WRITING TIPS AND TRICKS

Dear Writer, You Really Do Not Have to Be a Control Freak

Sometimes you have to let go and flow

One of the things that I love about Medium is that I get to read stories from the most amazing writers, all in one place, on the same platform. Every day I look for pieces that inspire, entertain and make me think; I share in the experiences of my fellow writers; I feel their pain and their happy triumphant moments; I live many adventures through their words.

These stories are mostly found either one or two ways:- I see them in my recommendation list or by the notification beside the profile of the writer that I follow, telling me that he or she has 1,2, sometimes 9 recent posts.

When the notification appears in the list, that is easy, I just click on the story, and off I go to reading nirvana but there are times when I click on the writer’s profile and I end up in the Writer’s Palace of Pindom Pain. I do not like being there and I have written about it before.

I have to slough through so many pins trying to find the most recent story and if it is a writer whose stories I read regularly, I would have already read all of their top pins and now all I want to do is to get to the bottom of the pile with my sanity still intact.

I wonder, why do writers pin their stories? I can understand the About Me, yes — give the first-time visitor to your page an idea of who you are and why you write, you share a bit of you, readers love that. But why the 17 others?

Did you decide that they were your best pieces? Based on what? The number of claps? The topic? That you wrote it when you were in a particularly good mood? You so want to control the reader’s experience that you are telling them to read this and this and then those others? Let me guide you through my work since you cannot maneuver through it yourself?

Often by the time I had to scroll past the 27th pin, I give up and leave the page.

Why not let the experience be an organic one? Why control the process? Isn’t society with its many rules and laws controlling enough?

When I come here, and I am sure that many other readers share the same thoughts, I want to go with the flow — my flow, and your flow and not be pinned to a list that might have been relevant for yesterday but no longer for today.

Hint, hint.

I. Trudie Palmer One Love

Author’s note:

Read this short poem below, it continues my angst over this pinning thing. Comment if you feel the same way and even if you don’t, you have permission to tell me to get an automatic scrolling mouse. I'm going to unpin my 14 stories now.