Reflections on My First Month

I admit that I had some concerns about Vocal prior to joining a month ago. I asked a friend who is an award-winning, professional writer if he thought that Vocal was a scam. He said he didn’t take part in “pay to play” contests, but that he didn’t think that Vocal was "a scam exactly," but that they didn’t adhere to some industry standards for length and genre. Nonetheless, I was drawn by that $20,000 “doomsday challenge” prize and already had a story outlined in my head. I decided that I would pay for a YEAR MEMBERSHIP in advance, and force myself to write something for all of their writing challenges for twelve months. I really liked the writing prompts, and the deadlines “forced” me to be disciplined in my writing for the first time.

I paid $100 for an annual Vocal membership two days before the challenge deadline, and started writing. My piece was far TOO LONG so I made deep cuts and significantly abridged the ending. I told myself that I was learning to stay within a brief, and it was good exercise for me. I finished making edits with a only couple of hours to spare, and tried to submit my 1998-word story.

Frustratingly, I couldn’t get the piece submitted because Vocal was having technical difficulties. Being a brand-new member, I thought the problem was on my end. I was beside myself. After spending hours writing, and editing, I was unable to submit my story. I tried for hours. I wept. I swore. I sent Vocal a nasty message. I nearly quit, but for a friend’s kind encouragement. I honestly think that that if it weren’t for that friend talking me down, and giving me support, I would have had a major setback. I was tremendously upset to have gone to bed without submitting my piece to the challenge.

Then the following morning I received a message from Vocal, acknowledging that the error was theirs, and that they were extending the deadline by 24-hours. I got the piece submitted, and now have published more than 20 stories, including 5 challenge entries. I got in a groove, I joined some Vocal member groups on social media, I became inspired to write!

This week I received my first tip on Vocal and nearly wept again. It's one thing to earn money for submissions or reads, but someone actually giving $1 to let me know that they enjoyed my work? Amazing. I consider it my first professional writing payment. I think that I grinned for a full day.

Then earlier this week, when they announced the winners for the first Summer Fiction Series challenge, the “Old Barn,” I, along with many of my fellow creators, was stunned to learn that the second prize went to someone whose story was nearly 900 words over the parameters of the contest brief.

I was furious. I’ve been killing myself to stay within the 600–2000-word challenge requirements. I felt that my stories suffered when I had to make substantial edits. For the “Doomsday” and “Old Barn” pieces, in particular, I would have loved to have an extra 500-800-words to punch up my endings. But I didn’t, because of the RULES. Not the guidelines, the RULES.

I was beyond angry that one of the award-winning entries was allowed to ignore the rules that I and most other entrants had adhered to. Many writers in my social media groups have been canceling their memberships, and I can’t blame them. Imagine paying dues at a golf course and having someone set a league record using a softball bat instead of golf clubs. It’s not about sour grapes, it’s about having a level playing field, consistent rules, and the ability, as a dues-paying members, to demand accountability.

I wish that I had done some more research before I joined for a full year. I'm not sure if I would still have paid for a year membership, but I would have had a clearer idea about what I was getting into. I do feel that I have benefitted from both the positives and the negatives these past few weeks, I just wish that there weren’t so many negatives. It seems that the “Old Barn” kerfuffle was entirely avoidable by having transparent and consistent scoring criteria.

And of course, by FOLLOWING THE RULES.

I still plan to be here – at least for the next eleven months. I will still enter stories in the challenges, but I also have a “wish list” if Vocal wants to hear my suggestions for improving their platform.

My Vocal community wish list:

The ability to not only “quick edit” my submissions after publication, but to change the title and subtitle as well. I changed the naming convention on one series and was unable to amend earlier submissions. I also hated the title and subtitle of my first contest submission, but I was under the gun, as well as frustrated and blocked after Vocal’s technical challenges in submitting. I had already chopped the story to bits and shortened the ending to meet the length requirements for the contest brief, and submitted 1998 words with just a few minutes to spare. I would love to be able to change the title.

The ability to organize my stories in my public profile. Right now, stories are listed in the order of publication. It would be nice to be able to move preferred stories to the “top” of my page to showcase my personal best.

The ability to group stories. Whether it’s by genre or by series, it would be nice to be able to group several stories under one heading. For example, perhaps I want to write about vegetable gardening – I would love to be able to put all my stories on that topic under one heading. Similarly, if I write several pieces for the Vocal’s “Filthy” community, I would love to be able to put them all in an “adults only” folder with some sort of “warning.” That way I would be much more comfortable sharing and promoting my writing among friends, family, and colleagues.

An easily accessible list of available “bonuses” given by Vocal. I’ve been thrilled to receive bonuses for submitting a certain number of stories, and for liking other writer’s stories. The Summer Fiction Series announcement indicated that there would be additional bonuses for entering multiple SFS challenges. I’ve also heard from other writers that there are bonuses for being featured and favorited. A list of available bonuses would be a great motivator!

Like any paid membership, there are going to be aspects that members are not happy about. However, listening to your creative community and being responsive and consistent goes a long way towards building a solid, stable community of contributors.