Message on a Platform

As a new writer on Vocal, I’ve been trying out different things. My preferred writing style is fiction, stream of consciousness and poetry. I grew up wanting to be a singer/songwriter. I still do, but music isn’t my focus currently. Writing is. I used to write SO much. A few jobs I had where I sat at a desk; my notebook would be open just out of view, and I’d be writing. One job in particular, (I was in college for music at the time) I had a computer at my desk. This was in the age of MySpace. That blog was filled with stories that I’d written while at work. Never was there any type of outline or preconceived plot. I would just sit there and observe people walking in and out of the building. The custodians cleaning and such. Sounds from the building or on the street. Conversations and other interactions that I had; My imagination would create characters and a motivation and all of it would form itself into a story. I wrote so many stories on that blog... I want to recover them.

Today, I was looking at ways to engage with readers; and how to grow my author platform. There are a few things I’ve written on here that aren’t my style. You can probably tell which ones. But in case I’m just that terrible (I will improve) I’ll remind you that my preferred style of writings are fiction, poetry, and stream of consciousness. Back to the topic of this paragraph. I was looking for ways to engage with readers and grow my author following. That took me to Tumblr. I’d forgotten I had one. When I logged into it, I was greeted with a cringe fest. So naturally, I deleted that account. 😂😂😂Tumblr immediately suggested that I sign up again and so I thought, why not? Upon attempting to do so, I discovered that I already had TWO other Tumblr accounts. 😩😑🥴🤦🏾‍♂️ The second was just as cringe-worthy as the first one I deleted. (I had created it to re-blog the posts from the other account.) The third and final account was my authentic account. One I created as a journal; to share my writing and interact with other people. While there were a few cringe inducing posts. There was also some real honest writing. My Tumblr blog is seven years old. It’s amazing to see how many of the same sentiments I still agree with. It was nice to read my self-awareness back then as well. While scrolling through the digital time capsule of my social media past, I came across a poem that I wrote. I thought it was lovely, and I’d like to share it here.

Finding this piece of myself that I’d thought was lost encouraged me today. Music is still a passion of mine. But there’s a lot of necessary self-healing required for me to rebuild my relationship with it. Writing has been there with me almost as long as music. Since I was 13, I’ve been exercising a passion that hid in plain sight. Two loves that grew into passions. I’d been low key, cultivating simultaneously. Music got more of the attention for many years. My passion for writing came out in the summer of the pandemic year. Rediscovering things actionably can discourage you because you don’t have the same momentum you had when you were practicing it regularly. This poem boosted my momentum. Hopefully, whoever reads this will have a little of their momentum restored too.