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New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Craft Over Catharsis Challenge Winners
Craft Over Catharsis? What the hell does that even mean? The phrase came out of a curation meeting as a genuine question. We had been noticing that many challenge entries, across prompts, naturally gravitate toward trauma, grief, and personal reckoning. That makes sense. Writing is often cathartic. It's one of the ways we process what we've lived through.
By Vocal Curation Team10 days ago in Resources
Where there's Art there's Heart
Here's a stupid thing: I adore art, but I start to panic whenever I step into a gallery. In the one place I should be at my contented best - surrounded by walls teeming with creative expression - I fall apart. What ought to be an enriching experience, tacitly designed to facilitate the exploration of human empathy and perspective, is for me an overwhelming purgatory of anxiety that compresses me to the point I cannot breathe. At the same time, I experience a sense of extraction, as though my head is being prized open to create a hole so big my sanity could evaporate. Somewhere between these two opposing forces of vice and vortex, I feel myself dissolving in a stream of panic that makes me want to cry; and I feel so daft feeling this way, that all I want to do is run for the hills.
By Caroline Jane12 days ago in Humans
Unofficial Challenge: What would you do if you were rich?
I love the kind of work I get to do in my career, but as I job search and browse apartments again due to another understaffed and unsustainable work environment that I did not intend to get into, my daydreams of better days consistently lean into the same question: What would I do if I didn't have to worry about my basic needs being met?
By Kay Husnick11 days ago in Writers
'Till Death We Do Art
There would be nothing divine in this world without art. Nature may surpass the divine to all intents and purposes, but like everything it absorbs and is absorbed by, it remains here, stuck on the surface of this world, ever-present, physically bound to the universe.
By Avocado Nunzella BSc (Psych) -- M.A.P 12 days ago in Art
Goodbye, Mr. Duvall
It is turning out to be an interesting year. I was in the middle of teaching a class when a pop-up appeared on the screen announcing the death of Mr. Robert Seldon Duvall (yes, that was his full name). I was in the middle of a discussion on the obsession we have with winning when it comes to sports (the Winter Olympics was a theme), and I felt as though things were coming full circle. We had already lost Gene Hackman last year, and along with that titan, it feels though one particular golden age has closed off to be replaced by...?
By Kendall Defoe 12 days ago in Geeks
Valentine's Dates Over the Years
Colin grinned as Brooklyn slipped into the living room. “Is it all set?” he asked. The twenty-one year old grinned. She was in her last year of college and Colin knew that Lincoln was proud of her. Although she had been away at college, she’d eagerly helped Colin plan his surprise for Lincoln. “I’m so glad you’re finally doing this,” she said.
By Reb Kreyling16 days ago in Chapters
Draft Deleting? Don't Do It!
Today, I had a little time. I decided that I would have a look at the drafts that I have on Vocal. This is part of a long-term wish to have everything I've written on paper rather than virtually. I've not looked at them for weeks and something drew me to them, just to browse and see what was there.
By Rachel Deeming14 days ago in Writers
The Cave Part 6
If you have ever heard a tale about yourself that you cannot remember and doubtless think is made up, you will know how I felt when Tharkin related all that the eagle had seen of me before my memories were scattered. Of far distances and traveling companions that I did not recall, camping out under the stars and making our way to the mountains with deliberate purpose. The great bird had lost contact with my party once we entered the forests, and the seven other members were not seen again by him or his brethren since.
By Jamye Sharp13 days ago in Chapters
Think for Me
"How do you calculate the circumference of a circle? Submit your answer when ready." [Pause] "Excellent! Every student was able to call up the answer electronically very quickly. If I, as a robot had feelings, I would express pride. You may break for lunch. Return to this cyber room in 45 minutes."
By Julie Lacksonen15 days ago in Humans
