I Took Two Weeks Off From Writing on Medium

What I learned and how much I earned.

Taking time off from writing on Medium isn’t the end of the world. At least it isn’t for me. That’s the beauty of being unsuccessful on this platform. I can walk away from Medium with little to no financial consequences whenever I want. So, I took two weeks off.

The last article I wrote on Medium before taking time off was about whether I can make a career out of Medium. I decided to put that question to the test and write about my progress. My “experiment” was to start in less than a week after I published the article.

But first, I needed to get my second shot of the Covid vaccine. I had heard from others that I might experience some side effects from the second shot, but I wasn’t concerned. I’m a tough middle-aged broad, and I knew I could handle it.

As I made the five-hour trip to and from a drugstore in the middle of nowhere in my state to get the shot, I thought about the steps I would take to turn Medium into a career; I realized I didn’t know what I was going to do other than what I was already doing, which wasn’t working. I was primed to succeed, and I knew I needed to figure something out; I didn’t want to disappoint my readers. I don’t have many readers, but the ones I have are loyal and supportive and super nice people.

I got the shot, drove home, and everything was fine. And then the dreaded side effects hit me. I think I experienced every side effect that I had heard of, all the uncommon side effects that I never heard of, and additional side effects that no one on the planet had ever heard of.

The vaccine and I were not getting along well. For five hours, I felt like I had one of the worst cases of stomach flu in my life. After that, I felt somewhat better but still not well enough to write. This dragged on intermittently for eleven miserable days.

I’m told that experiencing these side effects is a sign that I am building an immunity to the virus. That’s great, but I really don’t care. I just know that I feel like garbage. But like Gloria Gaynor, I will survive.

I would still get the vaccine even if I knew I would be this miserable, so please don’t let my experience discourage you from being vaccinated. My experience is unusual, just like much of my life. So, please get vaccinated.

Since I wasn’t feeling well, I decided I might as well take two weeks off from writing. Besides, my messy house was really bothering me. It sounds silly, but it’s all I could think about when I was writing. I felt I needed to be cleaning instead of writing, so I was rushing when I was writing, and that’s not a good thing to do.

My Medium earnings aren’t enough to pay for a cleaning person. My husband works full-time and cares for his mother, who has dementia, so the house cleaning is my responsibility, and I am failing miserably.

So, I took a break from writing on Medium for two weeks, during which I thought, read, analyzed, planned, and intermittently convalesced.

I emerge from my brief Medium hiatus 6 pounds lighter and with a much clearer view and improved attitude about writing on Medium. My house is still a mess.

I discovered that taking a break from writing on Medium was highly beneficial. Doing so allowed me to do what I did for more than a year before I began writing on the platform. Once again, I was reading Medium for hours, clapping, highlighting, commenting, following. It was great fun. I had returned to my Medium roots.

Now that I was on the outside looking in again, I could see things clearly that had been muddy and murky while I was a writer.

When you are a writer on Medium, it can mess with your head. For me, I become fixated on my stats and on how much I am earning, not so much because I want to make money, but because I believe that the money serves as a gauge or measure of how good of a writer I am.

It’s as if I had been sucked into a cult. I needed to be deprogrammed, and taking a couple of weeks off from writing gave me the opportunity to do that. It was now clear to me that the money I earn in the Medium world does not translate into being a good writer in the real world. Those are apples and oranges, my friend.

From all the reading that I did, it also became clear to me that Medium writers’ overall morale is in the toilet.

This is understandable when people give their limited and valuable time to write and publish stories on Medium with no guarantee of any compensation, no control over their future on the platform, and little understanding of the platform’s inner workings. All they are told is that Medium is going to be “more relational.” This all adds up to a feeling of no control over their future and no stability.

The solution to this problem became clear to me. If you don’t like it, don’t write on Medium.

Medium is like your drunk uncle at Christmas dinner. There is nothing you are going to do to prevent your uncle from getting drunk; it happens every year. If you don’t like it, don’t go to Christmas dinner.

Medium isn’t going to change its ways either. Accept that which you cannot control, control that which you can, and learn the difference — my version of the Serenity Prayer simplified into one sentence.

Despite its imperfections, Medium is a phenomenal opportunity for writers. Focus on the bigger picture outside of the Partner Program if you are a newbie trying to get your footing. Figure out what you want from Medium.

You can meet people, be discovered, develop your craft, build a portfolio, network, build your email list, promote your products and services. Medium is a phenomenal tool. Milk it for all it’s worth. The way I see it, Medium is best used as a stepping stone instead of a final destination.

Like it or not, Medium is a form of social media. While I was not writing on Medium for two weeks, I did my best to read, clap, highlight, comment, and communicate with other writers and readers. I enjoy it.

If you don’t like this aspect of Medium, you might struggle with the “more relational” direction that Medium is moving in. As others have suggested in the past, the algorithm appears to reward those who are more active on the platform even when they aren’t writing new stories. I believe that to be true.

I have just started on my fourth month of writing on Medium. The first month I made $9.54; the second month, I made $27.46; and the third month earnings will be revealed in an upcoming article. During the two weeks that I took time off, I earned $5.34.

I have no complaints about those earnings, given that I spent my time enjoying myself reading and being “more relational” with other readers and writers on Medium. Of course, my old stories on Medium were responsible for most, and maybe even all, of my earnings.

I’m glad I decided to take time off from Medium. I didn’t have much choice given that I felt like garbage, but it all worked out for the best. And I managed to make a few bucks along the way.

One size does not fit all. Everyone has a different life and is dealing with different circumstances that determine the amount of time and energy they can put into Medium. We all have different skill levels and interests that influence how we can best utilize Medium to our advantage.

Spring is the season of renewal and rebirth. Time to start a new chapter in life. If you need to take a break, seriously consider doing so. Find a place for Medium in your life that works for you.

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