My Vocal Year: 2024

This year is my vocal year. The year I make changes. My year to push past the limiting beliefs that have a hold over my creativity and let the words fly.

In 2023, I wasn't as active on Vocal as I would have liked. I spent more time reading and researching here than actually writing. I love to read other authors' work. It always brings me an immense amount of inspiration. Even so, towards the end of last year, I got an abundant amount of likes, reads, comments, etc., from an older story I wrote and forgot about. Apparently, it was the wake-up call I needed to change my life's trajectory for the better, and I started writing again.

I started small because if there is one thing I know about myself, I get all excited for new ideas but overwhelm myself to a point where I don't even want to continue. So, I began updating my old stories, using them as inspiration to post new ones, and submitting ideas to every Vocal challenge I could.

It's crazy how one comment on an old story, which I thought was awful when I wrote it, completely changed my path and shaped my main goal for the rest of this year. So far, I have applied to three challenges and love each piece I wrote. One came to me so strongly that I expanded it into a new novel. That moves me to my next goal and the reason for all the challenges. I want to publish a book this year, but I get bored writing the same thing every day. Writing for every challenge gives me experience, new ideas, and a reason to continue the work it takes to write a book. The added goal is that I will win a challenge on Vocal this year. I don't have a particular story or winning idea, but it will happen. Until it does, I will use every other prompt to hone my writing and editing skills and become the author I have always dreamt of being.

I tend to lean towards the romance and fantasy genres. But recently, as a goal for this year, I've tried to expand. I'm currently working on a thriller/crime/romance novel that I love. It came out of a Vocal challenge and has grown since then. Trying out new genres I've never thought I'd enjoy writing has been thrilling, and I plan to continue that this year. Maybe branching out into poems and songs will be a fun change since they have always scared me. And since they scare me, I am putting it out into the universe now that I will write at least one successful song this year.

Writing as often as possible is my initial move in Vocal this year. Building my experience through new genres and writing styles is best done by practice. I plan on writing for every challenge I can create an idea for. Win or lose, I've already gained experience from just the challenges alone. They also bring me new ideas I would never think of writing about, which I love.

I hope my overall impact on Vocal and with my writing, in general, is to bring emotion to my reader. If I can manifest happiness, anger, or lust for my reader, then I can die happy. I enjoy books and pieces of writing that make me feel something because we all can truly escape the realities of our lives with good writing.

That's my plan for Vocal this year. Become a writer who can create fantastic realities for everyone to fall into and come out feeling something more than when they started.