THOUGHTS & MUSINGS
A Baker’s Dozen
Thirteen favorites from my first 100 posts on Medium
I’ve had an account on Medium for years, but only became a member in April 2021. However, I actively started posting my own stories on Medium in February 2021, because a dear friend — May More — shared the magic of Medium with me.
I started following and reading other writers, discovered publications, and started earning a bit of money on Medium. No, I can’t tell you stories of my fabulous earnings, but I can tell you I’m proud of the work I have shared here.
Some statistics
Those who have known me for some time know I am a sucker for statistics, so let me take you on a bit of a detour:
- Of those 100 posts, 55% was fiction (mostly erotic fiction), 42% was about my life, or other subjects such as money, art, music or photography, and 3% were ‘about me’ posts.
- I published my first story on Medium on 2 February 2021. Nine months and twenty days later, my 100th story saw the light of day.
- Of the 100 stories posted, 14 were distributed.
- My best month in earnings was August, where I fell just short of $40.
- Of the 100 posts, 92 went to 20 different publications, the most of them (26) in the brilliant publication, Tantalizing Tales. Why brilliant? Because not only does it give my erotic fiction a home, but because of the dedicated editors and their engagement with their writers.
Okay, after this detour into statistics, let’s get on with my baker’s dozen — the thirteen favorites of my first 100 posts on Medium!
Three best performers in fiction
The story with the most views and the most reads is Constructional Punishment:
The second most views go to Jennifer and Amber, but it’s only fourth on the list for the most reads
Pink Panties was my very first story on Medium, and it warms my heart to see it here in the top three of most views, and the second for the most reads:
Three best performers in personal stories
The personal story with the most views, but only fourth on the list of most reads, was Strong Women. It shows a personal image of me in the header, and deals with four generations — my grandmother, mother, me and my daughter, This story was distributed in ‘Family’:
The second most views go to Teenage years of touching & groping, and this personal post is at the top of the list of the most reads:
A post which I wrote while my husband was in hospital is I hate being alone. It received the third most views, and was second on the list of most reads. To top this, it was distributed in ‘Self’:
Best performer in photography
I have shared a couple of posts with my photography, but before I did, I wrote this article — Camera Antics — about the different cameras I owned during my life, and which camera I now use for photography. This post was distributed in ‘Photography’, and the best read of my photography posts.
Other best performers
As said above, I love statistics, which means I frequently look at other statistics on Medium, such as money earned, read ratio and fans per story.
The post that earned me the most money ($20) — Jennifer and Amber — has already been mentioned above, so it’s just fair I mention the second on that list, which is The glory of each hole, an erotic story I loved writing! It earned me $11,46:
The story with the best read ratio is one of my 100-word (yes, exactly 100 words) flash fiction stories, Jejune Genesis. It has a read ratio of 80%.
The story with the most fans (17) is The glory of each hole, which I already mentioned above. The second one on the list of most fans — with 16 fans — is The Subconscious: Mental and Physical Pain, which was written when going through a very difficult time. A time that has still not ended, even though we are in calmer waters.
My personal favorites
On this list, I will share only fiction, because it’s far too difficult to choose articles which deal with personal stuff, even though some of those articles are very close to my heart.
I have no idea where my inspiration for Yellow Cab Service came from. Maybe from my trip to New York, even though I never took a ride in a cab? But, we did experience a major snow storm there, and snow features in this story. No matter where the inspiration came from, this is one of my favorites.
The inspiration for Canon in D, Pachelbel comes from a dark place. My mom’s death hit me hard and made me think of life and death. This is one of my husband’s favorite pieces of music, and one he said he wants to have played at his funeral, which is why I have used it as the title for this story, dealing with my fear of losing him.
During the month of October, the magazine Microcosm had several prompts for the theme ‘Oh, the horror!’. Every week they had a different prompt fitting the theme, and I wrote Her Haunted House for the fourth prompt.
That’s a wrap!
There you have it, thirteen favorite stories from the first 100 stories posted on Medium during 9 months and 20 days. My list of posts is forever growing, as I share stories already written, or am inspired to write new essays about my life, my thoughts, and the things I go through.
Inspiration for this post came from:
- My Stories that Reach for the Sky by May More
- Once Upon a Time by Posy Churchgate
- I Wanna Give You My 12 Best and Then Some by Paul Mansfield
A final note
In January 2022, it will be 12 years since I started blogging. In my early years of blogging, I discovered memes and started my own — Wicked Wednesday. My blog and this meme (we are heading for the 500th weekly prompt!) wouldn’t have been a success, or even still existed had I not done the work to support others. I am still doing the work.
Medium is no different. If you want your work to be read, and you want those claps and comments, read the work of others too. I put in as many hours reading as I do writing, both here and in my blogging world.
Marie Rebelle is editor of Serial Stories and Tantalizing Tales, writer of fact and fiction, sometimes transgressive, sometimes erotic, always about life. Likes to share, and treats everyone with the respect they deserve. Top writer in Short Stories, Fiction & LGBTQ. Twitter: @rebelsnotes
