Resources

From tips and tricks to product updates and inspiration, explore our resources to learn how to grow as a Vocal creator.

Latest

Shining a Spotlight on the 2023 Vocal Writing Awards Shortlists
The Vocal Writing Awards concluded earlier this month with a flourish, when we announced the winners here. Now, we are delighted to share with you the incredible shortlisted entries for each category. Passing the muster of the Vocal Curation Team to be shortlisted is no small feat. The entries on this list displayed extraordinary creativity, innovation, and a profound ability to convey emotional resonance through their compositions. Please join us in honoring these entries by giving them some well-deserved reads and comments.
Vocal Curation Team
Published about 3 hours ago in Resources
Vocal Creator Chat: 11/28/2023
Have questions about creating stories, growing your audience, and getting rewarded on Vocal? The Vocal community and team are here to help answer your questions and feedback together.
Vocal Creator Chat
Published about 4 hours ago in Resources
📢 Raise Your Voice Thread: 11/23/2023
Happy Thanksgiving! We are so grateful for you. Our “Raise Your Voice Threads” are hosted every other Thursday at 12PM ET to offer creators more avenues to uncover exceptional stories on Vocal. As we are continuously searching for fresh creators and inspiring stories, this thread provides an opportunity to exchange and discuss the stories that have moved and motivated us on Vocal.
Raise Your Voice by Vocal
Published 5 days ago in Resources
Vocal Bonus Leaderboard: 11/22/2023
As we enter the season of gratitude and some of us celebrate American Thanksgiving tomorrow, it's the perfect time to reflect on and appreciate the wealth of stories, perspectives, and creativity that enrich our platform. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to the incredible creators who make Vocal what it is: a community. Please see this week's Leaderboard below.
Vocal Team
Published 6 days ago in Resources
Snafu Senryu Winners
Dana Crandell’s ‘Hand Stamp’, the winner of our Snafu Senryu Challenge, brings humor and a thoughtful, original idea to our theme. How to convey that awkward moment in seventeen syllables, neatly dispersed over three lines? The delight of this challenge is that form and content seem perfectly matched: no one wants to linger too long over these embarrassing moments (to say the least!) and yet we can’t help giving them space in our minds. Why not make good use of that space and turn anxiety into art?
Vocal Curation Team
Published 7 days ago in Resources
Vocal's Community Investment Round Webinar
The end of Vocal's Reg CF round is just around the corner (12/15/23), and I’m excited to invite you all to join and participate in our webinar on 12/12/23 at 2:00PM EST.
Justin @ Vocal
Published 7 days ago in Resources
Unveiling the Winners of the 2023 Vocal Writing Awards 🥁
We've judged, you've judged, and we've all waited... It's finally time to announce the winners of the 2023 Vocal Writing Awards! This year's winners, comprised of the highest caliber works across 8 categories — haiku poetry, free verse poetry, romance fiction, young adult fiction, horror fiction, fantasy fiction, science fiction, and flash fiction — are so worth the read.
Vocal Curation Team
Published 11 days ago in Resources
Under a Spell Challenge Winners
What makes a spell? That’s what we found ourselves thinking as we read Madi Haywood’s terrific winning story, The March of the Women. It begins with the — very real — words of Ethyl Smyth’s 1911 ’‘March of the Women’ — a song which became the anthem of the movement to get women the vote in Britain. In this stirring piece of historical fiction, Haywood not only uses wonderful images (“The short heels on their worn boots clicked the ground together, a harmonious thunder that echoed and cracked around them”) but also creates a real sense that Smyth’s song is a spell, something that has a power beyond words, that works on its own so that those who hear it cannot resist. “Once the song had begun, it couldn’t be stopped,” Haywood writes. “As long as they sung while doing their work, they couldn’t get caught.” An unusual winner, perhaps — there are no clichés of witches here, no magic in the ordinary sense. But Madi Haywood has truly absorbed the spirit of this challenge and made it their own.
Vocal Curation Team
Published 12 days ago in Resources
Vocal Bonus Leaderboard: 11/15/2023
We really appreciate all our creators who've shared their stories and connected with the Vocal community this past week. We're pleased to offer a bonus to these standout contributors as a little "thank you" for their hard work.
Vocal Team
Published 13 days ago in Resources
Vocal Creator Chat: 11/14/2023
Have questions about creating stories, growing your audience, and getting rewarded on Vocal? The Vocal community and team are here to help answer your questions and feedback together.
Vocal Creator Chat
Published 14 days ago in Resources
📢 Raise Your Voice Thread: 11/9/2023
Our “Raise Your Voice Threads” are hosted every other Thursday at 12PM ET to offer creators more avenues to uncover exceptional stories on Vocal. As we are continuously searching for fresh creators and inspiring stories, this thread provides an opportunity to exchange and discuss the stories that have moved and motivated us on Vocal.
Raise Your Voice by Vocal
Published 19 days ago in Resources
Nourished Challenge Winners
We love to eat here at Vocal. We’re not fussy; we’re fine with a bowl of popcorn in front of the TV on a rainy afternoon, especially if we’re in the right company. Sometimes a crisp apple on a fall day does the trick. But food made with love is something special, something unique, and the Nourished challenge showed us how many different ways there are to express love and affection by what gets served on a plate.
Vocal Curation Team
Published 19 days ago in Resources