3 Lessons I Learned After 1 Month Writing on Medium

Writing is a messy journey to be savoured one sentence at a time.

“You write as you speak, but when you write you can’t do that. You need to change your style.” — professors I had

That is what my professors would say to me as they handed me my essays with ok-ish grades. I never truly agreed with that statement.

I never felt that you had to be a different person when you wrote than when you spoke. I mean, ultimately you want your reader to understand what you say, so why make it more complicated than necessary?

I used to like writing in general, but learned to dislike it.

That changed once I came across Tim Denning.

I have been following Tim on LinkedIn and on Medium for some time, reading his articles and appreciating his views on anything related to personal growth, investing and productivity, to name a few.

What I like a lot about his writing style is simplicity. No fancy words or complicated jargon. When he writes, it feels like he is speaking to you as if you two were having a coffee or tea at a café’.

I signed up to his newsletter and began consuming as much content as he could create. As I was doing that, I began playing with the idea of writing again and Medium looked like a good place to start.

I have just hit the 1 month mark on Medium and here is what I learned that I hope will help you if you are a new writer. To experienced writers, you might know all of this, feel free to chip in with your thoughts.

#1. Earning Statistics Only Tell One Part of The Story

I don’t know everyone’s personal circumstances. I don’t know why you decided to write and, importantly, your expectations.

Maybe you had a goal of making $$$ in X days or weeks, and that is fine.

I mean, it is important to look at earning statistics to see which article drove more traffic and understand what topic(s) your readers care about the most.

That said, it is all relative.

When you start, you may not have lots of readers, so your articles won’t perform well from a views perspective.

My advice — forget about earnings, at least in the beginning, and enjoy the journey that it is making a raw idea into a valuable piece of content.

#2. Start (even slow) and keep the rhythm

I wish I could write 1 article a day. That would be great and feel great, too.

Think about it, 1 article a day would equate to 365 articles in a year. If you don’t cover just one single topic, that is a looot of content. Certainly more than not starting at all (you don’t say?!).

Truth is, I struggle to even produce 1 article a week. So, yeah…1 a day is wishful thinking for now. It takes me ages to think of an idea, decide what I want to communicate and then write it out. Oh, I am not even considering the time to polish it.

Guess what? I am fine with it.

What I care about the most at this stage is maintaining momentum. You can’t run before you walk.

That doesn’t mean you should write just 1 article a week. If you can produce a lot of quality content every single day, who am I to tell you that you shouldn’t?

You definitely should!

My advice — write as much as you can without burning out thinking you are not producing enough articles. Keep calm and carry on.

#3. Sometimes You Go Forward, Sometimes You Step Backward

My first article was hard to write.

Too many thoughts were running in my mind as to what to write and how and if and….you get the point. I froze at every sentence, not knowing how to continue.

My second article was easier.

The idea came up randomly as I was having a walk. After publishing it, my mind ran a thousand miles a minute with ideas on what to write next.

My third article was ok-ish.

I knew what I wanted to write and spent more time figuring how I wanted to write it. It still took me a week, but I felt I had spent the majority of those days fine-tuning my piece.

My fourth article was an exciting journey.

The idea came up one morning after watching the news. I started writing non-stop and completed it in the afternoon. Felt amazing , “I’m flying “ I thought to myself. I submitted it to publication thinking it was a great piece (of course), but thankfully the editors didn’t think the same. Thankfully because it helped me slow down a bit.

I promised to myself that I would edit it and re-submit it for consideration. I did edit it, but it hasn’t left my drafts folder yet and maybe it won’t. That taught me that I had to manage my idea generation and execution process.

My advice — savour your writing experience. No one story will be the same. Each article will take you on a ride of its own. Each will be an experience that will teach something about yourself that you probably didn’t know or forgot.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of posts and articles selling you the dream of great revenues opportunities from writing. Refrain from thinking about those too much and rather focus on what matters — sharing your view of the world that can shape and/or enhance someone else’s view of the world.

It won’t be easy.

There will be days when you will be bursting with ideas and words will be flowing smoothly. You will have other days, instead, when your screen will look like a desolated landscape. Other times you will feel you are not good enough.

Don’t despair.

No one said it was going to be a walk in the park, but nobody ever said it was going to be an impossible mountain to climb either. Maintain momentum, take breaks and appreciate that you will grow one article a time.