Curation
Illuminating Your Way To Curation
In search of the Holy Grail
After almost a year of writing on Medium I finally got hold of the Holy Grail of writing for all writers, Curation. To be honest, I never really expected that to happen. I guess that's the way things always go, things happen when you least expect them to.
For me, the interesting part of all this is how it came to be. I had long since stopped asking myself why my writings were not being curated. But I am as curious as hell to discover why suddenly and unexpectedly Curation came my way. What's more I am not the only one, some of my fellow editors such as Carol Price (Thewriteyard) have also seen their offerings being curated on a regular basis.
My first answer to the question of what happened was that my work had simply got better. However, looking back at some of my earlier pieces I do not accept that as the reason. My second answer was that the Medium algorithm was changed in some way that made it more receptive to my writings. But I cannot be sure of that since I do not have the scientific data to draw any conclusions from. That leaves me with one more possibility, that Illumination's progress and growth has caught the attention of the algorithm.
Maybe the algorithm went looking for an explanation for such amazing growth in readership and trawled through the writing of contributors to discover the amazing quality we have here on Illumination. I'm really not sure just how sophisticated a code the algorithm is, how deeply it can look into submissions. Maybe the answer is a combination of all of the above, though if you pushed me to choose just one, it would be the significant strides Illumination has made in both helping writers to get better through our editorial mentoring and in attracting writers who are already of a very high calibre.
I have said to many writers like Aldric Chen, as well as to our general readership, that the way to get your work published in a top pub is to submit your work to a fledgling pub and try your level best to help make that a top pub. In Aldric's case he has done amazingly well since I first clapped eyes on him and I like to think that it is people like him and Esther George, Stuart Englander have helped us to a very high degree to get where we are today.
I must also mention people like Tree Langdon, Stuart Englander, Phil Truman, Agnes Laurens, Holly Kellums, Sabana Grande, Maria Rattray, Bill Abbate, Terry Mansfield, Tony Young, Jr. janny’s heart Noorain Hassan, BMS, Joe Luca, Arthur G. Hernandez and Terry L. Cooper who have all helped to make this all possible.
I also believe that our amazing team of editors have had a crucial role to play in Illumination's growth and progress within the Medium empire. And I have to mention people like Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Dew Langrial, and Britni Pepper, to name but three, in blazing a trail for us all to follow as writers and as editors.
At the start of this illuminating journey I really didn't have any aims, goals or objectives, I just wanted to write. I certainly didn't think in terms of becoming a curated Top Writer and Senior Editor for a top pub. And yet that is what I have become. How is a moot point. Maybe I got all that by the simple expedient of constantly trying to be the best writer I could be, not for anybody but me.
Now herein perhaps lies the secret of success here on Illumination, or in anything I do for that matter. I set the bar very high for myself. And if I cannot do something well then I would much rather not do it at all. Not to sound egotistical, but I am my own biggest fan. I write to please me, but I am a hard taskmaster for myself too. Like all writers I am what they like to call a self starter and in it for the long haul, but that is just the beginning.
1.Be a self starter. 2.Be in it for the long haul. 3.Be your own biggest fan and critic. 4.Be committed to getting better at it. 5.Constantly try to make your next piece better than your last. 6.Be prepared to learn from others. 7.Try to be inspired and inspiring. 9.Try to think out of the box.
I hope this story proves to be useful to as many of our aspiring writers as possible and look forward with great excitement to the amazing future that awaits us all. Just carry on doing the best you can and stick with it.