Sooo...are you like, a Vocal junkie?

Confession time: I have not always been an active Vocal member.

I joined in April 2019 and posted one poem, Find Them. I didn’t post anything again until February 2020. The daunting number of balls I juggled during that period could have been considered an admirable safety hazard violation worthy of Guinness World Records status.

As a writer, I’ve had superheroine-like delusions. My irresistible connection to creativity sometimes made me stretch beyond the feasible.

Off the back of a demanding healthcare undergraduate program, I relocated across the country while starting a new job with back-to-back 12-hour shifts as a single parent, simultaneously securing accommodation appliances and furniture at supersonic speed. Sure, I could write a few pieces here and there___no problem! But when I had a few precious days off shift, it hurt to get out of bed or move, for that matter, since my soul wasn’t just tired, it was comprehensively exhausted. My brain still bears blisters from that transition period during which I moved house three times.

Creative writing-me took major hits.

But one thing about writing is that it heals you. It heals others too. So much an integral part of who you are, a return is inevitable. You will always come back to you.

Poetry had been my mainstay, but about three and a half years prior, I started a personal online page of sorts for non-fiction writing, opinion pieces mostly, that developed a small following. This outlet for expression was e x h i l a r a t i n g! It allowed me to full-color dream in front of a receptive public in relative safety, explore deeper personal truths and stand on a virtual soapbox every once in a while, shaking a virtual finger at the world’s ills that were ‘getting my goat’ at the time. But the site unexpectedly closed down, taking with it months of my innermost musings. The personal essay, Let Me was one of two written remnants of that time in my possession saved on a file.

In 2019 when I joined Vocal, I still had not connected all the figurative dots of where my passion for writing was taking me.

The job became all-consuming and did not only NOT support a work-life balance, but neither a life-life balance. The complicated never-ending issues, departmental meetings, and unrealistic demands surrounding me drove me straight into the open arms of Vocal with a fervent rant called, Welcome to the State of Complaintless-ness. At which point, it received the most reads I had ever had as a Vocal member. As a writer, what I felt was validation. I will always remember checking the notification email regarding that story on my lunch break in the staff room. I had received my first tip. The lift it gave me was indescribable. It remains my most-read story to date.

There was no time to dwell on what took me so long to engage in posting to Vocal more consistently. I was too busy writing!

Catharsis can be all-consuming. And then contagious.

I embraced the voyage of writing professionally, but there were a LOT of rules, many of which I am still learning.

Why was there so much variance with American and English spelling that I did not remember being taught in school? How could I nail down my writing voice and niche when I felt so uncategorical? What the heck did I have to do to lower my Flesch-Kincaid Readability Index score? So, you mean to tell me years are spent in university building academic writing style skills only to have some potential employers request a maximum ninth-grade readability score for articles? You have got to be friggin’ kidding me!

Apparently, over the years, writing got very complicated when I wasn’t looking. Or maybe it always was, and I just never noticed. But when someone is paying you to write, they have an entitlement to be particular.

I wanted to take this journey.

There was seamlessness.

I don’t exactly remember when I began checking in with Vocal every day. It has become a standard routine alongside writing passionately with discipline and reading other member’s stories voraciously. There are now two facebook groups, Vocal Media Creators Hub and Vocal Creators Saloon that I've recently joined. Engagement, feedback, and sharing with other Vocal Creators is a welcome support.

I thoroughly examined all of the Vocal communities and accepted an offer of a month’s free Vocal+ membership and then missed the deadline to end it.

Well, when you’re having way more fun than you expected…

Improving my value proposition, presentation, developing my writing style and time management are just a few of the positive side-effects of being a bona fide Vocal junkie.

I find more with each new day of membership that defies description.

It's as if I can feel the hands connecting billions of hearts opening up with a song. Everyone knows the tune irrespective of country, and can sing it in their own language around the campfire. And there are loads of campfires.

It is empowering to witness a sea of voices, each with a unique perspective and essence that coalesce in magnificence yet remains distinct and inspirational.

Chambers Compact Dictionary defines the word ‘vocal’ in the first sense as an adjective relating to the human voice.

A writing platform with a simple yet profound name and life-affirming purpose warrants more majesty than just my claim to be a Vocal-junkie. There doesn’t seem to be much available in the way of vocabulary for a healthy addiction. Go figure. My shortlist possibilities include Vocal-ite, Vocalizer, Vocal-lover, and Vocal-loyalist. Hey, I’m still working on some angles, and thanks to Vocal Media, I’m still publishing my writing for an international audience.

Sooo...just for the record, are you a Vocal junkie yet?

Please be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter to get in touch with your spin on positive, hooked-on-Vocal name suggestions @thedaniwriter and take the time to ‘heart’ and share this story and every story you enjoy reading on Vocal.