YeahWrite Super Challenge #25

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.

The registration fee is USD$25. Registration closes at 10pm US Eastern Time on August 3, 2022.

Registering is a two-step process:

1. Fill out the registration form.
2. Submit payment via Ko-Fi.

An automatic registration confirmation e-mail will be sent to the contact email provided on the registration form. Ko-fi will send you its own separate confirmation and receipt. The entry fee must be received in full by YeahWrite on or before August 3, 2022 to participate. If you don’t receive a confirmation email, please check your junk or spam folder, then contact us at superchallenge@yeahwrite.me.

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 as follows:

• First place: $150
• Second place: $100
• Third place: $50

* 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.

NOTE: if you have trouble with attaching your file to the Google form, you may email your submission to: superchallenge@yeahwrite.me. Please indicate the Super Challenge number, round number (if applicable), and group number (if applicable) in the subject of your email.

How do I format my story?
Your story or 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 specific round’s opening post. The title page does not count toward your word count. 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 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. 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 and the shortlist from our judges a little over halfway through the judging period. The winners and honorable mentions a few weeks after that. 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 they feel you need to work on. We’ll make sure to get you this feedback before the next round (or before the shortlist is announced), 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 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?

Questions about the Super Challenge must only be asked via two mediums: 1) You can email them directly to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me or 2) If you are a member of our Discord server, ping @sc-admin within the Super Challenge general-chat channel. Do not reach out 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.

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).