avatarJustiss Goode | F😄M

Summary

Justiss Goode proposes a Medium Writers Talent (MWT) Challenge to boost morale and showcase diverse talents through video submissions, with the community judging the winners based on story engagement and earnings.

Abstract

Justiss Goode, a Medium writer, has conceived the Medium Writers Talent (MWT) Challenge as a creative and engaging way to uplift the spirits of the Medium community. This challenge invites writers of any gender to submit a story featuring a 60-second video that displays their talent in singing, dancing, or another skill, with a portion allowed for self-introduction or story promotion. The winners, determined by the highest earnings from member reads on their entries, will receive additional reading income from participating members. The initiative aims to foster a fun, inclusive, and competitive environment that encourages writers to express themselves beyond writing, potentially leading to increased earnings and a more tightly-knit community.

Opinions

  • Justiss Goode believes the MWT Challenge will be a fun and profitable activity for Medium writers, providing a morale boost and a break from the routine.
  • The author expresses a genuine connection with fellow Medium writers like Sherry McGuinn, whose expressive and humorous writing style resonates with them.
  • Goode suggests that the challenge will be inclusive and cater to a wide range of talents, ensuring that everyone can participate and enjoy.
  • The challenge is seen as a way to combat the recent grumblings within the Medium community by introducing a lighthearted and engaging activity.
  • Goode is open to feedback and suggestions from the community to refine the challenge, showing a collaborative approach to the initiative.
  • There is a concern about potential cheating, but Goode trusts the community's integrity and suggests Medium could verify earnings if necessary.
  • The author emphasizes the importance of constructive feedback and discourages negative, non-constructive comments to maintain a positive environment.

Hey All You Burned Out Writers: Here’s a Fun and Profitable Idea Before You LEAVE Medium!

Is anyone out there up for a good old fashion video talent show?

Photo by Brandi Alexandra on Unsplash

I don’t have to explain to my regular readers that I”m a fanatic for coming up with new ideas and ways to stay motivated and interested in what I’m doing.

Well, this is what happened to me today:

I was actually fooling around in my bedroom, looking at myself dancing in the mirror, and thinking:

“Damn girl, you’re an old-ass broad, but you still got it!”

I was considering trying to round up all my wayward kinfolk, by sending them a video of me dancing and challenging them to “get like me” (well that’s what us old timers used to call it), more fondly known by this generation as a Tik Tok challenge — I think.

Anyway, for some crazy reason — I kid you not — I started thinking about Medium writer Sherry McGuinn — a writer I’m fond of and talk about often.

It’s so weird how we bonded online when I first came to Medium. She’s so expressive and humorous in her writing, her true personality comes across straight off the bat — something I love about people.

I’m the exact same way — genuine — for better or for worse, so you either end up loving me or hating me, but rarely a middle ground.

As I continued enjoying my own moves in the mirror, I remembered the wedding story Sherry wrote several months ago. We commented back and forth about it, and kidded about how the two of us would have turned the wedding out.

I found myself wondering if Sherry would be up for each of us doing a short video dance clip. We could show them off on Medium and let everyone see what cool old biddies we both are.

I figured Sherry would be down, especially since we’ve already seen her boobs last year (Sorry folks — no link for that one. You just have to locate it for yourself).

It wasn’t long before I was thinking about some of my other favorite female divas on Medium that I enjoy reading, like Abena Talks, Susan Wheelock, Carmellita, and Love'Nia Renee.

Well, Pretty soon, in my mind, I’d strung together a fun series of short stories. They all contained a brief video from each of us, proudly showing our stuff — No not that stuff! We’re not all exhibitionists like Sherry (just kiddin’ girl).

I alternated between watching the show in my head and the show in the mirror. Suddenly I said to myself: “Self. You know if you limit the videos to only the females, the guys will probably turn into big cry babies, and say we’re sexists.

I could just hear Michael Burg, MD (AKA Medium Michael Burg) ripping me to pieces with a kooky limerick, just because we left the guys out of the fun.

Now mind you, at first I was just daydreaming, and not really serious about the whole thing. But before I knew it, a great plan begun to come together.

Here’s the results of that plan, and my newest brain storm!

My idea for a Medium Writers Talent Challenge

After everyone reads this story, hopefully I’ll have a better idea about if and how to proceed with this challenge. I’ll talk more about it, going forward, so get used to seeing the TAG: MWT Challenge.

  • Medium members of any gender may enter by publishing a story on the established due date (Date to be determined once your suggestions about the challenge have been considered).
  • Participants’ stories will all be the same word length (to be determined) and should tell readers something about the video, to make them want to view it. Remember, this is a TALENT challenge, not a writing one.
  • Participants’ stories should include a 60 second video in ONE of the categories: 1) singing, 2) dancing or 3) other talent (Behavior must fall within the scope of Medium conduct policies) — 15 seconds of video (max) is allowed to introduce self or promote one story.
  • ALL Participants agree in advance to read all 9 winning entries AFTER the winner has been announced (This is what the winners WIN).
  • Talent Challenge Winners (3 winners from each category — total 9) will be determined based on the story entries that *EARNS the most from Medium members reading them.
  • For their Winner’s Award, all nine winners will receive additional reading income from members who participated in the challenge.

Here’s how:

  • At the end of the challenge period, ALL participants will submit a draft “Acceptance” story (containing the video), citing the amount, and displaying a screenshot of their Talent story earnings. These stories are not to be published yet.
  • I’ll look them all over and determine the winners, then I’ll publish the names, and the titles of the pending “Acceptance” stories, at which time, the winners can publish their Acceptance stories as soon as they want.
  • ALL participants have agreed “on the honor system”, to visit the winner’s Acceptance stories, and read/view them, thus earning them more Medium income for their stories.

That’s it! That means that even the guys, and the young folks can get in on the fun, like my little friend Crown Princess Letta, who I referred to this platform in 2021. Lately, she’s been missing in action a bit but maybe this will bring her back around. She has a beeeeeutiful voice!

The more I think about the idea, the more I love it. If it happens, I’d love to see what kind of creativity David Perlmutter would bring to the table. I can picture him donning a superhero outfit and doing something related to animation — maybe even MARVEL related. How cool would that be!

By the way you guys. I realize this whole process means you have to deal with me quite a bit in the future.

That’s excellent for me and my earnings, but pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Just stay focused dammit! Read and see why I’m really doing this…

We need a serious morale booster around this camp!

It’s no secret that there’s been an awful lot of grumbling around here lately. As far as I’m concerned, most of us could really use a morale booster around this camp!

I can’t tell you how downhearted I felt for Jo Ann Harris when I read her story, asking her 13,000 followers to please step up!

Here I am, bitching about barely making it over the $100 thresh hold every month, with 2.3k followers, and this writer is not even doing that.

As far as I’m concerned, with her 600 stories and so many followers, she has every right to be a bit peeved.

In fact, don’t get me started…

So, as I was saying, some of us need something to help us remember what we once loved so much about this platform.

For me, it’s mainly the people, but when things turn sour, we all tend to dry up a little. That’s why I think a challenge like this could work.

Here are some good reasons why:

  • It’s a little competitive, but not really serious, so it should be fun to participate.
  • The diversity of talent categories should make it so the challenge is inclusive (everyone has a talent of some kind).
  • The videos should be enjoyable to watch, as well as participate in.
  • The stakes aren’t really high enough to cheat, or to get stressed and bent out of shape mentally about winning.
  • The performances will certainly give all of us something to write about for the rest of the year.
  • Everyone involved will end up earning more money from Medium, from all their related stories.

*With regard to people being able to manipulate their stats, I honestly don’t think this challenge would merit that kind of cheating, but maybe if there’s a conflict, the winners could agree to have Medium confirm their numbers.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, this challenge is actually judged by the readers and writers on the platform, and the winners get an opportunity to have their earning increased, when all the participants honor their agreement to read all the stories.

I could be wrong, but even if they wanted to, I think it might be difficult for someone to cheat the system. Winners are paid in actual reading time from interested participants like them; those who agree to the terms.

With all the good reasons I mentioned above, for us to give this kind of challenge a try, I didn’t cite the one that appeals to me the most.

  • We’ll all get a chance to see our favorite writers on camera and in their natural habitats. We can find out if they’re really the way we imagine them to be. The 60 second time frame will even allow them a 15 second introduction, so we can all meet one another and say hi.

Trust me, that ought to be a real gas!

While it may appear that I have the whole thing worked out, I actually just plugged in details as I was typing — once I finally pulled myself away from the mirror.

I don’t know if everyone, or even ANYONE will like the idea, but I’d love to hear what you guys think. Just leave me a comment and if you have any, a suggestion or two about what might work better.

Since I don’t normally read my responses, I’m a little timid to start up again but I guess I’ll have to, in order to see what you all think of this idea. So I’ll take the remainder of the month of February, to see what kind of feedback I get.

WARNING: If you have something negative to say, that’s not constructive, and appears suspect, please hold your tongue or your comment will be removed and blocked.

While I have no problem with an opposing opinion about whether or not it’s a good idea, any strong adverse views that merit a rant should go into a story of your own.

By the way, feel free to write a story regarding the Medium Writer’s Talent challenge if you have something worth mentioning, in response to this story.

I’ll be using the Tag:

MWT Challenge whenever I write an update about it, and so can you.

Thanks for reading

TUESDAY: March 1, 2022

MWT Challenge — Final Status Update

The race is afoot! Yep, it’s true. The Challenge will actually take place and you can Read all about it HERE.

Not a Medium Member yet? Join now with my referral link: https://justissgoode.medium.com/membership

I’ll earn a few bucks when you do, plus I can HELP YOU START EARNING MONEY TOO! 😄

This Happened To Me
Writers On Medium
Talent
Mwt Challenge
Burned Out
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