Irony
Y’all, I wrote the best intro paragraph. About saving your work, and momentum, and the popular vote, and then I don’t know what I hit but it’s gone and I’m such a consummate professional that I’m not even going to try to retype it, I’m just going to be your object lesson for this week and let you scroll down to the popular vote results.
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!
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #460
Persuasive essays don’t have to be all about links and carefully built arguments. Sometimes it’s enough to draw from personal and anecdotal experience, as long as it’s universal enough to support what you’re saying. Melony gave us a great example of that this week, but there’s more ways to do it than this. You can give solid examples from your own experience of a time a “universal” principle didn’t work. You can use your life to show that something that couldn’t have been true was, as long as you acknowledge whatever factors went into it. People think that persuasive essays are limited and limiting, but they’re really not. The biggest limit is what you’ve got to say.
Are your characters people to you? Are they really? Then let your characters do what reasonable people would do in a situation instead of taking long, complex and convoluted actions. If there’s a door available, don’t make your character climb out a window instead without a damn good reason. People generally do what’s sensible and easy. If you really need them to take a convoluted action, you need to change the world around them so that the action is reasonable within the constraints of the world.
It’s really tempting to structure a microstory as a series of pithy statements. And I get it: you get to write a story that is entirely made of darlings. The pitfall here is that your story will end up sounding like a summary more often than not. Let your sentences flow into each other, even if it means that you end up putting a little less plot in than originally planned. Save a darling, save the hook of your story, and maybe let the rest go in the name of something that’s a smooth capsule of words to read instead of many. small. ideas. floating. in. the. void.
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 #460
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
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.
