YeahWrite Super Challenge #10

Welcome to the YeahWrite Fiction Super Challenge!

Welcome – or welcome back – to YeahWrite’s biggest challenge of all. The Super Challenge brings together the best parts of our community: writing, reading, feedback and, well, winning! We alternate fiction and nonfiction challenges (because why should fiction writers have all the fun of prompts and tight deadlines) and it’s time for… fiction!

YeahWrite has been a vibrant community of writers for over seven years, and we’ve never missed a week in all that time – 383 and counting, as I write this. If you’re already familiar with our weekly challenge grids, you know they’re a great way to learn, grow and connect with our community of writers, but the super challenge is where it all comes together, where your hard work and practice pays off – literally pays off, I mean, with prizes! If you’re finding YeahWrite for the first time, welcome aboard. We hope you’re along for the ride. Check out our Facebook group, the Coffeehouse, for more ways to connect with our community of readers and writers!

Oh but wait – you want to know more about the Super Challenge, don’t you?

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About

The YeahWrite Fiction Super Challenge is a prompted challenge where writers compete to complete the best work of short fiction in a single weekend. Prompts are released on Friday, and the completed work must be turned in by Sunday night.

The competition is run in three rounds. Half the writers will move to the second round of competition, and approximately ten writers will advance to the final round of competition. All competing writers will receive feedback on their work from the judges at the end of each round. The final ten writers will compete for cash prizes for first, second and third place.

Schedule

Each round of the challenge starts at 10pm Eastern US Time on a Friday and closes at 10pm Eastern US Time on the Sunday immediately following, giving you 48 hours to complete your entry. Each round will have a different genre and prompt style. Writers will be separated into groups and each group will receive a prompt. All groups will respond to that prompt in the genre assigned for each round. The rounds are scheduled as follows:

Dates	Prompt Combination
September 28-30	Prompt Combo Writers will receive a combination of two prompts, drawn from the following, to include in their story. While no single prompt needs to be the main focus of the story, all must be included in such a way as to be integral to the plot. There are no genre restrictions, unless one of the prompts is a genre. an action (such as “picking up a stone” or “greeting someone”) an event (such as “a wedding” or “a symphony rehearsal”) a setting an emotion an image (might be of a character, a setting, or an object; we like nouns) a character a genre a phrase or complete sentence (may contain fill-in-the-blank sections, may need to be used as-is)
October 12-14	Image + Event Writers will receive two prompts, an image and an “event” such as “catching a criminal” or “a dance competition.” The image may be of a person, a place, an object, or a scene involving multiple people. If the image is a scene, none of the people pictured need to be main (or even named) characters but the scene must be recognizably described and included in the story.
October 26-28	Two Genre Mashup Writers will receive two genres and must tell a story that is a combination of the main tropes of both genres. Some genres that may be included are: romance, mystery, horror, fairy tale, fantasy, science fiction. We also go offroad sometimes with genres like picaresque or epistolary, but don’t worry: we’ll give you a definition and some resources! There are no character or topic restrictions, but elements of both genres must be clearly identifiable in the finished story.

Winners will be announced on November 9, 2018.

Fees and Registration

Earlybirds, the Entry Fee is US$30 on or before September 12, 2018, and US$35 from September 13 until 10pm US Eastern Time on September 26. After filling out the registration form, you can send your payment via PayPal – please put the code YWSC10 in the “notes” box of PayPal so we know we’re not just getting free money out of thin air! If you do not have a PayPal account, an invoice will be sent to you within 24 hours. The entry fee must be received in full by YeahWrite on or before September 27, 2018, to participate. Once the registration is completed online and your payment is processed, we’ll send a confirmation e-mail to the email you give us on your registration form. Be patient – sometimes it takes PayPal a minute to process your payment and we can’t send your confirmation until we have that. If you sent your payment on time and PayPal doesn’t process it until the next day, we’ll still consider you to have registered on time!

YeahWrite Tier 2 members get a $5 discount on Super Challenge registration! Use the code YWSC10M instead, so that we can confirm your membership and payment correctly.

If you haven’t signed up for our mailer yet, this would be a great time. We’ll keep you informed of events around the site as well as important super challenge news.

Prizes

The amount of the prizes will be announced after all entries have been received.

Why? Because just like your sibling, we’re gonna split the money with you. That’s right: the total cash prizes for first, second and third place will add up to half of the entry fees*. You know what that means? The more folks enter, the bigger the prize gets. Sign yourself up and then go share this news with your friends and community! Make the competition bigger, better and tougher for all of us!

(Ed’s note: but as of September 13, there was over $200 in the prize pot – what are you waiting for?)

* Unless a prize in that amount would trigger provisions of US law relating to transfer of fees; in that case we reserve the right to split the money in such a way that we award more prizes (i.e. first through fifth place).

FAQ and Rules

For full text of the rules of the competition, go here. By entering the competition you agree to abide and be bound by these rules, so go actually read them. Besides, they contain really useful information about how to submit your work and in what format, in case you get tired of reading this FAQ.

Who can enter?
Anyone 18 or older can enter the competition, as long as it’s not void where you live. YeahWrite editors are, naturally, not eligible. If we had actual employees they wouldn’t be eligible either, and it goes without saying that our competition judges are not eligible.

How many writers can work on a story?
A story is considered the work of the registered writer. We won’t split up the prizes. That said, you can show your work to others during the course of each round, receive feedback, and make revisions.

When will I get my assignment and when is it due?
Assignments will be posted at 10pm Eastern US Time on the opening Friday of each challenge, and it is due by 10pm on the Sunday immediately following. That means you have exactly 48 hours to write your story!

How do I submit my story?
Email your essay in .doc/docx, .rtf, or .txt format to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me before 10pm on the closing day of each round. Use the subject line “YeahWrite super challenge Round [x] Group [y] submission.” Make sure the filename is as specified in the official rules.

How do I format my story?
Your story (including the title page) must be in 12 point font – either Arial or Times New Roman. The first page should be blank except for the Title Page information described in the rules. If you don’t know how to insert a hard page break in your writing, this is a great time to learn! The title page does not count toward your maximum word count of 1,000 words. Make sure your name does not appear anywhere in your story or on the file. The name of the file must be as follows: [group number]-[title]. For example, if you are in Group 2 and the title of your story is “Daisy Petals” then the filename will be 2-Daisy Petals.doc (or .rtf, etc., as applicable).

What if I need to make changes to a story I’ve submitted?
Sorry. We don’t accept revisions or changes to your work. Once you hit send that’s it, game over. The only exception will be if you forgot to attach your story to your original submission email. We’ll send you a confirmation email when we get your story. Submitting two stories can be grounds for disqualification.

When do I get my results?
You’ll receive feedback from our judges early on the Wednesday before the next round opens – about a week and a half after you turn your work in. We’ll post who is moving on to the next round on that Wednesday as well, at noon US Eastern time. The only exception is the final round – you’ll receive your feedback on time but we’ll post the final round winners on Friday at 3pm Eastern time.

Who owns the copyright to my work?
You do. For a more complete explanation of what rights you are granting to YeahWrite by entering your work in the super challenge, see the official rules.

So can I post my work on my blog?
Not until after you receive feedback from the judges, please. Don’t make your work available in a forum where the judges might run across it until the judging is done. After each round of the challenge is over, we’ll also create a special grid to link up your work, since it’s not eligible for our regular challenge grids.

What feedback will I get on my work?
In every round you participate in, you’ll get an email telling you what the judges liked about your work, and what you need to work on. We’ll make sure to get you this feedback before the next round, so that it’s useful to you as you move through the competition!

What kinds of story are acceptable?
While YeahWrite does not place restrictions on use of strong language or on genre, our editorial standards respect the diversity and dignity of our audience. YeahWrite does not and will not accept works which insult or demean any person based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other similar traits. This doesn’t mean you cannot write a story about or containing racism or homophobia between characters or as part of the plot, but it does mean that your story itself shouldn’t be racist or homophobic. It comes down to this: always remember that people who are not like you will read your stories. What do you want them to think about you as a person and a writer?

Who are the judges?
A staff of professional writers, educators and editors. We’ll have a couple celebrity guest judges for each competition, usually in the final round, so stay tuned and keep checking our Announcements section on this page!

What if I have more questions?
Please send questions about the super challenge to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me only, and not to our Facebook, Twitter, or other email addresses. We will not be reviewing other email addresses or social media for super challenge related questions, and we want to make sure you hear back from us!

IMPORTANT: If you have questions during the Super Challenge, and you send them to other email addresses or to Facebook or Twitter, you may be effectively contacting a judge and we would have to disqualify your entry for that round. Don’t do that to yourself- use the Super Challenge address.

For a more in-depth response to your most common “how do you run the Super Challenge and why is it that way” questions, check out the Super Challenge FAQ. Neither that page nor this FAQ are a substitute for reading the rules, so read the rules (they’re short, we promise).

Round Updates

Are you ready for this? So are we. We’ll post the prompts, winners, and a special linkup for each round here as the competition goes on! Good luck, writers!