How Vocal made me open up my writing

Okay, I just wanted to start out and thank the community of Vocal—-you guys are great. From the writers, the different and diverse communities, the editors, and the staff—thank you.

I just started a few months ago and I feel like you are all a very talented and wonderful bunch of writers, (I share a lot of stories from other writers from Vocal on my Facebook too) and also I feel that I’ve been appreciated to a bigger extent than I ever thought I would.

When one of my first published stories on here, He Was Everything, in a nothing world, got the top story on Vocal, I was literally shocked and ecstatic!

I really appreciated that.

Those characters in that story, in particular, means a lot to me. I had been working on their stories, their relationship and their life together for a long time—-over ten years now.

So they both feel like a part of me, the story of Josh and Ben, as an extension of my heart and my soul(at the risk of being super corny!!).

A little about my writing, I feel almost 100% more comfortable writing in the male perspective than female.

I am a woman, I was born a woman and I use female pronouns—-however, I’ve never felt like writing in the female perspective made any sense. I cannot explain it.

I feel like I can get into the male perspective, in a complex and emotional manner, with a fair bit of realism, and for some odd reason it’s easier for me to do than to write a female’s perspective —-and tbh writing that way makes me feel good.

Before I started here on Vocal, I have a huge confession: If I did write, it was almost always on Fanfiction.net, and I only wrote in the male perspective.

Here is my still semi-active profile that I started up in 2007:

So, one of the reasons this community has helped me understand my own writing style was also from a recent article about the winner of the $20,000 grand prize via The Little Black Book challenge.

It was from this excerpt:

On Writing from a Male Perspective:

This may sound very strange but the character kind of just appeared in my imagination as a male. I could almost sense him next to me as I was writing. I felt as if I was speaking for him, moving for him, telling this story for him. Inspiration can do some pretty wild things!

It spoke to me because all I do is write from the male perspective. This explanation is me 100%. I feel seen with this article, and with this author sharing her story and her perspective—-it was a wonderful way to see that I wasn’t alone in this way.

It clarified and validated my feelings and the way I choose to write my stories.

Also this article gave me a sense of the kind of community Vocal facilitates and a bit of pride in what I do:

Yes, I hearted this article! ❤️

Because a lot of people don’t understand fanfiction and the writers that go about writing stories that’ll never get legally published or make any real dough, but seriously—-for me, it’s been cathartic and a release of my depression in the past.

It’s not about the smut—usually. (That’s usually after about 20,000-60,000 words of plot and character development for me!)

For me, it’s when something ends that I really love. I feel a bit of emptiness, and sadness. Maybe a character in a movie didn’t get justice or didn’t get that happy ending?

Maybe those two characters in that show that really had good chemistry but never kissed—-what if things had turned out differently for them?

But enough of that! (Check out my fanfiction page if you’re interested!)

With my writing, and this website, I found a more fluid way to open up my perspective: the challenges.

These challenges seriously helped me work on the quality of my content, my personal writing style and of course—-changing the perspective from male to female.

I feel like branching out to many different stories and voices(both male and female and non-binary), and the prompts for all of these different challenges on Vocal give me the tools to do so without judgement.

To sum it all up, I feel Vocal is a great place for budding and serious writers, professional and novice, to grow and learn, and create wonderful and expressive works of art!

Like this gem I read:

Anyway, happy writing!