3000 - How Vocal Instils Ambition In Us

I have written about some of these things before , but am going to focus on what drives a lot of creators to write for Vocal.

I think stories is not quite the right word and often use articles or pieces to describe what I have written or what I am sharing, but personally think they sound a little cold whereas stories is warmer, but what I am writing is not really a story , it is an expression of an opinion , or several opinions of mine.

I was lured into Vocal with the promises of big prizes for challenges if I subscribed to Vocal+ as were many of us, and signed up for it. It was ten dollars a month so you could write and store your writing and get it shared with others, although you would have to promote it yourself.

I am a blogger so I have done blog promotion of Seven Days In and my blog gets something like fifteen thousand visits a month even though I seldom post there now. However I think most of these are robots so no one really reads it , and now it is more like a diary for me, which was its original aim.

When I thought of writing this piece I thought a poem would be a good fit for the format , but then realised that it would not really cut the mustard , though you may get a poem at the end.

But I posted my first Vocal story which was a recent lift from Seven Days In (You can read it here) and had to expand it to hit the six hundred word minimum, but I thought that was a fair limitation. I once saw a blog where every page consisted of a single link, I assume that must have been auto generated.

But I posted and hoped that someone would read my story. I shared it on Twitter and Facebook , but found that my friends were not interested in my writing, and was wondering if I would even get ten reads. The thought that I could win a competition was still there, but if no one was reading my work made me think that the Vocal admins would never choose a story that has not many reads.

I then looked for Vocal on Facebook and found various groups and became friends with people and took advice from them. One problem was that a lot of these people are professional writers who make money from their writing , while I am not a writer at all , my inadequacies are there for all to see.

But joining these groups made me want to write more , and publish more, and then I got my first tip from Call Me Les and that made me think , “Does someone like my writing?”.

I did write more and adjusted my writing methods, and then I got a bonus for my fifth post. I didn't know about bonuses and thought “Do I get one for every five I write?” So I kept writing and received a ten dollar bonus for ten posts. This post contains an unofficial list of all the bonuses, but I was now bitten.

I soon had 50 reads and found there was a bonus for getting a thousand reads, well that would never happen would it? In actuality by the time this has been published I will have hit three thousand reads.

I have given up on winning a challenge but will still enter , but I am not a “Real Writer” so that is out of the window, but had my one Top Story (which you can read here ) which means I appear as a “Creators We Love” in Poets but I am not sure that that brings me any publicity , though not being there would mean none.

I joined the Vocal Social Society and in their articles have been a Fab 5 winner and mention in several articles as a “favourite poet” , which in turn has generated reads and reads mean a trickle of money , but the real thrill is the recognition I have been given.

By the time that this is published I expect to have three thousand reads. I never ask for people to read my work explicitly , but share it with the various groups and hope that someone will notice me. This is the ambition that Vocal and the Vocal Groups have instilled in me.

I see ambition in others on the Facebook Groups which you cannot see on the Vocal site. People often ask for people to read to get them to hit a particular read target. A thousand or ten thousand is understandable as that brings a Vocal Bonus , although some people are serial requesters , but they have been instilled with ambition to hii those targets by being on Vocal and being a member of these groups.

Sometimes members will ask to share your least read or most read piece , which I do, and that does benefit me , it is one way I see as getting people to read my work.

So we have all been bitten by the bug to get people to read us, but the only reason that I have a reasonable amount of reads is the 175 posts I have done in the six months on Vocal , that is almost one a day. If I didn’t keep writing I am certain that people would not read my past writing.

Being a member of the Vocal groups and being on Vocal I think has improved my writing , although my laziness means I probably don’t get as many reads as I could do , but have ambition to improve and maybe one day pass ten thousand reads and everyone Vocal friend I have will have that in the back of their mind.

I would love to hear your Vocal or writing ambitions. I will never be a published author unless I get myself into gear and write my book , or compile my poems , but one should never say never.

These are my thoughts and opinions on the ambition instilled in us by who and where we are.

A perfect intro song is “Ambition” by The Subway Sect , so I shall leave that with you.

And a final poem ,

"It Will Never Happen"

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I want to write a poem

I want to be read

I want to be appreciated

But That Will Never Happen

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I want to have fifty reads

I want a thousand reads

I want ten thousand reads

But That Will Never Happen

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But What Do I Know?