Just?
It’s probably my least favorite word in the English language, honestly: JUST. Not only because right now “just” and “justice” are super-fraught words, but because they’re weaponized in other ways. “Just write,” says Neil Gaiman, who has two assistants and no children. “Just do it” says Nike, ignoring disabled people. “I could just…” I say, buying one more broken or ruined thing that will just take up space until I, too, don’t fix it up, and eventually discard it. “Just find the time,” says… well, a lot of people featured in the NY Times, including people who, y’all, are struggling to make their 3,400 square foot second home work as a pandemic retreat because their adult child is staying with them. If writing’s an effort for you right now, if you can’t just, we see you. There’s a civil war kicking off like three miles from me RIGHT NOW and no, I can’t just immerse myself in a book or even write a cheerful intro paragraph.
But there’s another side to just. If you can’t do the big thing, you might be able to just do something else. If you can’t write, you can just comment. It’s plenty. If you can’t read a book, you can just read a short story. Or just read a post or two on social media. Just doesn’t have to be a weapon. Just can just be… just.
That’s just enough text for an intro, so let’s just go to the results of the popular vote, ok? 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 #485
There’s a fine and maddening balance between writing a diary entry and editing yourself out of your work. Good essays live in that liminal space between stream of consciousness and self-consciousness.
I feel like I should add something to those pithy comments but honestly I don’t have a lot more to say this week. A diary entry is EVERYTHING you’re thinking and feeling, and it’s a good exercise to be in the habit of, but it’ll need to be edited. On the other hand, once you sit down with that red pen, it’s possible to edit yourself so much that anything raw that was good has been scraped away from the essay. Meat needs a little fat left on to develop its flavor; essays need a little bit of your first thoughts left hanging around in the phrasing. But not too many, or it’ll just be gristly and swimming. Can y’all tell I made carnitas this week? (I was going to link a recipe but I couldn’t find one that isn’t super colonized, sorry. But you should look that up.)
It’s my week to talk about balance, I guess. Third person omniscient is honestly a REALLY hard POV to write in. Partly because you have the option to know and tell EVERYTHING, so what do you put in and what do you leave out? One important way of thinking about this is that your narrator may know everything, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to tell everything. After all, it’s a story, right? If you tell the listener every detail either they’re going to tune out or figure out how your story ends in the first couple paragraphs, and then why bother reading? On the other hand if you tell them nothing, you’re going to be, well, Agatha Christie, with the murderer as the second cousin from the will which was mentioned once on page 10. Find that balance and you’ll find a story. After all, you do this with every other POV: the author is omniscient and chooses which details to reveal.
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 #485
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
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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.
