One neat thing about writing on Vocal is that they have different challenges you can enter. Right now there are 8 Challenges related to books that are always on Summer Reading Lists every year. For example, the first challenge was related to “Charlotte’s Web,” and you had to write a short story that includes a barn. You don’t have to write about the book. You just had to include a barn in your short story.

I thought entering these challenges would be a good way to challenge me to write more short stories. It gives me a topic. It gives me a deadline. And it gives me a chance to get more of my writing out there.

So far I’ve entered 3 of the 8 challenges. My short story, “A Kid in the Barn,” is my entry in the “Charlotte’s Web” challenge which I wrote specifically for the challenge.

The 2nd challenge was related to the book, “Matilda,” and you had to write about chocolate cake. I wrote “The Mystery of Mississippi Mud” for that challenge inspired by a cake my mom used to make when I was a kid.

The 3rd challenge had to include a suspicious package wrapped in brown paper which comes from “The Phantom Tollbooth,” which I’ve never read, by the way. My story, “Unclaimed Ashes,” is a rewrite of a story I wrote last year when I was doing my own challenge and attempting to write 10 stories in 10 weeks. I plan to do a rewrite of another story for an upcoming challenge.

Anyway, if you’d like to read any of these, please click on the image below. Be sure to click on the heart at the bottom of each story if you enjoyed it!