Official (Unofficial) Rules for the Ekphrastic Challenge Part 2!

Your photos are so BEAUTIFUL! We got 14 gems and I’m very excited to announce the assignments for the writing part of this challenge. Oh, and before I forget to mention it, I WILL be doing this again in the future, so if anybody missed it, no worries. I’ll be back in the fall!

Without wanting to bore you, I basically had two lists, one of creators and one of photos, and the number generator served to assign the photos to the creators, the latter of whom were in alphabetical order and numbered 1-14. It took like 5 minutes and no favorites were played!

To reiterate my last article on the subject, I will be judging this challenge purely on the photo assignments that I’ve published here. No trades, and please be respectful of the photographers. 😀

Check out the end of the article for the photo assignments!

The Criteria

For the writing itself, I’m open to stories and poetry.

• Fiction: between 800 and 1500 words. (Not super fussy about this. I won't be checking. Just length "vibes.")
• Poetry: between 1-3 pages.

ADD A SONG IF YOU WANT! (Not part of judging. Optional.)

If you have a mind to, add a song to your story or poem. Ideally, this song is relevant to your piece in some way. Include the title and the artist in whatever format you see fit, from it being in the title, the narration, dialogue, split across lines or paragraphs, etc..

If I get enough songs, I'll compile a playlist at the end of this challenge and use it in the winner’s article. Who knows? I might even create a different challenge using that playlist… 🙃 But, only do it if you think this would be fun and cool!

The Rubric

Total: 110 points.

Story/poem contains an arc of some kind = 50 total points.

Story/poem is based on the photo = 40 total points.

• Takes any clear element in the photo and incorporates it into the story/poem = 20 pts.
• Story/poem complements the photo in a satisfying way (i.e., the two go together well) = 10 pts.
• Photo adds meaning to story/poem and doesn’t become superfluous to it = 10 pts.

Story/poem clearly demonstrates a unique and careful thought process. 20 total points.

Please note: This is essentially the same rubric as the first iteration of this challenge. I edited it for clarity and to include poetry.

Prizes!

YES there will be prizes!!

• 1st Place: $25.00
• 2nd Place: $15.00
• 2 Runners-Up: $5.00 each

I'll send these as tips, unless anybody has Ko-Fi or a different payment method they prefer.

Other Rules

• Download and use your assigned photo as your featured image. (Download from here)
• Credit the photographer!
• Fiction is between 800 and 1500 words. (Again, not checking this.) Poetry is between 1-3 pages.
• No submission limit.
• Highest scores win. Creators can only win with one submission.
• The deadline is July 21st at 11:59 MST.

This is gonna be so fun! I hope you are all excited as I am! I will be posting one or two reminders as time progresses, and will post them to Discord as well as Vocal itself.

Happy writing!

Any questions or comments? Just let me know!

(The Tag! Photo Challenge will be readdressed once this one concludes. For those who couldn't commit, this will interest you, particularly! The folder is open for the next 6 weeks, and possibly longer, until I write the challenge/prompt article.)

The Photo Assignments!

Alexander McEvoy =

Andrei Z. =

Christy Munson =

D.K. Shepard =

Donna Fox =

Gerard DiLeo =

Nagoh Creative =

Judey Kalchik =

Kenny Penn =

Lamar Wiggins =

Leslie Writes =

Natalie Wilkinson =

Paul Stewart =

14 Suze Kay =

Also, isn't the featured image so interesting? It's just mesmerizing...