YeahWrite Super Challenge #13
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Welcome to the YeahWrite Super Challenge!
Welcome – or welcome back – to YeahWrite’s Super Challenge. If you’re a returning writer, pay close attention because we’ve made some changes based on your feedback to help our challenge fit into your life better. If you’re new, we’re glad you’re here! The Super Challenge brings together the best parts of our community: writing, reading, feedback and, well, winning! Winning cash, that is, unlike our free weekly grids where you can win a sweet 200x200px badge for your website.
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!
YeahWrite has been a vibrant community of writers for over 425 consecutive weeks as I write this – that’s over eight years, if you’re doing the math. We love our writers and we think ideas can flow both ways, so when folks asked for a bigger competition with higher stakes… we listened. And when they pointed out that dedicating a month and a half to that competition didn’t always fit into their busy lives, we listened to that, too. That’s why we switched from a three-round to a two-round format earlier this year.
The response to the new two-round format has been so positive that we’re sticking with it for Super Challenge #13! This means we’re also keeping the lower entry fees. And you know what else you get? MINIMUM GUARANTEED PRIZES. That’s right: our prizes start at $150 for first place, $100 for second, and $50 for third place – but the more people who enter, the more likely we’ll be able to increase the prizes!
Why not one mega-round, you ask? Well, we still think that it’s important to have more than one shot at winning: anyone can have a bad weekend, but with more than one round your odds of getting a prompt where your strengths as a writer can shine are higher. It also smooths out scoring and judging anomalies, and keeps the focus on the quality of the writing. In fact, that’s why many competitive anthologies have a “long list” and a “short list” of writers under consideration.
For Super Challenge 13 we’ll be mirroring that format: Round One is our long list, and Round Two, the final, will be our short list of ten writers. For Round One, you’ll be broken into smaller groups and judged within your group; the top writers from each group will advance to the final round. Make sense? This structure should enable us to give you the best and fairest shot at the top spot, while fitting more neatly into your life and leaving you time to enter that other competition you’re excited about, or get those edits in on your long-awaited novel.
See you in July!
About
The YeahWrite Super Challenge is a prompted challenge, where writers compete to complete the best work of short creative nonfiction in 48 hours. Prompts are released on Friday, and the completed work must be turned in by Sunday night.
The competition is run in two rounds. Approximately ten writers will advance to the final round of competition. All competing writers will receive feedback on their work at the end of each round from the judges. The final ten “short listed” writers will compete for cash prizes for first, second, and third place.
Schedule
If you’re familiar with the Super Challenge already, listen up: we’ve got a little bit of a format change. We thought it would be fun to have our competition reflect the “long list” and “short list” of anthology submissions so that folks who don’t usually submit to anthologies could get a crack at that format. Plus, two rounds are easier to fit into your busy life and schedule!
Each round of the Super 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. (If a Super Challenge weekend ever crosses Daylight Saving Time in the US, we promise to give you the full 48 hours.) 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 style |
| July 26-28 | Assigned topic (don’t worry, they’re broad) or question (with no right answer, trust us) |
| August 16-18 | A word or phrase which must be used seamlessly in the essay |
Your feedback is emailed to you the Wednesday before the next round begins, and we’ll announce who’s moving on that day at noon. Competition winners will be announced on August 30!
Fees and Registration
Earlybirds, the Entry Fee is US$25 on or before July 1, 2019, and US$30 from July 2 until 10pm US Eastern Time on July 24. After filling out the registration form, you can send your payment via PayPal – please put the code YWSC13 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 July 25, 2019, 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 YWSC13M 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
Our prizes are, at a minimum, $150 for first, $100 for second, and $50 for third place. But the total actual 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!
UPDATE: OUR FINAL PRIZE AMOUNTS ARE $225 for first place, $175 for second, and $125 for third!
* 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 an essay?
An essay 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?
On the Friday that each round opens, you’ll receive an email with your group assignment. At 10pm Eastern US Time we’ll post the prompt assignments via a YeahWrite blog post linked in the email and on this page under the appropriate round number below. Find your group’s prompt, write your essay, and email it to us by 10pm on the Sunday immediately following. That means you have exactly 48 hours to write!
How do I submit my essay?
Email your essay in .doc, .rtf, or .docx 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 essay?
Your essay 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. 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 essay 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 essay is “Daisy Petals” then the filename will be 2-Daisy Petals.doc (or .rtf or .txt, as applicable).
What if I need to make changes to an essay 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 essay to your original submission email – you can still re-send the email with your attachment as long as you send it before the round closes at 10pm. We’ll send you a confirmation email when we get your essay. Submitting two essays can be grounds for disqualification. If the file you’ve sent us won’t open, we may email you to ask for another copy.
When do I get my results?
You’ll receive feedback from our judges early on the Wednesday before the next round opens – about two and a half weeks 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!
Who are the judges?
A staff of professional writers, educators, and editors. We often have celebrity guest judges, usually in the final round, so stay tuned and keep checking our Announcements section on this page!
Can I see some examples of essays that have been written for this competition in the past?
Sure! Check out our last nonfiction Super Challenge right here. Scroll down for the special Super Challenge grids. Our writers have the option to link their essays to these grids after they received their scores. You can also check out the results for the last challenge.
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 e-mail addresses. IMPORTANT: We will not be reviewing other e-mail addresses or social media for Super Challenge related questions, and we want to make sure you hear back from us! Using any other contact method may compromise your anonymity to our judges, and might disqualify you from the competition.
Super Challenge 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!
Writers, if you’re planning to post your work online after each round’s results are in and you want to show off just a little more, consider sticking this badge on it. All you have to do is grab the little piece of code there – yeah, right there, under the picture – and paste it into the plaintext/html view of your editing window. (If you need a little more help than that, we’ve got a walkthrough on this page, under “add your writing to the grid.”)
Round One
The first round of the Super Challenge – our “long list” of writers – runs from 10pm July 26th to 10 pm July 28th.
At 10pm on July 26, this button will take you to the prompt.
At noon on August 14, find out who won with this button!
Final Round
The second and final round of the Super Challenge for our “short list” runs from 10pm August 16th to 10pm August 18th.
At 10pm on August 16, this button will take you to the prompt.
At 3pm on August 30, find out who won with this button!
