I'm Not A Writer

Last night, I was scrolling down my social media when an advertisement for Vocal caught my attention.

There was a picture of the eye of a dragon and underneath read, "The Fantasy Prologue challenge. Grand prize: $10,000"

I could not believe it. 'There's got to be a catch,' I thought. 'A chance to win $10,000 from just writing?'

I immediately copied the link and shared it with my friend who has been writing his fantasy book for years.

Still unable to comprehend this reward, I clicked into Vocal. In the fine print, I misread and assumed that being a member would require a monthly or annual subscription.

I immediately tabbed out of the site and entered the conversation with my friend to warn him.

"I'm sorry..." I explained, "I am reading the guidelines. It appears you have to be a member.."

"Thanks for sharing that with me," Xander replied by voice, "Yeah! No problem, I don't need ta worry about it. If I need to become a member, no problem. Uh, yea? Just having some lunch. Hope you're having a good day."

'That was it?' I thought. It didn't appear that Xander had an issue with purchasing a membership to write on the site. With my own curiosity bubbling, I decided to again click on Vocal and browsed the website.

I first looked in the "Challenges" tab. Square buttons of grand prizes were shown. There was a Mother's Day Confessions with a prize of $2500, and the Fantasy Prologue that had led me to the site to begin with.

Underneath that, was "Recent Winners" and under that, a small but long rectangular button that read, "View Completed Challenges".

I browsed the completed challenges.

Multitudes of written work on various topics, from resolutions to personal accounts of coming of age, lined the page. It wasn't just the sheer amount of writing that intrigued me--it was the subject matter. I felt my imagination bursting from within just by reading the writing prompts.

I clicked onto one of the submission winners and her writing was very delicate and very professional. It was a style that I could never imitate.

'There is no way that I could write on this site,' I discouraged myself.

That didn't stop me because I had forgotten to close the tab last night. I found myself face to face with Vocal today.

'Well,' I reasoned with myself, 'if I'm not going to write here, at the very least I could read some writing for inspiration and learn from these talented individuals.'

I wasn't sure where I was clicking as my mouse went to and fro, tapping on random links that opened to different areas of the site. Then I had found myself branched off to the help section. I was looking at the FAQ for the charges on Vocal and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the basic account did not a payment.

My eyes wandered below "Related articles" there was one called, "I’m not a writer. What can I use Vocal for?"

"Even if you don’t think of yourself as a 'writer,'" the article continued, "you can use Vocal to promote your YouTube channel, podcast, art, music, Instagram, or whatever creative projects you’re working on."

I was immediately hooked. There were two reasons against zero for me to join now:

1. I don't have to be a professional writer to qualify on Vocal. As the article stated I could just be about anyone with an idea to share.

2. And free membership is a perk!

So, here I am.

I barely passed my English classes in high school. The only times my English teachers praised my lack of English-y skills were from creative writing. And this type of medium allows me to interlink my inner world with the English language by utilizing a combination of words, marks, stops, and placement.

With that...

Hello, and nice to meet you.

I'm not a writer,

But I do enjoy sharing experiences.