Vocal Reciprocity

As writers on Vocal we all make it a goal to rack up as many reads as possible for whatever we’re well aware of: bigger bank, word of mouth, etc. What many people (especially newcomers) don’t realize about their reads is if you want an abundance of reads, you have to give an abundance of reads.

I remember my earliest reads when I first became a member of Vocal. I checked my reading stats after my first couple of works and saw that I had eight reads. As minor as this number sounds it made me as happy as a kid in a candy store. I was just so excited that someone had taken the time to read what I wrote and I felt like a rich superstar. Overtime of course I started writing more stories and garnering more reads, but even yours truly began to develop a sense of writer’s fatigue when I wasn’t getting the reads I felt I should’ve had.

The fatigue began when I started joining the Vocal social networking groups on Facebook like Vocal+Assist, Vocal Social Society and Great Incantations. While in these groups I started taking a more active part in Vocal challenges and I was networking with other like minded writers. It was also here that I learned the importance of reciprocation as a Vocal member. When I started participating in Vocal challenges more I got to a point where I felt like my reads were not as high up as I wanted them and I didn’t understand why. I couldn’t quite understand why I had some stories that had a big number of reads, a small number of reads or no reads at all. Eventually I started seeing post and articles on our Vocal social media pages that addressed the subject of being a reciprocating writer.

As Vocal’s interactive media tools started to expand I started seeing group members and administrators discuss the importance of reciprocity. By reciprocity they meant taking the time to read your fellow Vocal writer’s stories just as you would like for them to read yours. They talked a lot about how doing this really builds up the writing community as we would all be helping each other grow in our craft. Before seeing these articles I never gave much thought to how much I read my fellow Vocal writer’s works. I definitely had read them, but I knew I hadn’t read more stories than I had written in those first few months. After a few top stories, an underwhelming number of reads, but some inspiring challenges, I decided to put more focus on reciprocating for my fellow writers.

As my ambition to have a more successful outcome in Vocal challenges grew I finally started reading the works of my fellow writers and I have to say it is probably the smartest choice I ever made as an active member of Vocal. From poems, to articles, haikus, short stories and even limericks, I found myself reading as much as I could as often as I could. For me, it was reading challenge stories to see what I was league with that really did it for me. As I read my fellow writer’s works I found myself not only enjoying what they were writing, but also learning to be a better writer from the solidity of their written works.

Supporting my fellow writers helped sharpen my skills as a writer and gave me more written work to enjoy. In addition to being more supportive of my fellow writers I also started to garner more reads and more top stories because I was now started to get higher up in the algorithm. If you too decide to be more supportive of your fellow Vocal members then things will get better for you on Vocal just as they have gotten better for me. Reciprocate and the community will see more of you to appreciate.