Take Bill and Ted's advice: Be Excellent To Each Other

When I first stumbled upon Vocal I was like a fat kid in an all you can eat candy shop, located in a bad part of town that nobody feels safe going to after dark. You know what I mean, your profile picture looks like you’ve had your fair share of free candy. Amiright? LOL.

Did that sentence take you by surprise? Was it complimentary? No, not at all. It’s passive aggressive at best, insulting and inferior, but it means well. Perhaps that’s implied. In the flux of trying to make a daily word count it does more harm than good.

Let me start again, an example of what I’d consider a better start, anyway.

When I first stumbled upon Vocal, I was like a kid in a candy shop. So many creative people in one place, one small triangle on the web but it felt so big, so freeing. I didn’t have a big creative circle and the people that I did lean on were tired (although they wouldn’t admit it) of hearing about my ‘ideas’ and short fiction.

I was happy to find a platform, kind of a home base in the minor leagues. Creators, rejoice! That short story living on a thumb drive is homeless no more. That poem you wrote about the bigotry of third grade politics – post it here. This was where we could hang our hat, snuggle up on the sofa while we sip a cup of warm cocoa, and settle in for the night with a good read. Someone, another writer had shared their soul. A place where we're most likely reading the work of a budding novelist. What a cool opportunity. To have a chance to read someone before they write their own runaway hit like Eat Pray Love (don’t knock it – Liz Gilbert hit a home run) and even better, a couple years later, a place to converse with those literary geniuses in training through comments.

I remember the first thing I read on Vocal. It was a fiction piece, for the Little Black Book challenge. It was good. My piece turned out just okay. The budding novelist in me warmed to the flow of euphoria that there was a place to share the rough drafts and bad ideas. Cause if we are being real, not everything we think of to create is a masterpiece. Not at first. But the potential, well, the potential is there for you and for me. Dolling out the duds is part of the process. There’s no way around it. You’ve got to suck like a vacuum before you mop up.

It’s cleaning 1-0-1.

Legit.

Here we can do just that. Experiment. Explore. Create. Interact with the next big thing in the publishing world. And hey, it might be you and it might even be me.

If we do the work. Pour ourselves into a piece we can be passionate about, feel the characters we’ve created so much that they come alive and begin to write the story all by themselves.

I knew that Vocal was a special place when I read my first article.

That has not changed. But other things have.

Back then there was no commenting allowed. Just hang your work out there in the deep space of the void and hope for a heart.

And let me tell you, those hearts (for me at least) were hard to win for a good long while.

In the bliss of creating, some of us have forgotten what we’re doing here. Why we are really here.

That answer should be to hone our craft among likeminded individuals. And support people doing the same thing. Cause I still get a tingle of apprehension before I publish something. Perhaps that’s a good thing to have – an ego that is humble. And kind. Don’t we all crack our knuckles, take a deep breath when we finally hit that Submit for Review button?

I know I do.

This is where things can get dicey. Backlash is real. I’ve seen it. You probably have as well.

It starts innocent enough, I think. Maybe not in every case, but a comment has rubbed me raw a time or two. I have puffed my chest in response, because while I might be hard to anger, I too have limits. And bullshit -harmful, ego defying comments will not be ignored. I’m not suggesting that you don’t stand up for yourself.

What I am saying is that if Vocal is a place for writers, we should honor the words. Of compliments, of unsolicited critiques, of slamming another’s success because the green eyes monster has a piece of us.

I’m not saying that Vocal is fair. It's a big platform and it's growing more every day. Of course there are going to be some hiccups along the way. From what I've seen, Vocal does make a considerable effort to make things better whenever they can. They listen to creators. The judges can't count (hey - we might as well laugh) but even then they tried to make things right. You won't find that at Facebook, or Google. Vocal really tries. Some of us may think they don't care and that things aren't fair, like how Top Stories make the front page, but life isn't fair. Like I said in a recent comment, where I’m from fair is what you take a pig to.

Seize the day and keep going, keep writing. Focus on the big goals. Let the Vocal community read your work while you get where you're going. We'll comment as best we can, on as many stories as we can. And this is where things gets sideways.

If we can give a bit more latitude in how we respond to comments, I think there will be a lot less contention. I know that stifles my creativity more than anything. The only drama that should be put on the page is in a story.

That’s where it belongs.

Maybe I have a lofty goal for humanity? Maybe not. We are writers, let’s remember that we are all human beings.

And not to overlook how we respond, what we respond to matters just as much. Commenting should not be taken for granted. A great compliment or a heartfelt statement is meaningful. Even a smiley face emoji.

What matters is that our work is getting out there. Let's try to be mindful of our encounters.

Here’s a short list of reminders of basic manners:

1) Do unto others as you would like done to you. FFS, we should have all learned that in kindergarten, but I suppose a refresher isn’t unrealistic.

2) If you don’t have something nice to say – stow it. If the writer does not specifically ask for critique, there’s no need to bring it up.

3) In commenting online, subtext is lost, sense of humors can be misinterpreted just as easily as in text messages.

4) If you try to relate to a story and your comment begins ‘one time when I was in first grade…’ then you proceed to fill in every minute detail of what happened since then, STOP. What you have to say is bigger than a comment section, you need to publish a story with all that in it.

5) The complaining needs to stop. We all want Vocal to be the best place it can be, but sour grapes about another writer’s success is not going to make anyone successful.

6) Remember what’s appropriate. You know what is and what isn’t.

7) It’s not always about you. Don’t take a comment personally that you read on another’s story. Chances are, it's not about you.

8) Find comradery with your actions. You’ll get as much out of Vocal as you put into it.

9) Do the work.

10) Let others do their work. Don’t shite on their pieces if you don’t agree with their position. Use your thumbs and scroll away if you can’t engage meaningfully. Diverse ideas and opinions are necessary to a full scope periphery.

And lastly, if in doubt, take Bill and Ted's advice.

Be excellent to each other.

Party on, er - write on.