Vocalized

One evening in the beginning of the year the girlfriend of one of my family members sparked up a conversation about her interest in publishing children stories for Amazon.com while we were attending bible study. She mentioned how she could potentially earn money doing so and while I was listening to her a lightbulb went off in my head. I thought to myself maybe I should look into this by seeing if Amazon or perhaps another website might possibly publish my writing. After doing some web surfing I came across a website named Vocal.com. After registering for the site and building a profile I officially became a member of Vocal.com and it was here that I finally started putting my passion for writing into motion and the written works I would create would meet the eyes of many in ways I never imagined.

It is my biggest dream to be a writer and I do all types of writing: stories, music, poetry, articles, etc, and it would be here at Vocal that I was finally able to stretch these muscles and show the world what I could do as a writer. When I saw I could create new stories and upload old ones I started doing both. The first work I ever wrote for Vocal was a poem titled "A Poem of Plagues" it was a poem inspired by the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. It would be my second published work for Vocal that would catch everyone's attention titled "Black on both Sides", which was a race-based social commentary poem I had previously written on my Facebook.

After the first few days of writing I learned about my statistics section of my Vocal profile as I was still finding my way around the site and I learned that my stories were actually getting reads. The first number of reads I remember seeing was around eight reads and as small as that number might seems in the natural, I have to admit I was flattered. The fact that anyone was actually reading my work really made me feel like I was on to something great. The most of what I started writing was poetry, probably because it was the easiest thing for me to write, but then I wanted to diversify my writing profile more so I started writing more short stories and articles. To kick this phase into gear I started uploading short stories I had previously written for my film classes at college as well as short stories I had written on my Facebook over a year's time before I discovered Vocal.

Writing articles is what would eventually raise my status as a writer on Vocal. Because I am a nerd and I love to write about my favorite movies, music, books, etc. I definitely found that I had a knack for doing analysis and reviews for all entertainment work I geeked out over. I started doing retrospective articles about classic films and the impacts they had on the film world with a series of articles that I had unknowingly created called "Impact of a Legend". I would also start doing review and analysis articles on all the newest and current movies and TV shows that I was big fan of and I knew that this was definitely a writing ball that I would keep rolling. Because I really appreciate all the people and writers who have inspired me as a writer I started writing articles about people who inspired me as a writer which includes people from my personal life like family members and teachers, as well as big names from entertainment like musicians and filmmakers.

Soon enough I would learn about the challenges that Vocal hosts on a regular basis that gave writers the advantage of winning big money prizes. this definitely motivated me more as a writer from a career perspective, it also improved my writing skills greatly. Writing for these challenges also helped me craft short stories better and my fictional short stories would eventually become some of my biggest and best work for Vocal. On the day of Friday the 13th earlier this year I decided to write an analysis article on the impact and influence of the Friday the 13th slasher film series. This was one of the most entertaining articles that I had written because I wrote it while binge watching the Friday the 13th movies. Within 48 hours I was checking my email and saw that I had received an email from Vocal telling me congratulations on my top story for my Friday the 13th article and they even sent me a money gift. At the time I did not know what a top story was or that I could even have one, but I learned it here and this was a proud moment for me.

After the success of my Friday the 13th article I learned that I was gaining subscribers and receiving a lot feedback on my writings, but it would be my unprecedented second top story that really took me to a whole new level as a Vocal writer. Back in June I wrote a Juneteenth inspired poem for Harriet Tubman titled "Harriet: Rebel of the Underground Railroad" and this poem would become my second top story. This poem created so much buzz that a writer for Vocal's magazine named Lesley contacted me and asked could she publish it for the magazine and this blew me away. After the success of my second top story several writers for Vocal started inviting me to join their groups on social media and after joining these groups I started networking with other writers and befriended many of them as well. These writers really encouraged me and helped me grow in my craft and are part of the reason why I have made it so far in this craft of writing.

So now I have reached the end of the year. This first year on Vocal has brought me 44 subscribers, over 1000 reads, three top stories, and last but not least, improved skills as a writer. Becoming an official published writer has been one of the biggest highlights of my year and it is all thanks to Vocal.com. The best part about all of this is that I'm just getting started and I cannot wait to see where my time on Vocal takes me in the future.

~~This article is dedicated to all my fellow writers who supported me the most and befriended me with their fellowship in writing: Lesley Anne, Rick Henry Christopher, Mike Singleton, Heather Hubler, Dharrsheena Raja Segarran, Cathy Holmes, Babs Iverson, Tiffany Gordon, Madoka Mori