How I Choose to Use My Platform and Why I Chose Vocal As A Building Block

Vocal is an amazing space to share art, creations, achievements, and stories. We are able to share with others in all aspects of life: joy, peace, struggles, fears, ambitions, grief, concerns, and frustrations.

Never once have I come onto this platform and felt apprehension for anything I was to write. Never once have I felt the cool dread that comes along with hitting the publish button anywhere else.

I can just be.

With that said I want to make sure that I use my platform responsibly. I want to use it in a way that reflects me, brings me joy, but in a way that will not lead to more confusion and disjointedness.

That is why, like my social media career, I am taking a step back, decluttering what is there, and make way for all that is new and good.

No I am not taking a break and no I will not be going off of this platform indefinitely. I will just be deleting some things to make ready for new and better quality pieces that could mean so much more than the method in which I have been doing them now.

I must confess that up until this point I had not been writing to the best potential that I now realize I could. While I had heart behind my pieces they were not read over multiple times. They were not thought through to see if I wanted to add or subtract. There was no regards for anything other than raw emotion of what I felt, enough in the way of a grammar and spell check to suffice and the hitting of a button.

While not wrong in the rawness of expression and the heart of the message behind it, I do acknowledge that more time and thought could have been dedicated to each piece. In the crafting of the worlds and the stories. I had always had a problem with short stories for that very reason. They were decent in the message, but as not as powerful in the delivery.

That is where as a writer I struggle and where I want to learn to improve.

Writing is not about the amount of words you can chug out per page. Rather it is about the meaning of the words that are written on it. Language is a powerful thing. Words, whether in written form or spoken words have the power to move someone into action, create a feeling of importance, create a call to action. It is just as potent in it's destruction: in the way we talk flippantly about subjects that in actuality we only have surface knowledge of and never went to look deeper; in phrases that can prompt someone to feel inferior to another because of comprehension, background, or just out of a feeling of jealousy.

Words have a power beyond anything else in all of creation and an impact that is meant to last. Words coupled with action impact generations. We are constantly told growing up to learn the lessons of those who precede us so that we can avoid the harshness and struggles of the past and obtain for ourselves a better future.

Words empower, embolden, enlighten, and when used in the right way create. How can we not marvel at what is so easy to use and has the most lasting, powerful impact. Physical injuries go away with time. It is the emotional, those felt by words coupled with the actions of those words that will leave a lasting mark.

How are we going to use them? What can we say about this amazing tool that we have been given as a way to express and distribute thoughts, ideas, creations, inventions and to perspectives in the world? We were made with the use of language.

Am I really going to squander that gift all for the sake of quantity? Absolutely not! I refuse to allow my work to be affected by the fear that I need to produce as much as I possibly can so I will be able to provide for myself a good stable income.

Yes you heard me right.

I was afraid that the amount of content that I produced would not be considered enough in the eyes of the world. That the amount that I was able to produce that I deemed worthy and the pieces I was most proud of was not enough in the face of all the authors that are in the world today.

You hear of author after author on many sites saying that they produce an article a day out of multiple that they are able to produce, make and upload content on YouTube, keep up an Instagram and still blog the entire experience.

Meanwhile here I am with one article and the basis of a writing schedule that I just throw out the window the second I start watching videos that were supposed to be inspirational, but are now just depressing.

My worthlessness kicks in and I am now nothing in the face of these amazing creators.

I take out the piece that I had spent hours planning, creating, writing, scrapping and then rewriting again and throw it in the trash bin along with any ambition I have to write ever again.

I want to forget this pointless dream and resign myself to the fact that I am just mediocre at life. I pushed my writing urge aside for all of ten minutes trying to find another hobby that could potentially be a lucrative career.

Then I turned to the side, saw my open notebook and discarded pencil, took a big huff of frustration and wrote.

Thoughts turned to ideas that turned into stories. The innermost expressions of who we are as people. Something that is so unique to even us that as the author we are constantly surprised from the words that spew forth from the keys or scribbles.

It was in that moment I realized what I had been missing. The belief in myself and the power of the message that I could share. Sure, the delivery is a little odd, my confidence is shake-able, and the content I choose to come out with is more serious in nature than not. Many are reluctant to try my style and that is okay. No writer is for everyone and just because I have so much to say does not mean that every word is just filler.

So why would I allow my writing to become such. And for what? Money. I was becoming the very thing I feared turning into. I NEVER want the art and individuality that is the art of writing to ever be marred by the craving of money.

We are limitless in what we choose to write and talk about, so why degrade the importance of that for a flimsy article that could mean so much more? What all for the sake of a few bucks that would maybe buy you one cup at Starbucks.

Is that what I really want my writing to amount to?

Of course not!

Thus, the shift in content that will come to pass. I wanted to make it clear that there are a few that I want to keep up for the specific purpose that some of them were well thought out and through. Some were more obviously rushed than others.

I want to clarify that none of the pieces that were submitted were slap shot and thrown together in a matter of seconds and posted. I knew what I wanted to write and wrote out my thoughts. There are some that were for the purpose of being like a journal and that was the intention and outcome.

However, I know that I could grow and do more for some of these articles past what I did as a submission. For that reason I will take them down.

I want to end this article by saying that I will be doing more in the way of niche content (a.k.a. short stories, poetry, writing updates, book reviews, and video content talking about said subjects). I will be having more in the way of content which I will address in the very next article that will be coming out in a day or two.

Thank you so much for the support in reading my articles as I am learning and growing in this journey of being an author and freelance writer!

All the monetary support from reads as well as your generous tips (greatly appreciated but not mandatory) are going straight back into my YouTube channel

. . .and the publishing stages of my poetry book that we are hoping to have out to the public either by the end of the year or sometime near the beginning of next depending on how long the process will take.