Challenge

Stealing From One Storyline to Tell Another Story
Steal From Yourself challenge - Prompt: Return to something you wrote years ago and use one idea, image, character, or line from it to create something entirely new. It's time to dig through your old writing and steal something. Find a story you abandoned, a poem you haven't read in years, a half-finished draft, or something your younger self was very proud of. Somewhere in there is a line, character, image, idea, or tiny detail worth taking. For this challenge, take that one thing and give it another life. Drop an old character into a completely different story. Turn a forgotten line into a poem. Take the best idea from your worst draft and finally do something with it. Don't rewrite the old piece. Rob it. Then use what you stole to make something entirely new.
By Denise E Lindquist19 days ago in Writers
My Voice in the Void.
You don’t mean to end up in this season of your life. You weren’t looking for it. You weren’t chasing it. You weren’t trying to collect men like emotional puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together. But somehow you’re here, standing in the middle of three different kinds of connection, trying not to lose yourself the way you once did. Trying to keep your voice true. Trying not to chase anyone who won’t meet you halfway. Trying to protect your kids, your sanity, your future. Trying to choose yourself without choosing isolation. It’s messy and loud and confusing and real, and it’s yours.
By Syl De'Vil19 days ago in Writers
The Reason AI Writing Tastes Like Nothing
AI flavor: where it comes from and where it goes At 1 a.m., you paste the AI draft into the document. The third paragraph begins with those six characters again: “not... but...” You delete it. Refresh. It puts on a new disguise: “It’s not so much... as...” You set the water glass on the corner of the desk. A ring of tea stain sits at the bottom. You remember the meeting earlier that day. Your boss said, “We need to form a closed loop.” You nodded. Your stomach turned sour.
By Jin21 days ago in Writers
All "You'll Be Missed!" Entries
This challenge was so much fun to put together! I don't know if it is because the entry must be very short, I've started getting responses right away. They were all so wonderfully cheek-in-tongue. Here are all the great entries, in the chronological order they were posted:
By Lana V Lynx22 days ago in Writers
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Stella asked if I could help her with a project she was interested in. Then she explained that she was a commissioner on the local Human Rights commission. I know Stella from her attending water ceremony weekly.
By Denise E Lindquist22 days ago in Writers
144 Million People Use This App. Its Readers Are Gone.
In July 2026, Fanqie Novel had 144 million daily active users, up 6% year over year. Its monthly active users held at 200 million.
By Jin22 days ago in Writers
The Night of the Moving Deer Head
It was sometime in December, I was five years old and deer hunting rifle season was well underway. One day during that particular deer hunting season, my uncle or my older cousin (my aunt and uncle’s son) had successfully gotten a buck. They shot the buck in a secluded field not far from their home.
By Jasmine Aguilar22 days ago in Writers
Green
Grasshoppers sing upon inhaling graves a sweet tune of melted moss and time. The rocky mound is slanted, and from the base of the hill you can hear the crickets mourn. Inside the earth, the insects writhe without struggle or fear that their end is growing near. Instead, they continue their song, their opened-mouth stuffing of the dirt and the possession of the grave. Sloped and splattered with mushrooms and the rich smell of moving damp soil, is where his still body still lies. I put my bony hand against the stone, pretending it's his fleshy palm and request his final rest to be a meaningful one. So rest now, my newest friend, under the crooked necks of the lilies of the valley and the freshly packed soil and allow your soul to travel with mine. Come now friend, Ignore the mourners with their songs and tears they will return each spring to praise your decaying body which will lie here through the years, fresh with a halo of gravel and a crown of flies. Come now friend, ignore the scythe and my eyes as dark as night. I'm here to help to release you from fright.
By Kera Hollow23 days ago in Writers
Before Reading or Listening to Peter Thwing (AI Intro - Grok). AI-Generated.
(This reader’s guide was drafted by Grok, based on a sustained examination of Peter Thwing’s complete published work and shaped through extended conversation about how the essays, stories, series, and podcast function as a connected body of thought.)
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast23 days ago in Writers
Unofficial Vocal Challenges: October 2026
Introduction This list of unofficial Vocal challenges will grow as I find them, so it will be short when this is first published.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 23 days ago in Writers
I have an idea....
I do not know if I mentioned this to anyone here on Vocal or not. I have an idea of taking one my series on this site and turning it into a book. The one I am planning well actually started is the one I titled 'The Mission'. There were 13 installments for Vocal, so I am going to make this a book of 13 chapters with an introduction that this was collection of drabbles with a definition of what a drabble is just for information's sake. Do you think this is a good idea and please share your thoughts.
By Mark Graham24 days ago in Writers
Unnamed Poem
I remember the eyes first— weather-colored, shifting like the sky deciding whether to break open or clear. Eyes that didn’t look at me, but through me, past me, into the places I kept barricaded.
By Syl De'Vil24 days ago in Writers