The Rule Everyone Knows Challenge Winners
A behind-the-scenes glimpse at the Vocal Curation Team’s top picks from The Rule Everyone Knows.
Some rules don’t need to be spoken to be followed. In The Rule Everyone Knows challenge, writers let those rules surface through behavior and through what characters repeat, avoid, or quietly correct.
Across the shortlist, those rules show up in routine, silence, and the way people adjust. A room shifts, a pattern holds, and no one says why.
Here are the ones that make the rule felt without spelling it out.
🏆 Winners
Cubism by Kristen Keenon Fisher
Kristen Keenon Fisher lets the rule surface through repetition, where “You should’ve come up” lands less like concern and more like correction, and no one questions what it means.
Grace by Bride of Sound
Bride of Sound builds the rule around Zach’s interrupted grace, where his mother cuts in and the table settles back into routine like nothing should've been said.
Room For Creativity by Imola Tóth
Imola Tóth centers the story on an empty desk, where the narrator falls back on routine and even a quiet question about who’s missing feels like it goes a step too far.
The Equable Air by Caitlin Charlton
Caitlin Charlton keeps everyone carefully avoiding the crying child, with the room shifting all at once so no one has to acknowledge what’s happening.
Periphery by Polite Adjacent
Polite Adjacent's Periphery keeps the focus on side glances and quick returns to routine, where nothing is ever looked at directly.
🎖️ Runners-up
- Becca by Sara Wilson
- Don't Look by Adam Kolozetti
- With Whatever Tools at Your Disposal by Sam Spinelli
- Finding Gold by Hannah Moore
- The Walk by Sasha Desideri
- Sometimes It's Like That and That'sThe Way It Is by Cheryl E Preston
- Over the Hill by Judey Kalchik
- The Hardest Word by Matthew Batham
- Ouroboros by Noah Husband
- The Downstream by Scott Christenson🌴
- A Kind of Stillness by Paul Stewart
- Better Left Unsaid by Sama Habib
- On time by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin
- The Trap by Meredith Harmon
- Insurances by Julie Lacksonen
🏅 Honorable Mentions
- Obey by Brier
- Stocking Feet by David Deane Haskell
- Human Resources by J. Otis Haas
- Concert Line by Andrea Corwin
- What Am I Missing? by Leslie Writes
- The Commute by Elizabeth Butler
- Beware of the Bright and the Beast by Justiss Goode
- Her Royal Highness by M. A. Mehan
- The Fourth Door by Lori A. A.
- How Rude! by Angie the Archivist 📚🪶
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Say It Plainly Challenge Winners
A pattern showed up pretty quickly reading this shortlist: these poems don’t circle what they’re about. They just say it. That makes for some tough, raw reads. Miscarriage, infidelity, chronic pain, money, addiction, fear for someone you love. Not much is softened or dressed up. By the end, I felt like I needed a cigarette, and I don’t even smoke.
By Vocal Curation Team2 days ago in Resources
Comments (15)
My sincere congratulations to everyone named here for this challenge!!
Congratulations to everyone. Amazing pieces here. Very well deserved 🙌
Congratulations to everyone who placed. I'm very excited to see some of my favorite Creators in the winner's circle and even more in the Runner Up and Honorable Mention lists. I can't wait to become aquatinted with the talent of the rest of the winners whose work I've not yet read.
Congrats to all the winners and thanks for the Honorable mention! 💖 I’ve got some reading to do!
I can’t wait to dive into these reads and discover new writers!
Congratulations to all the talented winners! Great to see a lot of new names.
Thank you for the Runner Up recognition. I enjoyed my sassy narrator and the Pittsburgh settings. Thank you, as always, for the nudge out of my comfort zone into trying new things.
Congratulations to everyone!!
Congratulations All!🎉
Congrats, all, on the hard work!
I spent the entire day stressing over these results! Developing my fiction was one of my main New Year’s resolutions, so this win means the world to me. I have even been spending time at a café taking people-watching notes to prepare for these challenges. Thank you so much to the Vocal team! I can’t believe it. Congratulations to everyone else who placed! 🤗🙏🏾🌼
Congratulations, everyone! I’m thrilled to see a mix of new and familiar names!💖💖💖🥂
Thank you so much!! I’m really proud of Periphery! Congratulations everyone 🎉🎉🎉
Oh, wow! I never expected this one to place. Thank you! Congrats to everyone! Amazing stories.
Wow, 🎊 Congratulations 🎊 Everyone!!!!