Challenge Yourself to Publish Something
31-Day Ninja Writing Challege 2019: Day Eighteen
Yesterday we talked about rejection.
In order to be rejected, you need to put your work out into the world. You need to ship it!
Today, you’re going to pull the trigger. You’re going to muster up 10 seconds of brave and publish something.
The easiest, most accessible way I know to do that is right here on Medium.
Medium has the easiest interface I’ve ever seen. You don’t have to be accepted — anyone can open a Medium account and start blogging. You can write anything. An opinion piece. A blog post about literally anything. You can post short fiction. A poem.
Really, anything.
Maybe what you post won’t get much attention. That’s okay.
Maybe it will blow up and go viral. That’s okay, too.
If you’re not sure what to blog about, here’s a method I use for figuring that out.
And you can make a little money. Just sign up at Medium for the Medium Partnership Program. It’s not necessary, but it’s a good idea to invest the $5 per month to become a paying member. All of your money goes to the writers you support by clapping for their posts and it’s just good form if you’re asking other people to support your work.
Here’s what I’m really excited about: there are enough Ninja Writers to make a difference. Come share your link in our Facebook Group. Invite people to read it and share.
Usually our self-promo day is Friday, but just for today (Saturday, 5/18/19) you can come and post your link.
Here are my best tips for writing posts on Medium that will gain traction:
- On Medium, the headline is king. Make it strong.
- Be provocative. It’s okay to pick a fight.
- If you have a blog or a Facebook page or some other way for readers to stay in touch with you, include a link at the bottom of the post.
- You can use upscri.be to add a form to your post for collecting email addresses, if you want to.
- Medium is set up to make it easy for readers to highlight and share good lines.
- Don’t be afraid to share the link with your friends via social media.
If you’d like to take this a little deeper, we have a free mini-course about using Medium to blog and start to build your email list. It’s called the Anti-Blogging for Creatives mini course. If you click here, you can sign up and start getting those posts. (One a day for a week.)
ASSIGNMENT EIGHTEEN:
Set up a Medium account. Sign up for the partnership program if you’d like to get paid.
Make sure to connect your Facebook and Twitter pages, so that anyone who follows you on those platforms and has a Medium account will become your follower. Post something. Today. It can be a blog post or a piece of short fiction.
If you can spring it, make sure to sign up for a paid Medium membership so you can support other writers.
Come share what you posted in our Facebook Group. Let us help you boost the signal.
Sign up for the Anti-Blogging for Creatives mini-course if you’re interested.
Come check out our summer workshops and classes!
Read all of the challenges in this series here:
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Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the original Ninja Writer.
