Vocal Curation Team
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Collaborative, conscious, and committed to content. We're rounding up the best that the Vocal network has to offer.
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Unexpected Uncovering Challenge Winners
This Challenge inspired some incredibly inventive unexpected uncoverings! And we know this is no simple feat as it's never easy to destabilize a relationship in a fresh and new way. From serious illnesses to serial killers on the weekends to silly little traits that grow to become impossible to ignore, we never knew there were so many ways to be surprised by a partner.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Sensational Challenge Winners
At Vocal, we're always going on and on about the freedoms of limitation and how walls and decisions and editing make great art. But sometimes you just need to let your creative hair down, throw some paint at the wall. This was one of our more open prompts, free for interpretation, few limits, just give us a poem, a sense of the senses.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Polish Your Prose: Vocal's Writing Tips Crib Sheet
At Vocal, we’re keen to help you succeed in your work—not just in Challenges, but throughout all of your writing across the site. To that end, we’ve put together a few notes on the fundamentals of punctuation, dialogue, and grammar. Really, it’s about getting a handle on those fiddly bits of language and mysterious laws of prose (and, let’s face it, we could all use the occasional reminder). Of course, the rules of grammar are only a beginning, and most of all we want you to develop your own unique and exciting voice; but if you’re ever in doubt about errant commas or pesky apostrophes, we hope it can be of help. Happy writing!
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Sky's The Limit Challenge Winners
Who knew so many things could fly? From birds to planes, vampires to blimps, spaceships to souls, we read an incredible array of flight-themed stories. One common aspect of many submissions was to use time in flight for thought. Scorned lovers worked out their feelings, evil doers schemed, children dreamed. There's something about planes specifically that leave us feeling liminal. Can't do much up there at 35,000 feet so may as well work out what's been on our mind. We loved this take on the prompt because it was so true to reality. But we always love a lot about our Creators' submissions, from your fresh protagonists and deep life lessons to the (somehow) new ways you come up with to describe a sunset.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Tautogram Challenge Winners
Write a poem where every word starts with the same letter. Seems simple enough. After all, a poem can be... anything. How hard can it be? Well, we tried and, turns out, it's really hard! Sure, stringing some words together that begin with the same letter is easy, but creating a poetic energy, a story, a feeling, that's hard, really hard.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Broken Mirror Challenge Winners
What makes a mirror so primed for horror? What is it about looking at ourselves that is so discomfiting? As humans, we contain so much beneath the surface and yet we are made to contain it all, pretty much always. And so, we have our faces, our bodies, what we present to the world, but that's just the surface, that's not really what's going on. All of the real stuff, the thoughts, the desires, the lies, the truths, they need to be let out, actively, brought up to our mouths, spoken, shown off. We need to bring our insides out.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Ludicrous Limerick Challenge Winners
What an incredibly fun Challenge this was! As always, limitation bred sheer lyrical brilliance! Limericks are meant to be on the nose, to hit you hard and fast, to make you laugh, think and smile instantly. So, we'll keep our praise and musings short because dissecting a limerick is like dissecting a sunset; just let it be beautiful. We're even adding a few more Honorable Mentions to this post because y'all crushed this Challenge.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Tall Tail Challenge Winners
This Challenge was a fun little twofer! Write a story about a talking animal but make it quick! 1,000 words or less was all you had to make an animal talk. We are particularly fond of Challenges with shorter word limits because we often see in them some of the most creative entries. There's something about limitation that makes humans sharper, more creative, especially when it comes to art.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Share Your Ideas to Shape the Future of Vocal Challenges
As a community-driven platform, we love getting creators involved in the process of creating awesome content. One of the ways we do that is through our Challenges. Challenges are an excellent way for creators to flex their creative muscles, develop their writing skills, and engage with their audience through different writing forms.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
Let's Talk About Tautograms
A tautogram is a type of wordplay where all the words in a piece of text start with the same letter. For example, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" is a tautogram because the words start with the letter "P."* Tautograms are not only fun to say and create a playful rhythm, but they can also be a useful tool for writers to develop their writing skills. In this resource, we'll discuss the unique value of tautograms for writers and provide some steps for deciding which letter to use.
By Vocal Curation Team3 years ago in Resources
