New Year, Same Me, New Chances

I’ll be honest, I didn’t meet any of my Vocal or writing goals last year. Last year was at equal parts the worst and best of my life so far. I married the love of my life and battled a broken brain and in that, at least for the most part, I lost writing. It was always the “there will be time for that later” or “I’m too tired.” I’ve found it again and my lovely husband is full bore supportive. I want to be more active and creative this year and to that note, I will be attempting to submit at least one piece per month whether to a contest or just to the community.

I know this is about my goals for writing this year, but for me to focus on a hobby or profession everything else must be going well, so allow me to digress into goals in general. I want to be more sociable, more creative, more energetic, and less anxious. We all know that the internet is the place to get a sense of being social without leaving your house, but the internet is not a comfortable place for me, at least when it comes to other people. I am shier online than in person and sharing my thoughts or art is difficult for me. That’s one of the reasons I love Vocal, because I can be sure that somewhere at their keyboard there is someone that feels a lot like I do and may need another push to get it out there. Hey, if you are reading this and it sounds a little like you, here’s your push. To that note, I plan to be more active in the communities and try to spend less time disassociating from everything I know myself to be.

I have a tough time reading, so I haven’t read much of the other work here on Vocal. It’s an anxiety-based issue, not that I dislike reading. If I don’t know what’s going to happen next it puts me on edge, but not in that good way, like a horror book should do. Obviously, it wasn’t always this way, I used to devour books. In accordance with my goals listed above, I’ll be attempting to be more active in the communities, read more of other’s work and offer support or critique as asked. If I can get out of my shell, I’d love to connect with people who enjoy writing/reading similar genres or who want to talk about mental health.

I don’t believe any of us can truly say how the challenges ahead will shape us. I do, however, believe that striving toward a challenge is one of the most rewarding things I’ve found in life. When it comes specifically to the challenges Vocal will lay before us however, I hope that I will use them to branch out into new genres and styles. The challenge I am answering with this note is probably one of the rarer types of writing I do. I hope it will be only the first of many this year.

Of the many pieces of writing, I do for myself, I share little, but there is a short story on my profile called The Locket, I have decided to turn it into a full-length book. This is the one important thing I want to finish this year. A novel isn’t exactly vocal sized, but with the response I received to the short story I believe that it is a very worthwhile venture and may post it in chapters when it is ready. Who knows, a chapter might even fit a challenge.

If I could leave any lasting on Vocal itself, I would want to be one of the people that is a safe place online for those like me that grew up with internet stranger danger and a mother who thought chat rooms were the quick ticket to trouble. I would also want my readers to leave their screen with something to think about, a new way of looking at something, or knowledge, external or internal, that will help them in the future. I’ll leave you today with something trite. Carpe Diem my friends, today is not guaranteed and tomorrow is never promised.