Rough re-entry
Some people (cough*Nate*cough) take a break from writing and return invigorated. They have new ideas, new energy, new passion for their work. And if that’s you, I’m jealous, because when I take a break from writing it’s like … going to the gym. See, I just took a few weeks off from that, too, between this road trip and a kitchen remodel I’m doing myself for some ridiculous austerity-based reason. And I had a great time, and I’ll love the new kitchen, but my muscles, physical and metaphorical, are saying that mayyyyybe we’re a little out of practice here. It took me ages to write a single paragraph on a side story I’m exploring last night. And don’t even TALK about how long it took to get out of bed. Or write that essay that landed solidly at the bottom of the popular vote. But… I’m at the gym. I’m writing. And the important thing is that I’m stretching my muscles and getting back in shape. After that, those pullups (and maybe a popular vote win) will come back to me.
And anyway, 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 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 Editorial Staff Picks and 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!
YeahWrite #434 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Microprose
Katie’s story is mostly told in the silences, in the things that are not said. Her writing feels lush and descriptive, and yet there are exactly two adjectives in the entire piece (“twig-sliced” and “crackling”). The lushness lies in between the words, in the repetition of the word “stare,” and in those two very precise images. In a piece this short, each word carries a lot of weight, and Katie measured hers perfectly.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #434
I’m combining the roundups this week because I want to get meta for a second. Maybe I’ve just got Super Challenge judging on my mind, but I want to talk about how to figure out your vote when you’re reading a grid that has wildly disparate entries. One of our former editors used to keep a little spreadsheet, which helped her dive a little deeper into how well authors did what they were trying to do, even if she had to compare a poem, an essay, and a fantasy story. You can, too, if you keep these five points in mind. You’ll want to assign different maximum numbers of points to each depending on how important they are to you, and you may want to add more columns to your spreadsheet or break these out into individual ideas. Important: this is NOT the Super Challenge score sheet. Nice try. But almost all writing assessment is based on these principles in some way, so you might as well be familiar with them.
- How’s the grammar? This includes punctuation and spelling, but also things like line breaks in a poem. Are rules followed, or only broken thoughtfully and for real reasons like voice or to add emphasis?
- Is there enough information included for me to follow the story? Yes, poetry can be too vague. Essays can lack background information about the writer that it’s important to know so that you can interpret what they’re doing, like their race or where they live. And stories can fail to build enough world to stand on their own.
- How’s the pacing? Is all the backstory jammed together at the front? Is the action crammed into a single paragraph with the rest of the story full of the character’s thinky-thoughts? Is the poem five times as long as it needs to be? In a short story or essay, is information repeated unnecessarily, squeezing out other data?
- Did the writer accomplish what they were trying to do? This one’s a two-parter, because if you can’t even tell what the writer was trying to say, the story/essay/poem is probably unsuccessful (Note that I’m saying unsuccessful instead of bad—check this tutorial for why). Then you have to figure out how close they got to accomplishing what they wanted. That doesn’t have to be a fancy judgment! Sometimes the answer is “they wanted to make me laugh; I cringed instead. Here’s why.” And then you’ve also got the basis for some great concrit if they’ve got the concrit badge on their post! (And if they don’t, you can still say something gentle like “the ‘funny’ part in this didn’t really land for me, possibly because of my background in pediatric nursing.”)
- Did I like it? Look. I know I spend a lot of time telling you that what you like and don’t like isn’t super important in judging how good a piece of writing is. But we’ve got four other categories for that already, right? This one’s for your emotional reaction, which can tell you things that you haven’t reasoned out yet. If you’re at “I hate this because it’s a horror story and I hate horror stories” maybe don’t give this category a lot of weight because the reaction has nothing to do with the story. Same with “I love this because my mom is dead too.” But if a story makes you feel some kind of way, sit with the feeling—positive or negative—and if you’re sure it came from the story, go ahead and factor that into your final determination of whether to vote for it. Not everyone has 15 years of academic background to let them talk about exactly why the story is “lazy writing full of tropes” or has “innovative use of a specific altered paradigm to reflect the writer’s perceptions.” But you don’t need that vocabulary to understand that a story worked or didn’t work for you as a reader. Listen to your reactions. (Side note: discomfort is not necessarily a negative feeling, depending on what the writer was trying to accomplish.)
Hahah that got really long, didn’t it? Guess I found my writing inspiration for the week after all.
Even though the microprose grid is for, well, prose, you can use a lot of the tricks you know from poetry to pack more meaning into your short story. Very short this week. This was a hard one. As you read back through the grid, notice how authors chose specific adjectives, used offset or contrasting writing styles for a single sentence, or changed the mood in their piece. Which of these efficiency-adding tricks can you incorporate? And will it work in your longer writing?
That’s it for this week! Remember, we don’t always give out a pick on every 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, next week’s challenge grids will be kicking off right here at midnight!
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #434
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.
