What is Vocal to Me?

Almost three years ago, I scrolled through a series of social media threads about this platform that made me ask other users what Vocal meant to them. It was, like most things that I write, a decent-to-middling piece that felt relevant at the time and still holds up well enough overall.

Now, Vocal is asking what the platform means to me, or at least what I hope to get out of it going forward. While that in and of itself is a fine starting point for what will likely be another decent-to-middling article, the question makes me wonder why I never really considered it for myself, especially when I was asking everyone else the exact same thing.

This isn't to say that I completely eschewed my own thoughts and feelings toward the platform back then, but rather that those thoughts and feelings were relegated to little more than reference material when they should have been my focus. It may seem counterintuitive to make myself the target audience in an article openly calling on others for their input, yet by not doing so, I was passively assuming that whatever biases or predispositions I held were correct. Without any genuine examination of my experiences with and aspirations for the space I inhabit on this platform, how could I in any good conscience comment on those of others beyond a base-level reality check?

So now I get to look back on what I previously wrote while also staring down the question of what Vocal means to me. I would like to say that my thoughts on the matter haven't changed all that much in the time since I wrote that earlier article, but the truth of the matter is that even if the broad strokes of those earlier thoughts haven't, I have. And, if I've changed, then the nuances and details that make up those broad strokes have as well.

So, what is Vocal to me?

In my previous article, I noted how my feelings toward Vocal began with regarding it as a cheap way for me to enter writing contests. I also noted how it gradually became a place where I could throw my hastily written, barely edited stories and articles into a slightly more caring void than most. That still rings true for the most part, but the fact that I haven't published all that much to Vocal in the time between then and now would imply otherwise. At the very least, it implies that I haven't been putting much effort into the platform, which is true, but it also implies that I haven't been putting much effort into the things that I would, or should, publish here, either, and the truth of that latter realization is the one that stings.

Simply put, Vocal is not the thing that I care about in terms of my writing. My writing is the thing that I care about in terms of my writing. Vocal is just my chosen platform for that writing other than the website that I happen to write for as a day job. As such, my overall lack of output on Vocal in recent years is absolutely indicative of my overall lack of output when it comes to writing almost anything besides pop culture news and analysis like I do every day for work. But that isn't what I wanted to publish on Vocal. This platform was supposed to be an outlet for my fiction and poetry and whatever came of the occasional writing prompts that caught my attention. This platform was supposed to be a place where I could experiment with new ideas and formats I was largely unfamiliar with. That it wasn't maybe made me feel like Vocal had let me down to some degree, but that was just the worst of my ego and insecurity trying to hide the fact that it was me letting myself down instead.

If I had acknowledged that when writing my previous article on the subject, I probably would have realized that I was preemptively dismissing the biggest advantage there is to publishing on Vocal - the community. Between consistent incentives to publish here, dozens of social media groups dedicated to the platform, and the numerous fervent supporters who have cultivated an entire subculture around Vocal, any article that reaches Top Story status on this site is guaranteed to garner some amount of attention from the wider community. A community that I was aware of and technically a part of, yet had never really taken advantage of for myself in any meaningful way.

At this point, it would make sense for me to say that I'm aspiring to be a more involved member of that community, but that wouldn't be true. If anything, I'm aspiring to merely be noticed more by that community by way of publishing more on this platform. Assuming that is something I can accomplish, then becoming more active within that community would naturally follow, but again, it isn't Vocal that I care about. I care about my writing. I care about writers.

That means I need to care about the writing community that exists both within and well beyond the scope of Vocal.

That means I need to care about Vocal.

It just doesn't make sense to spend so much time actively writing thousands of articles about the things that other people have created while only passively acknowledging a place where I can send almost anything of my own devices out into a great unknown that is actually a relatively small and generally receptive space. A platform that is both cozy enough to be friendly and notable enough to garner real attention. A cold, unfeeling digital playground inhabited primarily by warm, friendly authors.

And so when I ask myself now what Vocal means to me, the only answer that makes sense is "another opportunity gone by." Thankfully, Vocal is also an opportunity that is still very much present. More importantly, it is an opportunity I can aspire to take full advantage of from now until the fervor, and time, to do so run out.

Apart from publishing more stories and articles to Vocal, John Dodge is aspiring to overcome the near-constant impostor syndrome that plagues almost every creative. If you would like to help, you can do so right here on Vocal by liking, commenting, subscribing, or even sending a tip. You can also follow him on social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Threads, or on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (not Threads).