Families are now fair game

You did it: you survived four family-free writing weeks. Not only that: you thrived. We know that many of you find endless inspiration in your own families, friends’ families, strangers’ families, real families and imaginary ones. There’s no more fertile ground for conflict and tension. We knew when we asked you to write about anything and everything else that it would be a challenge in more ways than one.

The result? Removing one familiar topic led to a broader range of subjects on each of the grids. Even better, over the past four weeks we saw short story writers try out the gargleblaster. We saw essayists test their skills at fiction and poetry in the speakeasy. And we saw many new faces all over yeah write. We consider that a great success, and so we want to thank each and every one of you for participating, for growing, and for reaching out of your comfort zone. Well done.

Introducing our new submissions editor

This week there’s a new face over at the challenge grid: Rowan G., our new submissions editor. Rowan comes to us with a strong background in reading critically and an even stronger passion for the written word. She is looking forward to jumping into the moderation queue with her sleeves rolled up. If you happen to receive a love letter from Rowan for one of your submissions, read it carefully. She’s likely to give you some good advice.

About those love letters: many of you find the challenge grid submissions process a little daunting. (This editor in particular feels that same anxiety. – ch) Remember, we’re not here to discourage people from submitting. We want a diverse body of writers posting their work to the grid. However, we want you to come to us with your best. That means, at the very least: no typos, no sloppy tense shifts, no grammatical errors. More than that, it means following the yeah write guidelines. Not all posts, even well-written ones, are suitable for the challenge grid. Read those guidelines carefully. Read some of the past winners to get a sense of what the editors are looking for. Don’t let our love letters discourage you; let them inspire you to take your writing up a notch.

Challenge winners round-up

In case you missed them, here’s a summary of all the #161 winners. Do you usually stick to the challenge grid? Go check out the speakeasy. Are short stories your usual thing? There’s some pretty lovely writing over at the challenge grid, and the gargleblaster too. Expand your horizons!

Challenge grid

• Crowd favorite: Cindy from The Reedster Speaks for In which I am the best exit row passenger ever
• Top row: Red Lantern Bicyclist for A Woman Riding Along
• Kevin the Kiwi: Karen Petree for What Rush Limbaugh Doesn’t Understand about Twitter
• Comment Bob: Samantha M from This Heart of Mine

Speakeasy

• Crowd favorites: Bethany for Waiting, followed by Meg for Rolling in the Deep, Alien Aura for The Punch, and Silverleaf for Little Fish
• Editors’ pick: Jessica for Earthquake Weather

Gargleblaster

• Crowd favorite: Rowan at textwall for Seemed like a fair trade at the time
• Top row 7: Rowan plus James for Anatomy, Karen for Goosebumps, Angie for Is Something Crawling on Me?, Ryan for Survivor, Forty and Fantastique for Gargleblaster 161 – Is Something Crawling on Me?, and Jen for Salvation
• Editors’ pick: Jennifer Knoblock for The Sixth Age

Congratulations to all! Don’t forget: the moonshine grid is still open. Have something to add? Old posts and new are welcome. Go add yours, and while you’re there, visit your fellow yeah writers.

The ultimate question

We thought we’d give you something broad and open-ended for this week’s gargleblaster prompt. Let’s see what you do with this one.

Which way to go?

Give us your answer in 42 words. You don’t need to include the question in your 42-word response, and make sure your answer stands alone. What do we mean? Write down the question. Write down your response. Now cover the question with your hand and read your answer out loud. Does it still make sense when you don’t know the question? That’s what we’re looking for. Here are a couple of guidelines:

1. Do not mention anywhere in your post, either as intro or footnote, that you are writing to a prompt.
2. We want the story the furthest away in your imagination from the original prompt. Let your imagination loose.
3. Keep your writing style! Do you tell stories with humor? Prose? Verse? Photos? Illustrations? Keep doing that.

The grid opens at midnight on Monday and closes at midnight on Tuesday. Yes, that’s only 24 hours to post, so you’d better get writing now! We’ll announce winners on Wednesday. Don’t forget to badge your post – the current gargleblaster badge is below.

Challenge schedule

There’s a lot going on around here lately. To make it simple, we’ll lay out the multi-grid schedule here:

• Sunday midnight: the gargleblaster prompt is announced in the kickoff post, and the speakeasy prompt is announced over at the speakeasy.
• Monday midnight: the gargleblaster grid opens for submissions.
• Tuesday midnight: the gargleblaster grid closes, and voting begins. The challenge grid and the speakeasy grid open for submissions. 10:00 PM: gargleblaster voting closes.
• Wednesday by noon: the gargleblaster winners are announced.
• Thursday midnight: the challenge grid and speakeasy grids close, and voting begins. 10:00 PM: voting for both grids closes.
• Friday by noon: the challenge grid and speakeasy winners are announced, and the moonshine grid opens.
• Saturday and Sunday: moonshine grid is still open, writing, editing and rewriting happening for upcoming week!

Get your badges!

Below you’ll find the badges for yeah write challenge #162 and this week’s gargleblaster. Copy the code under the appropriate 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/writing-challenge-162/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/challenge162.png"> </a>

<a href="https://yeahwrite.me/gargleblaster-162/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/gargle162.png"> </a>

New to yeah write?

Welcome! This is a special kind of place, and we hope you will dive right in. If this is one of your first visits to yeah write, please take a look at our page detailing how yeah write works. If you’re having trouble figuring it all out, feel free to email us, and we’ll help get you started along your way. We think this is the best community on the web for writers who blog and bloggers who write. We’re thrilled to have you join us.

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