Heck off, sun.
Stacie may be ready for Daylight Saving Time, but I’m staying in bed and NOT GETTING UP EVER EVER. I’m putting up the blackout curtains, and tunneling in until November or whenever it stops being light not only after work but after dinnertime and bedtime. MEH, I say.
You know what I am excited about though? Super Challenge 12. Registration opens today at 3pm Eastern STANDARD Time, thank you very much, but in the meantime why not check out the popular vote results for this week’s free challenge grids?
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. 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 trends we see each 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 (and congratulating the winners in the comments), keep scrolling down to check out who won the popular vote on all three 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? All our 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 #412
Notice something in common among the essays on this week’s grid? No? Well it’s my job to, so I’ll point it out. Our essays share a very similar structure, although they have wildly different topics. I think of this particular structure as the “sonnet” essay, because it utilizes an old poetry trick commonly found in sonnets. The first almost-half of the essay sets a scene, draws you in, and makes you comfortable. The second almost-half is occupied with something happening, an expansion on that theme, a development. But that little bit that’s left over at the end? Does what’s called a tornada in poetry: it reframes something you already read. Stacie’s essay is probably the best example. Did you go from horrified and mad at a sleeping driver to worried about the system that makes him work until he’s literally asleep at the wheel? Use that in your own writing. Add a twist. Don’t try to be coy and leave things out of youy essay, just give your reader a reason to empathize with a different character or point of view. It’s like getting two essays for the wordcount of one!
You know what’s harder to write than a story? Instructions! We might read and reread the prompt instructions each month, but until the first crop of stories comes in we have no idea if our directions line up with how we’d envisioned the prompts. Don’t worry: we have no plans to ever reject a story that’s based on a reasonable interpretation of what we said or what the prompt was! But seeing where confusion crops up (or reading stories we think are fantastic and seeing how they answered the prompt) gives us a chance to adjust it.
This month we’re answering questions – if you’ve been around a while you might remember the Ultimate Questions from the old Gargleblaster challenge. But what does “answers the question” really mean? Obviously you don’t want to write “Eve ate a MacIntosh apple” although obviously she did because those are the best ones. But then your story would be done! Instead, think about writing a story that contains all the elements of the question, and also the answer, but doesn’t necessarily answer the question quite so directly. Go back through and read Tara’s story or Michael’s. While the two writers reached their answers (sour apples and pineapples) in very different ways, they both included Eve, apples, eating, and a specific kind of apple.
Unlike the fiction grid, microprose writers don’t get four (and sometimes five) cracks at landing a solid interpretation of the prompt. You get one shot, and you’ve barely got any words to do it with. I’m not backing down from the statement that micro may be the easiest grid to write for, but the toughest grid to write well for. Take this week’s prompt: a story that picks up after the fairytale ends. We try to give you tips for how we read the prompts and what we’re looking for. But skim back through the grid: some stories are retellings. Others change major elements of the story before moving on. Now, some of those are fantastic stories, but we’re not able to give them an editorial staff pick because we didn’t ask for a different story, or for the same story retold (in fact, that’s what we asked for last time we did fairy tales!). But look at – I’m picking on Tara, #SorryNotSorry, Tara – Tara’s story, or this one, or this one. That’s how you hit this prompt: pick up after the story ends, with no element of the story changed… and then run with it like it was your own.
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #412
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
Loading InLinkz ...Fiction|Poetry
Loading InLinkz ... 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.
Congratulations to all of the winners from each grid!