YeahWrite Super Challenge #14

 

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.

Dates	Prompt Combination
October 25-27	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)
November 15-17	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 29, 2019.

Earlybirds, the Entry Fee is US$25 on or before September 30, 2019, and US$30 from October 1 until 10pm US Eastern Time on October 23.

After filling out the registration form, you can send your payment via PayPal – please put the code YWSC14 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 October 24, 2019, to participate.

Once the registration is completed online, you will receive an automatic email confirming that we’ve received your completed form and a separate receipt from PayPal. Be patient – sometimes it takes PayPal a minute to process your payment and send a receipt. 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. Don’t worry – if we don’t get your payment, we’re pretty motivated to check in with you! That being said, if you don’t receive a receipt from PayPal within 24 hours (or if you don’t receive your registration details), please don’t hesitate to contact superchallenge@yeahwrite.me.

YeahWrite Tier 2 members get a $5 discount on Super Challenge registration! Use the code YWSC14M 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.

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 we want to give out more money than that. So once we hit 25 entrants, we’ll split the total entry fees with our winners (in about the same proportions as our minimums).* 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!

* 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).

 

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. This FAQ does not replace the rules, but clarifies questions we’ve been asked about them.

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. (If we can’t open your story, we’ll ask you for it again, don’t worry!)

When do I get my results?
You’ll receive feedback from our judges early on the Wednesday before the next round opens, in plenty of time for you to review it and brush up on any weak points before moving on in the competition. We’ll post who is moving on to the next round on that Wednesday as well, at noon US Eastern time. The 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? 

You should feel free to add a meaningful content warning on your title page (under the summary) if you plan to deal with topics which might be difficult to engage with. We won’t count it toward your wordcount, and it may help you stay in front of judges who can fully engage with your story on the level it deserves.

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).

The final round of the Super Challenge runs from 10pm November 15 to 10pm November 17.

At 10pm on November 15, this button will take you to the prompt.

At 3pm on November 29, find out who won with this button!