Two Challenge Wins and $1,255 later: Here's What I Learned as a Vocal Newbie

5 Months and 5 days ago I began my journey as a writer on Vocal. I’ve now officially made my first $5 from views (+$1,250 from challenges)! Seems like I’ve found my lucky number. Submitting an article on Vocal, was also my first time releasing my written work anywhere in public. Which now that I think about it, is kind of funny considering that my first posted piece, Follow Your Intuition is not something which represents the type of work I would normally put out there. It was a piece I had written for the Mindful Strides challenge - by the way challenges are my favourite feature of this wonderful platform! I had originally joined Vocal as a Vocal+ member when I saw a call on Instagram for submissions to the challenge 24/7 Diner. I never actually ended up entering that challenge but I am so glad I found Vocal. I’ll share with you a bit about what I’ve learned in my first few months and what it has meant to a “new writer” to have a platform to share my voice and have a community to support me. Emotional, mental and (BONUS!) financial support!

Challenges

I was going to “save the best for last” but heck it! Let’s start with the good stuff! Challenges are how I’ve made $1,250 while only having submitted 7 articles/stories (previous to this one). Let me just say, WOW! How gratifying to a new writer!! Let me give you some insight as to what this means to me. Previously, I’ve had a career as an actress and filmmaker. I went to film school for 16 months, found an agent, started auditioning immediately after graduating, and didn’t make my first $1,000 till nearly 2 years after my graduation! Unfortunately, there is truth behind the term starving artist. Life in any artistic profession is hard. When I decided to pursue writing in a more serious fashion, I was well aware I might never see a penny. Enter in, Vocal! Vocal challenges are an opportunity to make some money as a writer. Old writer, new writer, casual writer, anyone can enter and have any equal chance to take away some of the prize money. This is HUGE. As far as I’m aware, there are no other platforms that consistently offer the amount of prize money opportunities that Vocal does. I was blown away when I placed 3rd in my second submitted article "Honey, I'm home!" Walking into a Dream and my motivation was fueled even further a couple weeks ago when I placed 1st in the Cozy Corner challenge with my article A Creative Space. Now these are challenges. It is still challenging to win them! So, let me share a little about what I’ve learned.

Be Specific but Original

Vocal challenges only contain a few guidelines. Usually only 1 – 2 stipulations, along with a word count min. and max., plus Vocal’s regular guidelines for what is allowable content. It’s important to think outside the box and bring your own original idea to the guidelines but don’t get so far away from the idea that you aren’t meeting the guideline anymore. Recently I entered my first fiction-based challenge, The Night Owl. I was so excited writing this one. Fiction writing is where my heart is and what I most want to do. After spending time carefully creating my character and storyline, and proudly submitting my finished product, I was heartbroken to see my story Before she was Here. removed from the challenge! There was only one stipulation, include a barn owl at some point and the Vocal moderators had decided that my story didn’t include one! I had gotten so wrapped up in my creative storytelling angle that I failed to highlight the one requirement. I did include a barn owl, but wasn’t so explicit in my description. If you read Before she was Here, I think you’ll see what I mean. I spoke with a moderator and they did actually resubmit it for me after reviewal. It’s a learning process and a fine line, be original, but for pete’s sake, don’t be so “original” that you aren’t even writing what you’ve been asked too! :’D

Does your story boarding look like the above? :')

Read Other Challenge Entries

This is a bit tricky and you might want to think about how this falls within your own writing process. If you are someone who will be easily swayed or intimidated by what others are writing, then leave this bit until after you’ve submitted, or even after the challenge has ended. It’s also good practice to read entries for challenges that you aren’t even going to enter! By reading the winning pieces and also pieces that didn’t place, you’ll start to see some patterns. I can save some time and share a few of my findings here – but I do highly recommend going to check out other’s work because there are some seriously inspiring pieces on this website. I think my favourite might still be the first piece I read, which was the winner of the 24/7 Diner challenge, $4.27.

A recent fav is the 2nd place contestant of The Night Owl, Biscuits & Lavender Honey, I love how the author came up with such a unique storyline and involved the owl in a totally unexpected way. So here is what I’ve taken away:

1. Take your own unique angle.

I just mentioned this above, but it’s important! I noticed many writers will gravitate towards the same subject content for a specific prompt, so maybe spend some extra time thinking about what you could write about that would be a different perspective than most.

2. Go for a “catchy” title.

I’m still working on this one and it’s an important one. First impressions are everything right? Your title should give the reader a good idea of what the story is about and it should make them want to read more. I think my own personal success with titles was my article How I Overcame Toxic Female Friendships. It has generated the most organic views (no staff pick or challenge win).

3. High Quality Relevant Images

People are much less likely to read through an article that has no images or poor-quality images. We live in a visual world! Go the extra mile and put effort into your image choices, Vocal has a great partnership with Unsplash and you can find free to use beautiful content there (make sure to recognize the artist who created it). Or whip out your smartphone and create some original images! Many of us now have 4k abilities in the palm of our hands!

4. Make it Personal!

I feel like the best entries are the ones where I learn something more about the author, myself or the world. Open up and show us what you think!

I could go on and on… but those are just a few to get you started! Now go on and check some out. :)

Enter As Many As You Feel Called Too

You never know if you don’t try. Don’t break your back entering competitions if you are truly stumped for an idea, but do spend some time challenging yourself to come up with an idea for something that you wouldn’t normally write about. As a new writer, this has been the best tool for me. It’s a great way to stretch your ability.

Plus membership price

It. Is. Worth. It. I’ve seen some questions floating around on the internet about whether it is fair to charge for a membership for a public writing platform. Of course it is!! For one, there is a free option, so if you don’t wish to pay the + membership fee, stick with the free account. Secondly, most writing competitions have a fee to enter and as a Vocal + member you get the opportunity to enter + specific challenges (along with the totally FREE challenges that are open to everyone). The +challenges are where I’ve placed twice, odds can be (not always) better in these competitions so you might have a better chance to win! Paying for 5 months of the plus membership, my fees have easily taken care of themselves.

Community

This is twofold. There are the communities that are on Vocal itself. Which are a great resource if you want to immerse yourself in a niche field of writing. There is such a wide array of choice and sub-topics within each community. Vocal is a beautiful blend of current culture (style, politics, entertainment) while still giving space for writers of fiction, poetry and personal entries.

There are also the evolving online communities outside of Vocal, where Vocal members can get together and chat about the platform, share their work, talk about ideas and ask for advice! There are currently two Facebook groups that I know of (and am a member of) and there might even be more. I would recommend out both “The Vocal Creators Lounge” and “Vocal Media Creators Hub”. The online community seems to be growing and I’m excited to see where it goes. I personally would love more community from fellow writers, maybe we could even start some virtual meetups once in a while? What do you think?

Recognition

Again, as someone who has been an artist for a long time, recognition is everything. Artists, writers included, might end up toiling away on creative pieces for hours, days, months, years and never see any recognition for it. In my short time here, I feel I’ve been recognized. This is an exciting but scary new endeavour for me. The feedback I’ve received from Vocal, the community and the moderators has given me affirmation I’m going in the right direction. It’s given me courage, and that’s everything. Recently, when I was reading an article by senior content manger Joshua Johnson my attention was brought to the poem Am I Here? by Daisy Florence. Daisy sums up my feeling exactly…

I think many of us can relate to that. So if nothing else, at least I have been seen. Thanks for the great journey so far Vocal!

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Thank you for checking out my work! Your support means the world to me and inspires me to keep creating. If you liked this, consider giving it a heart or if you feel so called, a tip! Happy writing. :)