Time Traveler Challenge Winners

An inside look into the Vocal Curation Team's favorite stories from the Time Traveler Challenge

By Vocal Curation TeamPublished 12 months ago Updated 12 months ago 4 min read
51

We've all thought about it. Going back in time. What would we do? How would our actions alter the present and future? Of course, we can't take credit for this prompt, it's a classic, and for good reason.

We've thought about it a lot and we think what gives this question of altering time such power is its ability to conjure up a plan and then in the next instant have that plan scuttled for fear of some unforeseen consequences. It's being given ultimate power (Kill Hitler? Win the lottery? Bring modern technology back to an ancient civilization and see what happens?!), but your decision might just come back to bite you and the entire world in the throat and so you are brought quickly back to reality, before you can even enjoy the possibilities.

So what do we opt for? The safe route, something positive and personal, small, that clearly can't have any negative consequences, or do we say screw it, let's see what happens to the fabric of the world? We received stories on both ends of this spectrum and everything in between.

Here are the winners of the Time Traveler Challenge. You can check out the full list of winners HERE.

$1,000 Grand Prize Winner

Jordan Flynn for The Music of Time

In the wash room, Aegon looked upon himself in the mirror. He was quite beautiful, dark features, his dark brown hair strong to the root. He could tell that whoever this relative was, was fairly well off for the time. He all but emptied his clutch on the washroom table.

The Music of Time was a terribly fun story to read. It combined so much of what is great about the perils of time travel: trying to gain one's bearings in the past, different time travelers making their way back and forth on the timeline, meeting in the middle, a dual, a great twist that could only be had in the strange space of time travel.

What was most fun about this story was how quickly the rules were given over. Simple, straight forward, yet with purpose. It's tough to create time warp stories, those real, nuts and bolts sci fi stories with all of their rules and laws, especially because so many have been written but also because it's tough for a writer to keep track of it all! How to be fresh, to be new? It takes guts to pull characters (Jack and Rose) from a piece of fiction (Titanic) about a real event (Titanic) and put them at the center of your story. More than guts, it takes creativity and a sense of understanding of how to create a story that is rife with science fiction 'reality' but also grounded in possibility, or at least distant possibility.

And, of course we enjoyed that little extra bit of science fiction known as a Youtube video embedded within the story. Congratulations, Jordan Flynn!

$250 Second Place Winner

Sara Frederick for Brigida

Large and looming, the arch and thrust of the joists make for a perfect hanging place.

Brigida is a story of great loss and even greater understanding, the base of what could, in our humble opinion, be a much longer story, an epic, perhaps. Traveling in time is no easy feat. It's disorienting and never delivers what one expects, at least for any of the characters we've read about. Our protagonist has been under a terrible assumption for hundreds of years, frozen in time and hate, having to manage her feelings all on her own. But then, with the right proportions of desire, truth, anger, love, she is granted access to the place we all want to go, the place that gives us the answers we never knew we wanted, needed. In this instance, it seems that time delivered the unexpected, but in a good way for once.

What makes this story work so well, aside from the sharp writing and full embrace of a foreign dialect (no easy feat, one that often falls flat), is how real the character is. Part witch, all witch, it doesn't matter. The fact is, even a witch must get through the day, even a witch loves and wants to be loved. Even a witch wants pizza. Congratulations, Sara Frederick!

--

Learn more about our current Challenges below:

Challenges
51

About the Creator

Vocal Curation Team

Collaborative, conscious, and committed to content. We're rounding up the best that the Vocal network has to offer.

Reader insights

Nice work

Very well written. Keep up the good work!

Top insight

  1. Excellent storytelling

    Original narrative & well developed characters

Add your insights

Comments (22)

Sign in to comment
  • Dilshad12 months ago

    i write Article above Time Traveler Challenge

  • Fathima Azha12 months ago

    Wow

  • Sara Frederick12 months ago

    Thank you for this very kind critique, as a new writer it's difficult to discern where you go right and where you go wrong, especially when it's your own voice. I really appreciate the insight.

  • Joan Crow12 months ago

    Thanks for the runner-up nod! Really great 1st and 2nd place winners. Very well-deserved.

  • Cathy Deslippe12 months ago

    Congratulations to the writers, your stories are fantastic,

  • Victoria R Rise.12 months ago

    Nice

  • Asim Pervez12 months ago

    nice if you’re interested to learn about materialism than watch out my content https://vocal.media/humans/materialism-4kak00tt

  • Samiullah Zahid 12 months ago

    Nice

  • Rauf Jatt12 months ago

    Awesome

  • Ali Hassan12 months ago

    Congratulations to all

  • Jeff Newman12 months ago

    Congratulations to all the winners! I feel honored to have placed in this challenge with my story The Last 100 Years - which I’m working to complete as a novel. But so many amazing stories submitted! Well done everyone!

  • Naomi Gold12 months ago

    Congrats to all the winners! I’ve been making my way through the list of runner up stories, and I’m amazed by the level of talent. My story didn’t *really* follow the prompt, because I find time travel and all sci-fi incredibly hard to write about—science was always my worst subject in school. 😋

  • Jea Santos-Strong12 months ago

    Congrats to all!

  • Test12 months ago

    Congrats to all of last week's winners! Great stuff!

  • Jordan Flynn12 months ago

    Lol, I was waiting for someone to bring up the Titanic movie angle 😂😂 Thanks you all.

  • Caroline Craven12 months ago

    Yay! Congratulations to everyone!

  • Thavien Yliaster12 months ago

    Why'd this one get republished?

  • Test12 months ago

    Congratulations to the winners :)

  • Cathy holmes12 months ago

    I must be time-travelling. I swear we did this last week.

  • Dana Stewart12 months ago

    Congratulations to all the winners! 🎉

  • Kayla Lindley12 months ago

    Yay! Congrats to all these writers! I can't wait to read -Kayla

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.