One Hundred!

One hundred posts, more than three thousand reads, and five and a half years on Vocal...

It is really quite amazing that I made it to this milestone, and for a couple of different reasons. I'd like to take this opportunity to share my experience on Vocal Media and what kind of progress I've made!

BEGINNING

When I first started posting on Vocal Media, I had just started high school. I was interested in fiction writing, but I had also become very interested in environmentalism and activism, and used Vocal Media to post journalistic articles as well as fictional/poetic pieces.

It actually almost led me to be an editor for a local newspaper, but a company-related issue prevented it. It was one of my big accomplishments in high school.

Now, I would've had a lot more posts on Vocal, had it not been for my perfectionist (and maybe mildly OCD) outlook. If I managed to post something on Vocal, I had a hard time keeping it on Vocal, as I often deleted things a few weeks or months later, thinking it wasn't good enough or that it didn't represent the persona I was trying to emulate.

This was back when I was still trying to figure out my own niche as a writer. But in the past year or so, I have really embraced the idea of not having one distinct niche. I understand that it's better, from a subscriber standpoint, but as someone who loves to write about a variety of things (and over a variety of genres), I knew that it was time to be okay with not writing only one thing.

Actually, it's pretty regrettable that I deleted so many things. Before Vocal Media (during my time in middle/junior high school), I spent a lot of time on (the beloved) Wattpad. I tended to do the same thing there, posting and unposting, deleting and redoing, even just abandoning. It's been a pattern, for sure. And unfortunately, I don't think I have any remnants of the work I used to write on Wattpad.

A work of mine that I deleted as a teen still haunts my Stats on Vocal Media. It was a poem that I was very largely proud of at the time -- my very first top story, I believe -- but I deleted it later on because I wanted to share my Vocal profile with friends and family, and since the poem was about alcohol use, I didn't want anyone to think I was an alcoholic (or suicidal, for that matter).

It was my most read work for a tremendously long time, but it has actually been surpassed in the last year or so by another work of mine that I published in December of 2023, that still keeps gaining reads.

It's a religious post, and is actually nearing 500 reads, but only has 2 likes, which tells me that type of post has a large external audience rather than an audience of Vocal users, which was important to know. It inspired me to create the Islam Basics series.

MY NICHES

I have a few different types of writing I do on Vocal, including:

• Poetry
• Short Stories
• Islamic posts
• News/Journalism (much less frequent now)
• Unofficial writing challenges

The poetry and short stories are much more likely to give me top stories, which I've loved. I usually use poetry as a mental outlet, and short stories I write when I find the time or the inspiration. It's been great to see such a lovely community form in relation to creative posts on here.

Islamic posts are not likely to get a top story award, but I can see the following is there, just mostly external from Vocal. However, I started writing them because I wanted to spread awareness, and I'm grateful I have even a small amount of Vocal users following the series.

News and journalism I spent a lot more time on as a teen, but I would love to get more involved with it. I try to maintain anonymity on here as much as possible, so local news would likely be out of the picture, but there's lots of things to discuss. Especially history! As a Social Studies minor, there are so many things I would love to talk about on here.

And of course, I have my unofficial writing challenge series. I started that about a year ago in the hopes to read more on Vocal and explore more authors. It's been such a fun process, and it's brought more traffic to my account, I think.

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

As for the future, I hope to be able to keep up this being okay with not deleting things. I also hope to enter more challenges and write more creatively on here. I've wanted to prioritize writing more short stories, but have struggled somewhat with finding some inspiration.

I'd also love to create an actual fiction series (or mini series) and maybe utilize the exclusive story function!

So, let's end with some questions for you!

Do you find that you've settled into a single niche on Vocal? If so, what is it?

Do you spend most of your time reading or writing on Vocal? (or a healthy balance of both?)

What do you use Vocal for the most? (side hustle, hobby writing/reading, etc. ...)

What kinds of things do you like to read most on Vocal?

Have you noticed a large external audience for your work? (lots of reads but no likes/comments)

As a reader, how often do you tip Vocal creators?

As a reader, have you purchased any exclusive subscriptions to pay for exclusive stories? Do you often? Do you have any strong feelings about the "exclusive" function, one way or the other?

As a writer, have you utilized the "exclusive story" feature? Have you had success with it?

Thank you so much for all the support you all have given me! I appreciate every single one of you!!! Thank you for being on this little journey with me. 😊😊😊

♡ Belle ♡