see it after being “cracked like a peppercorn” by the media we are confronted with every day. “I saw in this Persona’s eye, a reflection…[of] myself.” That suggested mirror circles back to the screen of a television, leaving the reader empowered to change.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #411
Me, me, me, pay attention to meeeeeee!
Every personal essayist’s worst fear (besides no comments, I guess) is that their writing comes across as a bid for attention. This week I want to talk about an easy way to avoid that: putting your reader in the story before you put yourself in it. Sound counterintuitive? Let’s look at one of the most famous opening lines in fiction. “It was a dark and stormy night.” Immediately on reading that you have an image, right? You know where the story is going to take place, and a little bit of atmosphere. Cliche or not, this line gets you invested in what happens next. Now imagine if the writer had said “I was in a cafe. It was a dark and stormy night.” See how all the interest drains out of the story? Use this technique in your personal essays to get your reader into the action. Put them in a scene. Then add yourself, a character walking into the scene they’re enjoying (or not enjoying; we’ve had some dark and stormy nights here lately and I’m kind of over it).
Object prompts! They seem like some of the easiest prompts to include in a story because boom, check the box, you’ve included your rattle (or cowbell, or pair of boots, or ten-gallon hat) and you’re done, right? Wrong. Inclusion of a prompt isn’t integration. How do you know if your prompt is integrated instead of just included? Ask yourself if you could replace it with another object without affecting the flow of the story at all (a cowbell is actually a great example of a test object). If your story doesn’t change, your prompt isn’t integrated. You’ve done the bare minimum necessary to not be disqualified, but you’re lacking that certain je ne sais quoi.
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #411
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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