Vocal’s Top Story Curse

Most of us participating in Vocal+ check the challenges on a regular basis. Why wouldn’t we? We’re all writers. The challenges give us the opportunity to test our craft, work on correcting our flaws, and get rewarded for a job well done. At least that’s how I look at. It also gives me an opportunity to see how other members of this special group will view a topic totally opposite of the way I did and yet have their perspective make perfect sense. It’s a great teaching tool.

I’m sure we all approach these challenges differently. I only enter challenges that piqué my imagination. Fiction, horror, fantasy, wheels, writers, and several others will always grab my immediate attention, while poets, potent, proof, and viva will never get a second look from me. The great thing about our community is that every challenge, no matter which community it’s attached to, will always find competitors because we all have different interests.

So, let me create a scenario that we can all relate to. A challenge is posted relating to the Wheels community. Of course, this is fictitious because I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a challenge tied to Wheels. I decide this is my kind of contest. After reading the particulars as to what the judges are looking for, I get to work. My main character is a 1966 Jaguar XKE convertible, British Racing Green and sporting wire wheels with spinners. I take my time and build a story around this car that equals James Bond’s Aston Martin. Everything falls into place perfectly, and after some fine-tuning, I post it for all to see.

Two days later, I receive a notification that my story was so good it was awarded a Top Story. I’m over the moon for several reasons. First, I’m now five dollars richer, which I will keep in Stripe and use to pay for next year's Vocal+ subscription, and also because it’s been over a year since anyone received a Top Story in Wheels and around three years before that.

Since the Vocal Gods have deemed my story good enough to be awarded a Top Story, it seems only logical that I stand at least a better-than-average chance of either winning the competition, or at least be given an Honorable Mention award. This is where logic is tossed in the dumpster. I get nothing but an also-ran. Am I being unreasonable or pointing out a flaw in the system?

Over the past five years that I’ve participated on Vocal, I’ve been fortunate enough to receive over forty top story awards. I am truly proud of that accomplishment, and I’m sure many of you have garnered many more than that. The problem is, if I enter any of them in a challenge, they are immediately discarded, and this doesn’t happen to me alone. I can’t take the credit for the term, “Top Story Curse,” and I won’t mention who I heard it from, but it fits perfectly.

The last contest I entered was Scroll No More. I’m using this as an example because it’s my most recent challenge. The story I entered was “Contact,” which I wrote specifically for that challenge. A day after entering, it received a Top Story. Once again, I was pleased that my efforts had been recognized, but I immediately knew that I was no longer in the running. True to form, it didn’t even gain Honorable Mention status.

It appears Vocal is willing to pay you once, but never twice, for a single story. If that’s the case, please post that rule so we all know where we stand. It’s possible I may have missed a challenge winner that is also a Top Story, but I don’t think so.