library(shiny)
library(RMySQL)
library(pool)

pool <- dbPool(
  drv = RMySQL::MySQL(),
  user='username',
  password='password',
  dbname='words',
  host='blahblahblah')

shinyServer(function(input, output) {
  ## function to write to databse
  writeToDB <- function(word, vote){
    query <- paste("INSERT INTO word_votes (vote, word) VALUES (", vote, ", '", word, "');", sep="")
    conn <- poolCheckout(pool)
    dbSendQuery(conn, query)
    conn <- poolReturn(conn)

  ## rest of code
  }