Inside Jokes
Share a funny, true story about you and one of your childhood friends.
Prizes
- First Place:
- $1,000
- Second Place:
- $500
- Third Place:
- $250
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Sep 15, 2021
Submissions closed
Sep 22, 2021 3:59 AM CUT
Results
Sep 28, 2021
Prizes
- First Place:
- $1,000
- Second Place:
- $500
- Third Place:
- $250
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Sep 15, 2021
Submissions closed
Sep 22, 2021 3:59 AM CUT
Results
Sep 28, 2021
About this challenge
We’re taking a little break from fiction challenges for a few weeks (but don’t worry, fiction will return soon enough…). In the meantime, we want to continue the theme of: You!
So far, you've told us what you do and why it matters for the A Day in the Life Challenge. You've told us what "home" means to you in the Homecoming Challenge. Now, we have a new Challenge, and we're calling it the Inside Jokes Challenge.
For this Challenge, we want you to tell us a funny, TRUE story involving one or more of your childhood friends. We all have shenanigans from our past that make for excellent storytelling—share one of those memories with us. Late nights, street fights, crazy heights, stage frights—anything and everything is fair game as long as the story includes you and a friend (imaginary friends count too). Tell us a story; we can't wait to learn some more about you. :)
How to enter
For your story to be eligible, it must be between 600 and 5,000 words and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until September 21, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Inside Jokes 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 third place 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.
More challenges
coming soon!
Challenge resources
Whispering Woods Challenge Winners
Congratulations to Morgan Christy Rickards for their winning Whispering Woods story, Guardian at the Gate. Morgan has been a Vocal creator since February 2021, and this is their first time placing in Challenge — well done, starting with a win! Guardian at the Gate draws evocatively from Welsh tales of the Cantre'r Gwaelod, a lost sunken kingdom between the forest and the sea. Heledd’s dangerous adventure pulls her towards the water but her spirit is anchored in the woods: Morgan’s writing is atmospheric and exciting.
Vocal Curation TeamPublished 14 days ago in ResourcesSnacktime Sonata Challenge Winners
Well, your Snacktime Sonatas made us hungry, and that’s about the highest compliment we have. Food — taste, smell, sensation — is a powerful conduit to the past, to memories pleasurable and painful and sometimes bittersweet, a mixture of comfort and challenge. Congratulations to Penny Fuller for Sativa — it’s a first win for Penny — a hymn to the “secret, unbounded/freedoms” of fresh peas in the pod. The narrative voice of the poem doesn’t really want to be outside, but finds joy in the green things of the earth; this is a lovely work of resilience.
Vocal TeamPublished 21 days ago in Resources'The Dragon Beside Me' Challenge Winners.
"The Dragon Beside Me" has ignited the spirits of writers across the Vocal community and PViM have had the exciting opportunity to work beside our friends at Vocal on discerning the winners. No easy feat let us tell you. From initial shortlist to final deliberations, the standard was as high as our spirits.
Proud ViM ProductionsPublished about a month ago in Resources