Last week for separate grids

Summer is a time for the simple things in life: family, friends, long lazy days, and kicking back a little. With that in mind, we’re about to slow the challenge schedule down for the summer.

Here’s how it will work: starting next week (yeah write #170), there will be one combined summer grid per week for all of your fiction, non-fiction, poetry and gargleblasters. The summer grid will open on Tuesdays at midnight and close on Thursdays at midnight, at which point voting will open. Voting will close by 10:00 pm on Thursday (all times Eastern).

The summer grid is an easy, laid-back kind of place.  We’ll provide an ultimate question for the gargleblaster folks, and the rest of you are welcome to use it – or not – to inspire your personal essays or longer fiction. You’ll want to follow the usual yeah write guidelines, of course. Keep your gargleblasters to exactly 42 words, your personal essays to 500-600 words, and your fiction pieces to 750.

The weekend moonshine grid will operate as usual – the rules are even simpler over there, so bring your longer pieces, your how-to’s, your favorite pieces from your archives, whatever you like. And as for commercial content, the answer is the same all year round on all grids: don’t do it.

Summer series

We’re also about to kick off our summer series. If you’ve already signed up, we’ll send instructions to the e-mail you used when registering. If you haven’t, well, here’s a handy little button to help you take care of that!

We’ve got three separate lounges open for various levels of constructive criticism and writing help: the bronze lounge for those of you who want a little help from your friends; the silver lounge for those who are looking for a more focused writers’ workshop experience; and the gold lounge for those who want an editor’s in-depth review and critique. Get all the details here, then head over to the yeah write gift shop to register.

Challenge winners round-up

In case you missed them, here’s a summary of all the #166 winners. Take a few minutes to check out the best of all the grids right here.

Challenge grid

• Crowd favorite: Rowan G at Crossknit for Checking the Box
• Kevin the Kiwi: Christie at Outlaw Mama for Lapsed Catholic Mother With Kids In Jewish Summer Camp
• Top row: Priscilla Queen of the Dessert at Whittling Harmony for Proper Wrapping
• Comment Bob: Priscilla Queen of the Dessert at Whittling Harmony

Speakeasy

• Crowd favorites: #1 Suzanne at Apopleptic Apostrophes for The Pilot; #2 Brian at pinionpost for Longitude and Latitude; #3 GennaClaire at writeamuck for Nomads: Bar for the Lost; and #4 Janna at JannaTWrites for Lost and Found
• Editors’ pick: Brian at pinionpost for Longitude and Latitude

Gargleblaster

• Crowd favorite: Mike at mjshorts for Christmas Envy
• Editors’ pick: Rachel at As the Romans Do for Trappings
• Top row seven: Mike plus Jo-Anne at Going for Coffee for I’m on my way to…; Erica M at Free Fringes for day drinking at the gargleblaster #3; Christine H at Trudging Through Fog for Tidepool; Cyn K at that cynking feeling for Office Politics; Thom at TNKerr for The Mermaid; and Rowan G at Textwall for 100m Butterfly.

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

Yeah write certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on question games. This week, we’re turning to our absurd little friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for a question that could plausibly result in the actual Answer to the Ultimate Question of life, the universe and everything (which is, of course, 42).

What does it all add up to?

Now, 42 is one writer’s answer. What we want is your answer in 42 words. Remember that you don’t need to include the question in your response. 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.
4. Proofread. Just because it’s short doesn’t mean you can cut corners.

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.

The grid opens at midnight on Monday (that’s one minute after 11:59 PM on Sunday) and closes at midnight on Tuesday (that’s one minute after 11:59 PM on Monday). Yes, we give you only 24 hours to post, so you’d better get writing now! Come back to vote on Tuesday, and 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 #166 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-169/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/challenge169.png"> </a>

<a href="https://yeahwrite.me/gargleblaster-169/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/gargle169.png"> </a>

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