Writers’ Community

Celebrate with Me? My First Year on Medium Gave Me a Tribe

One year on Medium deserves a celebration with my tribe. I’m a writer and it gives me joy! Join in for ideas, inspiration, and the future we build together…

Exactly one year ago, I pushed the Medium publish-button for the first time. This is my first story.

It’s about three events in the 1970s that shape our world today, 50 years later.

• The Blue Marble, the first pictures of our beautiful planet from space
• Limits to Growth, the report about our economy to the Club of Rome
• Permaculture, how to design new human systems in line with nature

These three events give me hope for a more beautiful future…

Surfing the Waves

A lot has happened since then. 83 stories emerged. My words started flowing. I found my own style of designing the Medium stories. I found beautiful pictures, and short paragraphs, and inspiring links to outsiders.

And I found a writing tribe within Illumination with great people who share my love for the written word.

Many people contact me now, mostly via LinkedIn, saying they’re inspired by my stories. I connect, interact, and answer questions. And next week they invited me to be on panels of three different webinars.

One of my favorite quotes is:

“I cannot stop the waves, but I can choose which one to surf” — free after Jon Kabat Zinn.

Well, I’m choosing and surfing all right.

And it’s awesome!

Niche Writing about the Future

For those who’ve never read anything from my pen before, here are some facts.

My niche is the environment and the future. I write about aligning the economy, ecology, and human nature. I think it’s the only way our world can move forward in a sensible way.

With many partners, I work towards a beautiful future…

It’s a broad topic and I fill it in with rational stories from many different angles as well as fiction. Nature is my core. My own humanness is dressing.

The challenge for me is how to show all of me and still be inspiring for my audience. I experiment. I learn. And I enjoy myself tremendously!

On March 22 I wrote about overstepping the boundary of 1,000 fans

Less than 2 months later, the counter says 1.8K followers.

Great! My own tribe!

In the course of one year, I’ve become a top writer in Sustainability, Climate Change, Ideas, Future, and Social Media.

When I started out, I didn’t even know what that was. Top writer? And to be honest, I still don’t know the value of it exactly.

Do you ever look for top writers? I don’t often…

I belong to the 6.9% of writers on Medium that earn more than $100 in a month. Hahaha. Don’t think it makes me rich, though.

My average month now gives me around $100–$150. In this one year, my earnings were $700. Not a job salary. But a nice aside.

So, why am I so happy?

Well, I practice what I preach. Medium gives me loads of value, not just money. The main thing that gives me so much joy:

I’M A WRITER!

When I was young, I already wanted to be a writer. But I thought it was someone very alone. Sitting somewhere behind a typewriter (yes, I’m that old… no computers yet). Designing thoughts on paper.

A hermit. A recluse.

It scared me. I didn’t want to be lonely.

So I chose another path.

Now that I’m actually a writer for real, my life is completely different from what I envisioned.

My partner Mike reads, comments, and adds his own magic to my stories. I reach out to people or they come to me. I initiate projects, lecture at universities, put my hands in the soil.

I have many skype talks with young students who are inspired.

And I just love my life.

On March 21 this year, I published my first story for Illumination. I was invited by editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz who read my work in ‘Age of Awareness’. And my writer’s life changed again for the better.

I became part of a tribe.

Medium can be lonely. Illumination isn’t lonely at all.

I found fellow writers who read my work, appreciate it (or not), and comment. They share my love for the written word. And I find lots of inspiration in their work.

The diversity, the talent, the spread of subjects is great!

It gets me out of my rut. My pattern. It shows me new angles. I get inspired and I’m off writing again…

We connect on Slack, we dare to become visible and support each other’s work by sharing and liking on social media. 🦄 Chris Hedges gives me lots of new insights into Google visibility and SEO tips. And I prepare my stories for the Illumination Spotlight.

It’s exciting, some of it’s new and all of it feels like teamwork. And to think we’ve just started less than two months ago!

Illumination is an amazing barrel of opportunities ready to be unleashed…

Cross-pollination is my self-appointed task within Illumination. My honest opinion is that if we start giving, the world will become abundant. And there will be enough for all to have a good life.

On Medium, giving means reading a lot. All writers out here long for an audience. They have poured their soul out on the page and it’s up to all of us to appreciate their efforts.

As writers, we are all avid readers. So, it’s an easy task.

Read more!

Claps have no money-value for writers, but they do give the value of appreciation. As a writer I can tell you, it gives a good feeling if people care enough to give you claps. So consider clapping more abundantly next time if a story inspires you (you can give up to 50 claps).

Comments are important for giving as well as achieving success with your own writing. Comments can make you stand out from the masses.

My advice: formulate your comments carefully. Add your own personal color and fragrance to a story. It’s a calling card for your own writing.

People might check out your profile and start reading your work.

So, let’s do some more cross-pollination. It’s a great way to celebrate with all of you, my tribal friends…

First of all, I want to give some attention to this story by Rasheed Hooda.

Headlines are mighty important! So start experimenting with what works for you.

I use this headline analyzer sometimes, although I don’t believe everything they say. It just sharpens my intuition for working titles. But find your own way and enlighten us with your titles.

Then I read a story by Jacki Rigoni. She’s Poet Laureate of Belmont, California, and I’m looking forward to reading more from her for sure!

Check her out! She’s new, and you’ll be proud to be one of her first fans. She’ll be big in no time if we make quality count on Medium!

Not only has this story an important topic. Unraveling the f*cked up realities of our current world. It’s also well-written and it taught me about the word gaslighting. As a non-native writer, I learn every day!

She explains it for me:

“Gaslighting is when your emotions, words, and experiences are twisted and used against you, causing you to question your reality” — Jacki Rigoni.

Well, I question my reality every day.

Here’s another story about gaslighting by Julio Vincent Gambuto. I like it. And it makes me love Medium to get these voices out there.

This story has 173K claps. People read it and hopefully, it touches them.

Please, let’s design our new world better than it was before…

“We do care. We just don’t have the time to do anything about it.” —Julio Vincent Gambuto.

and another:

“From one citizen to another, I beg of you: take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud. We get to Marie Kondo the shit out of it all. We care deeply about one another.”

— Julio Vincent Gambuto.

Never underestimate the power of normal citizens like you and me. Let’s Marie Kondo the shit out of it all! Never question your own sanity. Please, support each other in everything we do to make it better.

Stop the trolling. Be kind. We’re in this together…

What will my next year on Medium be like, you ask? I don’t know. Let’s see what emerges.

It’s how I live my life. I’m on a path and things come to me. When the crossroads come, I choose. Right or left. Or straight on. And get on with it…

There is one longing though, for this next year.

To publish in The Bad Influence. I love this community of inclusivity and daring. On the edge sometimes. Or over it. But who cares?

Creativity rules.

I might have the courage to be all of me, no matter what…

I might discover my own Van Gogh inside.

Let’s see when I’ll find the courage to ask if they’ll accept me as a writer. I do see some of my Illumination friends there. So it might not be too scary…

This time I read stories by Helen Cassidy Page, Rosennab, Elinor Clark, Andy, Joe Luca, Selma, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Kevin Buddaeus, Elisabeth Khan, 🦄 Chris Hedges, Tree Langdon ♾️, Salam Khan, Darcy Thiel, Kathy Lum, Jessica Cote, Sana Rose, Jennifer Geer, Sarene B. Arias, Tim Maudlin, Daniella Mini, Sherry McGuinn, Kira Dawn, T H Wong, KeepingItRealWithAnnick, Joanne Troppello🌻, Trista Ainsworth, Kathryn LeRoy, Ph.D., Luba Sigaud, Dew Langrial, Keno Ogbo, Mark Scofield, Mallika Vasak, Meen Sokri, Annelise Lords, Sukhi Ch., Besom & Bletherskite, Ken Bourke, Nicole Sudjono, Karen Madej 💛, Ksenia Sein, Paul Myers MBA, Dona Mwiria, and many others.

This story stood out for me. It’s from Elinor Clark and warns for the ‘fun fact’.

I agree. So, please don’t get me wrong when I write about my mighty interesting life…

My fun fact is simple. I smell the roses. I watch a little bird building its nest. I smile often. Or laugh out loud. Listen to music or dance. And I write. Nothing to impress others, just a little something to feel my own burning flame inside…

Please, my writer and reader friends, read with care. And enjoy yourself in all your own ways. Small, big, or everything in between. Stop trying to impress others and just be you. It’ll shine through in your writing.

If you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Or somewhere in our food forest learning about nitrogen-fixing trees who will save our world…

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