SFS 7: Long Thaw

Welcome to Vocal's Summer Fiction Series! This series is comprised of eight short fiction Challenges ranging in length from one week to eight weeks long. Each prompt is inspired by a different book from a traditional summer reading list, full of the classics that so many of us read and reread throughout childhood and adolescence to prepare for the school year ahead. We'll start with childhood classics like Matilda and Charlotte's Web, and work our way up through those high school staples like Catcher in the Rye and The Bluest Eye. It’s a little nostalgia, and a whole lot of creativity.

Keep in mind that just because each prompt is inspired by an old classic doesn't mean that your story is required to draw inspiration from that story. Free to write in your own style, or your preferred genre. As long as you've taken the prompt into account, the rest is up to you.

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This Challenge is inspired by the infamous The Catcher in the Rye. Whether you found Holden Caulfield highly relatable or utterly infuriating, the scene in which he ruminates about where the ducks go when the pond freezes over is a classic. So, we’re asking you to include a frozen pond at some point in your narrative. Your pond can be similarly symbolic or serve as the setting of your whole story - a spot for your characters to ice skate or fish or hold hands, or just the backdrop of a painting on the wall. As big or small of a detail as you like, as long as the pond is included.

For your story to be eligible, it must be between 600 and 2,000 words and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until August 24, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.

The SFS 7: Long Thaw 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.