Trading places
Michelle–our EIC–and I are frequently the same person. We have similar opinions on an awful lot of things from food (ugly is fine as long as it’s tasty; more cheese, please) to people (we prefer a few close friends). One of the big differences, though, is our approach to writing. Michelle tends to be of the “if it’s important to you, you’ll figure out a way to make time for it, just write,” school, and I tend to be more “okay but people have lives and kids and responsibilities and that doesn’t take disability and chronic illness and other things into account, and people already beat themselves up a lot, let’s think about what else is ‘writing’ like the stories we make up in our heads and the sentences that we turn over and over in the shower until we can jot them down later like perfect little gems, oh, and active reading, have you noticed how much better your writing gets when you learn to be an active reader?” school.
Today we’re trading places. Or, seats in school.
Folks, whatever you’re at right now, that’s probably going to be your normal schedule and status for a while. If you don’t figure out — soon — how to work writing into that schedule and status, you’re probably not going to. You’ve worked hard to get where you are as a writer, and now you’re going to need to put in the work to maintain that. If it feels like a lot of your creativity is going into finding life solutions right now, well, congratulations, you know why people living in extreme poverty don’t get to write a ton of books. That doesn’t mean you can’t write something. It may mean that you can’t write a book. But you could write a paragraph, a microstory, an essay (if it already happened to you, you don’t have to make it up), a diary entry (bonus: if you’re not showing it to anyone you don’t have to worry about if it’s good – you can come back to it later for essay seeds), something.
Or you can say “I’m going to spend the next two years or so not writing and then see if I can pick it back up.” That’s a valid choice. Just don’t halfass either one and keep saying “well, when the kids are in school I’ll figure out a time” and “when I know if I’m working remotely I’ll figure out a time” and then “when the holidays are done I’ll figure out a time” and making up these invisible goalposts that will somehow allow you to find the time to write. Figure it out now, because it’s already been six months and stuff won’t be magically easier in a month or two. And then another month or two. And then…
Wow, I’m cheerful. Anyway, speaking of people who did figure out a time to write this week, let’s see how their work did in the popular vote! 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 #490
I talk a lot about readers and writers but less frequently about audience. Audience is the aggregate term for your group of expected readers, and it will determine a lot of things about how your finished product should be edited. That’s right: I said edited. At some point in your writing process, figure out who your audience is. Is it just you? (that’s a diary entry) Is it your close friends? (that’s a letter) Is it a community that knows you well? Or is it strangers? The answer to that question is going to determine how much foundational information you need to include, so your edits may involve adding a lot of data necessary for the readers to understand the story. For you or your close friends, saying “Lily forgot the oranges” might be enough. For the community or strangers, you may need to go back and explain that you’re married to Lily and are supposed to be making your famous Orange Punch for the gala at Wayne Manor tomorrow. Especially if you’re going to say something is “strange” the reader needs to know what “normal” is for you. How much you need to describe normal is going to depend on, well, your audience. I know a person who tried to write an essay where everything was subtly wrong. It was really creepy, but only if you already knew how things were supposed to be. On the flip side, in the RPG I’m running, last night the players were entirely freaked out by a completely normal house, because they didn’t know what it should look like in everyday life, so they kept overreacting to things like a box of noodles left out on the counter.
Have you heard of aphantasia? It’s a condition where people aren’t able to form pictures in their head, and it affects around 2% of people. Where a person without aphantasia might be able to describe the color, shape, texture, lighting, etc. of the dress a character is wearing in a scene, a person with aphantasia might have to have a Pinterest board of reference photos showing the clothing that each character wears so that they can look at it to describe it, since they can’t “look” at a picture in their imagination.
Why am I telling you this? Well, 2% of people who read your work aren’t going to be able to imagine things, so it’s important to give enough description to anchor them in a scene or setting or to connect them to a character (or allow them to distinguish between characters). This means maybe you can’t use the shortcuts you planned to: saying “she’s Irish” won’t call up an image of an Irish person for them, so you’ll need to get a little more specific when Katie comes into the story. Remember, you always know what’s going on, who’s there, and what it looks like (unless you have aphantasia yourself) but your readers don’t, and 2% of them won’t be able to make it up on their own.
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 #490
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.
