Be Patient With Medium Curation

It’s a team of humans, and they’re trying their best

A few days ago, I published a story dubbed The Secret.

It’s a story about persistence. About art. About success, creativity, and playing the long game. I think it’s one of my finest 2-minute-reads ever. It took me five years to write because first, I needed five years of writing experience.

As of this writing, the story has 800 views and 131 fans. That’s a high share of clappers. It has 2,300+ claps. The numbers speak for the piece. And yet, it wasn’t distributed. No curation. Ugh, how frustrating, you might say. But I already knew before I hit ‘Publish’ that it’d never make the cut.

I decided to sacrifice The Secret on the altar of algorithmic promotion in exchange for creative freedom. I did so by choosing its title.

The Secret.

That’s it. Two words. No clever metaphor, no juxtaposition. No clear promise, no obvious benefit, not even a subtitle. Who’d want to feature a piece like that? The answer is someone who understands nuance.

Before I ran the piece, I considered an alternative title.

The Secret to Becoming a Full-Time Writer Write every day. There is nothing else.

What do you think? How would you react scrolling past this in your feed? Chances are, you’d keep right on going. I know I would. I mean, where’s the mystery here? You explained the whole joke in two lines. I don’t want to feel berated. I’m already getting enough of that at work. No thanks, next!

Of course, that’s not what I’m doing in the piece. It’s inspiring. A shot of energy. But part of delivering said boost relies on the initial enigma that got you there. Except you’ll never experience it — because you never clicked on the title.

A piece like The Secret should spread organically. It’s poetic. Not poetry, but poetic. The kind of writing you feel proud of when you show it to a friend. “Look, I found this! Isn’t that cool?”

Unfortunately, right now, Medium curation does not have time for nuance. They’re so swamped with reviewing thousands of submissions each day that the only way through the jungle leads through clear-cut, straightforward guidelines. Be direct. Be clear. Don’t use fancy language. Focus on one major promise. Be descriptive. Then, deliver on that promise.

These guidelines work for the majority share of articles written on the platform, but they leave no room for artistic expression.

This space for creative freedom should exist within Medium’s Partner Program, and I hope, with time, it will. Right now, however, your creative freedom is severely restricted if you want to submit your stories for possible distribution through curation. That’s what you’re doing, by the way.

You’re submitting your stories for review. It’s an application-fingers-crossed-hope-I-get-picked kind of process. You have no right to be curated. You’re not automatically eligible because you painted inside the lines. You’re crafting a story following a certain set of rules, and then you hope it’ll get picked so you can get more views, reach more readers, make more money.

As in all such processes, be it applying to Harvard, trying to get a job, or sending a guest post to your favorite magazine, the default is to be rejected. The majority of submissions will be turned down. This is the whole point of curation. You filter. You select.

In this case, it’s a small team of humans selecting a bunch of stories from a huge group of writers — and, I can assure you, they’re all doing their very best. They’re people. They’re subjective. They have opinions, ideas, beliefs, and, sometimes, they get it wrong. But right now, they’re wading through a sea of words, hoping to get to your story, hoping it’ll be the ray of light they’re looking for.

Medium’s curation guidelines are essential. They didn’t create these rules for fun, to shun poets, or to make your life difficult. These rules are in place because they help Medium’s curation team survive. Without them, they would drown. If some of our great submissions fall by the wayside because curators lack the breathing space for nuance right now, that’s okay. It’ll always be this way. Some things work. Others don’t. Eventually, we’ll get there.

For every piece you write, there is a headline you want to use and a headline curation demands. Very rarely will the two be the same. Your job is to determine which article gets which.

Is this an important, clear, structured message you want to share with the world? Or a more fuzzy, poetic dose of inspiration? Do you need to set this piece up for maximum reach, or do you need to exercise your creative freedom? Can you calmly wait in line or do you need a break from hoping to get picked? Even not being curated has value, it just comes in different forms than views and dollars.

One day, we might not have to make these choices. For now, trust in the process. Have faith in the good people at Medium. They’re figuring things out one day at a time, just like you and me.

Stake your claim with your titles. Take a stand for what you need most with each one. Stop complaining about losing a competition you volunteered to enter. And never stop writing. After all, that is the secret.