Illumination-Curated: The Goal to Create a Perfect Alchemy
How the vision combines everything a top-tier publication should stand for
I’ll make no claims of being a veteran writer on Medium, or on any platform for that matter. But in my journey of a little over two months on Medium — I have managed to achieve the following milestones, which I am quite proud of:
- Published over 75 short and long stories (not including comments)
- Achieved the holy grail of curation ~12 times across over 15 unique topics
- Published with well over 10 publications including Illumination, Illumination-Curated, The Startup, Writer’s Cooperative, Runner’s Life, Equality Includes You, A Parent is Born, Post Graduate Survival Guide, Hello Love, Be Unique, The Innovation to name some
- Had the opportunity to be an editor for Illumination and Illumination-Curated — not something I’d expected or hoped for in such a short span of time
- Most importantly, had the privilege of connecting with 100s of writers and folks with immense talents and experiences that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning from
Like everyone starting out on Medium, I figured the main factors of success for Medium writing are followers, big publications, and curation. In the quest for getting published with the best of publications, I asked myself, what should the ideal publication look like?
And, here’s what I felt it should be, and how Illumination-Curated (I-C) to me meets most of those criteria and is fast striving to meet the rest.
#1 — For the Writers, By the Writers
I personally hate it when publications start to think they are bigger than the writers that form them. It is always the drops that make the ocean, and never the other way around. The first and foremost rule to success if humility, in any sphere of life. I-C does just that. In its initial stages, the main problem we’re trying to solve for is showcase whatever deserves to be showcased. How are we doing this?
A Simplistic Acceptance Process
More details here but I’ll sum it up for you in short.
a) Any published and curated pieces are eligible for getting published onto I-C, irrespective of the date of publication or other criteria.
b) Drafts are a bit trickier and take a bit longer for review but go through a meritocratic process of review by all editors (30+) and where we see something lacking, we are willing to work with the writer to fix it.
c) We are humans and may be wrong — quite often. And we’re happy to admit our mistakes — how? We publish the piece on Illumination-Main, if it gets curated by Medium, we’re happy to move it back to I-C, with not an iota of ego about admitting our mistake.
A Collaborative Approach
We have a team of super-collaborative editors who in no way claim to be the Gods of writing, and are happy to work with you on your writing to make it the best story it can be. You’re fully welcome to agree or disagree with our suggestions, and it is in no way binding advice.
More Human Eyes and Hence Less Chance of Bias
Dr Mehmet Yildiz has a vision and has put together a large group of individuals from diverse walks of life — personally and professionally. This means the size of the editorial group is as big or bigger than most publications, ensuring diversity of thought, and healthy debate on every story before a decision is made.
#2 — Diversity & Inclusion a Primary Principle
The best part about a platform like Medium is its democratic structure where everyone has an equal voice. The true diversity of thought and knowledge can only be achieved if voices from all spheres are welcome and given an equal platform. I-C aims at doing just that.
While there are a handful of topics we do refrain from publishing, as they may not be aligned with the central philosophy of the publication and its intended audience, most stories that are written with the average reader in mind, and meeting the general Medium guidelines are most welcome.
The writers and editors of Illumination (Main and Curated) come from literally all communities, ethnicity, expertise, and experiences.
#3 — Not Cherry-Picking Best Writers, But Helping You Become the Best Version of Yourself
Both within our writer community and even our editors, there are people who are prolific and highly skilled writers but may have struggled with various aspects of their writing.
Bringing together such a diverse group, however, means that there is a vast variety of complementary skills. When I am stuck enhancing my storytelling, I have a star in Britni Pepper to guide me, when I can’t make my poetry flow or I need the keen editorial eagle eye, Tree Langdon, CPA, CGA is my go-to when a writer needs a ton of polishing and some of us don’t have the time and patience, Selma and CR Mandler MAT are always happy to handhold writers through it. When I need subject matter expertise, we have a slew of writers and editors who have doctorates in a variety of fields.
And the good bit is, no one is shy to help out and willing to even go out of the way to work on drafts.
With great support by onboarding Medium all-stars writers, we also would love to welcome fresh minds and grow together with them!
#4 — A Seamless Experience for the Reader
The process of a publication involves the writers and the editors, while the end result is with the reader in mind.
The eventual goal of I-C from a reader perspective is to provide a variety of high-quality stories across a wide gamut of topics so that there is something for everyone. While the “curation” helps with the first filter, we do believe that given the volume of stories on Medium, there are some great pieces that may not always be curated.
I-C’s goal is to complement and augment what the Medium Curators are doing, by adding another layer of checks and adding to that pool of outstanding pieces — and putting them all in one place for the reader to explore.
The vision was largely initiated by Dr Mehmet Yildiz and Arthur G. Hernandez, but we are all putting in our small bits of effort in making it a reality. We’re still however in a learning process — so we’d need the support of writers and readers in telling us what we can improve to make I-C a publication truly representing its writers, readers, and editors.