Don’t Be Too Cool to Blog
Writing Advice From Medium’s Creative Underclass
Regardless of what the business plan says, I’m one of the people that insists that Medium is a blogging platform. What is a blogging platform?A blogging platform is a place that contains, at a minimum:
- Bad poetry
- Fan Fiction
- Discussions of strange medical conditions
- Amateur food and movie reviews
- Overly anthropomorphized projections of the interior life of cats and dogs
- Sports opinions that nobody else shares
- Listicles
- An ongoing argument about the status of Kashmir
- Lots of uploaded images of people in their underwear
OK, the last one isn’t really a requirement. It’s a “nice to have.”
So, you can see, that although Medium is the BEST BLOGGING PLATFORM ON THE PLANET, it comes up short in a couple of key areas.
Once upon a time I complained about the lack of bad poetry on Medium, but that’s not a problem anymore is it?! I’m kidding! Come, on… you poets are so serious.
In addition to poetry, I’ve tried to get the fan fiction ball rolling, but it hasn’t really worked out too well. Medium remains a land almost entirely lacking in elf, balrog, and tribble references. I think it is poorer for it, but that’s just me.
I’ve tried to do some food blogging, to see where that would lead. There are real food bloggers on Medium, like Justin Cox 🍩 over at Chow Down, but Medium is somehow kind of food unfriendly. Remember the disaster that was De Gustibus? They have purged the Editor and Contributor list, but that publication used to boast some SERIOUS New York literary publishing names, and it went over like a lead balloon here on Medium.
What am I pining for? Well, I’m a believer in the idea that Medium can host a tapestry of small, overlapping, literary communities, and one of them is the old time bloggers. By the way, the idea that Medium can host overlapping communities is not my idea. I think I stole it from elizabeth tobey when she was a Medium employee. Everyone is worried about Medium stealing their ideas. I, ON THE OTHER HAND, STEAL MEDIUM’S IDEAS.
Male hippos fling their poop by spinning their tails to impress females and mark their territory. If female hippos are really impressed by this behavior, I believe it is another way we were cheated by evolution. If you are unfamiliar with the practice, I will indulge you:
So, my advice for the bloggers out there is, “Don’t be too cool to blog”. Not every post is a gem. They can’t always be winners. You don’t have to have a point. It’s OK to overshare. Medium can be an outward facing journal. Lighten up, let it fly, mark your territory.
I published this, didn’t I?