500 Followers Later, What Have I Learned?
A reflection on how I almost gave up writing and Medium renewed my passion.
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I am insanely grateful for each and every person who has hit that follow button and is a part of my audience. Why? Because nearly five years ago, I gave up writing.
In 2016, I mustered the courage to hit the “Submit” button and sent my first published book to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (*affiliate link). I spent weeks riddled with anxiety to submit it, although I knew I put a lot of work into the story. An endless string of negative questions flooded my thoughts and clouded my judgment.
What if people hate it?
Am I ready for this kind of criticism I may get from readers?
In the end, I buried my fear and put my work out to the world.
Friends and family bought the book the first few weeks it was published, but that was it. Then…nothing.
No reviews.
No comments.
No more sales.
It’s like all of the bubbles in a freshly opened can of soda fizzled out before I got to enjoy it.
The years of hard work it took to write the book and muster the courage to submit it stung pretty hard when I realized that my work fell on deaf ears. (To this day, I still don’t know how good — or bad — the story is because getting reviews is like pulling teeth)…but I keep writing.
I did my best to keep my chin up, but the timing was not great. At the same time I published my book, I was also writing on my blog. Again, zero readers, no comments, and absolutely no audience.
I almost deleted everything that I ever wrote.
Fast forward to July 2021, and I stumbled upon Medium. In the beginning, I joined because I wanted a new place to read, and I liked that it was a platform where writers support other writers. In the beginning, all I did was read. Then, I felt the tingle at my fingertips to get back to the keyboard and give it a try.
I couldn’t stop myself. I wrote article after article, hit “Publish,” and hoped for the best. That same month, my humor article went viral, and I about cried from happiness.
Not only has writing on Medium renewed my passion for writing, but so has the audience. I’ve returned to writing the follow-on to my first book, I’m halfway done with my first serialized fiction, and I publish articles regularly each week here. (*both are affiliate links)
Overall, I’ve learned:
- I am not a bad writer, and that there are people out there who like what I have to say and the stories that I tell.
- The motto, “Just keep writing,” is the best mantra to keep telling myself.
- There are people out there who want to see me succeed and provide me with a ton of encouragement.
- I don’t want to write for the money, nor should I. Writing isn’t a way to get rich. Instead, it’s a way to feel happy.
To each and every one of you, THANK YOU! You may think you are not doing much leaving a comment on someone’s post, reading an article, or throwing out a clap here and there. However, to someone else, you might be doing more good than you know.
