ILLUMINATION Writers
Interview with Kevin Buddaeus
Featuring creative writers of ILLUMINATION
Purpose of the Story
In this story, I share an interview that I conducted with Kevin Buddaeus, a writer and editor on ILLUMINATION.
Having a chat with Kevin made me wish I were in Japan today! I have beautiful memories of this beautiful country.
My questions are in bold. Kevin’s responses are under each question.
Why do you write on Medium?
I want to share my thoughts and views on the world and discuss them with people who are alike. You can discuss the most mundane things like hobbies with your friends. But once you strike more profound topics, like the meaning of life to name an extreme, most people don’t have the endurance or the interest to strike a deep conversation. Through writing, I can put my voice out there, and hopefully, someone picks up on it and likes to add their seasoning.
What are your values as a writer?
Honesty is a big part. Not only as a writer, but honesty seems to be greater of an issue for more people than you’d expect. By having my own voice, independent of big publications that dictate the tone and censorship, I’m able to speak from the heart. We should use that freedom to our best ability. Curiosity is another value. Through curiosity, we ask important questions and find important topics to write about. I prefer controversial topics and honest opinions on critical issues far more interesting than a new recipe for cheesecake, or the same old schemes of ‘how to get rich in 7 days’. In most cases, such stories aren’t really honest either. The author often hasn’t figured out how to get rich in 7 days. But by you reading his article, he might be soon.
What are the top three books that affected your life?
Got me there. I know that a lot of writers argue that you can’t be a good writer without being a good reader. And for a lot of people, reading came first. For me, it was completely different. I can name three books alright. But those are the only three books I ever read. And all three were high school assignments. These three books are:
- The Last Children of Schewenborn — A fictional story describing a cold war scenario in which a German family, on the way to their grandparents are surprised by a nuclear blast. Now finding themselves amidst a collapsing society, trying to survive the chaos. It does not have a happy ending either.
- The Wave — Based on a true story, it describes a social experiment called “third wave” which took place in a US high school in 1967. A history teacher was confronted with students who could not believe how the whole German population could have fallen for the Nazi regime and their propaganda. In order to prove his students how easy it is to assert control over people by means of unity, order and discipline, he accidentally created a movement that got out of control. He aborted the experiment after only 5 days to avoid more dangerous consequences.
- The Outsiders — I think this one was popular around the world, or at least in the US. It describes the lives and confrontations between two teenage gangs in the US in the 50s. Of the three, this one may have been the least interesting one for me. Books didn’t really influence me as a writer. I read plenty of Wikipedia articles and news about science, technology, philosophy and other fields. But not books. The Lord of the Rings? I’ve seen the movies. Harry Potter? I’ve seen the movies. I’ve also seen all of the Stephen King movies. Just don’t tell him that I never read his books, please.
What are your hobbies?
Apart from writing and reading on Medium (which has become sort of an addiction by now). I like playing video games. Just like books, they tell stories. But they are interactive. You feel like you’re the main hero in an action movie. And unlike books, you don’t need to engage your brain as much. It all happens on a screen. Someone wrote the script already. And of course, I spend a lot of time with my daughter, who came into this world and quickly decided that she’ll be the new center of it (at least for me, you may have a different center and that’s okay). The older she gets, the more she’ll be able to do, meaning less time for video games.
How do you connect with your readers?
I’m active on Twitter, people could just walk up to me and engage in conversation there. I’m also on the Illumination Slack channel, where I try to answer as soon as I get time. Apart from helping other writers or sharing my opinion on different things, I’m also freely available to discuss random stuff. Do you really think the meaning of life is 42? (A hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy reference! Great movie, haven’t read the book…. is there a pattern here?)
Why did you join ILLUMINATION and how do you find it so far?
I was invited after I spent the first two days on Medium on my own (purely by accident, I was just checking it out to see whether it would be worth writing on here); since then, I was curated more times than I count (contrary to the 3 reads I had before), was given the status of an editor for the publication, run our Twitter and Facebook automation, got top writer status in Poetry, Travel, Education and Satire (though only Poetry and Education are still there at the moment) and found many incredible friends I’d otherwise haven’t met. I do love it!
Who are the top ten writers you follow on ILLUMINATION?
Let me think… Timothy Key, Dipti Pande, Salam Khan, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Charles Roast, Holly Jahangiri, Karen Madej 💛, Keno Ogbo, Selma, it’s tough picking ten. And even then, in the past two weeks, I have rarely read any stories after my clients got back out from hibernation. Now that little time I have left, I mostly use to write something. I need to read more again.
What are your top five stories you want to share with your audience, and why?
I don’t really have five stories. I’m heavily biased. I think all of them are good. But only for certain people. Tastes are different. Just look at my profile, and hopefully you see something that resonates with you. If not, that’s okay.
What are the success factors for you as a writer on Medium?
Just write about what you love. Don’t listen to Google after asking “most clicked topics” or stuff like that. I tried that a long time ago, before I even heard of Medium. Didn’t work out at all. It’s the same people making the same promises. Getting the new guys like us to read THEIR stories. Just pick something you love to talk about. Don’t write for anyone else. Write for yourself. There are 7 billion people in the world. Even if you have the weirdest niche kink in the world, it’s almost guaranteed that there are at least 5000 people with the same kink somewhere in the world. Keep writing and they’ll find you.
What do you recommend to the new writers on ILLUMINATION?
Regarding a question, I hear more often than anything else: Don’t stress over curation. If it happens, be happy. If it doesn’t happen, don’t start thinking your writing sucks. It’s not a good benchmark. I got stories curated that I wrote without any effort. Then I wrote some stories that I hoped would make people drop their jaws. “Not distributed in Topics” — well, thanks Medium. The stories that did get curated didn’t fare too well either. A few more views, but nothing that pays the rent. One tip I can give here is: Try to get curated in “Relationships”. I’m not a relationship expert, so I can’t write anything great in that regards. But I know a few articles that got a crazy amount of views there. That seems to be a gold patch.
What are your future plans as a writer?
Write more, read more. Maybe it will one day pay my rent and allow me to get some of the stress out of my system. As I said before, my reading time dropped a lot since my clients came back and bombed me with work again. If I would earn my income through Medium alone, I could stop working for my clients and spend more time reading articles. I learn something new with every article I read. And Warren Buffet said that the best investment in the world you could ever make is the investment into your own being. I’d love to live like that. Reading and writing. Not copyrighting for clients. But writing about things that truly matter to me.
Thank you for your valuable time. I look forward to reading more and more stories from your creative pen.
You can find Kevin’s writer and editor profiles from the following stories.
Kevin also prepared ILLUMINATION submission guidelines for our writers.
Kevin’s latest story submitted earlier today was eye-opening!
You may also check other interviews I conducted with inspiring writers of ILLUMINATION recently. These stories can allow us to know more about our creative writers and connect with them.
P.G. Barnett
Bill Abbate
Terry Mansfield
Jill Ebstein
You may check more interviews in the attached collection.
Invitation to writers to join ILLUMINATION
If you want to join our growing, enjoyable, and supportive publication as a writer, please leave a message via this link. We help you become a successful writer on Medium.
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You might check more interviews in the attached collection.
You can find inspiring profiles of ILLUMINATION writers from this story.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
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