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YeahWrite Super Challenge #8

Welcome to the YeahWrite Flash Fiction Super Challenge!

Welcome – or welcome back – to YeahWrite’s Super Challenge. The Super Challenge brings together the best parts of our community: writing, reading, feedback and, well, winning! Plus cash prizes, and who doesn’t love that? We’re ready to kick off our eighth challenge, and if you’ve been around a while you know even numbers mean fiction!

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 almost seven years (it’s our birthday in April!), and we’ve never missed a week in all that time. Now we’ve added the next level of writing competition and we hope you’re as excited to find it as we are to add you to our community! So with no further ado, let’s dive into Super Challenge #8!

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. About 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 prompt style. On Friday morning you’ll receive an email with your group assignment, some tips for that round, and a link which will go live at 10pm. That link will take you to the prompts.

Next, our judges carefully read and score your work. We’ll give you their feedback on the Wednesday before the next round begins, and announce who’s moving on that same Wednesday at noon. The rounds are scheduled as follows:

Dates Prompt Combination
April 13-15

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)
April 27-29

Setup + Scene

Writers will receive the opening sentence or two of their story, which must be used verbatim. They will also receive a scene to include in the story, which may be drawn from the following:

  • an action (such as “picking up a stone” or “greeting someone”)
  • an event (such as “a wedding” or “a symphony rehearsal”)
  • a description of a setting (this description would not need to be used verbatim in the story)
  • an image (might be of a character, a setting, or an object, but might also feature ongoing action or interaction)

As in round one the “scene” does not need to form the plot arc of the story, but must be included in such a way that the story would not function without its presence. There are no genre restrictions.

May 11-13

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. 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 May 25 at 3pm.

Fees and Registration

Earlybirds, the Entry Fee is US$25 on or before March 30, and US$35 from April 1 until 10pm Eastern time on April 11. After filling out the registration form, you can send your payment via PayPal. 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 April 12 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 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

First place: $200

Second place: $125

Third place: $75

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 are 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, 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 they think 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!

Are these all the rules?
No. Please read the full rules. This is just a FAQ, and we might not have answered your specific issue in it.

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!

Round One

The first round of the Super Challenge runs from 10pm April 13th to 10 pm April 15th. Writers, keep an eye on your email the morning of the 13th for your group assignments. When the round is open, FOLLOW THIS LINK (or the link in your email) to your prompts! We’ll also use this spot to let you know who’s advancing, the Wednesday before Round 2 opens!

Ok, kidding, we’ll use this spot. Click that link any time after noon on the 25th to find out who’s moving on!

Now that this round of the competition is over, you’re free to post your work anywhere on the Internet you like, or take our judges’ suggestions and rework your submission to send on to other venues. Or grab the Super Challenge badge out of the Announcements section, stick it on your blog, and link your work up right here for future Super Challengeers!

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Round Two

The second round of the Super Challenge runs from 10pm April 27th to 10 pm April 29th. Writers, keep an eye on your email the morning of the 27th for your group assignments. When the round is open, FOLLOW THIS LINK (or the link in your email) to your prompts!

Writers, don’t forget to keep an eye on your email Wednesday May 9 for your feedback, and on THIS LINK Wednesday at noon to find out who’ll be moving on to the final round!

Final Round

At 10pm on May 11, this button will take you to your two-genre prompt.

At 3pm on May 25, find out who won with this button!

We'll announce the winners in:

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Announcements

Writers, if you’re planning to post your work online 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.”)

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