Algorithms

Gaming Those ‘Al-Gore-Rhythms’ on Medium

I really want to know how you feel about this

I’d like to do something here that might not be accepted, and I’d like to know what you think about it. Fair warning: I’ll probably do it even if everyone advises me against it, because I’ve gotta be me, no matter what the “Al-Gore-Rhythms”* demand.

I started writing on Medium a couple of years ago and gave it up when it seemed like I wasn’t gaining any traction. The threat to drop me from the members marketing program if I couldn’t get at least 100 followers nudged me into trying it again, this time with a paid membership so I could really dig in and interact with the community.

I decided I’d post at least six times a week for three months and see how far that would get me. By that time, I thought, I’d be able to see whether it’s possible for me to make even a modest amount of money on this platform.

Getting rich has never been my goal, but writing is what I do and I need to earn some money one way or another. I currently write genre novels under pen names and do a fair amount of freelance copywriting, SEO and editing/proofing. None of these things is enough to make a living.

My most-read article on Medium so far has been Hedge Funds Are Destroying Democracy One Newsroom At A Time. It’s had 2.3K views — far more than anything else I’ve written here. I have a lot to say about the media, but that’s not all I want to talk about. Not by a longshot.

My interests and writing are all over the place. The war in Ukraine. Covid. The decline of newspapers. Gatekeeping. Politics. Relationships. The zeitgeist. Writing. Reading. Climate change. Growing old. Parenting and grandparenting. Fiction. That means I have no real brand. Can a writer really do without a brand?

I wrote thousands of opinion pieces during my 30 years working at newspapers. I wrote a lot about local politics, but I also enjoyed penning slice of life pieces. When one of my kids bought her first prom dress or a suit for his graduation, I’d write about it. When my daughter got married, that was a column. When I got married, that was a column. Even then, I knew I should stick to one brand — local news or national news or slice of life — but still, I’d find myself fascinated about one thing or another and would go off topic again.

Modern algorithms disapprove. A writer is supposed to be one thing, and one thing only. So are readers. We are supposed to be predictable, so we can be served the same reliable meal every day. You like sushi? By God, that is what you’re getting from now on! Wait, now you want lasagna? That’s going to throw things off. Now you’re ordering a salad? This is out of hand! Be more predictable! What are you, anyway? A complicated human being? We can’t have that!

I am here to say please, can we all be more unpredictable? Can we be humans? Can we stop being brands?

Here are a handful of things I want to write about:

• I worked in newspapers before they died. I have so, so much to say about the media.
• I’m married to a citizen of the Netherlands. I see how Europeans live and know the theory of American exceptionalism is batshit crazy. I want to give you examples.
• I’ve adopted several shelter dogs. I want to talk about that.
• My husband and I remodeled our kitchen recently and by using mostly scrap materials, it cost us only about a grand. It’s unique and awesome. Have you ever wanted to buy a fixer-upper Victorian? Did you ever watch This Old House on PBS and think, “That doesn’t look too hard”? I have both warnings and encouragement to offer.
• As a young mother, I spent several years working with pregnant and nursing mothers. I think society’s advice about pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and mothering is mostly wrong.
• Toxic positivity sucks. Let’s discuss.
• Diet culture is horrible and so is almost all the standard advice about diet and exercise. Believe me.
• Using ATS to hire is bad for everyone. I was great at hiring but am dismal at getting hired, and I have things to say about that.
• Baking sourdough bread is good for the soul and easier than you think. Let me tell you how I do it.
• American medicine sucks in ways you haven’t even imagined. I can convince you.

You get the idea. If I had 50 hours in a day, I could start half a dozen differently branded blogs and could enthusiastically post several pieces in each a week. Alas, I have only 24 hours a day. Actually, because I have a sleep disorder, I have fewer productive hours in a day than I should. That’s another thing I’d really like to write about.

One of the first guys I dated in college told me, long after we broke up, that the thing that first attracted him to me was that I was “interested in everything.” That phrase has stuck with me; it’s the most insightful thing the dude ever said to me.

It might be that I’m going to have to pick a lane and stay in it if I want to be successful. I know that, but I don’t want to.

There are roughly two different types of writers on Medium. There are people who have a particular topic they write about and there are people whose topic is themselves. I like reading both of them.

I am absolutely riveted by Shannon Ashley. I’ve never seen anyone write with such brutal honesty about such personal matters. I’m here for everything she writes, even when she goes off-topic a bit. Especially when she goes off-topic a bit. She’s the reason I gave in and bought a membership even though I keep a very tight budget. As soon as I paid up and was let loose in the Medium wonderland, I discovered Adeline Dimond, who is great for much the same reason — she writes with brutal truth, even though it appears Dimond uses a pseudonym and Ashley does not. There are dozens of other very good writers I follow but any attempt at listing them will leave out some who deserve to be included.

Would I mind if Umair Haque wrote a whimsical piece about his home life even though he typically writes dark warnings? No! Umair, I am here for it! Tell us something light once in a while! Have you remodeled your kitchen recently, by any chance? Do you ever bake sourdough bread? There are other topics you could be writing about, and I’d read them because I like your writing voice. Of course, you have many thousands of followers and I just reached a hundred, so my opinion is likely irrelevant.

There is nobody I read simply because I am riveted by their subject matter. I choose whose words to read according to their authentic voice. I like to get inside the heads of other people. You can do that with excellent fiction and you can do it with personal essays. Let me inside your head, and it matters very little what you are actually talking about. I will read your thoughts about almost anything if you personalize the subject for me. There are pieces about my pet interests that aren’t interesting to me because the writer failed to make them interesting. There are pieces about subjects I never found interesting before that have grabbed me because the person writing is genuinely enthused about them.

I’m hoping this piece will gather some constructive comments. I want to know one thing: Do I really have to conform and pick one subject, or can I share my many enthusiasms? If the answer is that I can do whatever I want but I won’t make any money unless I conform, I’m going to be unhappy, but at least I’ll know.

I really do want to post that piece about my new kitchen, damn it.

*Somewhere, I read about someone asking if they were called “Al Gore Rhythms” because Al Gore “invented the internet” and now I will never think of algorithms any other way. Neither will you, amirite?