It’s Not Rigged—It’s Just Writing

This follows on from my recent entry into Harper Lewis’ “It’s Not Fair!!!!” rogue challenge thingy.

Winning isn’t everything. I know—easy for the guy whose profile page is as busy as Grand Central, King’s Cross, or Shinjuku Station with challenge placement badges. Yes, I have 37 to be exact. Six wins, five of which came within the last six months.

It may sound patronising, but it’s not. And even if it were, it would still be true.

If you got into writing solely to win prizes and ass scratches, then I wish you well. I will quietly judge you, though.

Winning badges and monetary gains should not be the sole reason you get into writing. If, though, like so many others, you’re sitting there thinking, “But Paul, I’ve not won anything yet. I love writing, but don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” I hear you.

So… why do people get annoyed?

It is quite commonplace on Vocal—maybe other places too, but most of my experience comes from Vocal—for people to bemoan not winning challenges, not placing, or not getting Top Stories. I think it’s completely fair to feel that way, to a degree. We all feel a deep sense of pride and connection to our work—or at least we should. So it’s only natural to want it to succeed. I have, and still do, feel the same. I’ve discussed this before in a separate piece.

But it’s a double-edged sword.

One of the complaints I’ve seen a lot—and one I used to share before adjusting my perspective—is: “Why is it always the same people winning?” That’s not entirely false. If you look at the results pages for the last ten challenges (which I didn’t, but I know roughly who’s been placing, including myself), you’ll see many of the same names appearing. Sometimes repeatedly.

Is this some massive conspiracy? A sign of favouritism?

Well… no.

Is it actually a fix?

Since we’re talking about Vocal, we need to consider their stated process. Justin released a piece explaining more about how Top Stories and challenge winners are selected.

One of the major takeaways is that judging is done blind.

You can criticise it—but…

Now, we can debate whether that’s true or not until the cows come home and are slaughtered for delicious, succulent steaks. But the simple fact is: we only have Vocal’s word. And if we choose to enter challenges on the platform, then we’re choosing to accept that framework. Now I know you might be thinking, "I accept the framework and the system, but can still criticise it!" Yes, and I think you should. Maybe changes will come.

But until they do. Whether it is or isn’t true becomes, at this point, a moot question.

So, setting that aside, I want to address something else. When people constantly complain about being “overlooked” or say “it’s always the same people winning,” can you see how that might come across as a bit insulting to those who put in the work, improve their craft, and are rewarded for it? Now I know you can counter this with "Paul, I'm not criticising the winners, I'm criticising the system!" That's fair, but it can still hurt the writers who win. Continue to push against the system, if you believe it is unfair.

In any competition, there will always be winners and losers—or else what’s the point? With Vocal challenges right now, you have five chances at the top prize, fifteen runner-up spots, and ten honourable mentions. That’s twenty places in total. That’s actually quite generous.

Before anyone starts to moan about how the prizes used to be larger—I hear you. But that’s not the discussion today.

This isn’t tennis

The thing people need to remember is that writing—and artistic competitions in general—are very different from sports.

In sports, performance on the day determines the outcome. The best player in a tennis match is the one who wins it. There’s a definitive answer to who was better that day.

Same with football, basketball, and so on.

With writing, it’s different.

Yes, the top twenty pieces in a Vocal challenge are selected as “the best”—but that’s based on judges’ opinions. It doesn’t necessarily mean your entry was a big steaming pile of shite if it didn’t place.

It just means it wasn’t picked.

I’ve lost count of how many times someone has said to me—or I’ve said to someone—“I can’t believe the judges overlooked this piece.” When I say it, I usually replace “judges” with “bastids,” because I can be an arsehole.

But more often than not, when I actually read the winning pieces, I can see why they won. They deserved it.

There will always be winners and losers. I don’t like being a loser, but even with my arithmophobia, I understand the maths.

So what can you do?

Well… not a lot.

Wait—that doesn’t sound very encouraging, does it?

Alright. What you can do is keep going.

It took me a long time to win my first challenge. And even though I was completely certain I was the best writer since sliced bread when I started posting fiction and poetry on Vocal… it’s unlikely I was.

The uncomfortable truth

I may have had ideas. I may have had creativity. But the craft needed work.

That’s how I view my increase in wins. It wasn’t that Vocal was ignoring me—it was that my writing started connecting better with the judges.

We don’t know who the judges are, so there’s no way to game the system—and why would you want to?

I haven’t fundamentally changed my approach. I still take left-field angles. I still avoid the obvious routes. I still write what I want to write.

But I have improved.

That’s the difference.

And I know some people reading this will still be thinking, “Easy for you to say. It’s a fix.”

Well—thank you for your feedback.

What a pleasant individual you are.

If you genuinely want some advice as to how you might improve your chances, then it is always worth reading the winning, runner-up and honourable mention pieces. That’s not just me saying it—look at any competition or publication looking for submissions and they will offer the same advice, check out the pieces that do win or do get published. No one is suggesting you change your style or ideas to suit what the judges have chosen in the past, but it might help you understand where your craft may be lacking.

I am just some idiot from Scotland, so I fully understand you may just have rolled your eyes into the back of your head after that section, but that doesn't stop it being true.

So you can either give up and say "It's a fix" or keep doing what you're doing and keep trying to write the best thing you can for whatever challenge you are entering.

It's up to you.