Weekly Writing Challenges Archive
Welcome to YeahWrite’s archives. Below, you’ll find all of our posts. We kick off each writing week on Friday (what?) with a new prompt for you. For 500 weeks YeahWrite hosted “weekly grids” which enabled writers to link their self-hosted responses, and to read and vote on each others’ work, as well as commenting. Check out our creative nonfiction, fiction|poetry, and microprose archives for a closer look at our nearly ten years of weekly writing competitions. While we no longer host weekly competition grids, we’re still delivering the prompts you love as well as our Super Challenge and classes. We also feature monthly instructional or challenge posts, which you’ll find collected here as well as in our writing help archive!
Navigating Prompts: Style over Substance
Style and substance What makes a story a really good story? Anyone can write a list of events: "this happened, and then this, and I felt like that, and then this other thing happened." That's not a story; it's barely a narrative. Stories aren't all about...
YeahWrite #546 Weekly Writing Challenge
Stylish! This month's "big project" is a style guide for a client I've been working with for a while—they're one of my favorites, but I'm also, in the dark and secret corners of my heart, pretty excited to have an official "NEVER EVER DO THIS THING" to point at when I...
Congratulations to the Winners of YeahWrite’s Super Challenge #21
Out of Control You're here to find out who won the Super Challenge. And as you scroll down, looking for your (or your friend's) name, you're probably wondering the same thing that anyone who enters a contest is wondering: what makes a winner a winner? What were the...
YeahWrite #545 Weekly Writing Challenge
All this time No, not the Sting song—I'm talking about hours and minutes. The kids are off to school (in person, for better or worse; fingers crossed) and I have hours every day to... do what? I've gotten out of the habit of writing. But September is a time for...
YeahWrite #544 Weekly Writing Challenge
Shiny objects and bullish men Continuing the trend, I am also a huge fan of retellings. One of my first stories to get in the Top Three at YeahWrite back when we had a blog share was a retelling of Ariadne, who fell in love with the hero Theseus and helped him escape...
YeahWrite #543 Weekly Writing Challenge
Mirror, mirror No joke, but I started reading a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood last week. When I saw what this month's prompt was, I felt delighted at this bit of serendipity. Retellings are some of my favorite types of stories because reading one is like reading...
Navigating Prompts: Retellings
Nothing new under the sun There are people who will tell you that there are no new stories. Some will go so far as to put a number on it, and swear that there are really only seven stories in the world, or nine, or twelve, or thirty-six. Whether or not you believe...
The final round of Super Challenge #21 is underway!
Things that are short Our list of writers. 48 hours. 1000 words. This intro. You're not here to listen to me talk. You want your prompt. I understand. Let's do this! In the final round of the Super Challenge, your prompt is a sentence. You’ll be incorporating it into...
YeahWrite #542 Weekly Writing Challenge
Doggy tales My husband recently saw a t-shirt with I like dogs and maybe three people written on it and almost bought it for me. Honestly, I'd have worn it everywhere. But the thing is, I like the people I meet when I'm walking my dogs. People are unguarded around...
Congratulations to the Round 1 winners at YeahWrite Super Challenge #21
It's shorts weather! Well, it's shortlist weather, anyway; there's a nice chill in the air this morning and while I know summer's not over, let me have this, okay? I'll go back to sweltering in as little clothing as I can get away with soon enough. Still, there's...
