IT’S DECORATIVE GOURD SEASON
There’s a lot of swearing in that link in the header. Almost as much swearing as I did when the handles ripped off my decorative gourd transportation bag. IT’S FINE, THIS IS FINE. My steps are COVERED in absurd looking pumpkins. Warty ones (those have more sugars! I just learned that last year!) and smooth ones. Biggish ones and wee tiny ones. Pumpkins in lots of pumpcolors. GOURDS EVERYWHERES. I may or may not have made kabocha soup with cumin and coriander, stewed squash with harissa, and, um, there’s a butternut squash on the counter right now waiting for some love. It’s a perfect confluence of my new kitchen (go me! I have so many new skills now! that I will never use again!), my favorite season, and the Trader Joe’s Cheap Pumpkins And Gourds Display I Swear I Just Went In To Buy Cheese Also Did You Know They Have Mini Brie. So I’m gonna go get back to Squashfest 2019, while you find out who our winners are on both grids.
Besides the popular vote, we also have the option of handing out an editorial staff pick to any post on our grids. 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- and we’d love to, so keep that great work coming!
On weeks when we don’t award a staff pick, keep an extra close eye on the Roundup. That’s our rundown of trends we see from week to 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, 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 first, 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!
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #440
“This will be hilarious later,” I yelled from the kitchen yesterday, covered in water from a pipe that I could have sworn I installed correctly. One of the interesting things about writing personal essays – as I think I’ve said before, not too long ago – is that you have the chance to examine the events not just as you experienced them then, but from the perspective of the person you are now. This can mean two very important things to your writing: first, you can show the lessons you learned without losing the immediacy of your experience or the ability to set a good hook for the reader (oh look, an example!); and second, you can do the thing we don’t have an example of this week, but which you should consider, the ability to contrast how you felt in the moment with how you could have felt, knowing what you know now. That is, you might be humiliated in a moment but have the option of explaining that actually nobody noticed what you did. Or you might be super frustrated in the moment… but with the wrong thing. Spoilers: it wasn’t that pipe at all, it was a totally different pipe, and now this is an essay about what it’s like to live in a 120-year-old house, not an essay about how I can’t even replace a P-trap.
Prompts! Who can figure em. Usually I focus on trends in the writing on the grid in a week, but this week I’d like to get more meta and talk about the process behind the writing. For example, this week’s prompts asked writers to create a character that embodies traits associated with an animal and a zodiac sign. And there’s an example given (in fact, a couple examples). Somehow for a lot of folks that turned into an actual animal. Which means either the prompts were super confusing, or that people weren’t reading them carefully. It’s hard as a judge (or competition designer, as we found out a few Super Challenge rounds ago) to write a prompt that will get writers to an interesting place but not be subject to misinterpretations. We play with our prompts a lot, tweak them, and honestly your writing and responses help us see where we’ve missed things in our ability to describe what we want (which is super helpful AND we still get to read stories, so it’s a win-win for us) accurately enough for you to do it. And we’re as generous as we can be about finding the mandatory prompts in writing so that you can make it to the vote each week. Still, it’s not all on the prompt writer or story reader. Check out that link in the first sentence for some tips and tricks about how to interpret and respond to prompts in ways that will give judges what they’re looking for. And if you love to write an anthropomorphic story, check this link, too.
That’s it for this week! 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! If you’re more the self-help type, remember to scroll through our writing help section for tips and tricks. Even if a post isn’t directed at your favorite grid, there’s probably a handy hint for you in there anyway! 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 challenges kick off at midnight tonight!
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #440
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.
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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.
