2024

Compelling. On Vocal, in 2024, I will be compelling. I hope my words ring through hollers and climb mountains. I hope they swim to the deepest depths and fish for discoveries only our minds can see. I want them to delight in tastes that bring light to their tongues. My words, I want them to bring peace in the wake of chaos. Each sound I spy blind to the darkness of the night, I hope they bring them sight. And each melodic phrase I pen, I hope they sing in the silence. I hope my words are spoken in the wind and color the leaves that fall from my mind’s tree. I want them to blossom where flowers shouldn’t bloom. I implore them to walk you back in time and throttle you into the future, all while keeping you firmly planted in the present. Their aim is to create new worlds, worlds that intertwine and weave themselves with the one in which we exist. Through Vocal I look to widen my writing’s reach and be a prominent member of its community.

In 2024 I want to look back to February of 2022, when I first joined Vocal. I want to remember how eager I was for a place for my writing to call home. I want to write to fight for it to never again be homeless. I’ll consider the surprising sparks of the joys I felt in 2023 when I truly felt embraced by the creators around me. I could see the makings of a brilliantly diverse storytelling family coming together before my eyes.

I want 2024 to be the year, here on Vocal, where I entangle myself in the wilderness of ideas, words, and storytelling. I want to embrace the exhaustion that comes with searching for a single word to fit in a sentence structured puzzle. I want to pause when ideas ignite so fast I only have time to scribble on a napkin or my pant leg. I aspire to be bold and brazen. I want to question if an idea is too risque and leave it where it lies. I want each period or pause, take a breath and be still. I want to tremble as I write, and read. I want to struggle with punctuation and perfect its presence on a page. If my canvases aren't painted in fictional realism or non fictionish prose, I hope to take a step back and be fearless in it not being good enough and start again. The quality of my diction and syntax are invaluable, I want to consider them in my delivery. I'll maybe even pen a soliloquy. I want to mingle in my community. I want to collaborate and see what happens when not only my words take flight but where they may go with a copilot by my side. I want to explore more ideas from my fellow writers and be driven mad to push boundaries. In 2024, my words will be bare. I hope they dare you. And I hope that they dare me to be completely free to be myself. I dare them to scare me in and out of reality. I dare to tip the scales. Maybe I'll even get my first tip too, who knows? Let’s see where we go.