I’m Finally Calling Myself a Writer

How writing on Medium has changed my mindset from blogger to writer

Two years ago, I made a big move — I quit my job as an attorney to become a full-time blogger. For years, I had worked nights and weekends on my blog, tirelessly typing away and building it up to the point where it began to generate enough income to support my lifestyle.

But since quitting my job, I’ve had a sort of identity crisis. If you’re like most people, you probably identify yourself with whatever profession you happen to be in. This is especially true if you have a professional career as I did. I spent three years in law school and another five years as a practicing attorney. Being a lawyer was the only identity I ever knew. And it’s the only thing I ever called myself.

When I made the switch to blogging full-time, I was at a loss as to what I should call myself now. Most of the time, I said I was a blogger. In reality, I’m a writer — I make a living from writing words.

But despite writing literally hundreds of thousands of words over the years and supporting myself through my words, I’ve never really felt like a writer. For whatever reason, blogging has always seemed different.

All of this changed when I discovered Medium. I haven’t been writing on Medium very long, only a month at this point. I made a total of $20 in my first month on Medium (big money, I know). But for the first time in all the years I’ve been writing, I actually feel like a writer.

Here’s why.

Getting Paid to Write

There’s sort of a disconnect between your writing and the money that you make when you write on your own blog. In a way, no one is really paying you for your writing — at least not directly.

Instead, the money I make from my blog is sort of incidental to the writing. It comes from the ads that I put on my site or the affiliate links that people click. Or I make money when someone searches for something on Google and ends up on my site because of something I wrote.

Yes, the money I earn from my blog is ultimately a byproduct of my writing. But for whatever reason, it never really makes me feel like I’m getting paid to write.

Medium seems different. There aren’t any ads. I don't have affiliate links in any of the posts I’ve written. The only way I make money on Medium is from the words that I write.

If there’s one way to feel like a writer, it’s by getting paid to do it.

Having to Get Picked

Seth Godin says pick yourself — and I absolutely agree with that. In the past, if you wanted to be a writer, you had to be picked by someone — a publisher, a newspaper, a magazine. Getting the approval of someone willing to publish your work was the only way to get your writing out to a sizeable audience.

With the internet, there’s no need to seek out the approval of a gatekeeper. Instead, we can simply write and put our work into the world where people who appreciate it can find it.

That’s what blogging has always been. I never had to get picked. Instead, I picked myself and started my own blog. The only person that I needed to get approval from for my work was myself.

That said, there’s something about having to get picked that really makes you feel like a writer. I submit my work to publications on Medium. Sometimes my work gets picked. Other times it doesn’t. I have no idea why, but when you have to get picked by someone, you really do feel like a writer.

You should still always pick yourself. If you have something worthwhile to say, no one should be able to stop you from doing that. But getting picked, even if not as often as I wish, definitely makes me feel like a writer.

Medium gives you a nice mix. You can pick yourself and still get your writing out to a lot of people. But you can also submit your work to publications and get picked too.

Forced to Write a Lot

One thing I admire about Medium is how much content everyone puts out into the world. Even the top writers, it seems, write 15–30 new stories per month.

Traditional blogging — at least in the niche that I write in — seems different. As a blog grows, it often seems like people write less, focusing instead on other aspects of their blogs. You end up spending more and more time on marketing, building email lists, working on courses, and getting more affiliate partners. Instead of simply writing, you end up doing a lot more other things. Many of the big bloggers I follow rarely write at all anymore, instead opting to hire writers to publish content for them.

I’m impressed by the amount of content that the biggest writers on Medium put out. Tim Denning puts out a new story almost every single day. Ayodeji Awosika does the same. Zulie Rane wrote 365 stories in a single year.

And it makes sense. When you write on Medium, you get paid for being a writer. You’re not getting paid for anything else.

There’s no surer way to start viewing yourself as a writer than to simply write as often as you can. On Medium, that’s exactly what you do.

A Mindset Shift — No Longer Just a Blogger

Many of us have self-limiting beliefs. We tell ourselves that we’re just this or we’re just that.

Ever since I quit my job to go out on my own, I’ve been at a loss about what I am. For years, I’ve told people that I’m just a blogger. If I wanted to sound more impressive, I’d tell people that I’m a writer. But it always came with a bit of inflection at the end. Not “I’m a writer!” but more “I’m a writer?”

But that’s precisely what I am. I’m a writer. I’ve always been a writer. Writing on Medium has helped solidify that belief.

If you’re feeling the same way — not quite confident that you are a writer — then pick up your keyboard and start typing. You’ll start to call yourself a writer soon enough.