Why I Write for Vocal Media

A platform designed to read and share the wonderful weirdness that our minds create

By Amber BristowPublished 3 years ago • 6 min read

Top Story - March 2023

Print by Miriam Myers

Today I thought I'd write something different and get a little personal with you all. So far on Vocal, I have posted a selection of poems, a few short stories and most recently I've even thrown an article in there, but I have yet to write anything that gives you a little background on me, Amber Annabelle.

In this post I am going to tell you why I write for Vocal. I completely appreciate that most people out there won't give a hoot, and that's fair enough - after all, I am just a random 24 year old from London who likes typing away on her computer, like most. However, I want to write this for the people out there who love creative writing but may not feel comfortable sharing their work with the public, as I was once in the exact same boat.

I fell in love with writing back when I was a wee tot, aged nine. Granted, everything I wrote was riddled with spelling mistakes and seriously lacked any form of narrative structure, but I loved it nonetheless.

I remember the first story I wrote was called 'Dollar'. It was about a little girl who grew up in poverty, going on a journey to seek a better life. I stayed up all day and all night writing, researching different cultures and trolling through thesaurus' to try make myself sound more intelligent. I can safely say, my mission to sound smart failed miserably, when even I couldn't understand what I had written. It was definitely a Joey moment.

In spite of my rather questionable vocabulary, I quickly became obsessed with creative writing. I spent every second of my spare time glued to my laptop, noting down whatever storyline had popped into my head that day and trying to turn it into something worth reading.

I remember, very vividly, getting excited over a piece I had written about a little boy who could time travel in his dreams. I ran to my dad and asked him to give it a read, convinced he would be just as impressed with it as I was. One thing to note about my dad: he's never been one for sugar coating the truth... so he had no issue telling me my story made absolutely no sense. He gave me some advice and tweaked a few sentences to 'inspire me', but I couldn't help but feel disheartened.

Now... would you believe me If I told you that was the last time I ever let someone read my writing? It may sound ridiculous, but it's true. In the past 15 years I have written almost every day, short little stories and even complete novels, that no one has ever seen. I had become so anxious over the idea of sharing something I felt so passionately about, in fear of being judged for it.

Fast forward to December 2022, when I stumbled across Vocal: a platform designed to read and share the wonderful weirdness that our minds create. Fuelled with excitement and a new motivation for writing, I decided then and there to give sharing my work another go. I created an account using a nickname of mine and some stock images I had grabbed from Pexels, hoping to share my short stories and poetry in the comfort of my anonymity.

My first post was a poem that I entered into the 'Uncommon' writing challenge, called 'The Forbidden Forest'. Working in the marketing world, I knew that in order for people to find my poem, I needed to promote it; so off I went to Twitter, where I created an account specifically for my writing. No more than a day later, Mike Singleton came across my profile and told me about the Vocal+ Assist Facebook group created by Rick Henry Christopher. That is where I found a whole community of people who wrote for Vocal.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about sharing my work into a group of great creators. In fact, I remember hitting the 'post' button and lobbing my phone across the bed, before hiding under the covers. I told myself I would check my phone once I had finished another episode of Firefly Lane, which gave me a whole 45 minutes to calm down.

Once the adventures of Kate Mularkey and Tully Hart had come to an end, I reached for my phone and to my delight, saw that people had already started to comment to tell me how much they liked my poem.

I can't begin to explain how much this made my day. The idea of having people out there read my work and appreciate it, meant the world to me. I ran straight to my partner and told him about the lovely comments I had received.

In the following days, I wrote a few more poems and continued to receive great feedback from the lovely people within the Vocal community. I was so chuffed with my work that I even shared a link with my family (which was a mahoosive deal to me). They gave my posts a read, told me they were impressed and said I should be proud - It was great.

Even if we put aside the wonderful community that comes along with joining the platform for a moment, there are a number of other benefits that come from writing with Vocal, some of which I have listed below:

You can share your work in a variety of niches and genres, allowing you to publish almost anything as long as you stay within the guidelines.
It is a free platform that allows you to start publishing right away.
You have the option to increase your earnings by signing up to Vocal+, which will cost you the same as two coffees a month.
Each week there are different writing challenges that you can take part in for a chance to win a grand prize of $1,000.
All Vocal posts are read by their moderation team and each week they add their favourite stories to the 'Top Stories' section, giving you an instant $5 and higher visibility in the Vocal community.

When I joined Vocal I took all of these points into consideration, and I'd be lying if I said the monetisation and cash prizes didn't initially draw me in; but I can honestly say that even If I never win a competition, or don't make more than a few pennies for my reads, I don't care. Having people out there reading what I have to say and liking it, even if it's just a small handful of people, means more to me than I ever thought it could.

Now I find myself in a perpetual state of excitement, constantly thinking about what I could write next. I almost find myself counting down the days until they release new challenges, just so I have a brief to work with.

So, if you started reading this and thought... yep, sounds familiar... this is my message to you to join Vocal and start sharing your work. I understand that the idea of posting your stories isn't always easy because of the emotional attachment you tend to feel for your work; and it's natural to become personally invested in a world you've cultivated - but the feeling of receiving support for something you feel passionately about is honestly unmatched.

I want to say the biggest of thankyous to the people who have brought back the excitement of sharing my work, and especially to the lovely people within the Vocal+ Assist Facebook group and the Twitter community.

If this post has in any way given you that little nudge you needed to begin posting for Vocal, feel free to share your work with me over on Twitter, where I regularly engage with and promote the writing community. I'd love to read what you have to share!

Until next time,

Amber Annabelle ✨