2024: Officially, the Year of the Unofficial

A little over a year ago, I began writing on Vocal. I had an existing account from the time a former teacher of mine posted a few stories. I didn't give it much thought beyond that. I write, but just sometimes, and usually just for fun, and usually to enter friendly competitions. It was rare for me to share my writing with "IRL" (in-real-life) friends and family. My writing felt private, or at least it wanted to stay private until I knew it was "good enough."

Then, I was laid off from my job. I'd been doing the same thing for 8 years and suddenly I wasn't doing that anymore. Two trains of thought competed for space in my brain. First, I needed to get a job, any job, a job that paid me enough to live and I wouldn't be too scared of doing. Second, hey, maybe it's time to make writing a "thing," like, the kind of thing I do for cash.

That second train of thought prompted me to Google my way through developing an online portfolio. Developing a portfolio means I need to look like I've been writing a while. That means I needed to get writing. That's how I stumbled back into Vocal.

I definitely write best with prompts, and the dollar amounts on Vocal's challenges were still pretty jaw-dropping at the time. So, why not? The Vocal+ subscription was a reasonable investment in myself. I promised, and really meant it, that I would enter all of the challenges. That way, I'd get my money's worth in prompts, and even if I never, ever win, I'll have built a body of work. If I don't like it, I can give it up after a year.

I guess I should have had a little more confidence in myself, yeah?

Winning first-place in the Holiday Hijinks Challenge flipped some switches in my brain. It helped me realize that there's something real about Vocal. There are real people writing, AND real people reading. There are plenty of places I could bombard with low-effort content for free in hopes of getting recognition from SEO algorithms. That's not what's going on here. (Well, okay, SEO is sort of inescapable, but that's another story.) "Sleeping Through Thanksgiving" resonated with people, and even though it didn't fit the challenge prompt to a T, someone liked it enough to push it through. Someone I didn't even know read my work and thought it was worthy, put it in front of other people, and other people agreed. Holy cow.

After that shot in the arm, I started 2023 by renewing my promise to enter every challenge I could. In recent months, I have given myself a little grace about skipping challenges that don't speak to me or for which I just don't have time. But, I sure did enter a lot of challenges. I racked up another first-place, a second-place, and two runner-ups as well as a couple Top Stories. Confidence: built. Portfolio: growing. Family: proud. This is the first year I've really focused on writing. While I'm not as consistent as the people doing this for a living, I've proven to myself that I can do it.

So, what's in store for 2024? Over the past few months I've noticed more and more unofficial challenges popping up. When I first came to Vocal, I wasn't sure that I'd dig into the community aspect. I felt a bit disconnected, and that was okay. Now, these user-hosted challenges are scratching an itch I didn't know I had. Time for a tangent:

Growing up on the Internet, I was a member of various forums where other young people (who didn't even have prize money to give) engaged in friendly competitions all the time. My main hangout was a website called Roliana where you had your own avatar (like a dress-up doll) and just chatted about whatever. There was a loose story, a fantasy world, some magical characters and stuff... but those were mostly an excuse to hold themed events. Themed events came with art contests, writing contests, crafting and photography contests, hosted by young adults and sometimes just kids who loved their online community. I hosted several microfiction challenges there myself, specifically "hint fiction" contests. That stuff was really, really fun.

Back to Vocal, the unofficial challenge are getting me fired up again. You might not be able to tell from looking at my profile that "my genre" is actually horror. The first challenge I entered, Heather Hubler's "Write me a letter", immediately inspired me to write a stalker letter. It felt good. (That's probably not something one should stay about writing a stalker letter, but here we are.) I was able to ride the horror mood a little further with the Vocal + Assist "Unreliable Narrator" challenge hosted by Rick Henry Christopher. I'd never written an unreliable narrator before. I'm really proud of what I wrote ("She Was Emma" even got a Top Story!), and I was excited to read the other entries. I have so much to learn from all of you!

Thirdly was Paul Stewart's "Unnerve, Unsettle, And Scare Me" Challenge. I went into it like: oh, I'll unsettle you. That's what I DO. But... my brain didn't cooperate on that one. For days and days I just couldn't come up with anything suitably scary. Go figure. So I turned it into an opportunity to take a stab at a premise I've been thinking about for years. I'll need to revisit it, but I'm grateful to Paul and his challenge prompt for getting me to finally put the idea on paper. (Well, "paper.")

My Resolution:

In 2024, I'm going to keep an eye out for the unofficial challenges, and enter as many of them as I can. I want to say, "I'll enter ALL of them!" but let's not set the bar so high I end up crying about it. I'm very much one of those "better under pressure" and "last minute entry" creatives. (And here I am entering a challenge the second day after it's announced. Good omen, much?)

I would also like to host a challenge myself! I don't have any ideas yet, but I've got all year, right?

I'm starting the year off strong with the "Send me a photo!" challenge by Mackenzie Davis. I even managed to submit a photo with several hours to spare. Go, me! With the Writers community on Vocal up and running, I'll be watching like a hawk for new prompts. These user-hosted events put a smile on my face and remind me of some good times. Let's create more memories together in 2024, Vocal family!