Changes

2023 was my most active year on this site, partly due to getting laid off in February. I am lucky that Vocal was here for me to use as an outlet during my lowest points of the year. However, I have found that since starting my new job, I have been completely enveloped by my career, and my creativity has gotten away from me.

I'm working 50 hours a week in the corporate world and an additional 6 hours a week at a non-profit teaching English as a second language. It does not leave me with much time to indulge in my creative endeavors, and even thinking about remaining active on social media in any way, shape, or form is exhausting. Lately, I have fallen into reading as a form of comfort and escape at the end of my days, while writing very little in my notebooks should the urge arise.

I managed to publish over 100 stories amounting to over 80,000 words last year, which far exceeded my expectations. I'm proud that I was able to stick with a consistent writing schedule, even if I have fallen off (hard, to be honest) in the past four months. Experimenting creatively and having fun without worrying about how my work would be received on a critical scale allowed me to express myself in a lot of different ways, and I feel I grew immensely as a writer for it.

I cannot envision myself committing to the same level of content as I was able to in 2023, but that's okay. I don't intend to abandon the website entirely, but the lightbulb above my head seems to be dimmer than it was when I had more free time. A realistic goal for my journey on Vocal in 2024 is to write when my heart tells me to write and to continue experimenting with different forms and ideas, freely and without worry of judgment.

That is the number one thing that keeps me coming back to Vocal time and time again. The supportive community that this website has fostered creates an environment for people from all different walks of life to come together and bask in their creative differences. We can learn from each other, and without this community, I would not have accomplished all I had last year.

The challenges hosted by Vocal and its members allow me to think outside the box and step out of my comfort zone in terms of genre and style. Outside of directly entering these challenges, it's cool to see how everybody is able to come up with stories that are so entirely different while tackling the same prompts. I am always learning new things thanks to the creators around me. There are not many other places on the internet that I've found to host such unique, quality, and abundant sources of daily creative content.

I may not have the bandwidth to create as much as I used to, but in 2024, I will continue finding my way back on Vocal when I feel the need. If I post once a month to this platform, if not just to create something new, I will feel content and accomplished. I'm looking forward to seeing what challenges lie ahead because all it takes is one good prompt to get me out of a writing slump.

This year I also intend on self-publishing my first novel, and without the Vocal community, I wouldn't have found the trustworthy beta-readers I needed to make this book better than it was before. I will continue sharing my journey as a first-time author as I learn what it means to navigate self-publishing and marketing one's work.

As humans, we are ever-evolving, and as I change, my writing changes with me. Vocal gives me a way to personally visualize that change. I can look back at old stories and remember what I was going through when I posted them. I remember why those emotions came out through fiction and poetry. I can see how my style has developed and progressed as I experimented. I succeeded, and I failed, leaving my strengths and weaknesses on full display, allowing me to continue learning from my past self.

My time on Vocal tells a story, and I know 2024 will be a different one, but all chapters lead to the same place in the end.