Do you check your reads?

We all know the stats page here on Vocal. If you don't know about the stats page, please explain to me how to forget it exists. My dopamine levels depend on seeing the reads number go up; let me tell you, my dopamine has undoubtedly gone up. I recently reviewed my old accomplishments, and around eight months ago, I reached 1k views.

15 Top Stories, one runner-up story and 3000 reads later (for a total of over 4000 reads) I am content with my experience writing on the web, specifically on Vocal. While I understand why some would be disheartened by Vocal, the idea of this comment for a comment swap, and the seemingly tight friend groups, I have found the site to be whatever you decide it is.

I have found people I can interview in Vocal and still keep up with outside of Vocal. People I go to when I need encouragement and some people I can look to for inspiration in general. We here on Vocal are from all parts of the world and share a common goal; to write.

What is next?

As many of you know, I have published my two children's books, and that has been very exciting; my third is to be released soon as well! I decided to move on to other formats, including fiction and will have my first novel completed by the end of the year. I was inspired by, dare I call him, my friend Stephen.

As you can see, he teamed up with some of his friends and officially published his book, which stemmed from his time on Vocal. What a fantastic accomplishment. And if you haven't you should go and buy the book asap! This shows us that we are more than capable of doing whatever we want. Still, we have to remember to submit to publications. I hope to entice all of you to consider looking into other places to be published; Vocal is not the end of your writing journey. You are only limited in your belief in yourself.

I recently dabbled in micro-fiction and other forms of writing, including horror. I don't like horror, but I wanted to extend my reach and find a way to deal with my fears in a way I could control. This experience has made me step out of my comfort zone and embrace the idea that I'm not as good a writer as I think I am.

And I am okay with that.

While I like to think that I am gifted, I have become humbled by the idea that maybe I don't know it all and that I can learn. Rejection still hurts (Cymbalta can help), but rejection teaches us to either move on or stay stuck.

While I will continue to write and publish, I will do so a bit less frequently on here because most publishing journals and whatnot want you to submit pieces that haven't been published elsewhere. I will, however, publish when I get rejected and ask for feedback.

This leads me to this: I will always want your thoughts on something I write. I would appreciate that message if you think it is trash and needs a complete rewrite. If something I put on the page doesn't make sense, point it out. I believe in becoming better and doing the work; it takes a village to do so. I am young and don't have much writing time under my belt, but I am excited about what is next and what I can try to accomplish even more. I hope you feel the same way about your own writing. Until the next milestone, my friends!