Self | Writing | Life
Keep Calm and Write On
Don’t complicate the Medium Partner Program
I am done reading all these folks who say how they make $10, $100, or $1000 per month from Medium
It sets off some kind of atmosphere of unhealthy competitiveness amongst us. And I don’t like it. It feels like we are chasing vanity. And I don’t like it.
Maybe it’s me. But I am more of a collaborative person than a competitive one. At least, I know I hung up my figure competition heels 8 years ago and never looked back because I sense the same vanity-chasing atmosphere.
Sure, some healthy competition is good and promotes quality work to some extent but all these fixations on hitting the dollars as a primary goal in a month are just making some of us passionate writers who love writing, not feel at ease. I feel like a failure, and I know I am not the only one feeling this way.
It robs the very joy of what writing is to bring.
We write because we must. We write because it keeps us sane in this insane world. We write because everything begins from the heart. And the world needs more hearts.
Writers are photographers of souls. Writers are artists of words, and, “Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and to the desire to hide.” — D.W. Winnicott.
It has been 7 weeks on my Medium Partner Program journey. I am nowhere near $10, let alone $1000.
It gets me when I see those headlines. It makes me nervous and anxious about writing good stuff. And I know the great works take time. And I want to write great stuff for readers. Our time is valuable and I want to make your time worth it in this noisy online place.
Michaelangelo did not paint the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in a month, (it took him 4 years). Rome wasn’t built in a day (it took approximately 1,010,450 days) Heck, even the Covid-19 vaccine or any vaccine for that matter cannot be formulated in a month.
Some things just cannot be rushed! This isn’t running a Sprint or Agile or Lean projects, though I am not suggesting creating the perfect piece and never get anything published. Great writing isn’t some kind of mechanical technological process. Musical masterpieces aren’t played mechanically, in a theoretical way.
I appreciate writers like August Birch (Yes, thank you for your Tribe1K course) and Jon Brosio who share their earnest experiences and ideas on how to grow as a writer. And they don’t paint the picture that they got it there in 28 days. We know success doesn’t come like that.
So my dears fellow writers, keep writing from your heart for your readers. Keep creating quality works rather than popular works. They will appreciate it, for, in the world of online media, there is definitely an overload of quality and original thinking. I truly believe that with time, your efforts will pay off and yes, so will the money. In my Singaporean accent, we say, just keep calm and write lahhhh.
“ Meaning of lah /lah, lɑ/ int. [Mal., a particle suffixed to the emphatic word in a sentence (Winstedt)] Used at the ends of words or phrases for emphasis.
[1955 R.J. Wilkinson A Malay–English Dictionary, vol. 2, 638–639 lah. .. A suffix emphasizing the word after it sometimes giving it the force of a preterite.., sometimes an imperative, sometimes a quasi-demonstrative. .. It may be used also as a sort of interjection, «there you are»!]”
From: http://www.singlishdictionary.com/. A dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English
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Hello there, Thanks for reading. I am honored and grateful for your time. I don’t claim to know everything, but I will always strive to share every single bit of truth with thought and humility.
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