Challenge
Keep Going Until I Make it Big
For the past six years since I have been on Vocal Media, I have published poetry, excerpt scripts, music critiques, film and TV critiques, biographies, celebrities, where are they now stories, true crime stories, personal stories, gadgets, tech, and history. Before I signed up on Vocal Media, I was unemployed and an aspiring writer trying to find a writing gig just to get my work to be noticed. I had completed my first play which had been unproduced and I was a stay-at-home single mother to my loving autistic son Xavier.
By Gladys W. Muturi2 years ago in Writers
Week Three of Write A Story Every Day in 2024
Week 3. 21 stories written. That's a lot of words and a lot of ideas. I'm sticking at it although I'm feeling less inspired to write microfiction and looking longingly at my old friends, the poem and the extended short story. I'm looking for prompts where I wasn't so fussed before. Unsplash is my saviour but there are many prompts out there to seek and I am still finding myself triggered by incidences at times into writing.
By Rachel Deeming2 years ago in Writers
An open letter to all the hustlers. Content Warning.
To be or not to be, to go all in or to unwind and relax, we question our dreams, running in constant chase of our quests to come true, we are the ones who never sleep. Dreamers we are called, the ones who passionately strive in the endeavours of the best they could ever be, here is a letter to me, a letter to you. In the stride of embracing the best you have ever been, nurture your soul before the onset of the abundance in you that lies unseen.
By Hridya Sharma2 years ago in Writers
.•❤•.Goals For a New Year •❤•Oº #200
What aspires me? To keep going on Vocal is knowing one day I will win a Challenge. So Yes I am here for more, rejection. I will not give up until I win a challenge. It is important to me, I know a lot of great content creators are here but I stick out from all of them.
By Emily Curry (Rising Phoenix)2 years ago in Writers
This is the Year
It’s been two years since I published my first story on Vocal. I should start by saying that I have a bittersweet relationship with writing. I have always loved writing, but I guess you could say I have commitment issues- apologies to my very patient fiancé- because for a long time I was never able to finish anything. I thought that maybe it was because I was trying to write novels and that was just too much for me. So, I thought short stories might be a good idea. But they all sucked. They felt dull and boring. I became someone with scraps of paper overfilling a box in my closet with half formed ideas and wandering thoughts. Folders of chapters that abruptly end. Approximately 100 notes on my phones that could go somewhere, but who knows?
By Tiffany Fairfield2 years ago in Writers
There's Only One Thing Worse Than an Author That Doesn't Stop Talking About Their Novel
Never does. I have a small problem when it comes to certain quick form constant scrolling media sites on my phone. I can open the app to simply kill a few minutes here and there and somehow the next thing I know it's been almost twelve hours later, dinner is burning, the house is on fire, aliens have invaded, and my partner has run away with a circus clown - that's how suckered into it I can get.
By Elise L. Blake2 years ago in Writers
This Crazy Tumble
“Only connect", the novelist EM Forster wrote. His character (Margaret in Howard's End) was suggesting a union of "passion and prose" (or the inner and outer life), but those two words - only connect - have become a rallying cry for the 21st century, expressing the importance of people relating to one another in an increasingly fragmented world.
By Marie Wilson2 years ago in Writers
2024
I don’t expect to achieve greatness in the next year. “Shoot for the moon, and you’ll land among the stars,” they say. But they never mention the fall. The shattering, devastating plummet into the self-criticizing abyss of failure. Forever tumbling and smashing into the nightmares of your shortcomings, the descent to the stars is a crash landing when all hope for achieving the dream is lost.
By Holly Draper2 years ago in Writers
Aspirations for 2024
Vocal asked and I'm providing. I find it almost therapeutic to sit down and consider exactly what I'm aspiring towards in 2024. I love writing on Vocal and I love being a creator. I love the opportunity to slow down for a moment and truly think about my aspirations as a creator on Vocal this year.
By Emilie Turner2 years ago in Writers
My Aspirations With The Vocal
As much as I love to write, be challenged and to have deadlines which generate motivation, (ummm, usually), my goals are very focused regarding The Vocal this year. I want to read each and every entry. Why? Writers who do not read others creations become stale, stagnant and self absorbed. Getting one's story listed as "Top Story" or included in " Writers We Are Loving" has been the sort of a place I find myself wallowing about, wondering too often why my piece didn't make it and it leads to me not writing. Challenges can be fun, however, in the last year those who won first prize or had honourable mentions got my attention right away. Now I am digging in and like a determined detective I am going to unravel each and every gem, study it, read and re-read and pull those who are in the wild depths of The Vocal up and out them for review. I do have books I need to read and books I need to continue to write, but as Barbara King wrote, " Writing a Novel is a Marathon, Not a Sprint. We who are driven to write more than short stories need to sit back and breathe, look for other angles and most of all ask for and get some feedback. That is my primary goal. If I submit a story or poem I'd like to see more members commenting on it's substance, word choice, or hear how it might have been bettered by a simple comma. I want real feedback not just someone writing " good job!". I have read plenty of my own writing and know without a doubt it was not a good job, it was pathetic and lifeless, congealed from some brain cells on their way out of town. Learning from others is critical. We all know that our art form is one that is under valued; very few of us make it to the screenplay of our dreams, much less find ourselves discovered by a writing scout from The New Yorker or are even reshared here, in this very platform we are so devoted to. The character it takes to hit and miss repeatedly and not give up is astounding. In the old days rejection slips were stuffed in shoe boxes and hidden in the back of the wardrobe; now no one bothers to even thank us for our submissions. That says everything about being a writer's writer. May I persevere to be encouraging, supportive, candid and devoted to my fellow Salinger's, Keats, Angelou's and Pratchett's. Your work, your gift and drive are just as integral to the process as my own and it should be no other way. I will admit there is a lot of catching up to do; new genres to delve into, stories from years ago that are growing dusty in The Vocal's silver lined cellar, and to boot more submissions are coming in every day. It is probable I will not meet my own standards as I have been known to slip and slide on resolutions and aspirations previously, yet I frankly have been in an impermeable rut; I admit to staring at pens, pencils, paper, keyboards, the ceiling, the dead birch tree out my kitchen window, napping, scanning the cupboards for something to snack on, trying to read my palms, stoking the fire, watching Britbox, and just about everything one can do but write. Is it just January? I asked myself. Myself highly doubts the month is responsible for my fiddling and fuddling. So now at five hundred and ninety words, (almost), I write to all of you who are following your dreams, creating masterpieces and honestly some real bombs as well, I announce with fervour, without further delay I will be reading YOU, watching for your next publication and as often as the sun rises and sets, ( that might be a slight exaggeration), I will try very much indeed to comment, be real, plunge into the miles and mountains of words you put forth and give you the read you deserve. If you are looking for quickies like "Excellent", "Well done", or "Amazing" might I remind you this is not a blind-fold taste test but my real thoughts and meanderings regarding your portfolio of nouns, adjectives, synonyms and imagination. Hail to all creators out there, make sure to watch your P's and Q's! Cheers to another year around The Vocal!
By ROCK aka Andrea Polla (Simmons)2 years ago in Writers
