I Started Writing as a Hobby but Suddenly Found a Passion Instead
An analysis of the past 4 months of writing
I started writing on Medium in June 2020. In the beginning, I was writing maybe once or twice a week. It was a hobby. Now, I’m sitting with my laptop every night and writing. Slowly, writing is becoming an obsession — a healthy one, to be exact.
I do not only write on Medium, but I also write on a personal project and a short story I’m working on. My situation at home allows me to have free time from 9 pm to 11 pm every night. I use this time to write and sometimes even some more.
I did not choose a niche for my writings; I write about stuff I’m interested in. I’ve posted about finance, gaming, parenting, sustainability, Arabic culture, and many more on Medium. All of these subjects are subjects I’m personally interested in, and writing about them seemed a no-brainer in the beginning.
Lately, I’ve noticed something interesting. I’m writing about some subjects with ease and enthusiasm even though the subjects are complicated and require a lot of research. In contrast, other subjects feel somehow tedious to write about even though I feel I could write about them for hours at a time.
I went into my Medium’s stats page, and I tried to find a correlation between how I feel and the viewership — And there it was, articles I wrote with a passion got more views and read when compared with articles I wrote tediously.
In the following, I’ll go through my gut’s feelings and compare them to the stats. In the end, numbers don’t lie.
Video games
I’m a top writer in gaming on Medium. I write 1–2 stories per month about gaming and its culture.
I’m not a true gamer per se. I enjoy videogames as much as the next person. However, I like this media form, and it gets my mind off everyday stress — I use it to switch off.
I wrote some of my stories on gaming within an hour or two, with zero research necessary. I was able to write my personal thoughts and experience in a storytelling way.
Later, I went deeper, and I started to write about the history and development of gaming and its culture in the Middle East and North Africa region. These stories required extensive research. I was afraid that the articles would be dry due to their fact-filled nature, but they didn't. My writing’s passion for the subject overshadowed its dry facts, and the articles did tremendously good on the platform — The viewers noticed my passion in the written words.
One of my latest stories on gaming broke the 1K views milestone within 24 hours. It felt great keeping in mind that gaming is not a “viral” topic on Medium.
Now, I’m writing about the future of gaming as well. These stories require been more research than before, but still, as long as the passion is there, writing does not feel like homework; it feels natural.
Money and Finance
As a financially literate individual, I started writing about my financial strategies, budgeting method, and other money-related subjects.
Writing about money wasn’t an issue for me; I read a lot about the subject, I’m subscribed to multiple YouTube channels, and I spend 1–2 hours weekly looking at my own finances.
However, even though I have a passion for finance and money topics, I noticed that my passion isn't towards writing about finance and money.
I feel that my stories are dry with no personal touch or connection, even though I’m writing about my experience. I have to tell myself you need to write about finance today instead of letting the ideas and inspiration come on their own.
I started my own publication on the matter, hoping it will generate passion for writing more frequently on the subject — this idea did not work as well. Now, I’m not actively following a writing career in finance and money. Whenever I write about the subject, I’ll post it to one of Medium’s fiance and money publications and let that audience find it independently.
I believe the readers feel this. The engagement I get on my financial stories is much lower than in my gaming stories, even though the financial publications' followers are 5 times to 12 times higher than the followers of the gaming publication I write for.
Arabic culture
This was actually the reason I joined Medium in the first place. I was at home, too much time to spare, and I always try to promote a positive view of my Arabic culture (Please do not mix Arabic culture with Islamic culture — those are two different things).
As in gaming, I write about this subject with ease. Once I figure out the general idea I want to write about, the words keep coming to me, and I finish my posts within an hour or two.
There is a lot to write about in this niche; poetry, art, pop culture, myth, misconceptions, stereotypes, representation, and history are all incredible subjects to write about under this niche.
I always feel good writing posts about Arabic culture; promoting a positive image is fulfilling.
My stories in this niche get good views, but it has a tiny audience compared to other topics on Medium once again. The tag “Middle East” has only 7.2K posts, while the tag “Arabic” has only 1.5K posts.
Parenting and sustainability
These two last topics I picked up in late September early October. In the beginning, I did not want to write about personal issues and matters; therefore, I left writing about parenting aside. Some interesting, particular topics came to me on parenting that I had to share with the world. The Ascent accepted and published my two stories on parenting. The success I found is pushing me towards writing more on the matter.
I’m writing specifically about our kid's language development (trilingual) and how we support this skill further as parents. I feel these subjects are, once again, very niche. However, the general reaction from the viewers and readers has been very positive and welcoming. Moving forward, I will submit more stories on parenting and my adventure with my kid. We are currently learning how to ride a bike — maybe there will be a story out of it 😁.
Sustainability, climate change, and new energies are topics that I picked up recently too. I will not identify myself as an expert, but my 9–5 has to do with these subjects, that is why I can write about them easily and generously.
The problem I’m facing with these topics is political and editorial as well:
- Political: Climate change politics differ greatly from one part of the world to the other.
- Editorial: there is no designated publication on Medium for this genre. Whether I should submit my posts to The Startup, Age of Awareness or Medium’s own publications is the greatest question.
Stats-wise, these posts are doing great on Medium. I believe readers are interested in such topics, but they struggle to find a designated place on this platform.
The takeaway
Writing is half the battle; the other half is analysis and marketing.
To market something, even a personal brand, extensive analytics is required. Luckily, digital products and platforms give us clear numbers to use in our analysis.
Looking at my stats on Medium, I can figure out which niches and stories did good and which did bad. Eventually, I can try to find out what went wrong and how to fix it moving forward.
I learned that I need to write less in finance and increase my writings in gaming, parenting, and Arabic culture. Sustainability is still wobbly; it may make the cut.
If you like to read my best post so far, you can find it here.
Walid Al Otaibi -WAO- is a top writer in Gaming. He works at an engineering company in Germany. He comes from a multicultural background and is located in Germany since 2003. He is writing about Arab Culture, Multiculturalism, Finance, and Trending topics.
