How I Create Vocal Stories

Introduction

Most Vocal members and Vocal themselves do not see me as a creator but do know my name probably because of the number of stories that I post on Vocal. People also see me as a go-to person for advice on lots of things to do with creating on Vocal which I suppose is super ironic.

I have a large subscriber base and get a lot of reads so I can't complain, but my imposter syndrome does make me feel that my work has no merit, then I will get a comment from my core audience that knocks me out and makes me feel that someone does appreciate me.

After this depressing intro, I realise there are probably close to a hundred close Vocal friends who love and appreciate me and my work so I really need to take that into account and add that to the fact that I can always find something to write about like this.

The Blank Piece Of Paper

I seldom write for Vocal on paper, there is always a blank screen. The editor is nowhere near perfect but is stable enough to actually write a story now, that has not always been so. I used to write my stories in Google Docs and then transfer them to the Vocal editor to finish off and tidy up. I still do that for long pieces as the Google Docs editor is fast, functional and accessible on my computer and phone for me. The Google Office Suite is efficient and fast so I have a huge backup there. It is also good if you want people to check your work before you publish your work.

I have written in every Vocal community which I am proud of but some people may just see as me being obsessive. I prepared stories for the new communities as soon as the announcement was made that they were coming and were the first creator stories in each community, although in Art Megan Baker had a two-month-old story in there so that looks like it beat me, and it got a well deserved Top Story.

I am lucky enough to always find something to write about, although I find writing about something that already exists is simple, because the raw material is there for you to work with.

I also try to make my work positive, so when I hit my lows I always look for something positive to lift my spirits. When I started this as you may have spotted, I was feeling down but actually writing this has lifted my spirits, so I always see writing as a positive experience. Maybe that is why I write and publish so much on Vocal.

I am a Top Creator in Confessions and Beat so that is totally at odds with me saying that Vocal don't recognise me for what I do.

So here are some short notes on how I approach writing in various communities. I often don't know where I am going to post what I am writing. I am not sure whether this will be in Confessions or Journal, probably the latter.

Beat is probably the place where I feel most at home. I always look for a theme and that may be an album, an artist, a musical genre or a themed playlist. Like with most of my writing, I often don't know how this is going to end up when I start, but there are very few that I get to the end of and then trash.

The biggest part of my work is in poetry and my audience continually tells me how wonderful my work is but it is always off Vocal's radar, very few Top Stories, though my first ever Top Story was a poem and you can check it out here.

I think my problem is that I write mainly sonnets and villanelles and that may be seen as old-fashioned and not in keeping with Vocal policies. Most of the poetry Top Stories are either free-form or the current Challenge form which is an Acrostic.

I have started a "Plagiaristic Poetry" series and merged a few of those with the Vocal Acrostic challenge, but this now means I can always write a poem in any format for this series. It is a great idea for you to set something up where you can always write because that is also a great way to smash writer's block.

I often feel that I am being lazy when I write poetry (or short-form fiction) but then find that my poem has taken me three or four hours to write, though it is a one-minute read for my audience.

I am a top Creator here as well as Beat and I use this for anything which is personal, and also for some of my posts which I feel are a bit on the darker side of me. There are some that are lighter but this is a place to get certain things off my chest.

This is the area I find most difficult to write in because it is usually about something that does not exist. Prompts do help but most of my fictions tends to be about something bad happening, maybe dystopian or horror. I continually try to write something that is positive but I think I could count the number of times that I have done that on one hand.

I am continually told that I am not good enough to win a challenge, sometimes in hurtful comments. People tell me my style is rubbish and I need to change it.

Then there are friends who are almost as confused as me why some of my pieces do not place in challenges. They see my entries and say "That is a definite winner" and while maybe one day they will be proved right I will keep entering, believing it is just a matter of time before I see my name on a winners list on Vocal.

Conclusion

I hope that you have taken something from this, I will leave you with a talk I did on my creative process. I included David Bowie's "Win" from "Young Americans" because I see myself as a winner, and I love that heavenly saxophone intro as well.