You’ve just submitted a story you’ve been working tirelessly on for the past week. Every word, image, and concept is polished to perfection and you know that it’s going to be your key to success.

Neal has been part of our community for a while now. His love for storytelling goes way back—from newspapers and magazines, to short stories, novels, and tabletop roleplaying games, he’s done a little bit of everything a time or two. Since joining Vocal, his stories have captivated many, but especially those in our Gamers and Geeks communities. Neal is what we could say an RPG extraordinaire, and has shared this, and many other insights, through his stories on Vocal time and time again. We had the opportunity to learn more about him and his passions and are excited to share this with you.

It’s our goal at Vocal to provide all our creators and readers with the highest quality user experience. For this reason, everyone who uses the platform has to agree on some ground rules to be sure that we can all enjoy a consistent understanding on a safe community. These rules are outlined in our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines, and we encourage all of our creators to take a look at them to be sure that we all understand what’s expected.

Today we’re excited to introduce Challenges, a new way for creators to get inspired and join the rest of the Vocal community in some friendly competition. Starting this week, creators will be able to participate in various Challenges across a range of topics and interests for the chance to win cash prizes, experiences, and much more.

There’s no one right way to tell a story. Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes, and we want to see what yours looks like. Challenges are meant to inspire this creativity, and we want to see you tell a story that’s unique and authentic to you—but there are just a few things we look for across the board to be sure we’re judging every entry consistently and fairly.

How do I submit a new entry to a Challenge?

Courtney Lowry may be small in stature, but she’s making big waves in the Vocal community. A recent SCAD graduate majoring in Photography, Courtney views the world in a unique lens. With a focus in black and women’s rights, and a passion for dispelling the stigmas surrounding mental health, Courtney has moved her audience and challenged them to think critically about the world around them. Check out her thoughtful responses in her Creator Spotlight.

Leigh Hooper has been a Vocal creator for a year and a half now. You may recognize her from her pop culture insights, or reflections on life, or her candid anecdotes and poetry. We’ve been a fan of Leigh’s for a while, but she really caught our attention with her new series, “Tunes To Get Grooving To” on Beat. We decided to get to know a bit more about her and her creative journey—and we can’t wait for you to meet her too.

We've always said that you, our creators, are our partners—you're the ones who make it possible for us to continue to build a community and platform for storytelling. Writers, musicians, podcasters, videographers, bloggers, and creatives of all types have shared their stories with us this year, and pushed us to work hard to make Vocal a better home for your stories.

It’s that time of the year again, people! As we get ready to close off 2019 (hello 2020!) we’re looking back at what this year has meant for the Vocal community. Not only has our platform gone through some big updates over the course of this year, but we’ve been excited to welcome many new creators and help them share their stories. Thanks to these stories, we’ve discovered new artists, picked up a few hobbies, taken several notes on how to actually practice self-care, and so much more.

Justin quickly caught the attention of creators on Vocal with his helpful photography tips and guides. We’ve been looking forward to learning something new with every story that he’s submitted—and more recently have been very excited to learn about his thoughts outside of photography, including travel and social media. Creators like him help others in our community push their creativity forward, and for that we are incredibly grateful. We got to chat with Justin and learn a bit more about his passion for photography and being a creative—we’re excited to share his spotlight with you!

If you’ve ever seen a beverage that you’ve been too afraid to try but can’t stop thinking about, Alyson’s got you covered. From trying a ranch flavored soda to trendy drinks like Recess, she’s done it all—and will go above and beyond to give you an honest and helpful review that’s also guaranteed to make you laugh. Alyson became a creator earlier this year and quickly caught our attention with her wit and charisma. Her drink recipes saved us from the summer’s worst heat waves, and we can’t wait to add some of her concoctions to our holiday menu! She’s what we would consider our resident beverage queen, so we’re excited to share her Creator Spotlight with you.