It’s crunch time

There are only two weeks left in the summer series. Two weeks to wrestle that story into shape. Two weeks to hone that gargleblaster, polish that poem. Don’t think you can coast until fall: we challenge you to keep on pushing your limits. Visit one of the lounges for some excellent feedback – really, you won’t be disappointed – and don’t forget the the coffeehouse. That’s the place to go if you want to get to know your fellow yeah writers before your drop your beloved work of art in their laps for critique. We’ve heard some great feedback from some of the local loungers; any of you have words of wisdom for those who might still be on the fence about workshopping one of their pieces?

Summer grid week 4 winners!

This week there were twenty-five entries on the summer supergrid, which means we each had three votes. Three yeah writers entered posts they ran through the bronze lounge, and boy, did their hard work pay off. Seriously, folks, the editors are lurking in the lounges, and we are amazed at the quality and thoughtfulness of the comments as well as the hard work of the writers who re-submit. Everyone should be proud.

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

In first place we have Meg at Pigspittle, Ohio with Bosnia, 1994 – 42 words that will kick you in the gut. Meg is followed closely by Nate at The Relative Cartographer with Boxes, Suzanne at Apoplectic Apostrophes with Fighting Words, and Silverleaf at The Silverleaf Journal with Follow the Leader.

Congratulations, everybody! Your hard work is really showing. Pick up your summer series crowd favorite badges from the sidebar.

Week 5 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.

If you’ve been hanging around here, we know you’ve been writing, writing, writing all summer long. Well, guess what? Week five is all about cutting, cutting, cutting. Nothing drags a story down more effectively than excess verbiage. We’re going to talk about how to shed some of those extra words and get your story moving again. On Tuesday, Natalie will give us some good tips on editing, revising, and cutting: what to watch for, what to avoid. Yours truly will follow up on Thursday with my own particular take on microfiction and how to make that gargleblaster shine.

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: what is the airspeed velocity of a flying monkey? (Laden or unladen, your choice.)

Don’t blame us. This week’s prompt was specifically requested by one of you (*cough*DragonSpark*cough*) in the comments of the summer series week 1 Wednesday post. This is a tricky one, folks, we know it. Pick it up and fly with it. Go ahead, we double-dog dare you: 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

Night owls and latecomers welcome!

Don’t let the late hour deter you: there is still time 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 at any time. 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 #173. 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-174/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/summer174.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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