Is It A Test? Plus Other Writing Observations
Some More Thoughts
Introduction
I don't know where this started, but again it's a bit formless but just a couple of random thoughts and observations.
Word Limited Challenges
The Love In 50 Words requires the writer to use only fifty words. My problem with my poetry, is that I often include an intro telling why I have written the poem or who it's for, but in a challenge like that would the intro be classed as contributing to the entry length?
I wanted to write this poem for the challenge, but I couldn't because it needed an intro, although it meant I wasn't limited to fifty words when I finally wrote it.
Most Vocal challenges now have an increased word count that I noted in this piece, and I've noticed some of the poems require a hundred words, like when I first started on Vocal.
TEST
Most people won't do this but I had a look through the creators I subscribe to and there must have been about fifty that were reset to TEST implying that they have left Vocal, although some still had stories attached and could be tipped, I am not sure where the tip would go to, though if it's still connected to the persons strype then they may get it, you wouldn't know who you were tipping.
Lots of creators have not posted for several years and I think this is probably reflected in the people who subscribe to me. So that may mean that out of my 975 subscribers, maybe a hundred are still active on Vocal, and maybe ten of them read one of my stories a day.
I still get new subscribers but I don't know if inactive subscribers drop off my count.
I know several close friends tell me they won't subscribe to me because I publish too many stories, and I don't blame them if my posts flood their notifications, but that is the fault of you know who for not allowing us to filter our notifications, but that is a bugbear of mine.
Conclusion
These are just a few things I wanted to get off my chest. Thank you so much for reading. I really appreciate it.
The song is "Try,Try,Try" by Julian Cope
About the Creator
Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
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Some More Observations On My Vocal Writing
Introduction I know that I often write these diaristic pieces and I am writing this as a last Vocal story before I take a weekend off to spend a couple of days in Whitby. If you know me on Facebook, Instagram or Threads you will still see the pictures I post before I rejoin Vocal properly on Monday but this is what I have been dealing with this week.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 11 months ago in Writers
Comments (12)
I'm the same, if I were to write a poem, I would like to provide a little context. It sounds like a good challenge though
Good observations!
It is a really good point about the word limit, Mike. I did not put my usual finish on any of my poems for this challenge because it affected the word count. So is it the actual pome that is counted or the whole thing, and how is it judged? Same with the other challenge about my story in 650 words. Surely, it should be the story as such or the poem per se that is counted, not an introduction or explanation. I would love to know for future reference. How do we find out?
Drop the names of those so called friends who don't wanna subscribe to you! I'll squash them!
I delete the test accounts. They are either accounts kicked off of Vocal or accounts that left Vocal. As to the word count, Vocal really should clarify. So many have asked the same question
Try putting a note after the poem so the word count is all right…? I guess Vocal uses software for word count but unless they tell us, we won’t know. Clear guidance is always better than ne ulous, open to interpretation.
I had only two or three of these 'Test'. We all need to vent once in awhile so go ahead and I will still read and comment and share if I can.
Now I'll have to look to see how many "Test"s I have. If you can condense the intro & use it as your subtitle, that can work. That's essentially what I did with my "Love is..." entries.
Test is definitely the new version of deleting accounts. Maybe it always was, but I'm pretty sure back in the day comments from those who requested their profiles be deleted would disappear. Now the ghost Tests remain in our threads, their words memorialized long after their names are forgotten. And, yeah, when it comes to the hard word requirements, I do not play around with the format. So many creators are convinced they can put an author's note saying it's X words (then add on additional context/whatever) and Vocal will honor that. Meanwhile, I think they're auto-filtering on everyone whose story exceeds or falls beneath the threshold as part of the "first pass" they do as well as removing those who didn't publish to the right community, etc. Why wouldn't you pare down the list as much as possible to save the actual humans time? It just seems too risky for my liking to believe a human is actually reviewing all word counts for acceptable exceptions to the clearly stated rule
Fair observations. I’ve been seeing lots of people curious about the Test accounts. I wonder if Vocal will clarify anything for us
good question...this would be interesting to know
975 subcribers is a great achievement! Here's to your hard work!