Top Stories

Stories in Journal that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.

Five Steps to Create Your Own Hypertext Fiction
For the more experimentally-minded writer, hypertext fiction - a form of nonlinear interactive fiction using electronic documents - is a form with a lot of potential. However, creating hypertext fiction requires a set of technical skills that many writers don't possess.
By Andrew Johnston3 years ago in Journal
Inspirational | She is 68 years old and her life has just begun
Recently, an old friend asked me to chat. She said that she has been very troubled recently, and her memory is getting worse and worse. It was obviously a few minutes ago, and it was completely forgotten in a blink of an eye. I can't always lift my spirits, and my brain and heart often feel inexplicable emptiness... I asked her one sentence and told her two words: How long is the brain useless? action. For girls who have the same troubles, I just want to turn your eyes away, just like Cersei, the love-hate queen in "Game of Thrones"~
By wei cheng3 years ago in Journal
Salman Rushdie, New Yorker
Horrifying news is all the more shocking if you yourself were only just talking and laughing with the victim of a terrible attack. Just a few days before Sir Salman Rushdie was gravely injured onstage in Chautauqua, in western New York, I was chatting with him in the lounge of a private members’ club in lower Manhattan, the city that, for the past 23 years, has been the writer’s adopted home. We were a gathering of three — Salman and I and Jeremy Frommer, Executive Chairman of Creatd, Vocal’s parent company and one of my oldest friends. Turns out that Rushdie and Frommer were members of the same club — when I’d discovered that the two of them hung out there, I felt I had to bring these unique people together.
By Erica Wagner3 years ago in Journal
Climber's Choice
There is a mountain, towering into the clouds, which is difficult for birds to cross. No one knows how high it is. There are two roads in front of and behind the mountain for climbing. The main road in front of the mountain is paved with stone steps, straight and magnanimous; The back mountain path is full of thorns and twists and turns.
By Bobby3 years ago in Journal
I'm Quitting Social Media...Again
I remember when I started dating my boyfriend years ago, my friends thought I made him because he wasn't on Facebook. This was when Facebook was just starting to get big and I was only using it because the copywriting agency I worked for required it.
By Krysta Dawn4 years ago in Journal
5 Stupid Simple Money Management Tips I Wish I'd Of Known as a New Freelancer
Ideas are the simplest and most abundant commodity around. Everyone has an idea for the next great thing-a-ma-jig or doo-hickie that will revolutionize life as we know it. Very few of you will ever take that first step and start. A fraction of folks will let those dreams die with them.
By Rick Martinez4 years ago in Journal
Rotten Reviews from Rotten Writers
I started my blog, The Writer’s Scrap Bin, to provide support to fellow writers, whether they are aspiring or well established, and build a community of writers that build each other up, not tear each other down. I’ve just never understood why we can’t help each other. We all have our own genres, styles, and niches, so why can’t we share readers and rejoice in each other’s success? Unfortunately, not all writers think that way, and not just in modern times. We’ve been jerks to each other for quite a while. The proof is in Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews & Rejections.
By Stephanie Hoogstad4 years ago in Journal
Why I Won’t Read a Book on Writing
I know, I know “who am I to not listen to Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, or you (the person who probably wrote tons of articles on writing).” You know what, I’m Jay. And I have my reasons.
By Jay,when I write4 years ago in Journal
Ten of the Best Books for Writers
1. Stephen King: On Writing Now I happen to think that Stephen King is one of the best storytellers alive. No matter how absurd his initial premise – A car is alive! A clown in the drains! Phones turn you into zombies! – he does it with such conviction and imagination that you suspend all disbelief.
By Sheryl Garratt4 years ago in Journal
Vocal is a diary for me
I am not an award winning author. I am also not a professional author. But I enjoy writing and find that it is a meaningful hobby. I have also found that publishing stories on Vocal serves as a cathartic experience. I do not have a lot of viewers read my stories and that is okay! But that also means that I am not writing for an audience per se. Hence, the theme of this article.
By Margo4 years ago in Journal
The 1000 Words
Hardly anyone knows what I do; my field is uncommon, and the degree required can be lengthy depending on what type of role you want to pursue. Most times, even when I do disclose either my title or field, people still say, "huh??"
By Call Me Les4 years ago in Journal
There Is A Reason Why I Don't Stick With One Niche In Writing.
I love writing, just as much as I love reading. Reading feeds my imagination, while writing sets my imagination free. I often get advised by other writers to 'stick with one niche.'
By Carol Ann Townend4 years ago in Journal