Vocal Challenges Are For The Birds

Picture this:

Another fun and exciting Vocal challenge has just arrived. This one has your name all over it and you could really use the prize money.

You spend hours doing research for the story that's coming to life inside of your head. You are taking notes and making mental transcribes. You literally cannot wait to start pegging and cataloging every single thought that has been so satisfyingly brought to life within your cerebrum.

You secretly begin to delineate your reaction for when that gratifying email arrives. "Congratulations you've won!" Will you shed a few tears? Will you jump up and down and rhapsodically scream and dance? Should you go ahead and lay out your celebatory outfit for the glorious occassion?

So many thoughts and aspirations are running through your head.

Will you spend the prize money on bills and much needed nessesities?

Will you take the whole family out for a special steak dinner?

Joyful tears fill your eyes as you ponder on the many possibilities.

Finally the antisipated day has arrived; the winners will be annouced any moment now. You log into your Vocal account and continuously refresh the page.

And then finally...... "Wait, what?"

Disenchantment and dejectedness begin t0 dispatch straight through your soul. "How is this possible? I tried so hard!"

You slump down in your seat and unbelievingly begin to drift toward the winners list. Although the stories are well-writen and entertaining - you find yourself disecting and ripping them apart for the proper word prompts and themes.

Half ashamed of yourself, you embark on a mission to find faultiness in each story. "How does a stray dog from Russia fit into a story that is supposed to be about a crime scene in Malaysia ?"

And that's when the unthinkable and malignant thoughts begin to flow through your veins like volcanic, molten rock over a serene frozen lake. You can hear the thrashing, tumbling and pounding in your head.

Inacurate and supicious accusations begin to cattily sneak out between your belligerently sealed lips.

"It's obvious, the employee's at Vocal are writing stories and selecting themselves as the winner's of these challenges!"

Ahh, what a grand and furtive plan!

- or -

"The winner is obviously a friend or relative to the judges, the rest of us never stood a fighting chance! I bet they're laughing at all of us right now!

Then like well coordinated clockwork you feel the self-pity and remorse begin to kick in.

It hurts a little and it stings a lot, but the very next month you find youself happily paying the $9.99/monthly membership fee and partaking in each and every challenge that comes your way.

The truth is that it's absolutely normal and acceptable to feel somewhat let down and fallible when we don't achieve what we're hoping for.

If we're going to be honest about it, almost all of us have done this and felt this way. It's only a natural reaction after pouring so much time, effort and a small piece of your soul into your writing.

Was that winning story deserving? Yes, it's time to admit it! That story contained something special which stood out above the others in the eyes of the judges; But that in no way suggests that all of the other stories were't just as good.

How in the hell did the author get that stray dog from the streets of Russia onto a crime scene in Malaysia... Well, shouldn't we at least read the story and find out?

I once read a news article about a (famous) author who worked at a newspaper office. As hard as she tried she just couldn't get that promotion that she wanted so badly and rightly deserved.

It felt like everybody but her was achieving their dreams and reaching their goals. She knew that she was a good writer, she poured her heart and soul into each paragraph.

Every single day on her way to work she would stop and leave her manuscript laying in front of a major publishing company. Years passed and she kept working for the newspaper, printing childish comic strips day in and day out.

She had almost given up while assuming that the constant oversights was simply because it was a man's world and females just weren't given the same chances and recgonition.

One cold and wet morning the owner of that publishing company was unlocking the front door and preparing to go inside when a bird flew down and began attacking him.

He had made a pit-stop at a nearby home-style resturant and purchased himself a biscuit, which he was eating as he walked to work. Apparently the bird wanted that warm, buttery biscuit just as bad as he did.

The publisher swiped and smacked at the hungry bird but it fully intended to take his biscuit. Suddenly he looked down and seen the soggy manuscript laying on the ground in front of the door. He reached down and grabbed it, tossing it at the bird.

The publisher laughed amusedly when the water logged enevelope knocked the angry bird completely out of the air. He watched as it sat on the sidewalk dazed and confused before finally taking back to the air and flying away.

He chuckled and giggled and quickly hee-hawed; roaring with laughter as he read the title page of the manuscript.

He found the incident to be so hilarious that he decided to open the envelope and actually read the whole entire manuscript that he had stepped over every morning for years.

He immediatly called upon the lady who had so desperatly and persistently left her work laying on the ground every single morning for the past seven years. Thus, an amazing horror story about angry/ killer birds was born and it is still on the Top List of the most recognised stories ever written.

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

– quote by Langston Hughes