On Writing ... on Vocal

Yes, it’s a nod to the Stephen King title which I have never read, so maybe I should. Writing on Vocal is possibly like a microcosm of trying to publish a book or magazine article and as such is excellent for writing discipline.

I am writing this from my own perspective and while I am not a professional writer, I have blogged for fifteen years on Sevendaysin.co.uk and that has allowed me to keep a diary , write some major articles and record a lot of things that I don’t want to forget. In fifteen years I have only six followers and nineteen direct comments but 600K page visits (obviously a lot of those are robots).

The thing about a personal blog is you can keep it for yourself or share with friends or the world and you are the sole decision maker on whether anything gets published or not. On Vocal you have to submit your “story” then you are informed that it has been published or rejected. If it is published then it’s up to you to share on other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and wherever you hold a presence.

Writing on Vocal by necessity has to be more focused than my blog and often my stories do get rejected usually with a reason for rejection and what needs to be done to the story before you resubmit it. I am a huge fan of constructive criticism and I think that is essential to improve everything that you do.

The guidelines for Vocal posts are comprehensive and are available here and worth spending some time on before you decide on your story.

My stories have been rejected for the following reasons:

• Not meeting the minimum word count (600) , they want articles to give people something to actually read, so that is fairly clear cut.
• Another was rejected for having broken links, I had difficulty finding the broken links but I was still learning the Vocal interface, so I resolved that and the story was published.
• Story contained “religious” references” , I was fine with that so published the unchanged story on my blog here and on Vocal here.
• One story I had tried by dictating it , it was rejected for not meeting Vocal standards and when I looked it over I agreed and removed it.
• A recent story on the song “Dixie Chicken” by Little Feat was rejected again for not meeting Vocal standards but though I emailed for clarification I didn’t get a reply so published on my blog here.

I think you also have to discipline yourself and Vocal definitely helps with that. I recently wrote an article about needing a drink , but when I went over it I decided it was a bit preachy and may offend people so that story got the chop before I tried to submit it to Vocal.

I am surprised how Vocal has spurred me to increase my writing at a time where I had decided to write less but it has spurred me to set goals, be more focused and disciplined in producing articles, and be more critical of my own writing while taking on board any constructive criticism that is aimed at my writing.

I also find the communities and competitions on vocal very stimulating , but I am not sure how “favourite” writers are determined , but I am still learning about the whole Vocal environment and I still have much to learn. Learning and education should never stop , if it does we stagnate.

My writing method is usually to write the draft in Google Docs and then when complete copy to Vocal or Sevendaysin and add links and formatting where required.

Without Vocal I would not be in the excellent position I am for writing and that book that I keep saying I will write may appear sometime in the future.