Finally, Medium Heard Us Who Can’t Churn Out Content Daily

Because some of us also have a life.

Medium announced its new partner program incentives, and while I don’t know yet about the implications of all the new changes, I am very happy about one thing — no more “publish every day” advice.

If you haven’t read the full story about the new changes yet, you can read it here.

In that article, Buster Benson writes:

We’ve also heard from many authors that they don’t like how the Internet incentivizes quantity over quality. They are tired of the creator treadmill. The changes to our incentives below are big, and we hope that they give authors an alternative to the opportunities they get on the rest of the Internet. Tell your story rather than churn out content. Take the time to go deeper, research longer, edit more. We will always be shifting our payment and distribution incentives for this type of writing.

This makes me look forward to taking the pen again.

Mental health challenges and writing

As a person who suffers from chronic depression, stress, and other mental health challenges, writing and publishing every day is a real bad advice. It’s a sure-shot way to get burned out.

I started writing to let out the steam, to conjure my anxious thoughts, to share my challenges and vulnerabilities, to reach out to people who suffer through similar challenges, and perhaps to be a part of a community so that I don’t feel so lonely.

However, reaching the audience has been harder for me because I couldn’t take the pressure of publishing daily.

From the very beginning, I have been reading stories and advice about why you should publish daily (or at least very frequently) because the Medium algorithm promotes that kind of writing. If you don’t publish daily or regularly, you fall behind.

I saw some writers publish even many times a day. Honestly, I wondered how people get that kind of bandwidth, time, or energy to create a high-quality article.

My initial articles were mostly longer, research-backed articles that took me a long time to write. There was no way I could publish more than once a week.

But I realized that to be on the game, I need to ‘produce’ more. So I started publishing more often and left my half-written well-researched articles in my drafts folder, because, hey that takes time.

You know what, I got burned out quickly and stopped writing at all.

Writing was supposed to be my healing process, but it became a source of stress because I was trying to publish something quickly, something that’s easy to write, and something that has mass appeal. Guess what, I didn’t write what I came to write here for.

Last year, I just couldn’t manage anymore and stopped writing. For a long time, I didn’t muster the courage to write again.

I have now over 300 articles in my drafts folder that never saw the light of day. And most of these articles are about my challenges as a neurodiverse person, about my life, about my vulnerabilities, about my lonely journey where I am constantly trying to mask and fit in.

Complexities of life and the joy of writing

I am sure there are many of us who don’t write here for “just” money. This may sound fake, but this is the truth. Not all of us here are professional writers. Some of us have a day job, a family, perhaps a child (or a few children).

Some of us have other responsibilities like taking care of older and sick parents or spouses.

And then some of us have health problems like I have — multiple chronic disorders or disabilities. Some of us even have some invisible illnesses that are not so easy to see or understand.

For me, writing was supposed to be my recluse.

However, churning out content every day to be on the game took away the joy of writing. It no longer remains my passion or recluse. It’s one more thing to worry about. It’s one more thing to compete for as if I don’t have enough on my plate already.

It’s supposed to be a community

When I got burned out from writing, I stopped writing at all because I no longer enjoyed it.

I accepted my defeat that I will never be heard, I will never belong. And because I didn’t write regularly, my articles never did well with the Medium algorithm.

When I wrote that story about my daughter losing her hearing, my father’s passing, or my best friend passing away, I so wanted to connect with other people who have perhaps gone through the same hardships, and who would perhaps get me. But hardly anyone read or engaged. I felt demotivated and lonely.

I know it happens with other writers too.

It’s so difficult to find like-minded writers and stories that are more humane. I would rather read stories by real people about their real lives, their pains, and triumphs than “5 productivity rules” by someone who has just googled it because they think it’s a hot topic.

Instead of having to compete with the creator treadmill, I would rather have a community where we all can be there and uplift each other, where I don’t have to mask, and where I can feel like I belong.

Is that too much to ask? What do you think?

Thank you for reading my story.

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