
Dear New Year
Start the new year off right by writing a letter to yourself in the new year ahead.
Prizes
- First place:
- $1,000
- Second place:
- $500
- Third place:
- $250
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Dec 31, 2020
Submissions closed
Jan 08, 2021 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Jan 15, 2021
Prizes
- First place:
- $1,000
- Second place:
- $500
- Third place:
- $250
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Dec 31, 2020
Submissions closed
Jan 08, 2021 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Jan 15, 2021
About this challenge
To all our Vocal creators: Happy New Year! The most challenging year has finally come to an end, and we've said goodbye to 2020. As we look onward and upward, let's start the new year off right by outlining our goals and intentions for 2021, so we can help make this new year much better than the last.
Enter the Dear New Year Challenge by writing a letter to yourself in the new year ahead. Create a vision board, share how you're going to make 2021 better than 2020, or set intentions for what you want this new year to bring. What are you hoping to accomplish? What are you looking forward to the most? How will you take the lessons you've learned from 2020 and apply them to the next 12 months? Map out your year and share how you're going to conquer this next chapter. Whichever direction you take, focus on ways to keep yourself accountable throughout the year.
We're going into 2021 with a positive mindset by making room for new opportunities, goals, and accomplishments, so we can confidently cheers to the New Year! We can't wait to see where your stories take us this year. 🎊
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 January 7, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Dear New Year 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 39 countries will not be eligible to win.
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Challenge resources
You Are Here Challenge Winners
For You Are Here , we asked writers to put readers somewhere they weren't supposed to be. What really stood out in the stories that placed was how often that line wasn't so clear. Sometimes you knew you were pushing your luck, sometimes you had every right to be there, and sometimes you didn't get much of a choice. Writing in second person made those situations feel a lot harder to watch from the sidelines.
By Vocal Curation Teama day ago in Resources
Negative Space Challenge Winners
For Negative Space , we asked writers to explore how much can be said through what's left out. Our favorite entries found clever ways to make those silences, gaps, and unanswered questions feel just as important as the words themselves.
By Vocal Curation Team8 days ago in Resources
Out of Season Challenge Winners
We’re trying something new with our challenge awards structure. Starting with Out of Season , each challenge will recognize one grand prize , four winners , and ten honorable mentions . That’s 15 stories to celebrate, with a little extra love for the top pick. For this challenge, the strongest stories made the timing matter. Something showing up early or returning when it shouldn’t changed what people did, what they assumed, or how they saw each other. There was humor in trying to carry on as usual, and sadness in realizing why the usual schedule no longer worked. Sometimes the wrong time of year turned out to be just when someone needed it.
By Vocal Curation Team15 days ago in Resources




