My Best Stories in Vocal Communities

I really liked Rachel Deeming's idea of writing stories for each Vocal Community in 2025. I've written for many of them, but it would be a great personal challenge to see if I can write a new story for each of the existing communities in 2025. This story will be an index for all my community stories.

Currently, there are 48 Communities on Vocal. I haven't written for 18 of them, but having at least one story in 30 during my three years on Vocal is a pretty good record, if I may say so myself. I heavily favor Fiction, The Swamp, and Geeks, and write a lot in Humans, Families, and Education. In 2025, I will continue publishing in those communities and will try to write at least one story for a different community every week, which will take about a year to complete.

In the list below, I organized the stories in the alphabetical order, just like the Communities are organized on the "All" Vocal Communities tab. If I wrote for the community before, I include the best old story from the previous years and the new story written in 2025, thus this index will include 1-2 stories per Community. I will add new stories to the list as I publish them. So, here it goes:

1. 01

March 2024 - I wrote a story on the social media etiquette:

2. Art

When I travel, I go to various museums to see paintings of great masters in person. This story from June 2023 is one of my best art-related stories written for a challenge I didn't even place in:

3. Beat

January 1, 2023 - I'm very proud of the first story of that year:

4. Blush

My hair is a point of great joy and care for me; I have a couple of pointers I can share on how to take care of it and keep it into a good old age.

5. BookClub

This Top Story from April 2024 was inspired by a debate I run in my Ethics of Communication course:

6. Chapters

August 2023 - I published a novella in chapters:

7. Cleats

I'm not a big sports fan, but I have a story in mind about soccer that I need to write up from our time in Paris.

8. Confessions

March 2023 - I really didn't want to kill it:

9. Criminal

October 2024 - I wrote a story about an unusual case of the elderly murder-suicide:

10. Critique

August 2023 - That summer, Vocal ran a challenge to write a 50-word critique of a famous work of literature and I wrote a whole bunch of them. This was one of the best, in my opinion.

11. Earth

I was sure I had a story written for this Community, but apparently not. Or it's hiding from me. Will catch up in 2025.

12. Education

A Top Story from September 2024 on economics education was written for this community:

13. Families

August 2023 - I wrote a tribute to a friend and a guide dog who was like a family to me.

14. Feast

January 2022 - I'm very proud of this story integrating the elements of the Russian folklore into a soup recipe.

15. Fiction

I wrote lots of stories for this community. This one from October 2023 I am particularly proud of as it is partly based on a true story.

16. Filthy

Also surprised I don't have a story published here.

17. Futurism

June 2021 - This was my very first story here on Vocal, written for a Futurism challenge.

18. FYI

October 2022 - I wrote a story about an archeological discovery:

19. Gamers

I don't really play games now (except for Lumosity), but I could probably come up with something from my younger days.

20. Geeks

Here, most of my stories are reviews of movies and TV shows I watch.

April 2023 - this Ted Lasso review is one of my best and has the most reads on my stats board (currently, 611)

21. History

September 2023 - A story I wrote for those who understand how the history of Russia was shaped by false promises:

22. Horror

November 2021 - This story was one of the 1,000 best stories in the annual Vocal competition that gave me a year of free subscription on Vocal:

23. Humans

December 2021 - I use this story in my Intercultural Communication course to illustrate the challenges of navigating a different culture through communication and evolution of interracial relationships:

24. Humor

June 2024 - I started writing a humorous novella and never finished it, planning to do it this year (2025).

25. Interview

Interviewing people face-to-face was one of my favorite research methods as an academic. Have never done it for a story, though, so this would be a good challenge.

26. Journal

I publish frequently in the Journal Community. This is one of the most recent and thrilling stories from December 2024:

27. Lifehack

February 2022 - a life hack about different types of natural yarns I love working with when I knit:

28. Longevity

December 2021 - a story written for the Vocal's new year resolutions challenge:

29. Marriage

Never wrote for this community as I'm not married but it could be an interesting exercise.

30. Men

Don't know what I could write about here, probably about the perceptions of masculinity and femininity in the changing modern world.

31. Motivation

August 2024 - I re-wrote an old myth:

32. Petlife

My story about Reggie the guide dog in Families would have been good for this community as well. I'll see what I can come with in 2025.

33. Photography

I take and get a lot of photographs and even wrote a couple of stories inspired by photographs but they were published in other communities.

34. Poets

Poetry is hard for me, but I love the form of haiku. Here's one of the best old stories (November 2022) that I still add to, which also was one of my first Top Stories:

January 2025 - Recently, I really got into writing haiku inspired by the space photographs from Hubble and James Webb telescopes.

35. Potent

Potentially, a story about my experience with CBD-infused creams and ointments.

36. Pride

Perhaps, a story about my friendships with LGBTQ people.

37. Proof

I have a couple of wine-centered stories up my sleeve.

38. Psyche

September 2024 - A feel-good story I wrote for the Small Kindness challenge:

39. Serve

Lots of stories from my friends in the military, need to get clearance for them.

40. Styled

Not a big fashion girl, but could come up with something, I think.

41. Chain

My story of buying and selling DOGE coin might be interesting.

42. The Swamp

At least one-third of all my stories on Vocal are about politics, published in The Swamp community. This one from October 2023 has the most reads:

43. Trader

A personal story about experience of trading international stock, perhaps?

44. Unbalanced

Volleyball is my life-long passion, and I could tell some stories about it.

45. Viva

This December 2023 story earned me a Top Story badge:

46. Wander

December 2023 - I still consider this trip pretty miraculous on many different levels:

47. Wheel

Still miss my Nissan Juke and could tell a good story or two about it.

48. Writers

November 2023 Top Story from this Community: