YeahWrite Super Challenge #18

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. Writers will be separated into groups and each group will receive a prompt.

Winners will be announced at 3pm Eastern time on Monday, December 28, 2020 (the first business day after the holiday).

We’re making things easy for you this time around by sticking with one low registration fee of $25. That’s $5 off our regular fiction competition fee! Registration closes at 10pm US Eastern Time on November 11.

IMPORTANT: REGISTRATION IS CAPPED AT 40 WRITERS! IF WE REACH THAT NUMBER OF PAID ENTRANTS BEFORE NOVEMBER 11, REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE.

After filling out the registration form, you can send your payment via PayPal – please put the code YWSC18 in the “notes” box of PayPal so we know we’re not just getting free money out of thin air! Once the registration form is completed online, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to the email provided on the registration form. The entry fee must be received in full by YeahWrite on or before November 13 to participate. If you do not have a PayPal account, we will send you an invoice within 24 hours of receiving your completed registration form.

YeahWrite Tier 2 members get a $5 discount on Super Challenge registration! Use the code YWSC18M 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!

Final prize amounts:

• First place: $250
• Second place: $150
• Third place: $100

* 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. If you have more questions, you can email superchallenge@yeahwrite.me about them. PLEASE, and we’ll remind you again, PLEASE don’t use any other email, DM, post, etc. to contact us with your questions: you can accidentally reveal your identity to judges and disqualify yourself. We don’t want that to happen.

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, but you’re welcome to share. 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?
Please use the Super Challenge Submission Form posted on the kickoff post for the challenge. You will be able to upload your file directly in the form. We accept the following file formats: .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .txt. The submission form does require you to create a Google account if you don’t already have one, just like Submittable, Moksha, or other submission management systems. We do not collect your Google account information, and we will communicate with you only via the email that you provide directly in the form. Please note that we do not accept submissions in Google docs, even though it’s a Google form.

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 prompt post. 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. 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. You’ll receive an automatic confirmation email when we get your submission. 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 a little over halfway through the judging period. We’ll post the winners, runners-up, and shortlist about six weeks later. Please see the schedule above for exact dates.

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.

What feedback will I get on my work?
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 winners are announced!

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: superchallenge@yeahwrite.me.

See? we told you we’d remind you again.

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).