Why The Word Hunt Is An Almost Perfect Vocal Challenge

Introduction

This is one of the latest Vocal Challenges, and you can read bout it here.

The Prompt

Write a story that incorporates three words from the provided word search puzzle.

Welcome to the Word Hunt. Your mission: craft a captivating story using three words from the word search puzzle below. Choose wisely and let your imagination soar as your unique word selection guides you. Let the hunt begin!

My Thoughts On Why This Is Close To A Perfect Vocal Challenge

I know you are aware of my issues with the recent short-format Vocal Challenges. It's not the Challenges or the Creators entering them, it is the fact that our notifications are jammed with publication notices which really are not necessary.

This is a snip of my notifications:

This is from my subscription feed

I subscribe to myself which is why my stories are in there, but I find my subscription feed far more useful than my notification feed and it certainly looks more impressive.

But back to the Word Hunt Challenge.

This is close to perfect because while it doesn't force anyone to write about any particular subject, Vocal has put a notional limitation on your creation.

It has to be over six hundred words, so flash fiction is fine but micro fiction is not. You also have to look through the word grid and select three words that will appear in your story. I was almost thinking of making this an entry but that would be silly.

Madoka Mori is compiling a list of all the valid words on the grid in Great Incantations here. It is ironic that I cannot share this in that Facebook Group because this is not a Challenge Entry but is about a Challenge.

I prefer some kind of theme or direction for a challenge, although some people seem to take umbrage at anything where Vocal puts some kind of limit, like an introductory sentence, number of words, or a poetic format, though I am surprised at the ber of people who are excused because they are "pushing the envelope" or "thinking outside the box".

These limitations are what make challenges CHALLENGES.

They are not meant to be easy, if they were they would not actually be a challenge.

Challenges like this do not flood our notifications with publications by the same creator. People have to plan a little bit more for this challenge entry. You have to find those three words, include them in your subheading, then fit them into your story.

So far I have entered three stories into this challenge. When it first came out I thought I couldn't do it, but then realized the Vocal constriction was my challenge, and then I thought just include some simple words which do not affect the actual story but are the entrance fee for the actual challenge.

I know it's unlikely that I'll be considered for the challenge, but my friends and audience like my stories and that is the reward I get for taking the stimulus from the challenge criteria, and it has resulted in three very different stories which I have included and the end of this article.

Conclusion

I really don't know what is the perfect Vocal Challenge format but feel that this is fairly close, although I wouldn't want every challenge to be the same as this.

I am looking forward to many more challenges to inspire me to write more stories and poetry on Vocal.

I will leave you with the three entries to this challenge in case you want to inflict a few more of my creations on your mind.

If you don't, thank you for reading anyway.

I included "The Race" by Yello because that is how some people see Vocal Challenges.