Attitude is key
Kidding. I hate that crap. Attitude won’t improve your pay scale (except perhaps, assuming your workplace is committed to fairness and not at all affected by systemic misogyny or racism even unconsciously), your access to healthcare, or your odds of having a caring nuclear biological family. But I won’t deny that changing the song my alarm plays in the morning is having a real effect on my ability to get out of bed.
See, my old Irish song was not cutting it last month. Year-end roundups of 2019 are… not super hopeful things to work on, and existential despair beats bean Pháidín every time. On the other hand, it turns out some Rihanna beats existential despair. Or at least makes me want to get out of bed and stab existential despair in the face, which is good enough. Because when you’re writing for pay you can’t just sit around wondering if the mood will strike today. You have to do something to make the mood. What’s on your writing fight song playlist? Does it change depending on what you’re writing?
I know. You’re not here for Friday writing advice, you just want to know who won the popular vote. 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 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 #456 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Fiction|Poetry
YeahWrite #456 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Microprose
Jenny’s story is an example of how the twist can take a story from “cute little anecdote” to “cutting social commentary.” She sets us up with light humor anchored by the gods’ casual conversational style and even a pop culture reference. (The gods are right, by the way; M*A*S*H is genius.) The final line, while no less light than the rest of the story, changes the entire lens. It almost makes me look forward to this particular apocalypse.
Hold Your Breath and Close Your Eyes by Lisa Shaw
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #456
I’ve talked before about the tendency of nonfiction writers to write themselves out of their work. This week’s grid wasn’t that. Our authors showed that nonfiction is as capable of being driven by emotion, narrative, and technique as any other kind of storytelling. Writing about things you care about is important, folks. You’ve got a couple options for that. A personal essay, a persuasive essay, a poem… or even hopping over to the fiction grid and exploring a real life event through a different lens (what if you shifted the main character in your story?). Try all of them. We’re writers because we have a drive to communicate, so don’t shortchange yourself by stifling that communication.
Gosh, y’all, an editor could think you enjoy this month’s prompts and slam. Or else everyone’s just working through their resolution to write more? Either way, I honestly have nothing to say this week besides keep it up. And one tweak for the poets: don’t just think about where the line breaks go when you’re mimicking WCW; think about why they’re that way, and which words they make pair with what. Line breaks can also introduce unintentional images to your poems, because of the start as well as the stop feature that they add. (Does that make sense? It made sense in my head.)
In many sonnets (ok and lyric poetry in general but you’re probably most familiar with the sonnets), there’s a thing called a tornada. It’s a shortened stanza or couplet at the end of the poem that provides the “punch line” by changing the character of the poem and thereby affecting your understanding of everything you just read. It shows up a lot in microprose, too, because when you’ve only got so many words to make your point, it’s nice to have a solid hook in there somewhere. But don’t just tack on your tornada. It has to make sense within the context of your story. Read back through this week’s staff picks for micro: one builds to the hook, the other drops it in as a splash of cold water. But neither ignores the hook until it happens. See the difference? Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
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 #456
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
Loading InLinkz ...Fiction|Poetry Challenge
Loading InLinkz ...Microprose Challenge: 48 in 48
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.
