![](https://res.cloudinary.com/jerrick/image/upload/c_fill,f_jpg,g_auto,h_670,q_auto,w_670/636ad3e870b2ec001cba4e1f.png)
The Mystery Box
Write a story about a mysterious package.
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $2,000
- Second Place:
- $500
- 10 Runners-Up:
- $50
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Nov 08, 2022
Submissions closed
Nov 30, 2022 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Dec 14, 2022
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $2,000
- Second Place:
- $500
- 10 Runners-Up:
- $50
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Nov 08, 2022
Submissions closed
Nov 30, 2022 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Dec 14, 2022
About this challenge
The Prompt
A drone anonymously delivers a mysterious package to your doorstep.
Write a fictional story between 600 to 3,000 words uncovering who sent it and why.
The key to the Mystery Box Challenge is to capture a sense of mystery. How does the arrival of something unexpected change the course of one’s day? What is the true motive of the package’s sender? We can’t wait to see how you think outside the box.
The Prizes
- Grand Prize: $2,000
- Second Place: $500
- 10 Runners-Up: $50
How to enter
For your story to be eligible, it should be between 600 and 3,000 words and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until November 29, 2022, at 11:59 PM ET will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Mystery Box Challenge is exclusive to Vocal+ members. To learn more and upgrade to Vocal+ visit https://vocal.media/vocal-plus.
To be eligible to win the grand prize, second place, or runners-up prizes, you must be over the age of 13 and residing in a country where Stripe is available at the time of entry. A complete list of countries where Stripe is available can be found here—winners will need to have a Stripe account created and connected in order to receive the prizes. For this reason, entrants located outside of any of these countries will not be eligible to win.
Open challenges
Challenges you can enter now for a chance to win.
3:00 AM
Write a fiction story about a recurring dream or nightmare.
$500 Grand Prize32 hours leftDialogue Poetry
Write a poem where each alternating line is from a different perspective, forming a cohesive conversation.
$500 Grand Prize10 days leftSummer Solstice
On the longest day of the year, a town revives an ancient solstice ritual and discovers its unexpected power.
$500 Grand Prize18 days left
Challenge resources
Poemosaurus Rex Challenge Winners
Hard to conceive, now, how extraordinary it would have been to find the bones of those terrible lizards in the earth — in a time before humans had conceived of anything other than a Great Chain of Being, a static creation. Yet long after Darwin they still have a hold over us, these creatures which are the ancestors of sparrows and seagulls. All hail the dinosaur! They are at once real and mythic, objects of science and objects of wonder, exhibitions in museums and children’s toys. No wonder Vocal Creators responded with such a variety of work to our Poemosaurus prompt.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished 4 days ago in ResourcesJust a Minute Challenge Winners
Thanks again to Vocal Creator, Breezy, for suggesting the Just a Minute Challenge — one which you all interpreted in a wonderful variety of ways. Sometimes a minute can feel like an eternity, sometimes it can pass in the blink of an eye… to describe the passing of sixty seconds is no simple matter.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished 27 days ago in ResourcesIn Eclipse Challenge Winners
Creator Dane BH is one of our Vocal stalwarts. We’re so grateful to all of your in our Vocal community, and so thrilled by your achievements. This is the third time Dane has won one of our challenges, and she appears too on our Vocal podcast, Write Here, Write Now — take a listen if you haven’t already. But she’s not our winner because we know her: the subtlety and simplicity of we watched the world go dark. together. is what made it our winner of the In Eclipse challenge, with the grace and ease of its lines and observation. As it happens it also expresses the community spirit that means so much to us.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished about a month ago in Resources