Juneteenth
For some, this word evokes over a century and a half of celebration. Others just heard about it a few years ago. But 47 states have made Juneteenth a holiday, so it’s a good time to catch up.
Juneteenth celebrations memorialize June 19, 1865—the day when the message of emancipation finally reached slaves in Galveston, Texas, the last to know of Lincoln’s proclamation nearly three years earlier and the end of the Civil War two months prior. In those first years after the war, the day was celebrated primarily in Texas, which finally made it a state holiday in 1980. But Juneteenth is to some extent an arbitrary day of celebration: those slaves in Galveston would be required to work through another full season of crops before they were freed. And today, Black people in the USA still live with the legacies of slavery: Jim Crow laws, redlining, the War on Drugs, and the age of mass incarceration have fragmented generations of Black communities, leaving them overpoliced and under-resourced.
If you’re in the USA, this weekend advocacy groups like the Movement for Black Lives are declaring a Weekend of Action. On a national and local level, there are tons of educational and direct action events throughout the weekend that you can observe or participate in. White friends, we encourage you to take this time to support the Black community, and to learn more about the history and manifestations of systemic racism. This is a good time to commit to living with kindness–the sort of kindness that prioritizes Black lives over white feelings. And it’s a good time to make sure we don’t waste this moment in history, but take concrete steps to build a world we can all live in safely.
And in the meantime, you can join in another sort of celebration with us at YeahWrite by checking out who won the popular vote and, later today, who’s taking home first place in our Super Challenge.
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 the trends we’re seeing. 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!
And for our ninth birthday we added a little something new. Our commentariat commendation goes to a writer who has gone above and beyond to offer help and community to someone with work on the grids. You don’t need to post to the grids to earn it, but you do need to read and comment. We’re looking for comments that go beyond “I liked this” to “this is how you can make your work the best version of itself” by pointing out issues kindly and giving praise where it’s warranted. 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 see a comment to commend, we’ll let you know in the Roundup section.
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 both grids. If you earned the highest number of votes in any challenge, you are this week’s Crowd Favorite! If you came in 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!
YeahWrite #479 Weekly Writing Challenge Staff Picks:
Nonfiction
Parenting is a difficult job, and often it’s like holding a mirror up to yourself. In her concise essay, Hema shows us her daughter’s various attempts to get her attention, and then wryly contrasts that with her own attempts to gain attention on Twitter, without summary, pointed commentary, or tacked-on moral at the end. By “contrasting” her daughter’s actions with her own, Hema allows the reader to laugh with her at the irony of the situation. Rather than telling the reader that she is a grown-up reflection of her daughter, she allows the reader to draw that conclusion through observation and understatement. This is an excellent example of a complete micro essay that tells a story, is layered, and allows the reader to reflect on their own behaviour, all in under 100 words.
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #479
There are two people involved in every piece of writing: the writer and the reader. Sometimes, they’re the same person, and we call that a journal entry. If your reader isn’t you, you’ll need to keep some extra information around to make your essay a self-contained piece of writing. Ask yourself how much you need to explain, and how much is generally accepted knowledge. Make sure you’re not assuming that your reader knows things like your marital status or how many kids you have (although you don’t have to include those things unless they’re relevant to the story). And think about whether all readers are going to be able to accept “generally considered correct” statements that are normal in your community, if they’re at a different stage of growth or have a different background. There’s definitely value in writing for yourself, in exploring your own growth and your relationship to the world around you, but make sure you’re doing more than gazing at your own navel if you’re writing for other people.
Prompted flash fiction has some particular challenges (as our Super Challenge participants can tell you!). Most obviously, you need to write to the same prompt as everyone else, which always makes me worried: what if I end up telling the same story as someone else? And yet, as you can see from this week’s grid, I shouldn’t be too stressed. Both Christine and I wrote a story that could be summed up as “child with mouse characteristics in post-apocalyptic setting finds a gold coin and a family” and yet the stories themselves are obviously distinct from each other. Now compare those to Margaret’s slice-of-life playground story or Melony’s noir-esque crime story, which took the prompt in very different—and equally enjoyable—directions. The key to good prompted writing is not to try to get away from the prompt, but to lean into it and tell the story you want to tell, because nobody’s going to tell it exactly like you no matter what.
This week, we loved Jen’s comments all around, but especially on the two posts above. In both cases, Jen not only identified her favorite line from the piece, but explained why and how it contributed to the story as a whole. This is much more useful than a blanket “I liked your story,” or even a somewhat more pointed “I especially liked this line.” Explaining exactly what someone did right is a great way to reinforce good techniques. Go back and look at both posts to see just how she did it. And Jen, go ahead and grab that badge from the sidebar and wear it with pride!
That’s it for this week! Remember, we don’t always give out a pick on each 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 challenges kick off at midnight tonight!
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #479
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 ...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.
