Vocal & Beyond

Being Vocal

I joined Vocal roughly three years ago, so I think I’m safe to share my initial impression — I thought the site was a scam.

Wait! I was obviously wrong, and I’m still happily using the site so don’t smite me merciful Vocal overlords! In my defense the internet is littered with sites offering cash prizes, or monetary incentives to become a member and more than a handful are a complete waste of time. I think we all see the advertisements not so covertly creeping their way onto our screens weekly, if not daily on social media. Vocal was different, though I didn’t believe so at the time.

I had been mindlessly scrolling facebook when an advertisement caught my eye. It was for Vocal’s “Black in Business'' challenge. From the moment I saw the details of the challenge, “highlight a Black creator or innovator, online or offline, who inspires you”, I knew who and what I wanted to write about. A dear friend of mine was a budding entrepreneur and her journey had been one of great inspiration for me. Not only did the topic interest me, but the substantial cash prize as well. Again I had been wary of these sites and offers, but I gave Vocal a glance over and decided it was legit enough. If nothing else I had wasted ten bucks for the opportunity to write something, which I had been yearning for.

So I got to work, first asking for permission to write about this person’s life, and then to actually interviewing her. It was the type of experience I hadn’t engaged in since my Introduction to Anthropology class in college and the first where my grade hadn’t depended on it. I toiled away on the story for a while, and released it to the world. I thought the piece was great, but I was still skeptical of Vocal as a site and my odds of winning. I submitted my story and thought no more of it. It was up to the fates now. Weeks passed, and I remember sitting in my then girlfriend’s basement with friends when I received the email informing me that I had won the challenge. I didn’t believe it, I couldn't, until I opened the site and saw my story plastered on the front page. I was ecstatic, and safe to say the pizza and snacks were on me that night. While the feeling of winning and the prize money (half of which was given to the subject of my story) were great, it was gaining confidence in myself that was the true prize. That sounds corny, but let me explain.

My Humble Beginning

You see throughout my scholastic career I had always been a fairly decent academic writer, but nothing beyond that. There was certain enjoyment in writing, but I was never the kid who spent hours writing stories for fun. I was an avid reader, but the thought of crafting my own stories was foreign to me. It wasn’t until my late teens and early adulthood that my love for writing, storytelling, and creation truly blossomed. Somehow I had found friends who possessed a deep love and talent for creation, and with them I dove into the world of creative writing. We spent countless sleepless nights crafting characters, and stories, and imagining how they interweaved and expanded. I was now blogging, and writing poetry just for fun. Even then with all these worlds, wonders, and words inside me I had never considered writing a viable career choice until I won that Vocal challenge.

Now I’m a published author. I don’t know if that would have happened without Vocal. It was the first time I had been rewarded monetarily for my writing. It made me believe that maybe, just maybe that these words of mine are worth something. So I’m both thankful and grateful which is why my goals for the year essentially boil down to being more active here. If that sounds too general then allow me to break it down.

New Year, New Vocal, Grander Goals

Despite being a published author I have yet to make enough revenue or produce enough content to rely on my writing as income. That being the case I devote a lot of my time to my day job, and unequal amounts to resting so I’m not as active on Vocal, or with writing in general, as I’d like. I want that to change in 2024.

Vocal has changed so much from when I began my writing journey, and only in positive ways. I want my own growth and activity to mirror that. I love how the site is now mobile in app form, and how we can now leave comments for creators. That’s why my chief goal is to read more vocal stories, like more content, and comment my thoughts. It may seem a small thing, but could mean the world to another writer.

I know whenever I receive comments it feels like I’m making a genuine connection with the reader. I want to spread that feeling if I can. I intend to use the app more this year rather than the desktop site since I’m never without my phone. I can replace random doom scrolling with enjoying other writer’s stories which should be good for everyone’s mental states.

Now my second goal is admittedly more self indulgent — I want to write more. As mentioned previously, my work life keeps me pretty busy. Who has the time or energy to write when you’re working nine hour days? Apparently not me!

I'm changing that in 2024. Vocal has been a good motivator for me to write in the past, so I’m hoping it will be this year as well.

That leads directly into my next goal of entering more Vocal challenges this year. The challenges were my entry point into Vocal and have since been a way of remaining active and diversifying my writing. I find that being given a topic or theme jumpstarts my writing process and sometimes forces me to write about a subject I wouldn’t have otherwise. They’ve also been helpful in fleshing out some concepts and characters for personal projects. Stay tuned for my future novels and web stories featuring characters that first debuted on Vocal!

It’s important to note the goal is not to win more challenges this year (though that would be nice), but to simply enter more as self development. When I look back on the pieces I’ve done for challenges I always see where I could have improved, or certain aspects that I’m so proud of. They’ve truly been instrumental in my development as a writer.

2024 will be the year of writing! I hope you all will hold me to that, and we’ll check back in at the end of the year.

Thanks for reading!