The Fantasy Prologue

Hear ye! Hear ye! A new Challenge hath been proclaimed. 📜

The time has come. Dust off your wizard staff, don your mithril breastplate, and prepare yourself for an adventure of epic proportions. We are asking the Vocal community to craft the first chapter of a fantasy saga. Your story may be romantic, historical, or filled to the helmet brim with swashbuckling action. You can build new worlds populated with mystical creatures, or you can bring the magic into your own backyard. What's most important is that your tale captures the reader's attention and leaves them wanting more! And, who knows, maybe somewhere down the dusty road you’ll have a chance to write the rest of the story...

To begin your quest, we are supplying you with the first sentence. Be warned, fellow adventurers: You must use the line below to start your tale. After that, the rest is up to you.

Here’s the first sentence:

Now be off! May your swords—er, pens—remain sharp, and your will resolute.

For your story to be eligible, it should be between 600 and 5,000 words and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until June 6, 2022, at 11:59 PM EST will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.

The Fantasy Prologue 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.