Why I'll never win a challenge

Alright, I'll admit I may have exaggerated a little in the title, just to get your attention. Did it work?

In truth, always and never are far too big words for so little a confession I have to make. You see, I have a vice. Call it a downside, an indulgence, or a weakness if you prefer.

But before I confess, I'd like to express my gratitude to Vocal for a bit. I'm new to the platform, I posted my first story some two months ago, but already I'm glad I subscribed (and they don't even pay me to say this, I swear!). The first reason is that it allows me to publish and share my stories with the world, in just a few clicks. Isn't this something? The second reason is the vocal challenges. They pop up all the time, and they encourage me to expand the limits of my imagination, practice my craft, and above all, they push me to write. Just write, write, write. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters, whether or not people read my stories (please do though, some of them aren't half bad), and whether or not I get a prize for the challenge (though that would be nice, wink wink).

Now that this is out of the way, here comes the confession. Whenever a new challenge shows up on Vocal, my first instinct is to look for a loophole. How can I write a story that, technically speaking, is within the bounds of the prompt, but in truth, doesn't comply to the expectations of the challenge?

The Christopher Paolini challenge was a great vector for my vice to flourish.

A grown dragon finds a lost - or abandoned - toddler in the forest. Write a fiction story about what happens next.

I wrote three stories for that challenge, none of them about dragons, although I will deny it if you accuse me of cheating.

After all, aren't Komodo monitors called dragons? I could argue my story is the only one with an actual dragon in it! What about the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl? Isn't he the Mesoamerican version of the mythical creature? And of course, there's the pterosaur, a bit of a stretch that one, but hum... His Latin name is Quetzalcoatlus after all.

So, three submissions, none with the classical version of a dragon. I'm pretty sure that was not the assignment the author of Eragon had in mind... Each submission left me with a satisfied feeling, you know the one, when you've prepared the ultimate prank for a buddy and they have no idea?

And I swear, as soon as I sat down to brainstorm theses stories for the challenge, here is the first thing I did: I wrote the word dragon, and listed all the possible candidates of... Non-dragons! Fire breathers are overrated anyways, but don't tell them I said that, in case their throat gets scratchy. Seems like by instinct, my brain finds creativity when looking the opposite direction.

I had barely recovered from this intense noncomformity (this is hard work, yes yes), that along came the mystery box challenge. Lo and behold, out of my twisted brains came Dark Bee the Soul of Envy. For those of you who've missed it, here is the challenge prompt:

A drone anonymously delivers a mysterious package to your doorstep.

Write a fictional story between 600 to 3,000 words uncovering who sent it and why.

Luckily (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at this), I am a biologist. And guess what? Male bees are called drones! Don't believe me? Ask the internet. So I ended up writing about a package delivered by a bee. And to go the extra mile, I took the 'you' in the prompt to the letter, and wrote in the second person. Quite the experiment and frankly, an education for me.

So there you have it: I am a serial non-comformist, and I systematically write through the loophole. So really, I don't expect these stories to gain me the approval of the Vocal Jury. Not to say that I would win if I were to play by the rules, though one can dream... Let's see how my other, by-the-rules mystery box story will fare.

In spite of all this, part of me does get excited when the results of the Vocal Challenges come out. I'm guessing if you've submitted to challenges yourself, this is also your case, dear reader?

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