Five Fears Every Writer Dreads on Medium

Sharing my thoughts about the Medium journey

I am not long into writing on this platform, but I have my fair share of these fears. Hopefully, these will not prevent you from enjoying your task of writing. You were here because you like to write and share, right?

First fear — writer’s block

Every writer is frightened of writer’s block. You start to write a few articles, and then you do not know what to write anymore. Writer’s block is like a blockage of thoughts, inspiration, or words.

It hits you like an unexpected storm. In one week, you enjoyed your writing. Then your mind went blank the next week or days. Everything seems dull and uninteresting to share, and you do not know how to proceed.

Second fear — no readers

You spent hours researching and composing a great article. You put it through Grammarly and corrected all the mistakes. You even checked the dictionaries to see if certain words were correct.

You were satisfied and felt that it is a worthwhile topic to write about, and probably a few readers will give you claps and comments.

Finally, you pressed the button to publish your article. Then you repeatedly open your computer browser to check, again and again — simply no readers.

You checked on the next week and the following week. No minutes were clocked. You were disappointed and devastated.

Third fear — no new followers

You wrote a few articles and waited a week or two. There are no additional followers, and you felt exasperated to quit the game of writing.

You wrote another article and waited for a week or two — only one additional follower. You wondered how the rest of the writers get their following. Is this the end of your writing attempt?

Fourth fear — too little money made

You made it into the Medium Partners Program after achieving 100 followers. You wrote a few times a week. You read about others’ achievements of at least $100 and above, but for you, you are just getting dollars and cents.

How pathetic could that be? Hong long more before you can boast about some decent earnings from Medium.

Months pass, and you get discouraged because you still earn dollars and cents.

Why would anyone be interested in such a platform? You asked.

Fifth fear — Publications

You joined several Publications and were elated that you could submit your drafts to them.

One returned to tell you that only two hyperlinks are allowed in your article.

Another thanked you but reminded you they only accept articles with at least 400 words.

Then another told you that theirs cannot exceed 150 words.

Another publication told you must do a shout-out for at least two of their published articles.

Another said you need to write a summary at the end of your article.

Then you finally get very criteria fulfilled and submit to a particular publication. You waited for half a day, one day, one and a half days, two days, and on the morning of the third day, you received a comment from their editors.

They told you that they needed you to personalise your writing. Please don’t give them a summary of your points. Instead, you must add some examples of how you have applied them.

Finally, finally

I have no quick answers to all these fears, but since we are all in it for the long haul, we can write, tease, and joke about it. Maybe that will make us feel better.

I think I will comfort myself with an idiom I learnt from primary school:

“If there is a will, there’s a way”.

See you in my next post.

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