It also rankles me that they probably paid her more to be a judge than they’ll be giving out to all the writers for winning. I respect Natalie Portman a lot, but I’m not sure why she has top billing when far more experienced authors and writers are included in the judges' list. This made me believe that the judges were mostly there for star power rather than to provide helpful judging decisions. We don’t even know WHO at Medium would make the decision. They’re an influence, to help “Medium” make the decision. The first warning bell was when they said, “With the help of the judging panel, Medium will select four finalist winners…” (I did the bolding here.)ĭespite giving us the names of all the judges, they’re not even the final word on the winners. The Slightly Dodgy AspectsĪ few things made my brows raise as I read Medium’s post on their challenge.
So even if there weren’t some slightly dodgy aspects to Medium’s challenge, I’d choose Vocal’s anyway.īut there are some slightly dodgy aspects. It’s a partnership between them, the brand, and the writer. This helps me understand where the money is coming from and what Vocal stands to gain. I can scan the ones that look interesting (including a bunch of fiction ones!) and I can see the winners of previous Challenges, to know what Vocal looks for.Īnd weirdly, the aspect I like most is that some of them are sponsored by actual brands. I pay a monthly fee to submit to their Vocal+ Challenges, which opens up the field a bit. If I were going to enter a writing challenge this summer, it will be one of Vocal’s. Have a look at the page here and you’ll see what I mean - there are so many of them, each clearly defined and outlined. Their whole brand is built on their Challenges. You can see all the previous entries to measure up what (and how many) you’re against.īut the main thing Vocal Challenges have going for them is that they’re run a ton of them in the past. When you submit a Challenge through Vocal, they give you a lot more information about the prompt, why they chose those particular judges, etc. The difference is that Vocal runs regular Challenges, not just one-off events.Īnd they’re a bit more transparent about how the whole thing is run, too. Like Medium, when you write on Vocal, you get paid based on reads and there’s a similar curation mechanism. Vocal is a similar writing platform I’ve reviewed before ( see my video here and read my Medium vs Vocal review here). There’s a Better Writing Challenge AlternativeĪnd it’s Vocal. It sounds great, and I wish luck to everyone who enters. Recently Medium announced a Medium Writers Challenge with four prompts and a whole crowd of celebrity judges, including folks like Natalie Portman, Saeed Jones, and Jude Ellison S. In my opinion, it’s a great system that lets writers focus on writing for their audience. If you’re a paying Medium member ($5/month) I earn a small portion of that simply from you reading this story.
Put yourself in a place of choice rather than a position of having to "generate" when actually writing your song.Ĭheck out what they wrote! Looks Like Rainīy: Gregory A Connor, info: © 2022 Gregory A Connor ©-2022-Gregory-A-Connor-1.Medium is a blogging platform that pays writers on a royalty system.
Month writing challenge series#
Record as many details, ideas you can over a series of days, then whittle down the most important ones for your song.
So, make lots of words then let them breathe a little. Try to find a way to separate the production of content, in this case details and feelings,
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