Dear Writers, Unabashedly Share Your Unique Brand of Brilliance

You have a distinct and powerful voice — own it

Dear Writers,

It’s easy to get sucked up into the comparison game, especially on a social media writing platform, which is essentially the nature of Medium. When we come to the land of Oz and begin stretching our creative writing wings, we start getting distracted by flying monkeys.

This person has 14k followers; that person has a story with 22k claps; this writer says on a Facebook writing group that they’ve been making thousands of dollars from the time they started writing on the platform.

Mentoring opportunities and courses abound. It’s a writers’ free-for-all and it’s a damn jungle. Writers want to claw their way to the top. This world of writing isn’t easy. It’s highly competitive. There are people eking out a living. People highballing it at the top. People writing for fun. There are good mentors and scammy courses. Discretion is advised.

Where do I fit in?, you’re probably wondering. I did, too. I do, too.

I’m here to tell you — to tell us — discerning the good advice from the bullshit advice is key. A successful writer doles out advice that doesn’t sit well with you? Don’t follow it. An emerging writer expresses herself in a way you admire. Notice what she’s doing right. Now she is one of your mentors.

Think about your personal writing goals. What do you want to write about? Why are you here?

Do you write confessionally? Are you comfortable with that? Great! Go for it. Do you feel uncomfortable writing confessionally? Okay — don’t go that route.

Be bravely, unabashedly yourself. Don’t be afraid of the occasional adverb usage either.

Do you know one of the bravest times in my life? 1995/1996. I was in high school. I’d go to the Lovelight Café almost every Thursday night and march my shy self up to the microphone to recite my poetry for Open Mic night. I was seventeen and I was so damn brave.

You are brave. You sit at your laptop or iPad or computer or notebook and you write. You write what’s on your mind. Then, you craft and edit and submit your sweat and tears and joy to a publication or you self-publish. You put yourself out there into this big social media bubble. You don’t know what will happen next.

You know there are risks involved. The publication might reject your submission — note, they’re not rejecting you. You might get single-digit reads. Conversely, you may get more reads than you were expecting. You might get negative comments on your first viral article.

Your mother-in-law and husband may read that piece about you looking at his text messages and now there’s a family talk scheduled about your behavior and why you're writing personal stuff for the whole world to see. It’s worth it though. You are a writer and this is how it’s going to be.

Open yourself to risks — to success and failure. As writers, taking these risks and knowing both outcomes are inevitable is the best case scenario. It’s our continuing education. We learn from our failures and successes. We evaluate what’s not working and try again. We evaluate what is working and keep doing that. We are critical thinkers.

Do you know how much I made my first month on the platform? $0 in March 2020. I didn’t realize you could earn money on Medium. From April-August, I made under $100 — from single digit numbers to an array of double digit numbers. In September, I finally joined the Mount Everest of Medium — the $100 Club.

And, do you know what ran through my mind?

That’s great, but you’re no Kelly Eden, Sean Kernan, or Sinem Gunel. You aren’t making thousands of dollars a month. You have two English degrees. You sit at your computer and write almost all day every day and you’re not good enough to go viral. You don’t have over 2k, 5k, 10k, 20k followers. You, Aimée, need to be better — you’re not good enough. Not yet.

Wow. Shut that voice up. Revise the negativity in your head.

Dear Aimée, You are not Kelly Eden, Sean Kernan, or Sinem Gunel. You are you. It is time for you to unabashedly share your brand of brilliance. You are making money here and elsewhere with your writing — you have been paid to content write, ghostwrite, copywrite, and grant write. You wrote your first book this year.

Pause and pat yourself on the back. You wouldn’t take the risks to apply for these jobs and potentially fail until you were in your thirties. You are so brave. Good for you! You have as good a chance, or better, of viral articles because you publish 30–50 “stories” per month. Sometimes, in life, we have to wait.

Patience, friend. You have over 1k followers. You started with 0 followers. Recognize your progress and be proud. You, Aimée, are a badass. You are more than good enough. Continue being inspired and inspiring — keep writing.

I want to say the same to you. I don’t want to read another Kelly Eden, Sean Kernan, or Sinem Gunel. I want to read your unique voice. You are the only you in the whole wide world — in the universe. Only you have had your life experiences. Only you will build a sentence that particular way in that particular style within that particular paragraph.

Stop trying to write like the others. Hone your voice. Sharpen your editing skills to make your voice brighter.

Be bravely, unabashedly true to your unique voice. Your readers will find you and come back for more of that — your brand, you.

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