YeahWrite #425 Weekly Writing Challenge: Popular Vote Winners and Editors’ Picks

The Price of Nostalgia by Margaret

In her essay, Margaret has tackled a really challenging topic: how easy it is for those of us with a certain level of privilege to assume that our life experiences are universal, and how easily those assumptions are spread (and, to some degree, reinforced by the people who surround us). Her thoughtful approach leaves room for vulnerability, sincere self-reflection, and learning. By anchoring her essay around a Facebook meme, she is able to show how these viral nostalgic posts are problematic while also offering an optimistic perspective on the future. As a bonus, she provides relevant links for readers who want to do more exploration, without breaking up the flow of her essay. If this were a fiction piece, I would point out her main character’s clearly demonstrated growth arc. As nonfiction, it is clearly an honest examination of her own experience.

Storm Stories by Katie Entner

Vicarious thrills. They’re a part of why we keep coming back to murder mysteries, war stories, and disaster movies. But something that often gets lost in the vicarious thrills is that, well, they’re not so thrilling to the people who live the stories. This essay plays right into the middle of that question, highlighting the tension between wanting The Most Exciting Story and realizing that the story isn’t fun if you’re one of the characters. It was interesting watching the discussion between editors play out this week: this one was a little more hit or miss than many of our staff picks, and you could tell who it was going to land well with by looking at who was asking “oh my goodness why would you want to sit in a basement and wait for a tornado” in the first few paragraphs. But it gave me strong memories of how I thought about “stories about cancer” before and after I had it. You might be able to come up with a similar experience in your own life, which affects how you read Dramatic Stories About [event that actually was terrible goes here]. So for me this story stuck its landing with a good self-awareness, acknowledging that while it would be super cool to have a story to tell, sometimes it’s best when our vicarious thrills remain just that. 

Departure by Sanch V

The more I write, the more I’m reminded that writing very short pieces is much harder than it looks. In her hay(na)ku Sanch presents a complete story in just six words. A well-placed semi-colon gives the reader an opportunity to pause and reflect on the universality of the experience in the main clause; goodbyes are hard for everyone. She then cleverly takes the reader from the global (we all know how tough goodbyes can be), to the very personal (this departure is from a specific person) in the subordinate clause. Sanch used both the form of the poem and punctuation to thoughtfully add emphasis to different sections and guide the flow of the story. These deliberate structural choices are as much a part of good writing as choosing the right word- or six.

Autonomy by Josephine

While clearly not a poem, Josephine’s story does benefit from the poetic effect of paired couplets. With each pair, she moves us forward in time, separating each incident and demonstrating that these are not isolated incidents. The prompt words, while apparent, don’t stick out, and in fact the format of the story, which places the verbs in the same place on each line, helps to incorporate them smoothly. But this story is more than just its clever structure; it’s an examination of gaslighting and consent culture (or lack thereof). “He only teases because he likes you” is just another way to excuse bad behavior. When the protagonist finally takes matters into her own hands, we are all cheering for her.

Secrets We Keep by Sanch V

Sanch has been finding her groove with micro pieces recently, and this is another fine example of a complete story in a short wordcount. This story can be separated into two sections; the first section establishes a picture of an ordinary couple trying to conceive, the second section gives us a sharp plot twist. Sanch uses the first-person point of view to draw the reader in to the narrative and create empathy with the narrator. She uses a strong, evocative verb in the very first sentence to position the secondary character in opposition to the narrator. We know from the first few words that the doctor’s appointment is his idea, not hers. Sanch uses dialogue to quickly give the reader backstory and insight into the characters. But the place this story really shines is in the re-read. This is how you plot twist! The foreshadowing is there if you know where to look, but it’s not heavy-handed or clumsy. Once you know the plot twist, the first sentences take on an entirely new meaning.

Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #425

Does your writing sound like you? In every writer’s learning curve there’s a point where they’ve been so trained into grammar, punctuation, or even a specific “blogging style” or writing technique that they stop sounding like themselves. Their personality has been polished right out of the writing. If you’re writing what you think are solid, well-organized, grammatical personal essays, but they’re not landing with your readers, this might be you! Your writing can be perfectly fine but if you’re not in it, your readers won’t be either. Relax a little. Voice is the way that writers deliberately break grammatical rules to sound more like themselves. Now that you know how to write a perfectly faceted gem of an essay, let yourself be a little unpolished. I know it’s scary. But did you know Picasso started out as a photorealist?

Worldbuilding is HARD. That’s an ongoing theme for fiction writers, isn’t it? Your readers need a certain amount of information about the rules of the world you’re operating in, in order to understand the story you’re about to tell. But when you’ve only got 750 words, it’s hard not to use them all setting up your story and then leave yourself no room to tell it. Try weaving worldbuilding into your story. Start with the action, and let your characters’ observations show the reader what world they’re moving through.

Have you ever taken a photo and seen something in the final image that you don’t remember seeing when you pushed the button? (I know, it’s getting rarer as we move away from film cameras with viewfinders.) Stories can work like that, too, especially micros. Sometimes as we edit words out of an image we know we wrote, we can end up with a different image entirely. Legs slump on sofas. Eyes have hair. And where did that half a dog come from? If you know what you were trying to take a picture of, and you’ve made substantial edits, have a friend read your story and tell you what you said!