It Feels Like I've Come Home

I’ve always loved writing and have been doing it since I was a child.

The first story I can remember writing, I must have been 5 or 6 and I put together an illustrated book (made of construction paper), about a knight called Michael (funny story, my husband’s name is Michael). I wrote fantasy stories throughout my teens, even giving a fairly dark and twisted one to my Dad for Father’s Day one year (he was probably like: uhhhh, thanks?). I ventured into fanfic in my teens writing some stories about Star Trek (TNG). For a short period I even ended up writing articles on Vampires (on the history and myth of them, which you can find on my website, (or here on Vocal starting with this one) after writing a paper for a Sociology class in University (that was a strange rabbit hole to go down!).

A few years after University was when I discovered National Novel Writing Month (known to everyone as NaNoWriMo), and happily wrote fantasy fiction through that and churned out four Steampunk novels. I can barely remember how I got started writing Steampunk. It’s probably after reading the amazing paranormal vampire/werewolf Steampunk books of Gail Carriger or the Post Apocalyptic zombie Steampunk of Cherie Priest that got me into that genre.

But then, as I mentioned in a recent Vocal article, my mom died, and that’s when my zest for writing went down the crapper.

But 6 years later it crawled out of whatever hiding place it had been in when I discovered the mindfulness website Elephant Journal and that rejuvenated my writing once more - albeit in a direction I’d never gone. It wasn’t fiction, it wasn’t fantasy. It was reality. Which was, it turned out, very cathartic, and just what I needed at that time. And the members of the Elephant Journal community, writers and editors, are all amazing and lovely people, but it’s very niche. It’s all about the mindful life, aka about veganism, eco-friendly, yoga, sustainability, meditation and all that good stuff. And that’s not a bad thing at all and I’ve written on yoga and meditation (as I'm a yoga and meditation teacher), Buddhism and other topics on there. But, I couldn’t let my freak flag fly. Meaning, I couldn’t write fiction or fantasy - that which is of my heart, my first true love, creatively.

And then one of my fellow Elephant Journal writers (and now friend, one of many I've made through there), told me about Medium. So a few months ago I created a profile there. I’d heard of it, of course, and had read the odd article here and there prior to joining. But it was, to be honest, very overwhelming. I kept being told about Publications and to join them if I wanted to get lots of reads. But it felt as if I was a High School graduate walking onto a college campus that was so big you had to drive to get to your classes. It was too much, and kind of hard to wrap my head around, and to be honest, for some reason, it kind of scared me. So I didn’t do anything much with it.

Then a few months later the clouds parted and the sun broke through and I think I might have heard angels singing when I discovered Vocal. I didn’t discover it on my own, though. Credit where credit's due, I learned of it through a friend who had been sharing her articles in a Facebook group I created last year during the start of the pandemic called One Small Thing, which a place for people to share that ‘One Small Thing’ in photo form that has helped them get through the day, week, month or the craziness that has been 2020 (and now 2021). A reminder to enjoy the little things!

So my friend had been sharing her Vocal articles and I had been reading them. And then I decided to sign up so I could heart them. That’s when I realized that here was a platform where I could write and share not only non-fiction life-musings style articles like I wrote in Elephant Journal, but also poetry, and, even better still fiction!

*cut scene: slow motion of a girl in a beautiful meadow running with her arms wide open, smiling from ear to ear, towards Vocal and then spinning around giddily in an embrace*

Yep. That there, that’s me. That’s how I feel since finding Vocal. Like one of those sappy Hallmark made for TV Romance movies where the guy picks up the girl and spins her around and she kicks up one heel (why on earth do they do that anyway?!).

But I feel like I’ve found my writing home. It feels like a place where I can be 100% myself and not be a square peg in a round hole trying to conform to a certain writing niche. I have creative freedom with Vocal. I can choose my own titles and pick my own photos (which might seem like a small thing, but it really isn't). There are no annoying ads peppered through to disrupt the reading experience. There is no paywall that limits the amount you can read (which, really, is how it should be! Why deny anyone access to words, to knowledge?).

I feel like a Highschooler going to a small town college campus, where I can walk to every class. It feels like a comfy sweatshirt and your favourite pair of jeans, not some uncomfortable designer outfit you have to squeeze yourself into that makes you feel that you really need to lose 10 pounds.

I feel so at home with Vocal that, despite being here for less than a month, I’ve created a new Vocal Facebook group, the Vocal Café, which you can read all about in this Vocal article.

So thank you, Vocal, from the bottom of my inkslinger heart, for being down to earth and helping me to find my new creative home.

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