Love Unraveled
Write a personal reflection that explores the complexities of love.
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $400
- Second Place:
- $143
- 10 Runners-up:
- $20
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Feb 10, 2024
Submissions closed
Mar 02, 2024 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Mar 21, 2024
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $400
- Second Place:
- $143
- 10 Runners-up:
- $20
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Feb 10, 2024
Submissions closed
Mar 02, 2024 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Mar 21, 2024
About this challenge
The Prompt
Write a personal reflection that explores the complexities of love.
Join us as we unravel the mysteries, joys, and challenges of love through the power of personal storytelling. In this challenge, we encourage you to unravel the layers of how you define love by sharing your unique perspective and experiences. Perhaps your reflection is a snapshot of how you viewed love at a certain point in your life, maybe it is about the love you yearn for, or maybe it is that you don't yearn for love at all. Help us understand love – the concept and the feeling – that deeply humanizes us.
Here are some ideas to spark your exploration:
Entries will be evaluated based on their creativity, emotional resonance, and ability to convey the essence of "love unraveled" in a compelling and authentic manner.
In order for your submission to qualify, it must be:
- Between 600-2,500 words.
The Prizes
- Grand Prize: $400
- Second Place: $143
- 10 Runners-Up: $20
How to enter
For your piece to be eligible, it should adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until 11:59 PM ET on March 1, 2024 will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Love Unraveled 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.
Negative Space
Write a poem shaped by what's missing. Let an absence, omission, or empty space become as important as what you put on the page.
$1,000 Grand Prize6 days leftYou Are Here
Write a story entirely in second person that puts the reader somewhere they aren't supposed to be.
$1,000 Grand Prize13 days leftOctober
Write a poem that makes October feel like a place you can enter.
$1,000 Grand Prize20 days leftDead Air
Write a horror story about a broadcast, recording, phone call, or transmission that should not exist.
$1,000 Grand Prize27 days leftScroll No More
Imagine that every smartphone in the world suddenly stops working. Write about what happens next.
$1,000 Grand Prize34 days leftNo One Remembers It That Way
Write about a memory that you and someone else remember completely differently.
$1,000 Grand Prize41 days leftSteal From Yourself
Return to something you wrote years ago and use one idea, image, character, or line from it to create something entirely new.
$1,000 Grand Prize48 days leftNot on the Menu
Write about something memorable you ate that you'd never find on a restaurant menu.
$1,000 Grand Prize55 days left
Challenge resources
Already Here Challenge Winners
Useful tools can change your life before you think to question them. That’s really what made these Already Here entries interesting. Writers looked past the initial “how is this possible?” and paid attention to how quickly something remarkable becomes part of the routine. The strongest pieces didn’t ask us to choose between being impressed and being uneasy. They understood why people welcome these changes, then noticed what else shifts once we get used to them.
By Vocal Curation Team3 days ago in Resources
Last Call Challenge Winners
There were plenty of ringing phones and closing bars in Last Call , but the prompt took us to some unexpected places too. A fading birdsong, a goodbye that doesn't quite get finished, and people who don't suddenly become better versions of themselves just because time is running out. Some held on, some let go, and some missed their chance entirely. That's what made these stories stick.
By Vocal Curation Team10 days ago in Resources
Twenty-Four Hours Challenge Winners
The best Twenty-Four Hours entries weren’t really about fitting as much as possible into a day. They were about showing us a version of a place that felt personal, shaped by favorite stops, old memories, local quirks, and the little things you only notice only after knowing somewhere for a long time.
By Vocal Curation Team16 days ago in Resources
