Dear Vocal Creators

Dear Vocal Creators,

I've been thinking about how to announce this little “milestone” for a while now. As it turned out, while working on my previous Letters of Gratitude piece, it occurred to me that I owed a debt of gratitude to all of you.

Now, I realize 250 is a pretty measly number, compared to many of the Creators I follow. It's not even a significant drop in the bucket, next to the hundreds or even thousands that many of you have miraculously penned. I've “been here” since November of 2021, and it looks as if I'm just not working hard enough.

I'd like to pass it off as a “quantity vs. quality” thing, but that would be a lie. And yes, I was working on my first book for a while and I have another one to finish. And I can't use those as an excuse, either. I devote the time I can to those after I put in the day's work on Vocal.

For those of you who know I'm also a content writer, I can honestly say that isn't an excuse, either. Thanks to AI, that market is quickly becoming a playground for 13-year-olds with internet access. (That's a generalization, but it's not wrong. Go ahead, fight me.) I'm no longer spending much time looking for work in that marketplace and I'm very particular about the jobs I bid on.

The fact is, I've taken a couple of “breaks” in writing for Vocal. I've kept up with reading during those pauses as best I could. I won't go into the reasons for taking those steps back, because this isn't a rant. I'll just say that I have a tendency to pay close attention to certain signs of change. I think it's a pretty common trait for Creatives. We're always weighing reactions and looking for validation – or maybe it's just me. Either way, it probably looks pretty pathetic to the hard-nosed.

In a way, that's become a much more prevalent trait in me since I started writing here. Getting paid for cranking out “listicles,” product reviews and other content for clients requires creativity, but not on the same level. We pour out our souls here, if you'll pardon the expression. I'm going to leave it at that, lest this should get all mushy and squishy.

So, let's get back to YOU. Your reads matter. While I was looking at my stats, I saw that the all-time number was 9,938. Not too shy of 10,000. And I know, that's probably just as paltry as the number of stories, which I guess kinda' makes sense. Anyway, I did the math, and that breaks down to an average of 40 per story, if we round up the decimal values.

It's not an earth-shattering number, but it's a sign I like. What's more, that little “% Change” stat has had a plus sign next to it pretty consistently. And though there's no stat for comments, I can usually count on you to chime in.

If not for your support, I wouldn't be here, and those 250 stories wouldn't have happened. That's the truth. More will be happening, and I hope I'll be able to count on your support going forward. I'll do my best to give you something worth reading.

I've taken a little dip in the Fiction waters and I'm planning to wade a little deeper soon. I've done a little something about home brewing and I'm hoping to follow up on the promise to share some of the techniques and perhaps a few recipes.

I'll be writing more poetry, simply because I enjoy it. Do strict meter and rhyme get boring? Really. I want to know. Am I looking like a stuffed shirt? I'm considering playing around with more loosely-written stuff, and I have a little satire piece coming up about the difference. Just one more idea that's been bouncing around in my poor, old brain for too long.

For now, I'm gonna wrap this up with a huge “Thank you!” to all of you who've been my saviors on this platform. I want you each of you to know that you've earned the term “Creator” with that capital “C,” in my eyes. The worlds you've created with your words are a constant inspiration and your support is more valuable than you know.

My sincere thanks,

Dana, aka Dan, aka Doc, aka Dork, aka Doofus, aka whatever

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