6 Realistic Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Quit Writing on Medium

From someone who wants to quit every day

Hey. I see you there, grabbing your phone every 2 seconds to check your stats; taking it everywhere you go in case you hear that buzzing sound that lets you know someone other than the editor of the pub you just published your story in has clapped to it.

Is that frustration I see slowly building up on your face?

Don’t be so hard on yourself. As that cliché saying goes: “Rome wasn’t built in one day”; so let’s just try to chill for a second. Okay? Okay.

Now hear me out, we need to talk.

Don’t get discouraged by curation — it doesn’t define your writing skills

I can see why you’d think that though.

It’s easy to get discouraged from writing when you’re putting in your best work to get that “chosen for further distribution” tag, only to check your Stats page after publishing a story and see nothing. But does that mean you suck as a writer?

Simply put, getting curated doesn’t necessarily mean your writing is good, and not getting curated doesn’t mean it’s bad either. Okay, it’s not that simple, but that’s the main idea.

As soon as I received those first e-mails letting me know most of my stories had been selected by curators I could already imagine Tim Denning and I talking about life in our exclusive Top Writer get-togethers (what, are you telling me that’s not a thing?) but what actually happened was…nothing.

My most viewed article to this day only got to 290 views and the others have somewhere between 150–200 views. Not bad, but also not as good as I’d hoped they would perform given they were curated and all. At first I felt bad about this, but as I came to realize, it wasn’t that the stories were crap, but they just weren’t Medium good.

So basically, getting curated is not a guaranteed ticket to stardom and, from what I could learn from my own stories, what it mostly means is that your grammar is good; your article is organized and the topic you wrote about is somewhat relevant.

How to know if your writing is bad or if it just needs a few tweaks here and there:

A good rule of thumb is, if your article has already been curated but it’s still struggling to get past 20 views, it most likely means that:

• Either your piece is too long and repetitive;
• Your headline is not appealing enough to readers;
• The subject you’ve written about has been used too many times already;
• Or your article just doesn’t add that much value to the reader.

And it doesn’t mean your writing is crap; those are just easy fixes you can apply to your writing to produce more stories that are Medium good.

On the other hand, if your stories have yet to be curated, don’t instantly think that you suck.

The best way to know what’s going on is to reach out to more experienced writers and ask for their feedback. It’s better to have another set of eyes take a look at your work so you can find out from a good source if it just needs some tweaks here and there, or if it really is bad content. And even if it is, you should keep writing and experimenting until you hit the sweet spot. Everyone gets there eventually.

Give your story time to gain traction

As I just told you, even with curation and being published in big pubs, there are some stories that just don’t gain traction as quickly as one would expect. But sometimes, out of nowhere, they can get a boost in popularity. This happened with the first story I ever wrote.

It wasn’t that good, but it wasn’t trash either; so, naturally, I was disappointed when it was only getting 1 view a day. This was enough for me to get frustrated and step away from Medium.

Come August. I decided to check my stats one day out of pure boredom, only to find that my story had gathered close to 110 views in just one day.

You can see the difference below, from the day it got distributed by curators to the day where it gained some popularity. Granted, it didn’t make much money, but it was enough to give me the slap in the face I needed to get back on the horse and just keep writing.

If you believe your story is good, don’t delete it out of frustration because it’s not performing as you’d like it to. Just leave it there and let it be. It’s possible that someday it will get the recognition it deserves.

Haven’t found your “voice” yet? — Keep writing and you will

Finding your writer's voice is not something that will happen overnight. And I know you know this, but it’s easy to forget and punish yourself for not having a “signature style” yet.

Don’t get obsessed over this. It’s normal for your first articles to look weird until you find a way to communicate your words that feels more like you.

What you can do to find it

The process of finding your writer’s voice is a lot like when you first meet someone and you get all awkward around them, not knowing how to act or what to say, so you’re more careful with how you portray yourself. But, as you hang out with them more often, you feel more comfortable, so you start showing your true colors.

Translating this into Medium, there are many tricks you can use to develop your own writer’s voice, but the best piece of advice is to just keep writing more articles. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where you won’t have to ask yourself “how do I want to sound today?”, you’ll just start writing naturally and realize your words are reflecting your personality a little more each day.

Pay attention to advice — But do what works for you

By now, I’ve probably read about 20 different articles on writing advice for beginners, and most of them say that the best way to be “successful” on the platform is to write every day; or to write tons of headlines; or read a lot; etc. That advice is great, but does that mean it will work for you?

As I’ve come to realize, when you’re just getting started, the best day to write is the day you feel like it. Write when you want to, for as long as you want to. Pressuring yourself to do it will only result in you resenting writing altogether, and your productivity will most likely suffer because of it.

Do what makes you feel comfortable. If you’ve tried those suggestions already but you’ve ended up feeling burnt out, maybe you should take that as a sign that you should change the way you’re doing things. Keep experimenting, especially if you’re just getting started.

Yes, this is a patience game — But you have to put in the effort too

I know, you’ve heard this one time and time again: Being successful (whatever that means) on Medium requires patience. With a capital P.

This is true in a way, but you also have to be willing to put in the effort necessary to get where you want to be. There are plenty of writers on the platform as of this very moment and you’re “competing” against all of them for just a couple of minutes of the reader’s attention.

Be patient. But also be critical of yourself. Don’t put all the blame on Medium for not showing your articles to more people.

If several months have passed and the only views you’re getting are from your friends and family, then you should take that as a sign that you need to up your game.

Ask for honest feedback from other writers or editors and make sure you’re putting your best work out there. If you really are, the reads will follow eventually.

It’s okay to take a step back — but don’t quit altogether

Hey, I get it. It’s easy to feel like a bag full of crap when the months keep passing and you’re still no Amardeep Parmar or Jon Brosio.

If you really feel like you need to take a break from all of this, it’s okay, do it. But don’t leave forever. Your stories are still relevant, even if they’re not as successful as you want them to be (yet).

Even when there are plenty of people writing about the same topics as you are, your perspective is still unique and, thus, valuable. What I love the most about Medium is that it gives you a front-row ticket to the inside of people’s minds and you get to learn from them for just $5 a month.

If you’re really in this for more than just the money, remember what got you to write here in the first place and hold on to that thought. As for me, I wanted a place to express the thoughts I normally struggle to put into words. What’s your reason?