Observations On The Vocal "Short And Sweet" Challenge And Other Short Form Challenges

Introduction

The latest Vocal Challenge implies that it is a short-form challenge and while it can be, it does not have to be. You can read about it here.

The music obviously had to be the excellent "Short And Sweet" from David Gilmour's debut album.

So My Thoughts On The "Short And Sweet" Vocal Challenge

A few people have remarked that there is going to be a tsunami of entries for this, probably spurred on by the "Short" word in the title of it. People may see that as they can submit a haiku or senryū and of course they can, there is nothing wrong with that at all.

The Prompt For" Short And Sweet" is

Write a love poem using only words with four letters or less.

Now that doesn't say to write a short poem, it says to use short words.

I was tempted to submit this:

I

Love

You

I desisted, but no doubt someone else will and get a Top Story for it. My first entry and maybe that will be it (but you know how easily I give into temptation) is 150 words.

The thing is you can write an epic using words of four letters or less. I don't know if that has been done but I may give that a try.

I have my inspiration and the means to do it, and I am also tempted to do a visual take on this as well. So much for me desisting from more entries but I know that people will be submitting lots to this, maybe the fact that it is meant to be a love poem may put some people off.

The thing is there are many forms of love, apart from another person or partner, it could be a pet, a place, an event or a hobby, anything that lifts your spirits and puts a smile on your face. I am lucky enough to have that.

This is an excellent challenge because it does force you to do something that seems simple but actually requires a lot of thought and hard work (unless you do a three-line poem like the example I included), then add that it must be a love poem and it becomes even harder, and that is the real point of the challenge.

A single word longer than five letters will disqualify the poem, but luckily Vocal Quick Edit allows us to correct errors. So far I have seen "Frost" and "First" used in entries, and the longer your entry the more likely you are to include a spurious word.

I do hope we do not see an avalanche of short poems but there is no minimum length for poetry now and some people will see that as an excuse to flood the challenge, and Vocal will see it as creating engagement which is the point of these challenges. A lot of Vocal members only enter challenges so it does bring them into play as well.

Conclusion

I see all Vocal Challenges as prompts to write, and for that I am thankful. I am lucky enough to find other subjects to fire my creations and the challenges were the reason I joined Vocal, believing that I had a chance of winning, though I know that is unlikely to happen being one of eight hundred thousand who make up the Vocal member base.

I know how good my work is but I am also realistic, but I have never paid more as a Vocal+ member than I receive in read payments, bonuses and tips apart from my first few months before I discovered the Facebook Vocal Groups so I cannot complain at all.

I hope this has made sense to you.

Thank you for reading