Tell me a story
When the world–the outside world or our internal landscape–gets too big to look at, one way we process is with stories. Stories are important: they let us examine aspects of reality, learn about each other, or access our feelings. Right now we’re telling a lot of stories about what’s wrong with the world, and those stories are critical. They’re vitally important. If you can’t–or won’t–describe what’s wrong, you can’t fix it.
But we’re also telling stories of hope. We’re telling stories of people coming together. We’re telling stories of folks marching night after night not because they are out of options but because they believe in hope. Because they believe change is possible. Today I want to tell you a story about a little place called CHAZ. It’s Thursday night, June 11, at 8:15 Pacific Daylight Time. By the time you read this, CHAZ may not exist. But right now it’s a thriving community with no police. It’s a place where artists and educators and everyone else sit down together to watch a movie, listen to a speech, collaborate about a project. People will try to tell you other stories about CHAZ. They’ll tell you it’s lawless, filthy and abandoned. But it’s not. Streets can be swept. Art isn’t filth. People who live and work in the autonomous zone are going about their business as usual. The only thing that’s different is that they’re walking lighter. They’re not worried about what’s around the corner. It’s a story of hope, ultimately, of a few blocks where right now Black lives do matter. It’s a story about how we could reshape things, build a post-pandemic world where communities, not billionaires and autocrats, make decisions at ground level. Where there’s enough food (there was never a shortage; we have a distribution issue not a production issue) and water, and where voices can be heard.
Stories shape how we let ourselves imagine the world. Look at how many of the devices in Star Trek have been brought into being in largely those forms–not because it’s the only possible form, but because those stories shaped the imaginations of the people who make the awesome toys. What stories do you want to tell about what could be, and who’s going to be there?
While you’re thinking of your stories, why not scroll down and check out which stories won the popular vote on our grids this week? 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!
But we don’t limit kudos to posts: our commentariat commendation goes to a writer who has gone above and beyond to offer help and community to authors with work on the grids. You can check out our Critic’s Guide for examples of what we mean, but we don’t limit the commentariat commendation to posts with the concrit badge on. There are definitely still ways to help and support authors who don’t feel confident asking for robust criticism, and we trust our community to find them. On weeks when we find a comment to commend, we’ll let you know in the Roundup section.
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 #478
Sometimes it helps to have a scaffold to hang your words on. Like the series technique in this month’s poetry slam, a scaffold can help bring a series of disparate parts together into one whole, cohesive piece. Take a look at Nancy’s essay, The Pledge of Allegiance. She uses each phrase to illustrate her changing relationship to the pledge and to connect a sequence of personal anecdotes into one story. You don’t need to use something so formal—your scaffold could be the lines of a poem or song, but it could also be a series of colors or a list of names and birthdates (your family, maybe?). Like an anchor object, a solid scaffold will pull a piece together while providing additional context.
It’s rare that we have a grid full of poetry, but it gives us a great opportunity to compare apples to apples, so to speak. It also gives me the chance to talk about poetry, in general. So often we hear Poetry is hard, or, I don’t know how to critique poetry, or even, I just don’t get poetry. We do have some resources to help with that, but honestly, the best thing you can do to get better at understanding—and writing—poetry is to read it. Read the famous poets. Read poets you’ve never heard of. Read Black poets, Indigenous poets, poetry in translation, and poetry that experiments with language. It doesn’t have to be an arduous process: the Academy of American Poets posts a poem a day from all different traditions, as does the Poetry Foundation. You can even have them emailed directly to you! Take a minute every day–or at least once a week–to read a poem and examine what appeals to you about it (or doesn’t). There is guaranteed to be something new in every piece you read, and you can take that to your own work and others’.
It’s a perennial problem, and—of course—the greatest challenge with microfiction: how to contain an entire plot in only 48 words. Some tricks are easy: use verbs that describe an action, not just declare it; choose your adjectives carefully; eliminate filler words; limit the number of characters. But there are other things that you can do to tighten up your descriptions and give yourself more room for plot. Choose words or phrases that do double or triple duty, for example. Look at Nate’s Barbie car – not only do we know the color (most likely), but especially when paired with the stack of magazines, we have a sense of its size (big enough to support half an alligator, or, if you know how big the car is already, now you know the size of an alligator), which also gives us a sense of how deep the water is (low enough that the car is an island). Or look at Jenny’s window seat. We know she’s not talking about a car, because “window seat” implies ticketed transportation, which means she didn’t need to waste valuable words explaining the setting. She also snuck some context in with her title!
Find the comment on:
This week, we loved Margaret’s comment on The Pledge of Allegiance. Margaret started off by describing what she understood as Nancy’s intent, which is a great way to show the writer how their work comes across to the reader. She picked up on the pattern developed throughout the essay, and pointed out where it seemed to lose itself. She ended with a solid suggestion to help tie the piece together. Grab that badge from the sidebar and wear it with pride!
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 #478
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.
