Welcome home!

Do you remember summer camp? How it was all new and weird and you struggled to find your groove? How the swimming lessons sucked until suddenly they didn’t anymore and you were jumping off that dock like a pro diver? And it felt like it would last forever, until the last few days when suddenly you realized you’d have to go home again. Well, that’s where we are. Home again, and back to the normal routine. The best thing about yeah write versus summer camp, though, is that you don’t have to leave any of your friends behind!

I think I speak on behalf of all the editors when I say this has been a wonderful, amazing experience. It was the perfect blend of laid back and intense. The chatter in the coffeehouse – getting to know you, your insecurities, your daily struggles and triumphs – makes me wonder why we didn’t try this sooner. We were more than pleasantly surprised at how popular the critique lounges turned out to be. We saw tremendous growth there, and hope you did too. Thank you, everyone, for helping to make yeah write the best writing community on the ‘net.

Supergrid winners

We had 35 participants in the final summer series supergrid, including 1 brand-spanking new grid virgin. We also had five pieces on the grid that were workshopped in our lounges! Here are the winners – if you haven’t read them, please go do so, and while you’re there let the author know what you think.

Everyone got four votes this week, so there are four winners – three fiction, and one personal essay. In first , we have Arden R from Writing While Wineing with Turning over Anew; second place goes to Sue from Feline Alchemy with Have You Seen the Rain?; Meg from Pigspittle, Ohio takes third place with Rain; and Lisa from Priscilla Queen of the Dessert rounds out the top four with Curbed by a Stranger (a piece she workshopped in the bronze lounge, for the record).

Congratulations to all! Go collect your summer series winners badge from the sidebar.

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.

End of Summer Invitational

Over the summer the editors have been paying attention. You brought your work to the three critique lounges, accepted constructive criticism with grace and aplomb, and made your revisions. We’ve collected a shortlist of pieces we think really showcase the hard work you’ve done, and we’ll be placing them all in a special invitational grid. Give them a read and help us choose the best of the best!

New to yeah write? Need a refresher?

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.

Down below, you’ll see the detailed schedule for the week. In a nutshell: the gargleblaster opens on Monday for microfiction; the challenge grid and speakeasy open on Tuesday for creative nonfiction and fiction; and the moonshine grid opens on Friday with a little bit of everything. Pick one grid or all, but make sure you follow the proper guidelines for each one.

The ultimate question

Looking for the fastest and most furious challenge on the web? You’ve come to the right place. Sit yourself down and give the pangalactic gargleblaster a try. Just don’t sit too long – the gargleblaster grid is notorious for filling up in hours. This week’s ultimate question is:

What are we running for?

Give us your best answer in 42 words. Don’t forget everything you’ve learned this summer about dialogue, concise writing, literary devices, and all the other tips and tricks for writing effective microfiction and micro narratives. Remember that you don’t need to include the question in your response. Here are a few 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 – you can pick up the current gargleblaster badge below or over there in the sidebar.

Challenge schedule

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

• 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 gridopens.
• 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-176/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/challenge176.png"> </a>

<a href="https://yeahwrite.me/gargleblaster-176/"> <img src="https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gargle176.png"> </a>

Who’s on fourth?

Every fourth Monday we publish an interview with one of yeah write’s community members. This week we’re proud to feature Sam of This Heart of Mine in our seventh installment of Who’s on fourth? Many thanks to Sam for participating and to Arden R. for writing it up!

Yeah write coffeehouse

The coffeehouse is still open for business! Come on in, pour yourself a latte – this place is self serve. The coffeehouse is a place for the yeah write community to gather, get to know each other, exchange ideas and links, and chat. Read a good book lately? Have a link you want to share? Dealing with some writer’s block? Pull up a chair, grab a latte and start a conversation. We won’t be doing any critiquing in the coffeehouse, mind – we want to keep things there light and casual. We hope to see you there!

Still here? Prove it! I’m a shiny happy unicorn of a person. Post a unicorn haiku (5-7-5 syllables) in the comments, and you’ll get a shiny happy smile from me.

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