My Son Made A Guest Appearance On My YouTube Writing Channel

And we made a video on ten types of stories on Medium

“Hey, want to be a guest on my YouTube channel?”

My son was sitting next to me at the kitchen table. He is unschooled and has the freedom to learn whatever he wants to learn, and I was showing him how writing on Medium works while replying to a comment from Deborah Camp.

“You write a story. Someone reads it and comments. And you respond back.”

I like to introduce the world of online writing to my fourteen-year-old son, and, hey, what better way than to ask him to be in one of my videos, right?

I’ve found the best parenting teaching method is what my college creative writing teacher used to say in her class every day: Show, not tell. Give too many demands to your child, and you sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher.

“Sure,” he said.

Video preparation

Success in a YouTube video or Medium story is all about organization. People have short attention spans, and you have to provide the information they want.

“People will stop watching if we don’t give them information that’s useful,” I said. “We have to get straight to the point and provide good information.”

I shared with him the focus of the video was on the ten common types of stories you can write on Medium, and then I determined a role for my son.

“How about I explain a type of story,” I said. “And you give an example of that type of story.”

We brainstormed and practiced what we both would say before we hit the play button, and I told him we might need to reshoot parts of the video.

My wife added her input to our father-son project (sit up straight, speak clearly, etc.), and she made him a hot chocolate to drink during the video.

And then she left us alone to be creative without getting further involved.

Progress over perfection

I’m a big fan of the saying, “Progress over perfection” when it comes to content creation. I realize whatever story or video I create is going to be consumed by readers or viewers, and then they will go on with their lives.

So we took about two or three takes for each type of Medium story, and I hope my son learned the importance of tinkering just the right amount to get done.

You will have to be the judge — I’m biased — but I thought he added value to the video by sharing his story-type examples from a teenager’s perspective.

On the example of a listicle story, he said, “Four ways to annoy your parents,” and for a how-to story, he said, “How to teach your mom to play video games.”

I showed him how to delete the parts of the video where we flubbed up, and the part I liked best was when I asked if he noticed I write on Medium a lot.

“Do you think I spend a lot of time writing on Medium?”

“YEAH,” he said, his voice rising a few octaves.

“Do you kind of miss me while I’m writing on Medium?”

“Yeah, kind of.”

Parting thought

I’ve been writing about my relationship with my son for ten years. We’ve fed a celebrity giraffe at Malibu Wine Safari, gone of lots of hikes, fed and stolen our neighbor’s cats, made pizza and brownies, and fallen through my mom’s attic.

And now we can add making a YouTube video to the list.

I encourage you to try something new and different with your child, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, parent, or sibling. It’s a lot of fun doing something new and different together, and you will create a lasting memory of the activity.

I’ve already got a great idea for a YouTube video with my bro Michael L Butler.

Thanks for reading my story.

Tagging my fellow cat, dog, nanna, and parent writers:

You might also like: Alexandra Christensen, Susan Wheelock, Frank Priegue, Michael L Butler, Sreese,T Mann, Don Sabado, Trista Signe Ainsworth, Sally Prag, KiKi Walter, Susan McCorkindale, Kate Hathaway, Athena, Amanda Payne, Deborah Camp, Jan Sebastian, Lynne Collier, Mary Louisa Cappelli, Victoria Valentine, Bridie D, Sharon Johnson, Kelly Eden, Jillian Enright.

Or check out my YouTube video on Ten Great Medium publications.