A Transparent Look at Vocal Challenges and Top Stories

Almost three years ago, we shared a resource article that served as a place for people to suggest new challenge prompts. We thought it would be a good idea to refresh that thread, and take the opportunity to answer a few common questions about top stories, how challenges are judged and how submissions are reviewed.

Every Qualifying Submission Is Read

First and most importantly, every qualifying submission is read.

If a challenge is tied to a specific community, it's reviewed that way. For example, if we run a haiku challenge for the Poets Community, we are not evaluating pieces that were written for another community. Submissions are reviewed based on the rules, requirements, and intent of that specific prompt.

It may sound obvious, but it's worth stating clearly.

One thing to note is that you will not see a read on your submission reflected in your stats or wallet. That is because challenge entries are reviewed in a separate backend system, not through the standard reader-facing experience on Vocal. Even if no visible read appears on the story itself, qualifying submissions are still being reviewed there.

We also don't moderate challenge submissions before a challenge closes. That means people sometimes submit work that does not match the prompt, the community, the format, or the word count requirements. Those pieces may still appear in the challenge while it is open, but they are not considered during judging if they do not meet the criteria.

Judges Change, but the Standards Stay Consistent

We rotate judges regularly. That helps keep the process fresh and brings different editorial perspectives into the mix over time.

Even as judges change, the standards stay generally the same to keep the process consistent. We are not treating challenge submissions like school assignments with a hyper-detailed rubric. We are looking for pieces that clearly respond to the prompt, follow the challenge requirements, and feel intentional in the way they are written.

Challenge judging is also done blind. Judges review the work without seeing the writer’s identity attached to it, so the focus stays on the piece itself.

Across challenges, we are generally asking the same core questions. Does the piece actually respond to the prompt? Does it follow the structure or format required by the challenge? Does the writing feel controlled and purposeful? Does the piece feel complete within the form it has chosen?

And yes, word count matters. More than a few strong entries have fallen out of the running simply because they missed the stated range.

These guidelines help keep the process fair and consistent while still leaving room for editorial judgment.

Why We Don’t Publish the Full Process

Challenges work best when writers are focused on the prompt itself, not trying to reverse-engineer a scoring system. Publishing every detail would not really make the process better. It would mostly encourage people to write toward what they think we want, instead of writing the strongest possible response to the challenge.

What we can say is straightforward. Each qualifying submission is read. Judging is blind. Entries are reviewed within the same general framework, even as different judges rotate in over time.

How Top Stories Are Selected

Top Stories are selected by our curation team and as many of you are aware they are the primary way stories appear on the front page of Vocal. Every Top Story is chosen by a person, and sometimes we schedule them to go live later so they’re spaced out across the day or week.

There isn’t a strict formula behind these selections. We look for pieces that feel complete and interesting to read, we like to keep a mix of formats like poetry, fiction, and essays in rotation, and try not to feature the same creator more than once a week.

Over the past couple of years, the flood of AI-generated content and spam has made curation harder in some communities. As a result, a few of them have fallen a bit out of the Top Story rotation while we sort through the noise.

Challenge submissions often are selected as Top Stories, but that has no impact on whether or not the piece will place in the challenge. Sometimes a story just works as a great standalone read, even if it didn’t follow the prompt closely enough to qualify.

From time to time we also experiment with themed selections. For example, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 2025 we scheduled a series of Top Stories featuring pieces that had placed in challenges over the previous few years. We might do it again this year, we’ll let you know.

We do pay attention to what our power users are engaging with, but Top Stories aren’t based on clicks alone. It’s just one signal the curation team considers.

Feel like we missed something that should have been Top Storied? Let us know in the latest 📢 Raise Your Voice Thread.

A New Place to Suggest Challenge Ideas

With that in mind, we’re opening a new thread for challenge suggestions. We’re getting ready to release more challenges at the end of the month and would love to hear what kinds of prompts you’d like to see.

If you have an idea for a challenge, consider things like:

A specific form

A constraint or structural rule

A theme that could lead to interesting interpretations

Or just something that aligns with your writing goals in 2026

Your idea can be simple or a little unexpected. If you have a prompt in mind, drop it in the comments below.