44 Lessons I Learned From Publishing 444 Articles on Medium

“It is not possible to make discoveries under the pressure to please, to gain audiences, and to make money. It is necessary to close off the impulse to “make it” in order to open oneself.” — Joseph Chaikin

It has been two years since I started my Medium writing journey. During the pandemic, I decided that I would write regularly on Medium. This has been one of the best decisions of my life. I wanted to develop my writing skills for years, and writing 444 articles on Medium has helped me to kick-start my career in writing.

Although my progress has been very slow, I have tremendously enjoyed writing on Medium and this has become one of the best learning journeys in my life.

On January 14, 2021, I had written 222 articles on Medium. I summarized my learning here:

Today, on April 11, 2022, I now have 444 articles under my belt. Here are the 44 lessons I have learned in my writing journey.

44 Lessons I Learned From Writing 444 Articles

1. Procrastination is your biggest enemy and it kills your writing dreams. If you tell yourself, “One day, I will write my first blog post on Medium”, that day will never come. You have to start right now — and I mean in the next ten seconds. You need to take a small action right away. You can sign up for an account and join the Medium Partner Program in just a couple of minutes. Just do it. And then write your first article and publish it right away. Your article does not need to be perfect, you just need to put it out there. Do not wait for the perfect time — the perfect time is now.
2. Whenever you start writing, start small. I deceive my mind into thinking that this is easy peasy. “I will give it a try and it will just take a couple of minutes,” I say. I believe in the power of small steps. I make sure that I write every day and do not break the chain. Do not wait for inspiration to start your writing. If you wait for inspiration, you will write once a week, perhaps. Inspiration follows hard work and you need to put in your hard work first. Writing is hard work and it takes a lot of self-discipline -especially when you do not want to write. The toughest part is to get started and sit down to write. The first 5 to 10 minutes will suck — hang in there and you will have your momentum after 15 minutes.
3. Forget quality and focus on quantity first. Your initial goal should be to create at least 100 pieces. Do not worry about the quality of these pieces. You will find your voice and establish your writing practice only through writing consistently over a long period of time. You will establish your writing habits through consistent practice and hard work. The more you write, the more you will develop your skills and find your unique style.
4. You need to treat your Medium articles exactly like an investment portfolio for the long term. First of all, this is an investment in yourself, since you are developing your writing skills and practice. Second, each article is an asset that might pay off in the long term. You don’t know which article will pay off well, but you will increase your chances by creating a huge volume of articles. Treat each article as an experiment and give yourself the chance to make hundreds of articles.
5. Give yourself time and do not be discouraged if your published articles do not get enough views and reads. The great majority of my published articles were initially downright failures, but some of them have eventually achieved traction after many weeks, even months. Instead of obsessing over your metrics and statistics, spend your time creating your next masterpiece.
6. Do not compare yourself to established and accomplished authors. Reading stories about how they made thousands of pounds and then pitying yourself is not fruitful. Comparison to other writers will not propel you forward in your thinking or writing. Compare your success now to where you were one year ago — then you can understand your progress. This is your journey alone — stop comparing yourself to others. Be compassionate to yourself — it takes time to find your voice. Take a long-term perspective — stop expecting quick returns and view this as a marathon.
7. Most of the time, you take yourself too seriously. You are overthinking and under-doing. You need to stop paralyzing yourself and instantly jump into action. Do not let your critical mind stop you. Your stories need to be told, and you just need to show up and start writing.
8. Show up every day. Consistency is the name of the game you are playing. Write every day even if you do not feel like writing. Try to write at least 300 words every day. If you write 300 words every day, you will have an edge over 90% of your competition.
9. There is no substitute for hard work and consistency. Forget about shortcuts or hacks to become viral. If you want to grow your Medium enterprise, you need to write and publish on a daily basis. If you cannot publish every day, try to publish every two days.
10. You will write so much better if you shut down your critical voice. Remember you can always edit your piece later on. While you are writing something new, it is OK to follow your subconscious, your dreams, and your emotions. Blue-sky writing is so fun that you need to do it more often. Trust your intuition, not your inner critical voice. Give yourself the joy of crappy drafts.
11. Cultivate your own voice. What makes your perspective unique? If you just be yourself, you will not have any competition. You are the only you in the world and readers are interested in your story. Do not try to imitate others or try to be anyone else. They are already taken. You need to be the best version of yourself — that’s it.
12. Do not take yourself too seriously. Stop thinking about your ego — you are just a vehicle for creation. What you create is independent of you. It just passes through you — your job is to enable it. Elizabeth Gilbert talks beautifully about the concept of your elusive creative genius. You need to place a safe distance between yourself and your creation. Your job is to show up and do your part of the work. You will not focus on our creative genius, as there is no way you can control it. Your job is to continue writing or creating. Embrace the idea that you are just a steward and a vessel for your ideas.
13. Write about stuff that excites you to the bones. Find topics that you are obsessed with, care about, and want to learn more about. Watch how your body reacts to an idea you ponder. If you are curious, passionate, or intrigued, this will show up in your writing. Your feelings are your fuel — make good use of them and articulate them in your stories.
14. My Writing Formula: Curiosity + Exploration + Wonder + Passion Here is how I implement this formula: a) Being Curious and Asking Questions (Extreme Curiosity) b) Hunting for Originality and Inspiration Everywhere (Trans-disciplinary Exploration) c) Learning New Things that Amaze Me (Bewilderment and Wonder) d) Sharing my Enthusiasm with my Readers (Passion)
15. When you have your muse, dive in and enjoy the ride. Creativity has its own rules and sometimes it feels as if you have jumped to an alternate universe. You write fast, you forget your sense of time, and you are fully immersed in what you do. Enjoy these joyful moments when you can. There will also be moments of agony where you cannot even write a clear sentence and you will find your work appalling. If you hang in there and persist in those moments, you will have better moments of creativity and productivity.
16. Become a machine for learning, idea generation, and writing. Establish a system for writing and publishing a huge volume of work. I have written 444 articles, but I feel like I am just at the start of my writing journey. I have barely scratched the surface, and I am still a novice. Treat your writing journey as a long-term adventure that will unfold over several years.
17. Progress takes a lot of time. In my case, it has taken much longer than I initially expected. My first 100 articles did not perform well, and I did not get much traction. Things have improved, but very slowly.
18. Celebrate your failures. Sometimes, I do feel like a failure on Medium. I have put so much effort and hours into these 444 articles, yet I have not yet reached success yet. If I measure these articles by reading and engagement metrics, I have 444 different failures under my belt. I feel disappointed and tired at times. Nevertheless, I celebrate myself for these 444 failures.
19. Do not quit your Medium journey and do not expect fast results. I have thought of quitting this journey several times, but I am glad that I did not. Having written 444 articles, I know where my strengths and weaknesses are. I know where I would like to go. 444 articles is not a lot in the larger scheme of things. You need to become a marathon runner, not a sprinter runner.
20. Do not expect virality — the secret is in slow and steady progress. None of my 444 articles have gone viral. I have not quit yet, and I am still here, alive and kicking. I am hoping to have 666 articles published until November 2023. I believe you need to give yourself at least 999 chances for experimentation. That is what I will do. Hereby I declare and promise: I will not stop until I create 999 articles on Medium.
21. Read a lot of books to nurture your intellectual life. Reading is not a luxury, but an essential habit you want to do each and every day. Read widely and from diverse genres or disciplines.
22. Know why you are writing and what you would like to accomplish. I view myself as a teacher. My passions are to learn and teach, so I view my writing as an extension of these passions. That is why I try to achieve synergy between my teaching and my writing on Medium. I do this by writing and publishing articles based on the lectures and seminars I have recently taught. In other words, I combine my teaching and my Medium journeys together to achieve a cross-pollination between these two domains.
23. When you write something powerful, do not distrust it because it looks easy or obvious. Common sense is powerful because it contains grains of truth. Do not think that your ideas are commonplace. Yes, a lot of people could have thought of these ideas, but not many have the confidence to claim or write them. Put your spin, your voice, and your story on these ideas.
24. Do not worry about writing about things that have already been written. Repetition is good and teachers have used repetition all the time. People want to learn from your unique perspective. People do not read you because you are smart and you know it all. They read you because you are curious and passionate about the topics that you want to explore. Readers want your story, your independent thinking, your unique perspective, your packaging, and your take on the issues. Give them what they want.
25. Having said that, your story must contain your original stories, insights, or perspectives. You must try to find your own voice and niche. You need to try to amplify what is unique and different about your perspective.
26. Use your emotions as a vehicle. Your heart and excitement should guide you. Use emotionally-charged ideas and vivid stories. Excellent writing needs to strike an emotional spark in the reader — and you need to feel that spark as you write it first.
27. Your best writing sometimes comes without effort. When you are experiencing flow or joy, your writing starts to take a flight. You write best when you not overthinking. Keep the flow of your writing, and try to get into the momentum zone.
28. What if you are stuck? You need to hang in there when you face writer’s block. Show up and do your work, even if you feel like you have zero ideas. Sometimes, you will not like your sentences, and the words coming out will be mediocre. That is just fine. Hang in there and observe yourself. See what you can do to unblock yourself. Take a small action. What does this experience teach you? How do you unblock yourself?
29. Your job is to make mistakes, so just go ahead and create your imperfect work. What blocks you is the fear of making mistakes. Perfectionism is not good for your soul, and it is not good for your work either. You are too stressed that you will fail, but your job is to fail anyway. You need to permit yourself to create bad work, i.e. crappy drafts and bad artwork. Your job is to start creating now, even if you feel that this might be the worst quality work ever produced. A mediocre draft you produce today is more valuable than a perfect draft you will produce one day. That one day might never come, and the only day you have is today.
30. Make sure you deliver value in each of your articles. Readers want to learn something fresh and exciting each time they read you. You need to provide useful information and inspiration whenever you write.
31. Connect with people like you. Write or create as if you are talking to a specific person. Put your heart out there, share your own stories, and make yourself vulnerable. For whom are you writing or creating? Visualize that person and converse with that specific person. Try to connect to that person through your work. This involves sharing your own stories, embracing your weird self, and shamelessly sharing your idiosyncrasies with the world.
32. Find out what interests you. What are your curiosities? Avoid writing content about topics you are not interested in. If you want your writing to stand out, write from your heart. Write about things you are passionate about. Your readers will recognize when you truly share your values, interests, and curiosities. Your passion is what will make your content appealing and worth readers’ attention.
33. Use fresh, compelling, and niche pictures. Today’s readers are very focused on pictures and visuals. Use unique images to help readers envision your story.
34. Write from your heart. Develop your storytelling skills and your own voice. Discover why you are writing and what it is that you want to share about your life and your experiences. What are the meaningful stories of your life? Make your stories interesting and engaging. How did you transform yourself? How did you overcome obstacles? How did you be successful? Our brains love stories and we are wired for meaning. Stories well told engage readers more than any other tool. They tap into what makes us human.
35. Figure out how you can turn your Medium writing into a fun game for yourself. Fun is the secret sauce that will keep you going, especially when things get challenging. Treat your writing as a hobby to remove the pressure. How can you make the process of writing more engaging and enjoyable for yourself? Try to find tricks to fall in love with writing. If you do not enjoy writing, you will feel compelled to quit it and it will be hard for you to sustain your journey.
36. Do not worry about the noise here on Medium. Do not compare yourself to others — your journey is yours alone. Do not be obsessed with virality hacks or tricks. Do not read just the ‘how much I made’ type of Medium articles. Do not get lost in the metrics. Do not worry about the changing algorithm. Nothing should take your focus away from real writing. Worry about your own progress and process — how will you love your craft? Turn off the noise, so that you can listen to your heart and what it desires.
37. As you write, your audience can be just one person. Try to write something that you would love to read. Writing is all about discovering who you are and how you think. Do not create for any market, create for yourself. If you like what you have written, somebody else will like it as well. Do not target everybody, you will then end up helping no one. Instead, go niche, narrow it down, and make it specific. You are the hero of your life, and you need to act like it. Defend your ideas courageously, stand up for your values, and never give up on your dreams.
38. It is a long and difficult journey to establish yourself on any platform — and Medium is no different. Judging yourself by numbers is a formula for unhappiness. Remember that life is about your progress, learning, and exploration (rather than conquering, succeeding, and dominating categories). Life is a journey to be experienced. The more experiments and opportunities you provide yourself, the better your adventure becomes.
39. Ask yourself: If you never got anywhere with your Medium writing, would you do it anyway? If your answer is yes, then do not worry about your prospects. Worry about how you will improve your writing and how you will have fun along the journey.
40. The headline is 70% of the battle. You need to spend a long amount of time on your headline. Make sure you create at least 10 ideas before you finalize your headline. Make an attempt to write a clear, enticing, and enchanting headline. Readers decide if they will read your piece in just one second. You have to make a good impression and spark curiosity in a split second. You need to design a curiosity gap so that readers will be compelled to read more. You can think of good titles as scratching tools for the brain — they will slow down the brains of readers, surprise them, and even slap them in the face: “What did I just read? I have to click on the article to get the answer and understand what the hell is going on here.”
41. Ask yourself these two questions every day: What will I learn that will excite and astonish me? What will I write about today? I aim to surprise myself every day through the pursuit of constant learning and discovery. I have read 25 fiction and 50 non-fiction books in 2021 just to surprise myself and open my horizons. The more you read and discover, the more excitement and flow you will go through. The more curiosity you have, the more you will open up your mind to new possibilities, new worlds, and new journeys of wonder.
42. Curiosity is a game-changer for you. It increases the quality of your life and it brings you joy and flow. Be a hunter and learner of the most interesting things. When you are curious, you become a relentless learning machine. You get excited and want to explore the topics in more depth. As you read more, you get momentum and want to learn even more. Your super-power then becomes sharing your excitement with your readers.
43. Convince your brain to write every single day. There is so much writing can teach you, from persuasion skills to storytelling. Keep learning every day and improve your own game. Remember that this is all a game and enjoy playing your game. As you play every day, you will compound yourself and level up your game for the long term.
44. The biggest game of your life is creating your own creative assets in your life. There are fascinating articles that only you can bring to the world. Fresh, exciting, and original pieces of writing. What are they? How can you take a small action now? How can you continue taking small steps every day? How can you continue your adventure every day without quitting and without breaking the chain? Start writing today, use your imagination, write every day, do not break the chain, hit publishing, and repeat these actions for a couple of years — you will enjoy tremendous results if you hang in there and do not give up.

Fahri Karakas is the author of Self-making Studio and If Life Gives You A Squash, Squash It! He is passionate about doodling, creativity, asset creation, and the future.