How Fiction Changed My Outlook On Writing.

I have been publishing with the Vocal+ platform for just a little longer than four months now, and with a total of thirty-three, articles on view for others to read. But, for the past month (or thereabouts) have not really produced much of anything else here. I think one of the deciding factors was that although I was publishing here, I had been feeling a little resentful of the fact that there was no scope for commenting and interacting, with other like-minded readers on here.

After having been enticed to the Vocal+ platform by my wife Carol, after I had left my 30-year career as a registered mental health nurse due to physical ill-health grounds, as a result of me contracting Covid-19 in the first few months of 2020. Despite suffering a little over seven months of long-covid recovery, and after three unsuccessful phased returns to my place of work in the hospital, I finally resigned myself to the fact that resignation on ill-health grounds was my only sensible option left open to me.

So my wife's encouragement to get me to spend my time at home writing, to occupy myself seemed a much more optimistic activity to embark upon. After all, when I had to finally leave work altogether, I had started to show early symptoms of low mood. I was becoming agitated and anxious more at everyday things that I would have normally taken in my stride, and this was impacting on any ideas of productivity that full-time work would have usually afforded me.

Days and nights would roll into each other with me doing nothing other than watch daytime television and, was starting to lose all interest in how I looked, or in even wanting to go outside anywhere. Life was becoming dissatisfying without work.

So thanks to the encouragement around me, I started writing here on Vocal+, but over time, I found myself growing increasingly dissatisfied. Despite enjoying the initial emotional stability and revelations that writing brought to me, the lacking cohesive force & community spirit slowly began to unravel to show itself on Vocal+.

I have always strongly held the belief that to truly write, involves your readers engaging and communicating their comments about your piece of writing, and following you through your personal journey of writing.

I moved over to discover the Medium platform at this point. It provided that 'missing link' for me. Although was not wanting to let go of my subscription with Vocal, for if Vocal had not reached out (so to speak) then, perhaps, I may never have found my awakened ability for writing until Vocal presented itself to me. I still found delight & interest in reading other writer's work but was increasingly frustrated by the inability to communicate with any one of them.

Messaging from readers of my articles gave me back and filled in that missing link that I had been seeking. I began writing and reading over on Medium, purely due to this link being filled, by the increased readership level. I have gained a large following for my articles, and the opportunity was there to feed my enthusiasm to write more and more - knowing that readers would respond to me and let me know their thoughts on what I wrote. I have gained email subscribers to my Medium profile page so that my readers can be the first to be alerted to a new post that I had written there and then.

But as time has passed by, my path through the challenging wilderness of writing has sparked a flame within my own heart for an old passion of mine. A subject that had accompanied me through the younger years of my life before I chose to veer my career toward mental health nursing. I used to love writing fictional stories, they always had the unending ability to 'take my mind away from the harshness of our world we live in,' however temporary this almost dream-state of emotions could provide for me, it had always allowed me to safely channel my thoughts & aspirations, leading to a world of my making. Granted this was only a collection of thoughts and imaginative adventures, developed & played out within my own mind but, nevertheless, it was mine.

A protective state where my mind could be set free to roam safely at its own will, hampered only by the limitless field of imaginative scenarios.

What I ultimately realized was that fiction had always been with me, that it had always stayed locked up in my heart, held within me for however long would be needed, for me to truly understand one day that, it would need to rise once more to be an active part of me again one day.

That day came when Vocal+ opened up their Fiction Community, and it gave me the inspiration to recall the power within me, in discovering that magical key that unlocked the hidden passion to which fictional writing gave to me as a child, many years earlier, allowing it to surface once more, into my world today.

This community evoked imagination far within myself to write again, fictional stories, which I had long ago put to the deepest darkest recesses of my mind.

My first published short piece of fiction can be read by clicking below. The first part to a three-part story. I will be bringing the second part to you shortly.

So there you have it. With a large round of applause to the team at Vocal+, I will now be happily busying myself with writing more and more fictional stories published through this platform.

Vocal+ has always remained a large part of my writing, but with the addition of the Fiction Community, Vocal+ has found & handed me a single match to strike the dying flame that had been smoldering within me over the decades.

Follow me here on Vocal and catch my next two installments as they are published. If you liked it then please give me a heart. Tips are always optional but, they keep allowing me to push my creativity forward too...

If you'd like to join Vocal then please click here.

If you'd like to read more of my articles already on Vocal then please click here.

You can also find me on Twitter@JonathanDTowne1