Stories like breathing

I have always been a creator, but not the kind to share my writings easily, or even openly online, with all seeing your words so closely. But I am also the kind that if good ideas and plots come to me, I share them without hesitation. And then I have always had an unreasonable fear inside me, the one that does not even talk to me— only expresses itself on my forehead. And then I learnt about Vocal as a medium in May 2021, and that's when I started thinking about sharing my stories and poetry online. Since then it has become my platform to test the very core of that fear inside of me. I’ve shared fiction (short stories) that I never thought they were worth sharing. I found an audience and received great responses. But I think I know what’s next for all things that reside in me, and the things Vocal has instilled in me. So here is my first and most probably close-to-final list of aspirations for myself as a creator on Vocal in 2024.

*

1. I know aspirations mean “a hope or ambition of achieving something.”

1a. So, I aspire to complete the Maceen and Al-khatoo series in 2024. There will be at least three more series to the story. Maceen must find Al-khatoo, and Al-khatoo must return the children.

1aa. I aspire to inspire you too, to keep writing all the things that are uniquely inside you when you are in your loneliest and most creative time and space.

*

2a. I aspire to be a little more ambitious in writing cantos, that's poetry in novelistic segments, where I use my storytelling skills and my poetic mind, integrated all together like the sky and the sea. There are poems in me like Shahrzad had them in her A Thousand and One Nights. There are always stories in our heads. Can we tell them all?

2aa. I aspire to be brave, and I hope you are aiming for it too.

*

2. I also know that aspirations also mean “the action or process of drawing breath.”

1b. What a wonderful way to remind ourselves that the human ability to keep (or take an action of breathing) and to keep (the process of) hoping can be aligned in our language(s) too.

1bb. 2024 is certainly a new beginning for me. And I want Vocal to know more about my (personal) life than the people around me. I have shared the very existing tensions in my life in my piece Exoquilt in Love … but I am also now engaged and will marry (despite the challenges and contradictions) the love of my life. Vocal helped me express this tension in my life with the world, so openly and so honestly.

This is also just for DISCLOSURE: I went over the word count, and for that, I used ‘Quick Edit’ to make my writing more beautiful and truthful.

2bb. *Lessons learnt* In 2024, I strongly aim to keep in mind the word count for each piece based on the guidance, just like breathing in Yin Yoga to keep my mind in its best formation and final expression.

*

Life is all about breathing and aspirations. Stories are the reason we are here today, on earth, deeply connected with other humans and for being greatly vulnerable. We get to know a great deal about what happened in the past and what is to come next. It is only in writing our stories as creators that we know what must come next. As for me in 2024, on Vocal, I will have this platform to breathe, write, and share new fiction and new poetry. Alongside sharing my new stories and poems, I am also very excited to be able to share my photographs alongside my pieces. And that’s why I appreciate Vocal so much, for it is a fully integrated medium of ideas, art, and creativity. What else is there to hope to have, but to have it all, at once, here, in being and becoming- in one glimpse and click, just as it has been for you and me... and thank Vocal for it.