Birthday Writing Challenge

It's my birthday next month, and to celebrate, I'm organizing a challenge!

Read (or Listen to) Me

I'd love to write some flash pieces for you, so please leave me prompts and whatnot in the comments! I'll write at least 500 words and post them here on Vocal. Fantasy, sci-fi and horror are my go-to genres. Romance I usually take with a mix of SFF, though occasionally I'm able to write random cute encounters and sappy stuff.

Or, if you would rather, I'm happy to offer what I've been calling a serenade (because I sing to vegetables while I cook them, and laundry while I fold them 😂), samples of which can be found on my TikTok. My repertoire's mostly Disney and Broadway/showtunes, but I'm always happy to learn new songs, I just might take a little longer recording and posting them.

Just comment below on what you'd like! You can be as general or as specific as you want. (This, for example, had the prompts fantasy + enemies to lovers + "fact 17 about this story: nothing happens in it.")

Write With Me

I'm here for more stories to read, so if you'd rather write along, then let's do it! Just take a look through the comments (or the list I've compiled at the end of this post), write something, and make someone's wish for a story come true.

Write For Me

If you're looking to flex your writing muscles and don't mind writing something for me instead, then here are some prompts for you to pick and take inspiration from!

Some of my favorite tropes and themes include:

1. Anything time travel.
2. Unusual fairytale retellings.
3. Lesser-known folklore and mythology. I love Norse mythology (I've written a series after all) as well as Greek and Roman and Egyptian, but yeah, I think they're a little overdone by now.
4. Reincarnated lovers. Bonus if the focus is less on the romance and more on the surrounding circumstances. Maybe there's a bigger plot at play. Maybe things aren't what everyone thinks they are.
5. Soulmates who have lost each other before and are getting a second chance at finally being together. I love some angst and emotional tension.

If you're the musical type of person, here are some song prompts:

1. Helfire - Okay, so I wrote and performed this, but hey, this is the time for me to make a wishlist, and I'd flip if anyone wrote anything to it!
2. Nocturnal - One of my fave songs. Slowburn forbidden love vibes.
3. River Flows in You - This is just significant to me for personal reasons.
4. Your God is Dead - Did I mention I love cinematic songs and trailer music?
5. Sparks Fly - The obligatory Taylor Swift song prompt.

If you're visual, here are some images!

Request List

Because I need a way to keep track, but also it's just nice to have an index of all that's been requested and created in response to this challenge! 🥳

• Historical/period romance. Pride and Prejudice-esque preferred but not required.
• Thriller or mystery or something psychological. Isolation is involved.
• Fantasy or scifi with a little romance and action. Spooky/autumn vibes. The male love interest is shorter.
• Romance. In a classic record shop, two people share a listening booth to enjoy the same vinyl record... but on different timelines.
• Something Sherlock Holmes-esque.
• A zombie story.
• A time travel portal romance.
• Mythology mashup.
• A death-focused being meets up with someone else whose focus is either memory or the future.

And in a separate category, because these are all The Prophecies of Ragnarok (and short stories) related:

• Something about Jolene.
• Something about Hodr and Hel.
• Something about Baldr and one of the Valkyries.

So yeah, comment away and let's all have fun writing and reading for the rest of this month and October! 🤪