Immortality Is Within Your Grasp If You Share That Story Floating Around Alone In Your Mind

As I'm sitting here, taking notes on the many different story ideas I have floating around, I realize I would much rather be doing anything else. If you're an outdoorsy person then this is the time of year you understand where I'm coming from. It's 11:11 a.m. and the weather is beautiful outside. The temperatures a comfortable seventy-five degrees and climbing with partly cloudy skies. The skies are wonderful with the clouds right now. The white, fluffy, formations, like that of a batch of cotton balls, reflecting the sun's majestic warming light, stick out against the soft color of blue hanging over our heads.

So, I've done what today exactly? I've read four stories on Vocal so far. I don't know that it's a lot but I'm working from home today and it's slow enough I don't have much else to do. I do love Fridays when there is little going on that I'm needed for, and the on-call pay is nice. I've also taken some notes for a couple of story ideas that are floating around in my head. Then, I take a look at my current stats and think two things. I think (1) how in the heck (yes we all know I didn't think heck) am I not to 10,000 yet? It's a fair question, I have been trying to stay consistently writing and improving, hopefully finding intriguing and engaging ideas to write about for the good people at Vocal and the many groups I share with.

Then, I think, (2) that I should try to remember I am almost to that magic milestone of 10,000! Yay! Every month on Vocal I learn a little bit more about who I am as I write different things. I have not found a niche of my own yet. Perhaps I won't ever find one, and that's alright. Vocal has provided a platform for people of all types, all personalities, and from around the world, to come together and share their voices. As much as I can get frustrated from not being as successful yet as I would like to be, I am still here and that's something that Vocal provides, as well as other tools that are available if you utilize them. At the end of the day, whether you're here because you've always been a writer, or you secretly dreamed of writing for a living, or you're just naturally artistic and need the outlet, there's that part in all of us that enjoy the validation of people being happy with our work, even enjoying it. A nice side income in the current state of the world is certainly a great bonus if you can make it happen.

Success doesn't come easy to writers. Whether you're inspired by the works of JK Rowling and the wildly successful Harry Potter franchise, or you're a fan of James Patterson and the Women's Murder Club mysteries, both of those great authors were once struggling writers. In 1990, the year I graduated high school, JK Rowlings was working at Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary when she started scribbling notes for the series on a cocktail napkin. In the years between those early notes and her first success, Rowlings saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, a divorce, and relative poverty. Rowlings spent time living on government assistance until the release of her first novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. Once, until giving a large chunk of her wealth away to charities, Rowlings held the title of the first billionaire to earn her wealth as an author, even though the Harry Potter books were rejected more than ten times.

My favorite Author, well, he's in my top five and got me reading, is Steve Alten. On a night in the middle of 1997, while dating the smartest woman I'd gone out with yet, I was out shopping with her and it was killing how long she spent looking through books. Right, I said books, and I'll bet you were expecting something else. So, I started looking around myself just to cure the boredom and came across what I'll always think was a gem of a book, Steve Altens' Meg. I guess you could say it was Mr. Alten that first put the writer's bug into me as this was a book I couldn't put down. After finishing it in a mere three days, I was stunned at how much fun I had reading it. Alten would go on to publish a running series about the MEG, each one being as good as the last. I was completely hooked on reading, for the first time in my life. At 25 I now had a second dream, unfortunately, not starting to really focus on it until age 48. Comfort set into my life, a comfort that I now know made me complacent about the life I wanted.

Success isn't overnight. It's when every day you get a little better than the day before. It all adds up.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

Whether you want to one day publish a bestseller, or maybe you already have a novel you're working on, or you would be the happiest writing from home and making a decent living, Vocal + is a great place to practice your skills. Writers are supposed to do two things, predominantly, to grow their skills. Writers always read, and readers always write. On Vocal, you have an opportunity to do both as you become a creator in a community of creators. Since coming to Vocal I have done a lot of writing. Since I started to really bear down on wanting to be successful at it, believing that even at 49 I could still become something I'd dreamt of for a quarter of a century, I can honestly say I've found both inspirations, support, and am developing. I've read some truly amazing stories on Vocal. There is some real talent here. Lately, my favorite and most remembered story I've read has been 7 days by Julie Lacksonen. If I were here, I'd be trying to sell this to Amazon, Netflix, or Hulu.

While trying to become a better writer, branch out of your comfort zone. Getting out of what's comfortable serves two real purposes that I have found, very important purposes. The world is filled with things that have confined us all. Jobs, family, responsibility, obligations, and household chores alone will confine you, much less the confines of societal issues and norms. We are all a prisoner of circumstances at one time or another. Writers have the unique ability to change that, to jump outside of their skin and experience life through the eyes of others, tell stories that nobody has thought of, see the world through a different perspective, and share with the world. The second important reason is to strike up those unnerving conversations. I wrote an article that opened up quite a discussion and while I really only had my perspective to work with from the angle I took, I got to hear opinions on an important issue from others in the vocal groups and found that even though it's a tense issue, there are those that will share their opposing or slightly counter views peacefully and respectfully. If I stayed in my comfort zone and avoided the subject, I wouldn't have had that opportunity.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, join groups on Facebook. Whether you're looking for places to post your writing or looking for an opportunity to communicate with others, it's a great way to get and give information. Some of the groups are specifically Vocal related, some are for Medium, some are wrestling and etc... There's something for everyone. From Marvel to Nudists groups, from murder, mysteries, and the bizarre to politics. If you look for it you're likely to find it and that's where you can start really pushing up your read count. I haven't hit the story or right group yet to get consistently "high" reads but I've stayed above fifty most days and had more and more triple-digit days. It just depends on how hard you're willing to work at promoting your work.

What's the key to success? The key is, there is no key. Be humble, hungry, and the hardest worker in any room.

Dwayne Johnson

Stick to it, that is perhaps the most notable thing that a platform like this will do to you; it'll make you stick to your writing. I actually would like to be a successful writer. At my age, this is something that I could see doing the last ten or so years, but never forced myself to make it work. Sometimes, you have to make it work. There are stars out there that have worked themselves to the bone to be successful and we all know and have envied them for years. What we don't envy is the work they put into getting themselves to the peak of their industries, the heights of their expertise, and the summits of their lives. Steve Alten actually began penning his first novel while supporting a family of five and barely scraping by. Working late nights and on weekends, he eventually finished Meg; A Novel of Deep Terror. Steve had to sell his classic '71 Malibu convertible to pay for editing fees for the book. Then, on Friday the 13th of September in 1996, Steve lost his general manager's job in a wholesale meat plant. Four days later and his agent called him with a seven-figure deal with Bantam Doubleday. Meg went on to become a massive success, hitting every major bestseller list including landing a spot on the New York Times list at #19. Nothing, as Steve proved, is impossible.

It always seems impossible, until it's done.

Nelson Mandella

As You can tell, from the Dwayne Johnson quotes, I'm a fan. I'm also a fan of his work ethic and his approach to life. It's something that I'm admittedly playing catch up with but with a little luck and my newfound devotion, I will get caught up. There are a million reasons to write. Well, perhaps that's a bit hyperbolic. There are many good reasons to write. The first of my favorite reasons is to share the stories in your head. The therapeutic side of writing is notable. We live such complex and confusing lives that sometimes the pains, the tragedies, the heartaches, and the worry just has to come to the surface, even when there's nobody to talk with.

The second is to share information. That's an easy one. In a world of instant gratification it is now easier than ever to learn things, but if nobody wrote them down then where would we get our information from. The world literally needs writers. Entertainment is the third of my favorite reasons. People need to be entertained in a harsh world. We need to escape into the pages of a grand adventure, a love story, some fantastic world we couldn't imagine ourselves and forget the world within which we live. Money, how could money not be on the list. Money is what makes lives worth living, eases tensions, pays for needed items, and allows greater degrees of freedom to see the world. Most of us will see less than ten percent of the beautiful world we call home. Should you be the next great author, the next Rowlings, Stephen King, Steve Alten, or chick that wrote the Twilight books, you'd have that level of freedom to see the world. It won't be easy, but nothing ever is in the real world. Maybe that is why writers write fiction, to escape the harshness of our lives?

Don't go home at the end of the day after working eight hours for someone elses goals. You're not tired, you're uninspired.

Dwayne Johnson

One of the greatest things about a writer that I have noticed is their legacies. Forever, people will read about William Shakespeare and enjoy his works. The works of Mark Twain, Bram Stoker, Ernest Hemingway, JK Rowlings, and even Steve Alten will be around forever, granting them one thing that most humans have not found, immortality. The hunt for greatness should never end, not while there's still a breath in your body. I don't know if that is something I heard or it just came to me as I live in this moment. I do know, that for all of you that are writing on Vocal +, I hope that you all stick to it, even though I realize it can be as frustrating an endeavor as trying to win the lottery. For me, I understand more and more why I'm drawn to this as a hobby, and invest more and more of myself into the skill of writing. Vocal continues to help me see improvement from my earliest attempts and for that, I'll stick around a while longer.

For tips on how to get your reads up, I wrote this when I was nearly at 6,000 reads and wondering if I should stay or not. I have a planned article once I hit 10,000 reads, as long as the research proves to be true. Keep your fingers crossed because it is about how to make better money on Vocal.

I really appreciate your time as you read my work today. I hope that you enjoyed it and didn't feel like it was wasted time. I know that some of the folks experimenting on Vocal, which I still sometimes feel is where I'm at, get frustrated with the lack of success as it's hard to get a top story or a creator profile spot. It comes to some after just a month and some it may take a while longer. Tom Bradbury just finally got one when he placed 2nd in the Wave Makers Challenge, which was one I really thought I had a chance at placing. So, if you're not sure, stick with it as long as you can. Continue to hone your craft, and write some engaging and compelling stuff for the rest of us creators to read. When you read something amazing, share it on Facebook, Twitter, Redditt, or wherever you share stories. When you've got that first amazing, incredible, unforgettable piece, they'll return your favor in kind. That's how we'll all get there, together.

If you would like to read some more of my work, you can find my profile here. Good luck and happy writing.