A Very Vocal Beauty Pageant — Unofficial Challenge (Non-V+ Welcome!)

October 7th Update: It seems that I made the rules sound more complicated than necessary (Again! -Sigh-). Added a TL;DR section to the rules.

Half of the Honorable mentions will be assigned randomly, so newer members and last-minute entries can still win something!

Some time ago, Sara Wilson shared a post highlighting some of her favorite stories in the Blush Community. It was a bit that captured the spirit of her Sharing The Spotlight series.

Now, I don't particularly care for the Blush community and, sadly, wasn't a Vocal member yet when Sara was writing her series.

Still, I absolutely loved her idea and reading that post!

You can check it out here, by the way!

I wish more people were taking the time to promote fellow creators, especially instead of wasting it complaining about the lack of engagement with their own work.

Vocal has an amazing writers' community, and it deserves to be celebrated, one writer at a time. And now that my little guy is steadily going to kindergarten daycare, I have the time to do a little more about it.

I want to launch my own version of Sara's Sharing The Spotlight series.

I want to delve into the deep end of your writing, figure out what I love about you and where you shine, then compile a reading list of recommendations and present it to the community. It sounds like tons of fun!

But who should I start with?

...

Help!

...

Oh, wait, I have an idea: let's have a beauty pageant about it!!

And since you are all equally beautiful to me (and totally not because I think cross-community posts are too hard to judge), I will not be judging this one.

RULES:

• What to write: Anything! It can be poetry, fiction, non-fiction; even listicles are a go! Do whatever you do best: let your work showcase your talent.

The only "hard" rule is that it has to be about you and about beauty. Somehow, someway, any way. You define how. But if it is too vague, be ready to explain how.

And, of course, it has to be posted to the relevant community.

• How long: The minimum length is the one allowed by the community (and tag) you choose, and the maximum length is whatever Vocal will let you. Express yourself: go nuts!

• How many submissions: For this one, I will allow up to 3 submissions per person, BUT only 1 per type: poem, fiction, and non-fiction. If you post several of the same type (say 6 poems, for example) and don't make it explicit which one you want to compete with, I will count only the first one you posted, but I will probably read all of them.

• Prizes:

1st prize: 10 USD + becoming the subject of my first "Casting a Spotlight" (working title) post.

2nd prize: 5 USD + becoming the subject of my second "Casting a Spotlight" (working title) post.

3rd prize: 2 USD + becoming the subject of my third "Casting a Spotlight" (working title) post.

Depending on participation, there will also be up to 10 honorable mentions, awarded 1 USD each. And I will assign some of them randomly (leaning towards half), so new members or last-minute entries can still get a prize!

• Payment details: Vocal+ members will receive their payment through Vocal tips.

Non-V+ members: You are kindly invited to create and share an account where I can safely tip you. There are a lot of possible services online: Ko-fi, Buy me a coffee, Gumroad, Fourthwall, Patreon, and Payhip are some of these; check them out!

If you are unable to set up one of these services, I am willing to send you an Amazon gift card as a last resort. If you cannot agree to any of these options, nor have any ideas of your own that I can agree to (there will be no PayPal or bank transfers), unfortunately, I'll have to forfeit the monetary part of your prize.

TL;DR:

1. Write me one poem, one piece of fiction, and/or one piece of non-fiction. It has to be about beauty AND about you in a way that you can explain.

2. Engage in more conversation with your readers 'cause I'll be counting all not-spammy-looking comments (1 long meaningful conversation beats many short ones) to determine the winner.

3. Get rewarded with money, extra reads, and a little promotion on my account.

Technicalities:

1. I'd like you to write something new and not previously published.

2. Please make sure your subtitle says "A Very Vocal Beauty Pageant — Unofficial Challenge (Non-V+ Welcome!)", or a variation of it: I'd like you to spread the word as much as possible so more people can join in!

3. Please have a link to this article posted at some point in your story: same reason as above.

4. All entries must be linked (or at least their full name written) in a comment to this post, so I can retrieve them easily.

5. Drop your comment here before November 2nd, 2026, 23:59 YTZ (That's Your Time Zone). Although we all know you can still squeeze it in by Tuesday the 3rd at about 10:00 a.m. Amsterdam time, or until I've had my second coffee.

6. How are winners decided? I will calculate the "score" of each post based on the number of organic comments it gets, and then assign prizes based on that score.

7. Ok, but how is this score calculated? When I sit down for my second coffee on Tuesday, I'll take screenshots of the comment section of each story. Then I'll assign 1 point for each comment that begins a thread, and half a point for each comment that continues it. Yes, engaging with your readers for a long conversation is worth more than piling up new one-time readers. Comments by V+ and non-V+ members are worth the same. Comments by obvious spambots are excluded. Comments by the author themselves will be counted UNLESS they behave in a spammy way (i.e., writing a first-level comment themselves for no apparent reason, "accidentally" duplicating answers, dragging emojis, having a conversation with themselves, etc.) Every comment that appears like it makes sense will be counted. The whole purpose here is to create engagement inside the community, and a writer who invests their time in doing so by having meaningful conversations with their readers should be rewarded. You are not only allowed but highly encouraged to purposefully engage in more conversation than usual.

8. What if, somehow, there is a tie? In case of a tie, the number of hearties will be the tiebreaker. If those are somehow the same number too, then the universe has spoken, and I shall not go against it. Two prizes of the same type will be assigned, article included.

1. When will winners be announced? I have no clue! But I very much hope to announce them within the same week, possibly that same Tuesday. Winners will be announced in a separate post, and tips will be distributed within 48 hours of the victory announcement. Non-V+ members who don't have payment systems linked to their profile will be requested to contact me through social media to discuss alternatives.

Now that all that needed to be said has been said: good luck, have fun, be your best writing selves!

I'll post the entries here as soon as there are any: