Medium Advice: It is a Little Confusing Sometimes

Write what you want and know; focus on the same things; don’t focus on anything; consistency; variety; use different tabs; always use the same tabs

I read multiple articles on Medium every day. I comment, and often I have some reply, which I try to learn from. Yet:

Try to make your photo entry relevant; don’t even worry about your photo entry — anything sexy is OK. Shit. How can anyone who thinks make sense of that?

Follow these 3 steps to be successful on Medium; follow these other 5 steps to make money on Medium — and don’t pay attention to success, because I’m making tons of money; this side-hustle vs. that side hustle; this way to make $3,000 per month is better than this other way to make $3,000 per month.

I’m not trying to hustle anyone. I’m just trying to write and help myself to survive.

Write about Medium; never write about Medium; curation is vital; curation is a fiction; write about Medium and Curation Hell is upon you; since there is no curation, there is no Hell.

All I want to do is write. It’s my only creative outlet these days. I write about anything that trips a trigger at any given moment. Something that moves me, or frightens me, or thrills me, makes me laugh or cry, or pisses me off. But, it seems, only sometimes does writing about these things resonate on Medium. And these sometimes work by rules that change by the day. It’s like the Pirate Code, and the Code requires ambiguity?

I’d like to make a living at this, but jeez, golly gosh and shit. Sometimes I feel that I’m on one end of a kaleidoscope that’s being shaken every time I log onto Medium. What I read on Monday is wholly opposite to what I read on Tuesday. I get it — different views, different writers, different articles.

But, jeez.

Shouldn’t there be some teeny, tiny thread of commonality there? I’m starting to think there’s an alternate reality thing happening on Medium — and we’ve got enough of the fact-adverse, alternate reality thing going on in the rest of our lives right now.

There are some writers I follow, and look to for guidance and inspiration. But what I find is that overall they seem to feel the way I do, and are just as overwhelmed and conflicted as I am: up is right on Tuesday; down is right on Thursday; remember who you are, but forget who you are because you’re not important; stand up for yourself, but don’t; stand up for others, but don’t.

Crap.

I’m thinking I should stop reading on Medium. But I’ve read that reading is vital, and so is commenting and engaging. Yet, though I’ve exchanged some nice comments with this writer or that and have asked questions (to Medium and Illumination), I’ve never had an actual answer to any question I’ve asked, so I’m wondering.

By some opinion, simply writing this article about Medium guarantees I’ll never be curated. But since there are quite a few people who claim curation is a fallacy, and others that it died, and yet others that it exists but should be ignored, well I’d say who the f***k knows?

Crap.

I write what moves me at any given moment. And right now confusion and frustration moves me. Curate this or do not; just so long as somebody at least thinks about the damn point.