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Abstract

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    </div><p id="3855">My third Legal Horror Story for ITTL. I had it ready for the end of the October, but I wanted to wait until both JoAnne and Dan had a look, then a second look at it. They are excellent editors and particularly there they have helped my writing immensely. JoAnne often takes a look at my other work too, and has helped fix a few pieces with her suggestions and questions. Anyway, to the matter of how well it did — according to Medium, it was read for five and a half hours, which is pretty satisfying considering it is considered a 7 minute long piece. In lamentably vulgar terms, it was my most financially successful to date, earning $7.80</p><p id="d75f"><b>Most Popular Piece OFF Medium</b></p><div id="4f88" class="link-block">
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            <h2>The French Dispatch: A work of Art or Not?</h2>
            <div><h3>Is Wes Anderson’s latest film an masterpiece or a triumph of design and craft alone?</h3></div>
            <div><p>medium.com</p></div>
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    </div><p id="7543">Written the morning after watching the film, this surprised me a great deal — at the time of writing it is at 1.2k views, and close to 300 reads, my most successful article on here by about double the next best. A closer look at the figures suggests that maybe 60 folks have seen it on Medium, the rest from other sources. I see that this has been the case for a few folks, but I will take the fame or notoriety I get off Medium just as happily.</p><p id="ce60"><b>New Followers </b>— 95

I am particularly proud of this (though I am sure that it is a paltry number to some of you). Most of these are people I have never met before. Some are folks who I have followed, some who I have read and commented on, some are people who I think found my work through mutual acquaintances, some are presumably bot types, and some are people who seem to have just read something and liked it.</p><p id="ba1b"><b>Did I pay off my membership fees for the month?</b> I did! For the first time in 18 months too! I managed to get almost enough from the month to pay back four months in total. Previously, I had paid off a grand total of one month and a bit (and it was a small bit, like a weekend or something). That leaves me needing to cover 13 (including December 21), but I am far more optimistic than previously about the prospect.</p><h1 id="7a74">Not Particularly Scientific Stats</h1><p id="5c2d"><b>My Favorite Piece </b>I’m indecisive so I declare it a tie.</p><div id="ffab" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-man-on-the-moped-e3e064a067df"> <div> <div> <h2>The Man On The Moped</h2> <div><h3>A verbal photograph of a man in my town</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*p9DNEiFBYITGR6Ay)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="4573">Technically it was written in October, it was published this month. I really enjoyed working on this piece, and while I try to just write what I feel like, I was a little more anxious about this going out into the world. I love this kind of writing for the value of writing piece, not a story per se, not a report as such, but a glimpse at who we are through a verbal photograph. I need to do more of these.</p><div id="d83c" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/on-a-cold-night-you-can-go-whenever-2b7acc64d07c"> <div> <div> <h2>On a cold night, you can go whenever.</h2> <div><h3>A short jump first, maybe 5 years? Enter the date, then go.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="8a56">I was super pleased with how this came out. I thought it was a good short fun story, gives you a finished story while allowing you space to imagine the story around it. It was only my third at this lark, so I have probably peaked way too early with micro science fictions. What of it, I am enjoying them. Now, if anyone k

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nows someone who wants the film rights to this…</p><p id="a565"><b>Favorite New Person To Follow</b> Well, I would be in trouble — and lying — if I said anyone other than <a href="undefined">Ann James</a>, so I am happy to say her — she has been supportive, as well as puncturing any egomania, as well as being nimble with thought and word, and is probably the official “Best Follower on Medium”. But I have met a lot and got a lot from many people this month, <a href="undefined">Pablo Pereyra</a>, <a href="undefined">Alan Asnen</a>, <a href="undefined">Susan Wheelock</a>, <a href="undefined">Giedre P.</a>, <a href="undefined">KP_the_writer</a>, & <a href="undefined">Mousie Browne</a> are just the tip of the iceberg for me — taking the time to read and respond to them, and to develop these relationships has been very rewarding for me.</p><p id="e261"><b>Biggest Surprise</b> That something of mine published outside a Publication could do so well was certainly a shock, but the piece on The French Dispatch really has been an eye-opener. Obviously, I would like to at least make my money back, preferably make enough to live a little more extravagantly (you know, brand name flour, the real luxuries), but my main goal has always been to have a platform from which I can communicate what I think important and how I see the world — it appears that Medium can reach beyond the surly limits of membership. A second surprise was how frequently traffic grows at the weekend, and the bump in readers on Thanksgiving was also unexpected, but I am very new to this, so I am sure many of you are nodding at my naivety.</p><p id="9a46"><b>Something I Learned:</b> The main thing I discovered this past month was that there is a great community on here, prepared to help and with good advice to give. I think what I would say to anyone who is trying to develop their writing is to engage with the others members here and you will get feedback, advice, and friendship. It will help you discover yourself as a writer, and as a thinker too. I had no notion of doing 150 word short science fiction stories until one post suggested if as a good way to find new followers and to flex the mind with little time (cannot remember who from, but it feels like a <a href="undefined">Cheryll MV</a> thing). Here I am now, with about 25 micro fictions, some of which can probably be expanded, and perhaps 50% which have at least one interesting idea.</p><p id="6590"><b>Something I Tried: </b>I am just starting it this week, but seeing others doing the whole pinning thing with their most popular pieces, I am trying a weekly rotation of pieces I have written and that probably deserve more love. This week’s piece is one I have long felt is much better than the number of views it has received, and they have been coming in since pinning it. Something else will be there next Sunday.</p><div id="415d" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/directions-to-the-local-store-for-a-visitor-to-a-dry-county-9491a525ffd9"> <div> <div> <h2>Directions to the Local Store for a Visitor to a Dry County</h2> <div><h3>Just the essentials</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*69wOgKV83kRH1GMZ7DrESw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><h1 id="01e4">Next Month</h1><p id="ec5e"><b>Goals</b> I think that there is still audience out there for what I do, so I am going to aim for anther 45 followers, which would put me over the 200 mark. I am going to try to publish 31 pieces minimum, though it will be harder next month with the boy home from school more, and with us travelling for the holidays. I will be interested to see what impact the holidays have on the reading public. I also want to do more to get the Many Mini Manfestos publication more active. Finally, I see the clever and wise people on here indexing there catalogues, and I think I need to do the same, so those who like the micro Sci-Fis can find the others, those who want legal horror know where they should go, and so forth until there is a place to go to figure out what is which.</p><p id="1314"><b>Things To Try </b>I want to keep going with the micro Sci-Fi stories, but I am going to try to write at least one perverse (not perverted) Fairy Tale — I have an idea for a production of Peer Gynt that features each act as a self contained fairy-tale, and I need to brush up on my writing and understanding of the genre if I am going to do that.</p><p id="0cf9">So that is November wrapped — hopefully some of the better pieces will continue to attract interest and people like them. How did your November pan out, here on Medium, or elsewhere?</p></article></body>

Monthly Update

How Did November Go?

Some of the positives from the last month

This is the loosely the right trajectory, yes? Apologies to Dec 1 being included because I didn’t think to screenshot this before midnight.

Hi Folks,

I thought, seeing as I have a few dedicated followers out there, that it might be worthwhile putting out an update — a more conversational approach with a bit more detail on how this writing thing is going here. Seeing as I am a big fan of the idea of comparing wages in the IRL world, and of comparing approaches to work in the theatre world, I don’t see any great value in keeping secrets. Compare, contrast, and so forth with your own goings on. Feel free to ask questions — my medium career is an open book, in hopes it might help someone else.

I suppose I should start by locating myself before this month past. I have been on Medium since April 2020. I wanted to find a platform where I could write and get an audience. I had seen a few theatre posts referring to Medium, and thought I would chance it here. I published something on theatre and academia, and ended up on a local arts radio station discussing it, and then started writing odds and ends of different things. Shortly afterwards, my friend Dan Canon, and my wife JoAnne Sweeny started up I Taught The Law (ITTL) as a forum to explore legal stories in a more human style of langauge (you should check it out, it’s very good), and I signed on there as a promoter of their work elsewhere, and a very occasional writer.

In the space of a month I managed to publish 7 pieces, some in publications, others not. In the next two I put out 3, and then for various reasons (largely a mini depression brought on by Covid and a hot summer) I kind of stopped. For over a year. I was still reading, still a member, and still helping out at ITTL, but I didn’t really do anything. I had 17 followers and a need to get out of my head.

Somehow, I went over a year without writing, commenting, anything, and still managed to pick up another 9 before last month, whenDan put out a call for #LegalHorrorStories for ITTL for the month. Knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to rise to the levels they manage for fact, I thought that for a change I might enter some fictional ones, so that there would be some contrast with the more factual ones (many of which are to be found in Dan’s book “Pleading Out” by the way — I never said that this would feature product placement!). So I came up first with Pending Appeal, and then In the dark, his nightmares wait for him, tales that are set in a real world experience that have commonality with the horror story. I wrote a little bit more and started seeing some impact. By the end of the month, I had already picked up 46 more followers, and had a few people who really seemed to be interested in what I had to write. I decided I should probably take things more seriously, try to get to the magic hundred, and actually figure out what I should be doing.

This month, so, has been (to my mind) a success. And here is my thoughts, and commentary on what has happened over the month.

Objective Statistics

Number of pieces published — 29 Very pleased with this, I am! I didn’t set out to try to publish an article a day, but it almost worked out like that. Writing 150 word short stories helped that a lot — I think about 20 of them are micro Sci-fis. Even allowing for this, I managed to write a lot more than I had aimed for, and next time will try to push on to write a piece per day.

Most Popular Piece On Medium

The Monster Walks Among Us

All his life, his father had promised him that there was nothing to worry about. No ghosts or goblins, no boogie man in…

medium.com

My third Legal Horror Story for ITTL. I had it ready for the end of the October, but I wanted to wait until both JoAnne and Dan had a look, then a second look at it. They are excellent editors and particularly there they have helped my writing immensely. JoAnne often takes a look at my other work too, and has helped fix a few pieces with her suggestions and questions. Anyway, to the matter of how well it did — according to Medium, it was read for five and a half hours, which is pretty satisfying considering it is considered a 7 minute long piece. In lamentably vulgar terms, it was my most financially successful to date, earning $7.80

Most Popular Piece OFF Medium

The French Dispatch: A work of Art or Not?

Is Wes Anderson’s latest film an masterpiece or a triumph of design and craft alone?

medium.com

Written the morning after watching the film, this surprised me a great deal — at the time of writing it is at 1.2k views, and close to 300 reads, my most successful article on here by about double the next best. A closer look at the figures suggests that maybe 60 folks have seen it on Medium, the rest from other sources. I see that this has been the case for a few folks, but I will take the fame or notoriety I get off Medium just as happily.

New Followers — 95 I am particularly proud of this (though I am sure that it is a paltry number to some of you). Most of these are people I have never met before. Some are folks who I have followed, some who I have read and commented on, some are people who I think found my work through mutual acquaintances, some are presumably bot types, and some are people who seem to have just read something and liked it.

Did I pay off my membership fees for the month? I did! For the first time in 18 months too! I managed to get almost enough from the month to pay back four months in total. Previously, I had paid off a grand total of one month and a bit (and it was a small bit, like a weekend or something). That leaves me needing to cover 13 (including December 21), but I am far more optimistic than previously about the prospect.

Not Particularly Scientific Stats

My Favorite Piece I’m indecisive so I declare it a tie.

The Man On The Moped

A verbal photograph of a man in my town

medium.com

Technically it was written in October, it was published this month. I really enjoyed working on this piece, and while I try to just write what I feel like, I was a little more anxious about this going out into the world. I love this kind of writing for the value of writing piece, not a story per se, not a report as such, but a glimpse at who we are through a verbal photograph. I need to do more of these.

On a cold night, you can go whenever.

A short jump first, maybe 5 years? Enter the date, then go.

medium.com

I was super pleased with how this came out. I thought it was a good short fun story, gives you a finished story while allowing you space to imagine the story around it. It was only my third at this lark, so I have probably peaked way too early with micro science fictions. What of it, I am enjoying them. Now, if anyone knows someone who wants the film rights to this…

Favorite New Person To Follow Well, I would be in trouble — and lying — if I said anyone other than Ann James, so I am happy to say her — she has been supportive, as well as puncturing any egomania, as well as being nimble with thought and word, and is probably the official “Best Follower on Medium”. But I have met a lot and got a lot from many people this month, Pablo Pereyra, Alan Asnen, Susan Wheelock, Giedre P., KP_the_writer, & Mousie Browne are just the tip of the iceberg for me — taking the time to read and respond to them, and to develop these relationships has been very rewarding for me.

Biggest Surprise That something of mine published outside a Publication could do so well was certainly a shock, but the piece on The French Dispatch really has been an eye-opener. Obviously, I would like to at least make my money back, preferably make enough to live a little more extravagantly (you know, brand name flour, the real luxuries), but my main goal has always been to have a platform from which I can communicate what I think important and how I see the world — it appears that Medium can reach beyond the surly limits of membership. A second surprise was how frequently traffic grows at the weekend, and the bump in readers on Thanksgiving was also unexpected, but I am very new to this, so I am sure many of you are nodding at my naivety.

Something I Learned: The main thing I discovered this past month was that there is a great community on here, prepared to help and with good advice to give. I think what I would say to anyone who is trying to develop their writing is to engage with the others members here and you will get feedback, advice, and friendship. It will help you discover yourself as a writer, and as a thinker too. I had no notion of doing 150 word short science fiction stories until one post suggested if as a good way to find new followers and to flex the mind with little time (cannot remember who from, but it feels like a Cheryll MV thing). Here I am now, with about 25 micro fictions, some of which can probably be expanded, and perhaps 50% which have at least one interesting idea.

Something I Tried: I am just starting it this week, but seeing others doing the whole pinning thing with their most popular pieces, I am trying a weekly rotation of pieces I have written and that probably deserve more love. This week’s piece is one I have long felt is much better than the number of views it has received, and they have been coming in since pinning it. Something else will be there next Sunday.

Directions to the Local Store for a Visitor to a Dry County

Just the essentials

medium.com

Next Month

Goals I think that there is still audience out there for what I do, so I am going to aim for anther 45 followers, which would put me over the 200 mark. I am going to try to publish 31 pieces minimum, though it will be harder next month with the boy home from school more, and with us travelling for the holidays. I will be interested to see what impact the holidays have on the reading public. I also want to do more to get the Many Mini Manfestos publication more active. Finally, I see the clever and wise people on here indexing there catalogues, and I think I need to do the same, so those who like the micro Sci-Fis can find the others, those who want legal horror know where they should go, and so forth until there is a place to go to figure out what is which.

Things To Try I want to keep going with the micro Sci-Fi stories, but I am going to try to write at least one perverse (not perverted) Fairy Tale — I have an idea for a production of Peer Gynt that features each act as a self contained fairy-tale, and I need to brush up on my writing and understanding of the genre if I am going to do that.

So that is November wrapped — hopefully some of the better pieces will continue to attract interest and people like them. How did your November pan out, here on Medium, or elsewhere?