4 Mistakes I Made When I Started Writing on Medium

My learnings about rejections, publications, and curation

I signed up for the Medium Partner Program in July. But it was only until November when I took my writing seriously.

I wrote only 5 stories in my first serious month here. At the time, I had no idea about publications, curations, and how it all works. I made tons of mistakes, but these 4 are the ones that made the most difference and taught me about this platform and a writer’s journey.

I hope they help you succeed on this platform.

1. Muting my inner voice for the big publication

Writing what the platform wants, not what you want to say, is a common trait for making it big here. I did that too, and I tried too hard to find the most peculiar and interesting topic to pitch the bigger publication. A bigger publication means greater reach and a lot of new eyeballs.

Isn’t that we all want?

We don’t understand if we write what people want to hear, we’ll never be able to do justice to our message.

Our story will remain unheard. Our deepest thoughts will disappear.

Sure, you’ll get tons of views; your article will get curated, resulting in more money. But do you know the downside of it?

You will fail to make a dedicated reader-base for yourself. A loyal reader is the one who genuinely connects with you and then comes back to you for more. When you only write to get featured on the bigger pub, you miss your authenticity, ignore your unique experiences, and miss a chance to build your personal monopoly.

I did that far too long. I wrote less about what I wanted to say and more about what was trending. The glam of more views and money kept me talking about ideas that were widely accepted and sounded like a good pitch.

There are tons of publication which will be happy to feature your articles as they are. Instead of altering your words, find publications that resonate with your work. I want to publish in bigger pubs, but I don't want to sacrifice my writing.

Tip: To find a balance, I have started pitches 3 articles for big pubs, and 4–5 I write what comes straight from my mind. You should find that balance for yourself too.

2. Hesitated to self-publish

The publication you see publishing 100s of stories every day are doing their job and supporting new writers. But it isn’t easy to get curated in those publications and building your audience.

Self-publishing looks scary in the beginning, but it opens new doors of opportunities. If you write valuable stories, you’ll get curated, and your work will be shown to potential readers.

And if a bigger publication like your story, they’ll reach out to you and publish it under their publication. It’s not possible when you already published in some other publication but with a lot of scope for self-published articles.

Previously, I would immediately send my stories, which I didn't think was great (self-rejection? Yes, refer to point 4), to easily accessed publications to save myself from the fear of getting rejected.

Recently I gave self-publishing a chance. It ended up 4 of my articles got curated back to back and got featured in a bigger pub, including The Startup.

3. Took rejections way too personally

When you get comfortable with the platform and start approaching a bigger and successful publication, you’ll face many rejections.

There could n number of reasons why your article didn’t make it to that list.

A lot of people quit after facing their first rejections. It hurts. It makes you question yourself and your craft. But if you stop after one rejection, you’ll never be able to get out of your comfort zone, and you'll be terrified from publishing and pitching bigger publications.

It’s human nature to save ourselves from all the possibilities of pain. But if we don't try, we’ll never be able to reach people who need to hear our message and our learnings.

I faced 3 rejections in a day last week. And it crushed me for a minute, but then I decided to choose myself and self-publish.

Rejection doesn’t mean your work is not good; it only means that it isn’t the right publication. You can always try other ones and stop doubting yourself.

Rejections are part of the journey as long as you’re not self-rejecting.

4. I self-rejected before anyone else did

The fear of rejection can make us self-reject our best pieces. It’s worst than getting rejections from editors. Someone else not believing in your work is still okay, but you do not believe your work and yourself are okay.

Remember, you’re not the editor or a critic, and your job as a writer is not to judge your work. Your job is to write.

After the first few rejections, I dreaded pitching my stories, which affected my writing. I was nervous even while I was writing. It made me doubt myself, my skill, and I began to question my self-worth.

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” — William Shakespeare

Talking to my writer friends made me understand that attaching self-worth to my work is the easiest way to sabotaging myself.

As a writer, we need to understand that rejections will be a part of our journey, but if we reject ourselves, there’s no way we'll be able to share our art with the world. If JK Rowling rejected her first draft of Harry Potter, there wouldn’t be any Hogwarts or the magic world we enjoy so much.

Tip: The best way to get out of that cycle is to consider every article you write as a part of the journey and not the destination. It will shed away all the expectations and keep you focused on the process.

Writing is the best way to express our feelings and explore the possibilities of life. We’re lucky to be born in a century where we can access platforms that support writers and help them thrive.

Can you imagine sending out letters of your work and never getting any reply from the editors? That’s how it used to be 20–30 years ago. We should appreciate the opportunities that we have today and focus on writing as much as we can.

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

― Octavia E. Butler

If you enjoyed this post, you’d definitely love this one.