The Ultimate Guide To Winning Vocal Challenges
From Someone Who's Been There A Few Times
Vocal Media has come under a lot of fire in recent months. Well, maybe longer than that. Even I was ready to throw in the towel. Then I didn’t. Call it ego, call it whatever you want, but my last challenge win made me kinda love them a bit again.
It was the Hometown Heroes Challenge. I’d written 3 pieces. I thought one had a decent hope of being recognised. I was wrong. I won with the one I almost deleted because I thought it was so stupid:
The online writing community seems to have a love/hate relationship with Vocal. People either absolutely love it and those enthusiasts are pretty easy to spot. Or they loathe it with a passionate hate usually reserved for only one’s worst enemy. I’m straddling the middle. There have been times I loved it. There have been times I hated it, felt ripped off and vowed to leave the platform forever.
I don’t make any money there from reads. In fact, I’ve won 3 challenges, was a runner up in another, placed in the Fiction Awards and the Ukraine challenge and I’ve made a whopping $21.29 from reads since my first story was published in February 2021.
But, I make okay coin from winning stuff. I don’t know all the ins and outs of winning, but I do think I have some pointers to offer to those who are either on the platform and wish to continue entering challenges or might be thinking about it.
1. Storytelling Not Writing: First and foremost if you read the challenge narratives, they’re not saying anything about writing contests. They’re cleverly crafting the challenges as “storytelling.” Writing and storytelling are two different things.
I’ve never won a challenge with what I thought was my best piece of writing. And in looking back at my own work as well as that of others, I think that’s where some of us get tripped up.
We’re all writers. We’re all at one skill level or another. But nobody’s impressed with all the fancy shit. When you’re telling a story, there’s no need to say, “The azure sky was lined with swaths of crimson, burnt sienna, violet, pink, orange and yellow as the sun began to set over the ocean as my lover and I walked hand in hand, barefoot on the still warm, brownish-white, pebble fine sand, pausing only to gaze into each others’ love-filled baby-blue eyes.”
Ain’t nobody looking for Shakespeare or Hemingway. Nobody tells a story like that. “Jamie and I walked along the beach barefoot, stopping periodically to gaze into each others’ eyes. The sun was setting and was lit up in shades of pink, purple and orange. The sand was still warm under our feet.” See the difference?
Tell the story. Make the reader feel the story. Keep it simple. As one of my former law professors used to say, “You use far too many words to say far too little.”
Yes, use proper grammar. Yes, structure your sentences and paragraphs properly. But TELL me the story. Tell it to me like I’m sitting with you.
2. Don’t Pander: I know there are writers that will tell you to research the judges, especially when guest judges are brought in. Maybe that’s good advice, but not for me.
I’ve seen far too many writers twist themselves in knots trying to please judges they’ve researched on Google. If the judge happens to be gay, all of a sudden, they write gay characters. If the judge is from a certain geographical area, suddenly, that area shows up in their challenge pieces. You get the idea.
Come on! Do you not think these people, accomplished in their own right, don’t see that? If I see it, they see it.
Also, it's not necessary to write a blub at the beginning of your story explaining that it's for the "Such and Such Challenge." That's obvious because you entered it in said challenge.
I'm not sure why people do this. Maybe to draw attention to the piece. Maybe it's just a habit or an idiosyncrasy in their writing.
It could be just me, but that type of thing reminds me of trying to do a 7th-grade book report and tossing in a bunch of extra words just to hit the word count. It's a distraction from what might well be an excellent story.
3. Follow The Instructions: This one is dicey. We all remember the ruckus last year when Vocal chose winners that clearly did not follow the guidelines. I’m assuming they learned their lesson. I hope they did. Because I was pissed as hell too!
As a former lawyer, I guess I’m a stickler for rules. I’m not going to be that person who wins and can be accused of breaking them. I win fair and square or not at all.
4. Top Story Doesn’t Equal Win: I’ve had 3 top stories. One got second place in a challenge. My first place winners were never top stories.
5. Reads Don't Equal Win: I’ve already said my reads are crap. My first win had 9 reads. NINE. My most recent had 4 before I won. It seriously isn’t a popularity contest.
6. Make Us Feel!: If you can tell a story and get them in the feels, you have a shot. Make the reader feel something, anything. Make them cry, laugh, get angry, whatever, but leave an impression.
7. Pictures: Maybe it’s just me, but any story I’ve won with has had a handful of pictures, not just a cover. I think it’s part of the “make them feel” thing.
8. Keep Trying: Storytelling, as they call it, is a subjective thing. You can’t really predict what any one or two people are going to resonate with.
Just write. Let it flow. Don’t get too caught up in judges or style. Read others’ work, but try not to compare yourself to them. Sure, learn something if you can, that’s always good. A writer needs to read. But when it comes to challenges, just tell your story.
That’s really all I did.
You can find my other winning stories here:
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Originally published on Medium.com, edited to provide updates
About the Creator
Misty Rae
Retired legal eagle, nature love, wife, mother of boys and cats, chef, and trying to learn to play the guitar. I play with paint and words. Living my "middle years" like a teenager and loving every second of it!
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Winner's Circle: Prompted #3
INTRODUCTION Prompted: #3 is over and done with. There were a total of 7 entries for this challenge, just like with Prompted #2. That was a bit surprising, considering this was a poetry challenge. The first poetry challenge garnered much more attention. Of course, one way to look at the drop in participation is that Vocal writers are not fans of the rondel.
By Randy Baker3 days ago in Writers
Comments (46)
Thanks for the heads up :)
Great work here! Love your honesty
Nice post. Definitely we'll try all these steps 🙌
So helpful and useful article! I am sure you are aware of you much help you provide to the newcomers in vocal!
This is a fantastic article that is sure to be enjoyed by many. I specialize in writing about business, technology, and marketing. Would you be willing to review my articles and provide feedback? Your insights would be greatly appreciated and would assist me in improving my work.
I can help with the guitar lessons
Nice, yeah I've been writing on reedsy, and did well a few times, and now trying to figure out how to write for Vocal. Nice tip about pictures, and focusing on storytelling rather than fancy prose.
You have always been one of my favourites on Vocal, this just proves why. Great advice. I still believe it is a crap shoot. Like life, luck plays a part, who reads it that day (If at all). And how they feel that day. Any ways bottom line, I liked your article. https://www.upsers.app
This advice was much needed for clarity. Thank you so much. I had to laugh when you said "NINE" 9 reads. At times I check and there's not been one read and be like. - One person has to read just one of my stories. It's hard to understand that especially when shared to social media sites. I understand that writing is frustrating when trying to please to win, that is far from my structure. Writing or storytelling to me is a release of thoughts that just come out. I personally don't feel the need to look at someone else's paper😁 to write a story. It's part of me that defines my writing or story. I believe that your guidelines was what we all need to understand in away to clarify our needs and wants from Vocal. I'm just here to check in and write from time to time. I don't get involved with the feelings. But love the stories and love writing so. Thanks for helping me see the Vocal needs and wants for my story or writings. Thanks.. Until our beautiful minds meet again be safe out there... many blessings and much love. Remember Everyday Minds Matter -Della 💞🦋
Good advice, I am sure it will help me out, because I plan to win the next one, or the one after that!
This helped! It’s so frustrating to see top stories and winners that seem to not follow the guidelines. The haiku’s have been driving me crazy too. I was beginning to think that being a TikTok or Instagram influencer was taking over the platform. I am going to go back and read some of the stories I didn’t think were very good, ignore the writing and see if they make me feel! Thank you for your insight.
My experience here has been similar to yours. Few reads or followers but I've made money in a short story challenge and poetry challenges than I ever earned on Medium. One thing I feel pretty strongly about though is that the new challenges that are judged by who-knows-who anonymous Vocal staff, don't offer the same bragging rights as being selected by a well known editor or poet who writers can mention when submitting to literary publications. So far, sticking with all the platforms
Excellent advice. Admittingly, my relationship with Vocal has been a love/hate scenario. I think the best thing for writers to do is just be themselves. We all have something unique to contribute, an artful way of portraying things. In the end, who knows what is going to inspire the judges most, catching their eyes! Congrats on your wins! 😊
Great advice - I'm new to vocal but I definitely think you're hitting the nail on the head, especially with the "storytelling" part. It's something that's hard for me to focus so singularly on. If I had to choose between "storyteller" and "writer", I think I'd pick "writer"... storytelling is obviously important, and I have stories to tell, but the art of writing is really what I love. It's the feeling of intertwining the perfect words to really captivate a scene, a feeling, or a person - and a lot of the time, I use a lot of words! I hate feeling like my writing style is getting in the way of my storytelling ability because I love it so much. Guess I just have to find a balance...
I love your style of writing, you don’t sugarcoat and you write as you see it. Congrats to all the challenges and top stories 🥰
Love this, but I still see winners that don’t follow guide lines. I love telling my stories but some days I feel like taking my babies else where bc they don’t get read. My family and friends obviously are not supportive to just take a glance. You give me hope.
Brilliant advice! Thank you for sharing
Thank you for sharing your insight on this. I’ve found Vocal challenges to be very puzzling. I do think I’ve missed the mark regarding the instructions sometimes, but I do feel like they can be vague too. Also, love that you pointed out the differences between storytelling vs writing. Purple prose is rarely interesting.
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Congrats on the top story. Don't know why it took them 6 months though. 🤣
When they choose a winner who doesn't follow the rules, that is angering. What's even more angering is when they try to cover up the fact that they disregarded their own official rules, and then try to make You think that You weren't the observant one the entire time. I remember hearing that one person who won broke the rules via word count. When a previous winner asked Vocal, I heard that Vocal said that "the rules are more of guidelines." Which is messed up, especially when the company has an official rule statements pdf that all entries have to follow or be disqualified by.
Great tips! Makes a lot more sense now, the feel part… I may have been missing that aspect trying to be a good writer. I passed this on to a friend who just joined the site. Thank you!
This reminds me: when is the last time they had a guest judge? That Paolini challenge? Feel like I haven't seen many headshots recently.
Congratulations on your Top Story!
I'm fearful of entering challenges. I feel like I might get washed out. As a novice writer, I have a feeling I won't be able to compete. But darn it. I need to do this sometime. I won't get better without scrutiny, and challenges must offer some. I would also like to get more reads on my short stories (only published two on here, but still). Thanks for the encouragement. Now I'm gonna be looking out for the writing challenges.