Non-Fiction | Writing | Passages Through Writing
How Much Oversharing is Okay?
Article writing on Medium is a not a journaling exercise.
What’s the difference between a good, insightful article and an emotional trash bomb?
I rediscovered an article today I wrote several months ago. It was written last March, published on my profile, and then I almost immediately unlisted it. Today, I thought it would be great fodder for new content. I reviewed and edited the thing, planning to republish it after a good scrubbing. The task proved too daunting. Instead, I decided to come here and write this story instead.
Why I can’t publish it.
The article in question is a little too dark, delving deep into the reasons why I struggle with faith, religion, and the unknowable. When I reread the article, I can see where I obviously am trying to craft a more objective approach, but on the whole it’s a mess.
A thousand words on the nature of belief and why I’m not religious anymore. Yeah, my Medium audience will really eat that up. Ultimately, I decided it’s unpublishable. In the article, I go on and on in circles about how I can’t know — and nobody can know for sure — what happens after death, and how that’s both a reason to be religious and a good reason to not be religious. It’s mind-boggling to follow, and it’s much too personal. It’s like cracking open my mind and reading the unedited version of my thought stream. Maybe some would enjoy it, but on the whole, it’s worthless.
And that’s the point I’m making here: Medium articles are all about adding value to readers, and the thoughts as I laid them out in the article offer none. My rhetoric is indulgent self-talk. Maybe it’s good for me to get it out, but it’s not good for others to read.
Why I Wrote It.
I suppose writing on Medium is sometimes a substitute for therapy for me, a terrible habit. Writing has often been my way of working things out internally, as I’m sure is the case for many of my readers. Any time I have an intense emotion, I work it out on paper. Dragging my strong feelings out and exposing them to the light of day takes away their power and is a far healthier way for me to handle those feelings than by any other method (however, if anyone ever reasons my private journals one day, I’ll be in trouble).
The article in question was written in this vein — a therapeutic airing of my emotional garbage. As a result, the article is very personal. Why would I want to subject myself to such public exposure of my feelings and thoughts on Medium, like it was my bedside diary? I don’t know, y’all. Maybe I want some commentary. Maybe I want someone to tell me the correct way of thinking or doing something. I was raised to believe an authority knew better than me in all things, and I’ve struggled much of my adult life to be brave enough to think for myself and not refer back to someone else’s ideas about how life should be lived. However, it’s not possible for me to live by the old rules anymore, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t. I’m still trying to find my own path here.
So What Now?
I believe ultimately it is a valuable thing for a writer to be deeply in touch with and want to express difficult emotion. However, it should be done elegantly, not spilled all over the page like tea from your own mug… no one will enjoy reading that. As a fiction writer, I feel better when I write a story around my fears and anxieties. Maybe I’ll save the material from the aforementioned article for a really great psychological horror story. I’m sure I could make that work. In the meantime, I’ll be more thoughtful with my personal stories here on Medium.
Do you ever get carried away while writing a Medium post, divulging far more about yourself than you intended? Do you want your readers to know all about your deep-seated fears and dark thoughts? Tell me in the comments how you handle your emotions while writing!
Passages in Writing is a new Medium publication created and edited by Meghan E. Gattignolo, along with Fascinate Me Fiction. For more from Meghan, follow her on Medium. Meghan also writes for The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, and you can find her on Twitter and Instagram as Meggiebeth_Writes.