101 Vocal Stories

Yesterday, I published my 100th story on Vocal: a recap of my winning submissions from a contest I entered over the summer. The Behind the Vision contest coincided with the Fantasy Prologue Challenge and my Vocal debut. In the sixish months since, I've learned a lot of things about the platform, the people, and the prizes that motivate so many of us to pour our souls out, six hundred words at a time. I'd like to take a moment to share that knowledge with any newcomers considering a Vocal+ membership and those veterans who may feel frustrated and unseen.

A Platform of Promises

The most striking feature of Vocal is, by far, the regularly scheduled challenges that prompt creativity and promise riches in return. The prizes for these challenges seem to swell in the summer months and recede a bit in the winter, with the pace increasing to make up for the lower pot, but my experience with this trend is limited to this year.

PS: If you're a Vocal veteran who can shed some light on the Challenge frequency and payout of previous years, I'd love to hear from you.

More than the challenges, the bonus program provides the biggest incentive to engage and create. The bonuses are attainable through sheer determination and hard work, whereas the challenge prizes are paid only to the (usually 10-12) winners. Top Story bonuses, like other editorial picks, require a bit of luck and finesse—but milestone bonuses are firmly within the grasp of every single Vocal or Vocal+ creator.

Overall, these bonuses create a drive to create new content, tell new stories, and reach new heights. Even after my 100th story, there are still new heights to be reached. I have yet to cross either view threshold (even with one Top Story under my belt), and I eagerly await those accolades while I aim higher and higher with my already lofty prose.

Extraordinary People

The best thing about Vocal, however, is the Creators. Through various groups on Facebook (such as Great Incantations and Vocal+ Assist), I've had the privilege to meet many amazing artists who care about their craft and their fellow creators. These six stand out at the forefront of my mind, but this is by no stretch of the imagination an exhaustive list.

Mike: Long live the nicheless!

Dharrsheena: The Queen of the Dark 🖤

Babs: Always engaged, always engaging.

Heather: The Humble Super-Streak Holder

Cathy: A cat-lady after my own heart 🖤

Jordan: Crafting characters I can't help caring about.

Each of these writers has reached me on a personal level with their style, their spunk, their sass, or their sheer, indomitable skill at weaving a narrative I can't walk away from. There are many more besides, and even more waiting in the wings of the groups, waiting to hit "submit" for the first time on their first story, or waiting to take the Vocal+ plunge to join the competition of a Challenge.

If that's you, I want to personally invite you to participate both on the platform and in the groups. It's fun. Everyone is friendly. Your writing will find eyes eager to read it. And most importantly, all of us felt the same way at some time or another. We remember what it's like, and we can help you.

Secret Sauce

It's easy to fall into conspiracy thinking (as I covered in a recent Blue Haiku) when you feel invisible, unappreciated, and unloved. As a recent Top Story winner and all-time Challenge loser, I promise there is no secret sauce. The numbers are simply not in your favor (or mine) when it comes to winning challenges and Top Stories, and that's a good thing. The fact that the odds are overwhelming simply serves to remind us that the purse should be an unexpected boon, not the basis of our motivation.

The motivation comes from the desire to tell the tales that call to us from deep within. Our job, as writers, is to wrest the words from our souls with the aid of our muses and send them out into the world before we swallow them again. That is our calling, you and I. That is what we do because it is what we must do. Such is the nature of art; it is both the bane and ambrosia of the artist.

So, though it's hard to remember on the heels of a fresh loss, winning really isn't everything. Realistically, though the money would be helpful, it isn't even in my top five reasons for writing on Vocal:

1. Freedom: Here, I can ramble on without reprisal for my verbose tendencies. My penchant for vivid imagery and deep description is an advantage, not a curse. Long-form content is my happy place.
2. Choice: Though I tend to hover in my comfort zone of speculative fiction and sensory poetry, I love having the option to branch out to audiences in dedicated communities. That way, there's no sticker shock.
3. Feedback: The team at Vocal seems to take great pains to incorporate feedback and user experience in updates and operations, from something as simple as winner explanations to the complexities of building an app.
4. Variety: I adore stories from voices I cannot hear elsewhere, and Vocal is a haven for creators from around the world. The inclusive, diverse buffet of perspectives, cultures, and narratives is a treasure all its own.
5. Community: I can't stress enough how much it matters that this platform offers the ability to engage with each other in meaningful but non-threatening ways. It cuts down on the creeps and fosters real camaraderie.

Remembering these five reasons to write on Vocal helps me to stay motivated even as I watch beloved pieces fall flat here and flourish elsewhere (or just deflate altogether). The components may be present elsewhere, but the combination is a unique recipe for comfort and room to grow.

On to New Challenges

For those who feel like success will never come their way on Vocal, I hope that this rundown helps shore up your confidence. Even as a professional, my progress on the platform has been slow and steady (and a challenge win has yet to adorn my profile with that coveted and stylish ribbon badge). The only secret sauce that matters is the love of the craft. This is what my stats page looks like today, 12/13/22:

And with luck and determination, it will look drastically different come this time next year. Now, I continue my Blue Haiku spree and dive into the new dystopian challenge with a fresh idea inspired by an old story.

Wish me luck, and leave some love so I can do the same.