Lessons I learned from Vocal's Summer Fiction Series Challenges

So, that's that. I've now submitted a story to all eight of Vocal's Summer Fiction Series Challenges. Don't worry if you haven't - at the time of writing, the Green Light, Long Thaw, and Pear Tree challenges are still open.

Taking part has been an eye-opening experience and has brought me lessons about writing, the world of online content, and myself. In the hope that there are some grains of wisdom to share with others, here is what I have learned:

1. Prompts help you grow as a writer

One of the things I have really enjoyed about the SFS Challenges has been the prompts. They have encouraged (and occasionally forced) me to write about things that I never otherwise would have. The prompts have got me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to be more creative, exploring a range of genres, topics, styles, and themes.

I've written Horror pieces about mysterious brown paper packages and eternally frozen lakes; a Sci-Fi story about aliens making contact with chocolate cake; Speculative Fiction pieces that continued the story of George Orwell's Animal Farm and imagined a world run by cows; a Dystopian piece about a world without trees; a teenage coming-of-age story; and a Fantasy piece about a golden pear. Add to those my entries for the Deep Dive, Domesday Diary, and Threading the Needle challenges, and it means that I've written eleven different things in the space of a couple of months, as have many other fabulous creators.

Without the challenges, none of these pieces would exist; I simply would never have thought of writing them. This has undoubtedly made me a better writer, as has the short story format. With roughly 2000 words, you don't have space to spare. Descriptions have to be tight, dialogue snappy, the plot well-paced. Probably the biggest benefit I have taken from the SFS Challenges is having the chance to build my writer's "toolbox" and with it, creative momentum.

2. You need thick skin when submitting to challenges

Not everyone can be a winner. That's a difficult fact of life and a lesson that I've had to confront on multiple occasions as far as my writing is concerned. The day of challenge results being announced always brings a queasy feeling of half hope and excitement, half pessimism and resignation.

It is never easy to face failure. That's probably not the right word, though. To date, I haven't won a Vocal challenge (but who knows, right? There are still plenty of results to be announced) yet that doesn't mean that my writing sucks, that I'm a bad writer, and that I should just give up. Yes, that's often the immediate emotional reaction, but another important lesson that I've learned is the need to ignore the screaming toddler-like animal part of my brain and let logic and reason do the driving.

Not winning does not mean that your writing is bad. It means that someone else's, on the day and for the particular judges who read it, was better. Writing, regardless of genre or topic, is always going to be subjective. We all know how J.K. Rowling had more rejections that anyone would believe before Harry Potter was picked up and the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Emily Dickinson, and John Keats only achieved acclaim years after their deaths. Hopefully none of us will have to wait quite that long to achieve stardom, though.

So remember, not winning isn't your failure, it's just someone else's success. Even if none of my entries win, I am still proud of the stories that I have created. Remembering Lesson 1 (see above) is a great thing to do when results day comes around.

3. Community is important

Writing can be an inherently lonely experience. You sit there, keyboard at the ready, and type away until you've got something worth sharing with the world. But how do you do that? That was exactly the conundrum that I struggled with after writing my first couple of Vocal stories. Much like the tree falling in the woods when no-one is around to hear it, does a story really exist if nobody reads it?

Then it dawned on me: you have to promote your work too! For me, this is just as difficult, if not moreso, than the writing process itself. I'm not a Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram influencer; I don't have thousands of followers; I only use Facebook for remembering friends' birthdays.

Fortunately, it's not all bad news. Facebook groups like The Vocal Creators' Lounge, The Vocal Creators' Support Group, and The Vocal Social Society (to name just a few) are great places to share your work and swap reads, hearts, and subscribers. They are also very supportive and encouraging places with lovely community atmospheres. Quite a few BNOVs (that's Big Names On Vocal) are there too. #WritingCommunity on Twitter is another fabulous place for meeting other writers.

Even so, I'm still quite some way away from getting the stratospheric number of reads needed to be earning the legendary $6000 a month from reads, but the communities I've joined have ensured that no story I have written has gone without love.

4. Vocal is still growing as a platform

Rome wasn't built in a day, Shakespeare didn't write the Complete Works in an afternoon, and trillion dollar Apple began life in a garage. Nothing ever starts out as the finished product; that's true of me as a writer and it's true of Vocal too. The recently added subscribers function is a promising indication that the platform is taking to steps to make it easier for creators to cultivate a following. As one of the most called for features by the site's users, it also shows that they've got their finger on the pulse.

With 1,000,000+ users and 9 million monthly visitors, there is huge potential here and hopefully that will be fully realised. Every creator will have their own ideas and making sure that creator voices are heard is an important part of any successful platform. In that spirit, here are a handful of things that I hope Vocal considers implementing:

• Judges' comments on challenge winners. What made those stories stand out? What did the judges love about them? Was it the style, the theme, the way the prompt was incorporated, or something else? Not only would this make the announcement a bit more of an event, but it would be incredibly useful for aspiring winners to get a sense of what the judges like to see.
• "Honourable mentions" for challenges. "These entries didn't quite win, but we still really liked them..." would be a great thing to see. It would provide encouragement to more writers, give their reads a boost, and give a sense of the difficult decisions faced by the judges. It would also help writers get a sense of how far they get - did our stories just miss out, or did we not even make it into the final pile? And how about a cheeky $5 bonus for longlisted stories as well?

• Judges' bios. Who exactly are the Vocal judges? One of the things that I really appreciated about the Threading the Needle and Deep Dive challenges was that the judges were named, with a bit of information about them. I would love to see this approach for all challenges, with info about the judges' credentials and what they like to read. If I know that they're a sucker for romance, then I might decide to not interpret the prompt for a horror story, etc. Even if they are just members of Vocal's editorial staff (Natalie Portman can't judge everything) it would be great to know who is making the final call.
• Promote the winners. The front page of any website is a huge driver of traffic, so put the winners on the front page, as if they were top stories. Share them on the official Facebook and Twitter pages. Include third place in the "Recent Winner" section on the challenges page. Shout about these stories that have been given the ultimate honour and a big prizemoney payout!

So there it is, a completed SFS and a whole lot of lessons. Thanks for making it this far. Feel free to heart, subscribe, and read my other work (you can find the links in Lesson 1 and my profile).