Life

Another Mask for the Dead. Runner-Up in The Posthumous Author Challenge.
Dichotomy or duality. Maybe they're just fancy words for indecisiveness and destabilisation. Just as subversion and iconoclasm are fancy words for an unsettled mind that wouldn't stick to one lane. A critic of lesser vocabulary, or the gall to speak ill of the dead, might simply distil all of the above to: asshole terrible.
By Paul Stewart4 months ago in Writers
More Of My Vocal Milestones. Top Story - March 2024.
Introduction Once I hit my 1,900th Vocal post I started equating some with important years for me and in history. I also thought I had done a milestone piece but my last one like that was this, mainly about hitting forty thousand reads and how I did it. Things have changed since then, but you might be a little interested in it.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 4 months ago in Writers
When Dreams Actually Do Come True
So about a year ago, I wrote a little joke piece about a supposedly profitable side hustle: dog poop pickup. You can read about it here.
By Sandy Gillman4 months ago in Writers
Dear Mama
Mama, I can’t say I love you Just know that I do All the wars I fought have destroyed me I’m not the person that you once knew
By Edward Val4 months ago in Writers
Goose and the Golden Egg
Goose and the Golden Egg We have all seen them. The magical emails draw in the hopeful writer, desperate to make something, anything, from their work. The lure and promise of $50-$100 per piece accepted for publication. The hopeful possibilities of making a couple of grand a month from their writing. Anything from data entry to essay submissions is needed by many entities, and you are in a prime position to earn that income, after all, the writer just did. In fact, the writer makes a couple of thousand a month, maybe more, even while they sleep. What they don’t tell you is how long it took them to reach that income. They don’t cite their own stories or poetry in those publications either, so you can’t verify those claims.
By Alexandra Grant4 months ago in Writers
Gatekeeping in Writing Communities. Top Story - June 2026.
Not every harsh opinion is valuable, just as not every valuable opinion has to be harsh. -Annam M. Gordon Writing communities can be strange places sometimes where gatekeeping is alive and well in many of them. Most writing forums seem to have its share of drama, cliques, and people who appoint themselves the authority on what counts as “real” writing. Reviews and comments can quickly turn into status signaling, where “real writers do it this way.”
By Annam M Gordon4 months ago in Writers
Three Coins in the Fountain
You’ve made up your mind. You are going for it! You want to become a writer. Now, where do you go from there? There is the old-school way: libraries, reference books, or published how-to books. I have tried that. It’s butt-numbing, like doing research for a term paper. Now, lucky us, we have the internet and devices that ensure you do not have to break a sweat finding a place for your writing. This is where I come in today.
By Alexandra Grant4 months ago in Writers
Writers Block
Here's what I see the little cursor teasing me asking me to write. Write something moving, motivating or just plain weird. Where do I start? Maybe from the beginning, but where will that take me? Will I have an initial incident? A problem to solve? Again, I have no idea, but there goes that little text cursor blinking. Expecting me to write. Chat GPT, should I rely on the AI that has been taking jobs left and right? Forget about editing and rewriting when AI can do it for you. Forget about coming up with clever ideas, when Chat GPT can write that for me. Forget about the twists in my plot, the storylines that captivates an audience when AI can just do the hard work for me. I used to just stare at the blank page before me hoping something would come to me, but now I can ask Chat GPT "Hey there, give me an idea to write about?" and boom the AI immediately starts writing down ideas and splurging on without needing to think about it, I wish my brain worked like that.
By Adrianna M. Braun4 months ago in Writers
The Hollow Profile
Kera Hollow, known best for her amateur poetry that circulated amongst indie feminist literary circles, has departed somewhere greener. Where that place is, we'd best not speculate too loudly, as the embittered atheist would sour in her grave if she heard our prayers.
By Kera Hollow4 months ago in Writers
How to live a happy life
- On gratitude: "Don't be like a sieve, trapping impurities and letting go of flour; rather, be like a bee, landing only on what is pure and leaving behind only sweet traces. He who forgets the kindness of others when he becomes wealthy will find himself alone when he becomes poor." - On dealing with hardship: "If you find yourself in dire straits, do not complain to others and demean yourself. Instead, be like the sea; its depths seething with the roar of waves, while its surface remains calm and dignified. Remember that light only enters a room through a crack in the wall; perhaps your pain is the gateway to relief." - On the reality of sustenance: "Do not exhaust yourself chasing after worldly possessions like a beast; what is meant for you will come to you despite your weakness, and what is not meant for you, you will not attain despite your strength. The lesson is not in accumulating wealth, but in the blessing bestowed upon it. How many a man of a palace sleeps restlessly, while how many a man of a humble hut sleeps soundly." - On the value of silence and words: "Before you utter a word, let it pass through three doors: Is it truthful? Is it necessary? And is it kind? For a word is like a bullet; once it is released, it cannot be taken back, and it may kill a heart that its owner built over years." - On patience with fate: "Do not grieve if a door you desperately wanted closes in your face; perhaps behind that door lies a fire that will consume your dreams. God does not withhold good from you except to give you something more lasting and beneficial, so surrender to His plan and you will find happiness." - A lesson in self-development: "Do not compare your beginnings to the successes of others; for every flower blooms in its own time. Work on yourself in silence, and let the noise of your success speak for itself. Humility at the top is more difficult than patience at the bottom, so be like the ears of wheat; the full ones bow down, while the empty ones remain proudly upright in vain."
By Shoaib4 months ago in Writers
Kids are in a ‘reading recession,’ as test scores continue to decline
I never fared well with reading books as part of the school curriculum. And I was abysmal with advanced math classes. What saved me was writing. Why do few studies include the writing portion of school tests?
By Skyler Saunders4 months ago in Writers
From Page to Podcast . Top Story - June 2026.
Ever since I joined Vocal I have enjoyed a variety of great experiences. What started as an attempt to hone my fiction writing became a hugely successful hobby. I'm also now a poet. So there's that. And an award winner too. With nine Vocal first-place wins, numerous runner-up finishes and honourable mentions, plus several placements in unofficial challenges.
By Paul Stewart4 months ago in Writers