The Good That Stepping Away And Refreshing Yourself Can Do!

If there's one particular piece of advice I give to anyone when it comes to writing, it is something that was given to me by one of the writers on the platform.

"Take a break. Take a step back from things. It'll help you gain perspective."

--Tom B.

Perhaps, that is what sticks with me most of all as I have gotten more into writing on this platform. Sometimes, my frustrations abound, but when all is said and done, I keep coming back to storytelling.

There are dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of how to do it better articles on writing platforms. Maybe it goes back to the adage, "those that can do, those that can't teach".

I've been frustrated in the past that I couldn't crack the "code" to get noticed on Vocal. That feeling of achievement must release a flood of progesterone into your system when you sign on and see your piece on the front page. From experience, it perks me up and makes me want to come up with something even better the next time I write.

In December I was, at least in my mind, done with the platform. It was time for me to step away from things and gain some much-needed perspective. As it turns out, what I had really done, was similar to Ben Franklin.

"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."

--Ben Franklin

What I had done was to find many ideas that were wrong and weren't going to achieve my ultimate goal of improving, getting a Top Story spot, or getting my reads back up to something that wasn't so dismal.

So, what did my break ultimately do for me?

Results of Taking A Break

I enjoyed some great stories, spent some time in the background just reading and seeing what I could do somewhere else, and developed some ideas on what works and what doesn't. The truth of the matter is, I enjoy this as a hobby and it helps to fill my day. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Sure, we all want to have a lot of that icing on the cake when it comes to reads, challenge wins, Vocal bonuses, tips, etc... If it comes to the point that it's more work than fun, however, it's time to get away from the desk, close the laptops, put the pen or pencil down, and take a break.

A refreshed mind comes back to the table with a new idea or twenty, new energy in them, and a new or refreshed outlook on what they're doing and why. A refreshed mindset can make the difference between doing something you love because you feel you should and doing something you love because it is what you want to do.

What Did People Want To Read The Most

Nostradamus lived in the 16th century and yet his predictions are something the world looks at every year. Was he a prophet? Was he even that accurate? One thing is for certain, he was an interesting character from history that lead a very interesting life. His life and his quatrains have been a subject of history for five centuries now and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.

I came up with the idea for the Nostradamus article after hearing about one of his predictions, looking up his story, and remembering all the crazy stories over the years about people predicting the future. Compiling a little about Nostradamus, his works, and ultimately his predictions turned out to be a worthwhile effort and were interesting as he's managed to allegedly predict such things as the 9/11 attacks. People also believe he predicted the Atom Bomb, Hitler and WW 2, the moon landing, and the JFK assassination among others.

Unlike Medium, Vocal currently doesn't have a way for us to look at our work and tell if the reads we get on a story, article, or piece of poetry are internal reads or garnered from social media but I think we all know most of the reads are from promoting. Amazingly, this racked up over 2,000 reads in just a few days before slowing down to be my 2nd highest read piece on the platform. Even more amazing was when it went from 2nd down to 3rd.

A few little edits and resharing this tragic story around as the anniversary of the event grows nearer turned out to be one of my better ideas.

If you're not aware, which means you're living with your head in the sand, true crime and conspiracy stories are of interest to a vast number of people around the world. It's hard to find a story crazier than this one. Phillip was an airline pilot and author who delved into some of the alleged dark government secrets in the world. People may consider him a bit of a conspiracy buff, but considering his work history, known associates, associations, and how the crime scene was described as well as the people that responded in the aftermath, there are always going to be questions about this one.

The tweaks and resharing were again, a great idea. This little bit of effort shot this story from around 1800 reads to nearly 2300 and counting. Breathing life into a dead story was a lot of fun to do.

What Vocal Liked The Most!

There will always be those tried and true subjects out there for a writer to delve into. I'm scrolling the internet one day and I stumbled across the canonical codes of the Jedi and the Sith. Reading those, I came up with the idea that some Star Wars fans may enjoy deciding which one they are, and making it easy for them to find out by doing a story on the codes would be a hit.

Up to this point, I'd only had one other Top Story and for the life of me couldn't figure out why it was a Top Story, to begin with. It was something personal and written for a challenge, but was me venting publically about a part of my life that had always sucked. It didn't have what I thought was even potential for a Top Story but somehow got the vote from Vocal.

Using a more popular subject matter and analyzing a part of it turned out to be something that was worthy of the vote from the folks at Vocal and broke a serious slump. That was YAY moment number 1.

Yay moment number 2 would come 13 days later when I would sign on and see a story about the return of Amy Dumas (Lita) to the WWE. This one is in no small part because of the popular side, I'm sure, and partially because the image is eye-fetching.

As a life-long fan of WWE going back to the days of Hulk Hogan and the very first Wrestlemania, I completely enjoyed getting to do the story on Lita and then seeing it get chosen as a Top Story. The research into this took me down memory lane and getting to revisit some of the greatest moments of women's wrestling was fun.

Then came YAY moment number 3.

We've all heard about asteroids this year, and probably more so than in any recent year we can remember. NASA's been working overtime, along with the rest of the worlds' scientific and space communities. This particular asteroid is of interest to many of the "space nerds" because when it was originally found, there was some alarm due to the calculated trajectory putting the asteroid on track for a collision with the planet. Apophis is a city-killer-sized asteroid.

Going from just one in 14 months to 3 in just one month is either going to be one hell of a fluke, or it's going to show that the break I took refreshed my "writer's" battery and helped me to figure out how to get across the hump. If it is a fluke, then I had one hell of a good month and have something to shoot for.

My Thoughts

If you're not having the success that you are hoping for the one absolute guarantee I can make you is this.

Take a break, but don't stop. If you stop and don't come back then you're guaranteed to never have another success on the platform.

That said, I've sort of broken-down three examples and hopefully, if you're not getting the notice you hope for, this will give you sort of a map to follow.

Peace!