Vocal - Pinned Stories Feature

New Updates

By Mel E. FurnishPublished 2 years ago • 4 min read

As we all continue to pursue ways to improve our writing and engagement with our work, we need more options to keep exploring new opportunities. Vocal has come a long way ever since I first joined in 2018, and I love the new features they've come to offer.

Now your profile can display your favorite or most successful content with the "pinned stories" update.

As well, they've also added a bar section with the different categories you've published in to help your readers discover more of your work less chaotically. This new organization method will be huge for many who often create a lot. Being active on Vocal - and vigorously writing in general - is crucial to getting more out of the experience.

The more you write, the more you'll sharpen your skills, and the more you'll uncover new aspects of your passions. Writing for many is an art and also a business. These new updates will be particularly effective for those who have built or are building a vast collection of content in their pursuit of becoming heard of and making money.

"All dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."

~ Walt Disney

If we are going to achieve our dreams with writing, we must put in the hours and set realistic goals to keep ourselves motivated and moving forward. No matter our pace, so long as we are trying and continue taking shots at the exceedingly competitive challenges, we will still be doing more than those who don't try at all.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

~ Wayne Gretzky

Yes, the contests hosted by Vocal are often intimidating because of the overall amount of submissions; it's not shameful to feel crushed or hopeless when seeing just how many other members enter. However slim the chances seem to win or place in these competitions, the opportunity remains.

It's hard to keep motivating yourself to pick yourself back up and keep striving for a win when you've been "rejected" multiple times. Yet, the benefit of this abrasive and sometimes soul-crushing roller-coaster of emotions is that we are constantly reaching new levels as long as we keep trying. Even if you don't realize it yet, the more you've been pushed to tetter over the edge, the closer you are to taking the leap that will lead you to soar.

As writers, we are always trying to find new ways to inflect powerful impacts on our readers through our personal experiences and life events we have heard or seen. The more struggle, the more relatable, the more realistic our work becomes. Even if you write fiction, your passion will create something lifelike in ways readers will be left with fluttering hearts and or dropped jaws.

Through relatable experiences, we better connect with strangers who seem to become more than that - thanks to the reminder that we are not alone in the suffering life brings during the downs when the ups seem to be few and far between.

Even humans who hate typical social interaction still need some bonds because we are social creatures at our core. So what if all some may need are a few fictional characters who face similar troubles and authors who show the light in the darkness to encourage us always to keep fighting?

Thus, we writers need robust competition; to keep us pushing one another as we demand more from ourselves to build better stories and more passionate posts.

Medium has many pros that some would consider ranking their platform above Vocal's, but both have their benefits we can reap. I am excited for Vocal to complete the feature to allow comments on posts.

I've seen various requests for future projects to implement, or at least experiment with, and many I agree would improve the overall experience for both readers and writers. One, in particular, would be similar to Medium and Contena's platforms in the regard that they allow writers to publish their stories almost immediately, rather than waiting potentially days for their work to be available.

Keep up the work, Vocal Creators; please keep the challenges coming!

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