2,000 Reads and a Quick Look Back

Are you tired of reflection pieces yet after two separate challenges calling for essentially that? And perhaps a third if the author wants to set the stage in their New Year, New Projects challenge entry?

Well, too bad, because fate decreed that this day I hit a major milestone, and by virtue of needing to say something other than “I now have 2,000 reads to my name,” it’s time for more reflection.

And not only that, but fate decreed that I would receive 2,000 reads even. Flat. Exact. I have no choice but to honor the fact that precisely 4 reads were received yesterday to make this happen. The universe has spoken, and I am but a grain in the hourglass tumbling down as bidden.

But, hey, at least this reflection is specific to Vocal. We haven’t gotten as much of that, have we?

A Condensed Biography

I’ve covered my history on Vocal more than once, so in fairness to those who have been around a while, I’ll lay this information out in a new rapid-fire style:

• I joined in June 2021 to win $20,000 in the Doomsday Diary challenge
• I failed, but I kept entering challenges
• I racked up a few Runner Up badges
• I got my first win(-ish) with a 2nd Place badge in 2023
• I wrote a thriller novel using my first Runner Up as the opening chapter and many other challenge entries to fill out its contents
• Against the odds, I earned a recent Runner Up badge for a story about the Vietnam War and zombies all while not being able to use the letter “i” (so no Vietnam, Viet Cong, zombie, ammunition, helicopter, incoming, fire, artillery, explosion, and so on)
• I released Book 1 of a three-book series that leveraged another protagonist spawned from yet another challenge entry (though no Runner Up badge came of it this time 😢) with more challenge entries forming its chapters

I could add additional detail, but that covers the main parts. And I don’t think anyone wants to read a play-by-play of 3.5 years of Vocal doings.

And I don’t want to write that, so moving on.

A Story Count Doubled

A thought occurred to me as I reached this milestone. Specifically, a year ago I was writing another milestone post about reaching 1,000 reads. And that was after 2.5 years on this platform.

So how can I explain the dramatic decrease in time required to clock another thousand reads?

Did I go out and engage more in the community? Not really.

Did I promote more of my Vocal pieces to my social networks? Not when I now have books that I want them to read instead (and, you know, pay me to read).

Did I have a major win that brought a lot of new readers? No, in fact, my one Runner Up from this year isn’t even in the Top 10 most-read stories.

So what changed between this year and years past?

Well, doubling my short story/article/poem count might have something to do with it.

Using this previous milestone article from the end of 2023 as a guide:

And subtracting the three pieces I’ve written in 2025, we round off 2024 at 137. One piece shy of an exact 100% increase.

So let that be a lesson to us all: if you dramatically increase your output, eventually the reads aggregate up.

Plus, you know, writing a review that the creator of a mid-sized podcast shares to his followers:

In fact, that review is now my 2nd-most read article/story/poem on here. And on that subject:

The Top 5*

Only one story from the previous year broke into the frontrunners, and isn’t that ironic, it’s the last milestone post:

As for the other four, “The Rocks” remains my biggest win to date, and there’s my review of Weeping Cedars nipping at its heels (buoyed by that tweet, no doubt). Then a satire of the Vocal+ lifestyle that proved quite popular with the creators of yesteryear.

And finally, my OG story “King of the World,” the ill-fated entry to the Doomsday Challenge. How has it remained dominant so long? Back in the day, all my stories were being submitted to print magazines and anthologies, so having a story online I could point my friends to and also earn cents off of was quite a novelty. I shared the link with many circles.

Obviously not quite such a novelty anymore 😉

*top 5 most read, anyway. My favorite top 5 pieces are cataloged here:

My Favorite Articles of the Previous Year

1: Possibly my favorite thing I’ve ever written on Vocal in a long time. A satire of the romance genre. And it wasn’t even for a challenge!

2: My salty challenge loss runback that became a success story in its own right.

3: A chronology and photo album of a trip that will never be topped.

4: The most heartbreaking short story ever written about a metal drum.

5: A short story combining my favorite first-person perspective work, a rare time I dabbled with a narrator who is less than reliable, and an attempt to shine a light on lesser-known heroes of history.

Combing my profile to build out this section made me realize: some real bangers hit my profile in 2024.

So, Was It All Worth It?

Sure.

What? Wanted some great rousing speech about the virtue of Vocal?

Nah, I don’t roll like that. I made my time my own on this platform, and I’m going to keep doing just that.

Still, a few highlights stand out to me from the past 3.5 years:

• I wouldn’t have a podcast without the burning desire to give all these stories I tried so damn hard on a new life beyond the platform
• I wouldn’t have become King of the Reprint (see “SEALAB IV: How a Vocal Challenge Loser Became My Most Prolific Reprint” above) without that same burning desire and yet more challenge losers clamoring for more than a couple reads
• I wouldn’t have two books with two more on the way without the Ship of Dreams challenge that spawned Martin Williams or The Mystery Box challenge that spawned Dick Winchester
• I wouldn’t have a crisp $500 USD in my pocket at this point 🤑
• I wouldn’t have met many of those now in my inner writing circle without this platform, from Mackenzie to Paul to Donna to Jazzy to Matt to Lamar
• I probably wouldn’t list myself as an “award-winning author”
• I wouldn’t have gotten hundreds of comments from like-minded creators, plus dozens of comments from bots and fake accounts that are always good for a chuckle
• I wouldn’t be working on my greatest collaboration of all time without the challenge that spawned yet another character too good to not return to
• And finally, I wouldn’t have gotten feedback like this:

So, yes, it was worth it 😎