avatarRemington Write

Summary

The author expresses a preference for personal, authentic storytelling over formulaic "how-to" articles on Medium.

Abstract

The article titled "I Like it When You do That" on Medium conveys the author's fatigue with the proliferation of generic advice pieces promising success on the platform. Instead, the author craves genuine stories about the writer's life, including the mundane, the triumphs, and the failures. They encourage writers to share specific, detailed accounts of their daily experiences, relationships, struggles, and joys, arguing that these narratives offer universal value and resonance. The author believes that such personal writing is more engaging and enriching than the typical success-driven content that dominates Medium.

Opinions

  • The author finds the abundance of "how-to" articles on Medium, particularly those about writing success, to be boring and unengaging.
  • They advocate for storytelling that delves into the writer's personal life, emphasizing the importance of specificity and authenticity over broad, unoriginal advice.
  • The author suggests that readers are more interested in connecting with the human experience through relatable stories rather than chasing formulas for financial success or social media influence.
  • They express a desire for stories that reveal the writer's vulnerabilities, including their fears, losses, and the complexities of their relationships.
  • The author posits that true value in writing comes from sharing one's unique experiences and perspectives, drawing a parallel between such writing and the work of renowned authors like Hemingway or Morrison.
  • They discourage writers from contributing to the oversaturated market of success-driven content, instead encouraging them to explore the richness of their own lives as a source of compelling narratives.

I Like it When You do That

You know, when you write about your life

Photo Credit — Rory MacLeod / Flickr

Look, I understand why you’re all set to put together another ever-so-helpful list of tips to kill it here on Medium because, come on, when you do that you’re in better shape to be killing it yourself. Or so those Medium Experts tell us.

I’m as hooked on the views and reads and claps and responses and the money as anyone navigating this hamster wheel on steroids. So, yes, I understand why you’ve got like sixteen drafts started that all address the unfailing winner of all topics: how to be a winner. Seductive AF.

But can I be honest here?

That shit is just incredibly boring. I cannot read even one more Medium article that will clue me in to the “secret” to earning $1,500 for one story or how to get eight million more followers or how to optimize social media to establish my “brand”. Sure those strategies probably do work but, dear God, life is just too short to get bogged down in that crap.

I want to read about you

Maybe it’s because I grew up in a little town of 3,000 nosy people who all knew everyone’s business. To this day I get lovely little spikes of illicit joy from peeking into people’s lit up windows at night.

But I am really interested in what you’re doing in those warmly lit rooms with your family, your partners, your rescued greyhound, or even just you if it’s only you all by yourself. What do you like to cook? What was your last quarrel about? Who keeps leaving their underpants on top of the hamper?

Tell me about your life. Tell me in detail. Tell me about your triumphs and, even better, about your failures. What you learned…with this caveat. Easy on the platitudes.

The tried and true expansion of the personal and specific to the universal is trickier than it looks.

Sure, we’ve all been chewed up in relationships and let jealousy or apathy or distraction get the better of us. And, yes, work is an unending opportunity for spiritual growth which, sadly, lends itself all too easily to all those dull generalizations. I’m not disputing their truth or value, but there has to be more than that going on for me to stick with you, word by word to the last paragraph.

Let’s talk about value

There are countless earnest writers, bloggers, and general all-around critical thinkers sitting at their keyboards right now determined to give their readers something they will value. In return, they’re hoping this will be the one to go viral and really rack up the views, reads, and bucks. I know I am!

What valuable goodies do we as readers look for when we’ve loaded our clothes into the dryer and fire up the Medium app on our phones for a little reading time?

I mean besides how to Win at Medium or Win at Love or Win at Work.

Me, I want to peer into your warmly lit windows. If you want to hook this reader here are my handy-dandy tips on doing so. Feel free to simply copy, paste and go to town!

  • Where do you live? I mean details and specifics. Suburbs of Seattle? At the end of a dirt road in Wisconsin? In a highrise in Hong Kong? Make me hear it, smell it, feel the energy of what hits you when you open your door every day.
  • Who do you live with? I love hearing about your kids, your crazy partner, your cats and dogs and hermit crabs. I don’t need much in the way of Life Lessons. It’s much more interesting to peer in your windows and watch you live your life. Don’t mind me. Keep folding laundry and asking your kid about that new app he’s building that going to make you all rich.
  • What hurt? Again, no need to draw helpful lessons from your travails for me. I can connect the dots. And, also, I don’t necessarily need all the gory details. But when I read what slammed into your soft spots and left a mark, I relate because we’ve all got marks on our soft spots. Something eases when we realize we aren’t the only ones taking direct shots.
  • Are you in love? I want to hear about how you met and where. And when. Is this a new love? Tell me about any red (or pink) flags you’re trying to ignore right now. Are you hesitant because of past damage? I want to fly with you in the exhilaration of new love and trudge with you when love seems like it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
  • What worked out after seeming to go south? You want to talk evergreen? This is the motherlode. There are few things more interesting than the vicarious thrill I get from watching things unravel after the best-laid plans and then how they can sometimes inexplicably come together in ways no one expected. You love that, too. We all do.
  • Who first lied to you? Again, rich territory here that goes back to those marks on your soft spots. And by taking it a step further and telling me who you lied to and why, dude, I am in your pocket.
  • What jobs have you loved or hated and why? All of us work. Some of us get paid for our work. Some don’t. Some get paid handsomely. Do you? How do you feel about that? What do you do with your money (please, no investing tips)? How do you keep showing up for a job that sucks your soul inside out day after day? Or how did you find that Holiest of Grails, a job you wake up eager to get to every morning. Does that even exist?
  • What scares you the most? Because we humans have such teensy weensy attention spans, our current time feels like the most precarious and dangerous of times ever. It’s not. But there’s never been any shortage of scary shit in our lives. And let’s dial it back from climate crisis to the specific things that wake you up at 3 am. I bet I was lying awake about five hours ago scared of something very similar. I want to hear about yours.
  • Who and what have you lost? This is another universal that benefits from the microscope treatment. I had a house I was living in burn down on Christmas eve shortly after I moved to Cleveland. Someone died in that fire. What have you lost that you were sure you couldn’t live without? How have you managed since then? You don’t have to carry it alone and you don’t need to go into deep details. We’ve all been there and if we haven’t yet, we will.

Scrap that How-To crap

Let someone else bore themselves by writing more helpful how-to crap. Be a Hemingway or an Oates or a Foster Wallace or a Chekhov or a Cheever or a Bukowski or a Pynchon or a Powers or a Waters or a Lamott or a Morrison or a Fitzgerald of your own life.

That’s where the real wealth is hiding, sighing, waiting to be shared. And I’m dying to read it.

© Remington Write 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Life
Life Lessons
Relationships
Experience
Writing
Recommended from ReadMedium