Oh summer, where art thou?

Is it just me, or has anyone else caught a hint of fall in the air? Maybe it’s that pumpkin spice latte ad in the window of the corner Starbucks, but I’m sensing the end of summer. And with the end of the season comes the end of our summer series. Yes, that’s right – this is the final week of the supergrid, your last chance to get that piece critiqued by your peers in the bronze lounge. Next week we return to business as usual: three separate grids for personal essays, fiction/poetry, and microfiction.

But for now, the supergrid still reigns, and the lounges are still open. If you’re a last-minute kind of person, I bet we can still make room for you in the silver or gold lounge. Just sign up and we’ll let you in – promise! Remember: silver and gold lounge participants automatically qualify for our summer series invitational grid (to be posted next week). The editors will also scour the bronze lounge to pick a few pieces they think really improved as a result of the peer-to-peer critique process.

The coffeehouse is open 24-7 if you need a late-night energy boost or some casual conversation. Drop on by and say hello. It’s the best place to go if you want to get to know your fellow yeah writers.

Summer grid week 5 winners

This week there were twenty-five entries on the summer supergrid, which means we each had three votes, and four of those were yeah writers who ran their pieces through the bronze lounge, first. We love that!

Here are this week’s well-deserved crowd favorites:

In first place we have our own Rowan G. at textwall  with Women’s Business, a fantastic retelling of the Rapunzel tale, but from the witch’s point of view. Second place goes to Thom at tnkerr with his [hysterically funny, but maybe I’m biased] short fiction piece, The Velocity of a Flying Monkey. Lance at My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog comes right on Thom’s heels with a bit of slice-of-life fiction, Never Said.

Congratulations, everybody! You are all amazing. Pick up your summer series crowd favorite badges from the sidebar.

Week 6 writing topics

Each week we’ll be focusing on one or two topics that we think are important in our journey to becoming better writers. We’ll preview the topics on Sundays, and the writing topics themselves will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Consider these topics when creating your summer grid entries. If you’re participating in one of our critique lounges, you’ll want to pay particular attention.

Arden R. and Michelle L. are standing by to tackle the last two writing topics. On Tuesday, Arden takes on action scenes. She’s got a few tips on how to include action without turning your entire piece into a Michael Bay movie. On Thursday Michelle plans to take us back to school with a post on literary devices: metaphor, hyperbole and other techniques. She’ll define some of the most common ones and talk about why to use them and why not to over use them.

Optional prompts

Even though the speakeasy and gargleblaster grids are closed for the summer, we know sometimes it’s hard to start writing without a little extra push. Since we can’t put coffee through your monitor, we’ll do the next best thing and feature an optional prompt each week that you can use to strike your creative spark.

This week’s optional prompt is: Have you ever seen the rain?

Text. Answer that question in a 42-word gargleblaster, incorporate it in your longer fiction, or use it as inspiration for your nonfiction. You can also feel free to ignore it entirely if you’ve already got a great idea! Remember: be creative, think out of the box, and deliver the unexpected. Did I just say the same thing three times three different ways? I must really mean it. The best pieces are the ones that push the boundaries. Don’t forget: the usual grid rules apply.

• Non-fiction & traditional blog posts: up to 500 words (okay, we’ll give you an extra 100 if you really need it)
• Fiction (a la the speakeasy): up to 750 words
• Gargleblaster: exactly 42 words

Last call!

The music is still playing, but the bartender is starting to clear up and the wait staff is having a cigarette out in the back alley. That being said, there is still time – just barely – to hop into one of our lounges. Whether you’re looking for general peer-to-peer critiques, small group workshops, or one-on-one editing help, we’ve got the lounge for you. We have seen some really amazing work done over the last few weeks. Don’t you want to give it a try?

• The bronze lounge is free and open to all. Register for the lounge to gain access, and you can join in the peer-to-peer critique fun.
• The silver lounge is a week-long small group writing workshop, and costs $25. Groups of no more than 4 plus an editor will get together for a more traditional workshopping experience.
• The gold lounge is for those who want to work one-on-one with one of our editors. Suzanne P. and Natalie D. are on tap to help you really dig into your writing, from the nuts and bolts of grammar and punctuation to the broader topics of themes and storylines. For only $50 you won’t find a better place to review your work.

All silver and gold lounge entries will automatically be added to the end-of-summer invitational grid (regardless of word count, and with the author’s permission). And because you’ve all been playing so nicely together, the editors will add a few of their favorite bronze lounge pieces as well.

In the meantime, take that piece you submitted in the lounge this past week and edit it. Pay attention to what your peers and editors have to say. Then  go ahead and submit your revised piece to the next supergrid. Don’t forget to link back to the original piece so you can show off your improvement! We’d love to see a footnote telling us what you learned in the process. (Don’t tell anyone, but our Cerberus, Rowan G, said she’d give you a little more room in your word count for this, since your original and revised posts might run right up to your limit. Just don’t abuse the privilege, ok? Shoot for 50-100 words, tops. If you have more to say than that, just make another post and link to it from your revised post so curious folks can read.)

Remember, if you’re not signed up already you can register for any lounge. Just try to give us a little heads up for the silver lounge so that we can put together our workshop groups.

Below you’ll find the badge for the summer supergrid #175. Copy the code under the badge and paste it into the html or text view of your blog editor. Having trouble? Contact christine@yeahwrite.me for tech support.

<a href="https://yeahwrite.me/summer-series-175/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/summer175.png"> </a>

Summer schedule

In a nutshell, here’s how the summer will play out. All times are Eastern US.

• Sunday, 12:01 am: Kickoff post with preview of upcoming writing topics, summary of summer grid winners, moonshine grid closes
• Tuesday, 12:01 am: Writing topic post #1, summer grid opens for submissions
• Thursday, 12:01 am: Writing topic post #2, summer grid opens for voting
• Friday, 6:00 pm: Voting closes, moonshine grid opens

Yeah write coffeehouse

The coffeehouse is open for business! Planned as a year-round endeavor, the coffeehouse is yeah write’s casual corner where you can meet up for casual small talk, introductions, and other writing-related conversations. The link is in the menu over there to the left, and we’re open 24-7. Stop by and say hello.

And if you’re not signed up for the yeah write e-mail blast, you might want to change that. It’s the fastest way to get all the news. See that little form over there in the left-hand sidebar? Fill that out and you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on!

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