My List of Vocal Top Stories

Okay, this my spin on ideas swiped from Judey Kalchik and Lamar Wiggens.

I joined the Vocal platform as a creator in March 2021.I nearly left the platform numerous times early on due to, what I felt, were unfair practices in treatment of their creators, and I must admit, I suppose, I often felt inadequate in comparison to the talent on this site. What I did instead, was decide to use the tools and talent available to me to improve my writing skill. It takes time and diligence, but with intention, my writing from when I joined, to now had, in my opinion, improved greatly. It’s nice to get recognition validating that, but I have also written many more stories which I like that have received no recognition from Vocal. There are also a few cringey stinkers in there, but hey, live and learn!

I wanted a place to store and organize my Top Stories. I’ve not won any challenges to record as of yet. I’ll have to save that option for another article.

I love the badges marking a story as Top Story and the date, but I still have many pages on my profile to search through to find them. That’s an inconvenience for me, as well as for any readers who wish to access the stories highlighted.

Though I don’t know what entails making it to Top Story, I’ve been blessed with multiple, and then disappointed by many stories that received no recognition. I’m sorry, I can shed no light, but without further adieu, here is the conglomeration - in order from oldest to most recent.

July 2021

My first Top Story:

November 2021

A second Top Story!

At this point, I thought I was pretty special and talented and had this whole “writer” thing figured out. I didn’t. Nearly a year passed before my efforts were recognized again.

October 2022

But then I had two!

This has been my most “hearted” Top Story:

November 2022

Somehow, this remains popular and on top with reads:

December 2022

This one expressed my feelings on the matter, and ironically, earned a place on the front page!

January 2023

This one was written while still within a state of shock after an early lunch, then published, and granted Top Story within a few quick minutes! The fastest I’d seen, anyway.

This story culminated from a question asked of me by a person interested in joining the Vocal platform.

February 2023

A true life event!

March 2023

March was a bit overwhelming - I was blessed with four Top Stories that month! And they all quite varied in subject matter.

April 2023

Just one now.

May 2023

One more! This stemmed from a personal rant.

June 2023

More on the Vocal platform -

And a poem based on Greek Mythology and personal experience:

So that’s seventeen Top Stories since becoming a member of this platform (this list was compiled June 29, 2023 - if I do receive more, I will add them after this paragraph). I like having my stories recognized at the Top, but I have many more that I am proud of that have not received such recognition. I still don’t have a clue what the formula is to earn a Top Story. I’ll stick with what I said before - write for yourself, from your heart - that’s what you can be proud of, regardless of external validation, but that’s also what gets noticed.

Thank you for looking! Any suggestions for improving this list for ease of use? Vocal is for readers, as well as creators! It's free to join.