Having Curation Jail Anxiety? You’re Not Alone

Why are my articles not being curated, is this Curation Jail thing for real or am I just being paranoid?

Lately, I’ve been feeling down and I must confess, a little anxious. Even though I hate to admit this, my anxiety was as a result of videos I saw on youtube talking about Curation Jail.

The term Curation Jail is something I had never heard of before last month. I must say, now being familiar with the term and what it means for new writers like me on this platform, I’m terrified. It makes me doubt everything I believed about my writing.

I joined this platform in June and in my first month, I think I made something around $5. I remember being ecstatic when I got a mail about my earnings.

Before now, I have never heard of a platform where people write whatever they want and get paid. That is the most surprising thing I’ve heard in a long time. Being a part of such an amazing platform, gave me hope that I have never had in my entire life.

Writing has been a part of me ever since I learned how to read and write. Most people who know me, know me as a singer who writes but the truth is before I discovered my love for music, all I did was write.

As a child, I wrote short stories and poems every single day in primary school. This was because school seemed so boring to me and the only way I could escape from my boredom in school was to either draw or write.

Whenever I was in class, I’d write poems about everything. I wrote about the new puppy my mum got me one week. I wrote about how lonely I felt, as an only child without friends or any siblings to play with.

When I fell in love with music, I began to turn some of those poems into songs. That was how it all started, so if I’m being honest, I’m a writer who sings.

Writing On Facebook

I joined Facebook as a teenager around 2009. Then, I would write about a lot of things. Things that were personal to me, and I noticed that I’d often get judged for not sharing the same ideologies with either my aunt or my classmate or even a total stranger.

I often felt out of place but I had no alternatives so I was on the platform for many years. Then sometime about 3 years ago, I decided to quit writing on Facebook. Not because the platform was bad or anything like that, it just wasn’t my platform. I didn’t feel like I was writing to my kind of audience.

I needed a place where I could share my unpopular opinions as well as my little discoveries. I needed a place that felt like a community, where I could express myself as much as possible without being judged by people that knew me or thought they knew me.

Then in June, a special someone introduced me to this awesome platform. In my first month here, I took my time to go through some really cool articles. Articles like:

These articles amongst many others were some of the first articles I read when I became a member here. That was the moment I felt like I was home.

All my life, I hadn’t felt like I belonged anywhere. But finding this platform and getting to know most of the writers here, I’m certain this is my crowd.

My Curation Jail Anxiety

A while ago I saw some videos on Youtube of people who are also writers here talking about something called Curation Jail and I got scared.

I have been writing here since June. So far, I have written a total of about 30+articles and only one of those has been curated. When I first learned of Curation Jail, I wasn’t sure what it was. Actually I wasn’t even sure what Curation was.

I remember getting a message in my email that said my story was distributed to two topics. I wasn’t sure what that meant but soon I started to notice that more people on the platform got to read that article.

At this point, I understood that curation is in fact a good thing. But as for curation Jail, I don’t know how true that is but it makes total sense because I can’t imagine how overwhelming it would be for the curators. Getting that many articles daily? that’s some serious work. And they have a strict policy of quality articles only.

According to the writers on Youtube, when a writer publishes a number of articles and none of those articles get curated, those in charge of curating articles tend to toss the writer’s subsequent articles aside to get more time to review articles published by more promising writers.

I don't know why this scared me but I haven't been able to shake off the feeling that I may have been jailed by the curators as well. Asmost of my articles have failed to be curated.

I keep wondering, have I been jailed by curators, and if not, will I ever be jailed? I hope not.

I”m hoping to get some time to grow and improve my writing to better suit the guidelines of the platform but the thought of being tossed aside and not even given a chance to meet up? That breaks my heart.

After a long week of battling with the anxiety of never being curated again, I finally had an awakening.

I am grateful for this platform regardless. This is the best thing that has happened to me in a long while. And even though I make very little money — I’m hoping that changes soon. I know for sure that I ain't quitting.

Why would I? I get to write for an audience of people I resonate with. This is something I never had with other platforms. Also, getting paid for my thoughts? Are you kidding me? I’m in this for the long haul.

Appreciation

I want to say thank you to every single one of you who have read my articles and have shown me support. All those who Highlighted, clapped, and responded to my stories, thank you.

I’m honored to have met the likes of; Dr. Mehmet Yildiz of the Illumination Publication. He was the first publication owner to add me as a writer. He has given me tons of opportunities. Because of him, my stories have been able to reach many lovely people on this platform.

Also, writers like; Nchewi Edu Toni Koraza Zul Bal JustAnnet 👑 Chris Hedges Charlotte Zobeir Ali Erin King Terry Mansfield arun simon Eli Snow Timothy Key Zulie Rane John Gruber Dr. Michael Heng Cooking at Home Dr. John Rose

They’ve have all been supporting me from the very first day I started writing here — intentionally and unintentionally. I Thank you!

Conclusion

I know that there are awesome writers here whose articles got curated tons of times in their first months. I wish I was one of those but I’m not and that's okay. I promise to keep learning and improving in my writings, so I’d be able to contribute to this platform for as long as possible.

Now if you’re like me and you’re also having anxiety because of the reality of Curation Jail, you’re not alone but that’s no reason to get discouraged.

If you truly love to write, write here for the right reasons. Which are; for the love of it, and for the benefits. But most importantly, write because this is an amazing and thoughtful idea of a person who cares about writers.

Hopefully, the whole curation jail thing — if it’s real, changes soon because there can only be room for growth.

I wish you all the best in your writing journey.