Vocal+ — The Product

On a very nice sunny Sunday afternoon, I was scrolling on Instagram, as you do. It was 6 months after my graduation with a masters in filmmaking, a decision I was totally regretting after changing into that from a bachelors in chemical engineering. I was unable to get a job in either. The majority of recruiters found it so hard to understand where engineering and film meet, there were barely any transferable skills and I was starting to doubt my abilities and question if there are enough opportunities to make money in the creative industry. There’s also the fact that the pandemic had stopped my film internship 1 week in, so the chances of being hired after my degree were non-existent.

I had gotten one job as a ghostwriter sometime in October but not since then. All in all, I was feeling slightly unmotivated and decided to put all my creative ventures to the side. My fun in film and writing was about to end, and to my parent’s excitement, I was finally going to remove my masters from my CV and go back into engineering. That decision really did affect me a lot, I knew I wanted to somehow have a hobby that ties into my filmmaking and writing aspirations, one I might be able to make some side money from. But like all writers have experienced, writing and film is one hard industry to crack into, especially in your early twenties. On that particular Sunday however, I stumbled upon an ad calling for submissions for a book challenge, the product, VOCAL+.

Truth be told I had heard of vocal media before this, as someone constantly searching for opportunities in writing, such ads are usually targeted to me, leaving me wondering if someone is reading my mind. I have come across vocal ads at least 20 times this year, in fact as I write this today I’ve come across the ads twice in the past 2 hours. The marketing team seem to be doing an awesome job because even my mum who doesn’t use Instagram as much had seen the ad and sent it over to me.

The black book challenge seemed fun, it was a fiction challenge and I absolutely love writing fiction. I clicked on the learn more button, read the requirements which required purchasing the Vocal+ product and I added it to cart, and now we’re here.

My first impression of the product was a very positive one, I had been searching for motivation to write after almost giving up on it, the challenges seemed quite fun and also relevant to social causes. There’s no risk of getting bad comments under your posts with the no comments feature and the platform allows readers to interact with your work by giving you tips, which is honestly a very sweet and encouraging way to support your writing. Your work has to go through a review, for grammatical errors and the likes, which means if it’s accepted it’s at a good enough standard to appear on vocal. It’s a very easy platform to navigate, and it’s so convenient to blend it in with your 9-5 job.

Is it worth the hype?

A lot of people completely miss the idea of writing from prompts or entering into writing competitions. In fact, a lot of people miss the idea of writing on vocal in general. And that includes me at the beginning of my journey on vocal. When my mum sent me the black book challenge as she had also seen it in ads, I remember telling her I’d be submitting 7 stories. Life happened and I ended up submitting 4, but I didn’t win the challenge.

Before that, I had entered into 3 more challenges and also didn’t place. Since I’ve been on vocal, I have entered into every single challenge, and just like you’ve probably guessed, no I didn’t win. At first, I found myself back into the headspace I had been in prior to finding out about vocal, thinking perhaps I shouldn’t have done film or writing at all. But from learning how to write dialogues into stories to trying to figure out if you can write in both past and present tenses, to the use of em dash in sentences, to learning new stories about amazing black creators I hadn’t had the opportunity to know about, to learning new grammar, improving in punctuation, writing on vocal became a place where I’ve improved greatly on my writing. I have never taken a course in English and English is my second language, but I can say for a fact that my English and writing skills have 100% improved since I started writing on vocal.

Apart from this, there’s no such thing as writer’s block since I’ve been on this platform. The majority of the time writers have something to say but they need a prompt or guidance, and vocal challenges are always there to give you at least 3 ideas on what you can write about. Competition brings out the best in you because you’re constantly learning new things to set you apart from others, hence improving your writing skills as a result of it.

Another thing I’ve learnt from vocal is, writing should be fun, it shouldn’t be a chore or a task or something that gives you anxiety. It’s a method of self-expression and a way to show your perspectives and give your opinions on issues that concern everyone. And that’s very evident with the submissions on vocal challenges. Each prompt or competition has so many potential different angles you could take, and when I go through submissions I’m usually very inspired to see how much there is to write on a seemingly simple subject.

Even if you don’t win, the product is bent on making sure you earn, from earning from reads, to tips from readers, to bonuses from the team, there’s a good effort to help our writers. Whilst you might think these earnings are relatively small, it’s the beginning of a new era in creative industries. Seeing that, as someone who has always been told that if I don’t go into medicine, engineering or banking I’d never make any money, it does mean a lot to me. And so even if my earnings will only buy me a coffee, I will drink my coffee with so much pride and satisfaction.

Final Thoughts?

For $9.99 I can personally say that this product—Vocal+, has helped my life and probably thousands of writers with a new passion and motivation for writing, and surviving in a very hard industry to navigate.

Do I still regret doing a masters in film instead of going into engineering straight away? Well no, I’ve found that regret is highly counter-productive. I’m relatively young and shouldn’t beat myself up for trying for the first time in my life, the one thing I actually enjoy doing. Taking opportunities that are true to you, especially while you still have no responsibilities in the form of family or kids should be encouraged. And with the rise of products like Vocal+, I’m way more optimistic about the future of the industry I have decided to go into, than I was, on that day I reluctantly chose to go into chemical engineering.