My Story About My Story That Got 13k Claps
I’m not bragging, I just want more money
The comma club is the top of top Medium writers. It means there’s a comma in your partner program payment. Beyond that, comma club platinum. The 99.9th percentile. I knew I’d be platinum some day, but I wasn’t going to brag about it when my time came.
That was the plan. Until I clicked on this story by Amy Sea.
Amy Sea. I just got it when I wrote it out. Only took a year. Good one.
If I ever checked my alerts I’d know she didn’t get 10k claps. This was about me and my story that got 10k claps.
Amy is my rival. I respect her talent and drive. She belongs in the top spot for humor. If she asked me directly I’d have told her. But, after thinking about it I realized why she asked publicly.
Money.
If I answer on Medium like she asked on Medium I’ll make more money too. Bringing us to now.
I will answer the question before the end of this story. This isn’t one of my click bait parodies. Promise.
The story is The Secrets I Learned About My Famous Dad After His Death. I’ll refer to the story as SIL.
First let’s talk SIL stats.
My stories 10k claps equaled 32k clicks. Above is the chart for the first month.
Below you can see the total views. How many were internal?
Most of them. This story paid well.
Let’s take a look at my audience.
As you can see, people who clicked my stories have interests. What does this mean? Absolutely nothing, but it’s there.
How I did it
Read my story if you haven’t. If you have, read it again. I’ll wait here.
SIL is the most difficult story I’ve written. The story kept getting away from me. I edited out three times as much as I published.
It was supposed to be critical of my uncle and how my dad would bail him out. Half way through writing SIL it hit me. The story wasn’t about my uncle being a putz, but understanding why my dad was more of a friend than a parent.
The publication
My personal essays are all published in Age of Empathy. AOE and I go way back. Auto-curation isn’t what it used to be but it was an auto curate pub.
Christopher Robin was the editor. I assume he fixed my fuck-ups but he liked it as it was. The publication matters. Especially if what you’re writing isn’t in your normal wheelhouse.
You want the publication tags to match the tags you’re using in your story. If you don’t know what the publications tags are (which the publication should include in their write for us) ask an editor.
My voice
In 2003 I built my own website to publish my writing. Then MySpace. Next B3ta.com. Then Quora. Now Medium. 20 years later I’m still writing. Same stories different platform.
No ChatGPT. No Grammarly. No voice to text. Just two decades of banging away on my keyboard. I run a spell check and that’s it.
SIL took 5 days to write. 5 long, hard, emotional days. I wanted to shelf my story twice a day. But I knew when I finished it, this would be one of my best. I pushed past my mental cattle guards and kept writing.
Making the reader feel
If I can make you laugh, I can make you cry. I’m not a writer I’m a storyteller. My stories make you feel something.
It’s a relatable subject. Everyone had someone give birth to them. Parents are imperfect. Maybe there’s a good reason your parents did or didn’t do something.
Anyone can regurgitate facts or tell you what happened, but there’s an art to telling a story that satisfies readers. Delivering a satisfying story every time creates fans.
I take the reader on a ride that ends with the kick in the gut. I now understand my father but he’s not here for me to tell him.
The answer is around three grand. 35k views, 109 comments, 13.7k claps from 841 readers. That’s what’s up.
Money is not my goal. I want to tell a story my readers never forget. When they see my name, they don’t care what the title is. They click. Because clicking me is a guaranteed five minutes of entertainment. I build worlds, fill them with memorable characters, and take my reader along for the ride.
If I do that, the money will come.
How it felt
I was confident my story would do well, but but wasn’t expecting 35 thousand clicks.
They put me in the Medium Staff what we’re reading story/email. I never thought I’d see the day my existence was acknowledged by our mysterious human curation overlords.
I took the rest of the month off.
The story made $2.3k the first month. I made over 3k total on Medium in December.
Comma club platinum member. For a month.
What I did with the money
I took my first long vacation in 5 years. GB Rogut and I partied like 40 year old rockstars for a week in Tijuana. We ate like pigs and drank like fish.
Money comes, money goes. Now I’m back to starving artist. I will write something that good or better in the future. I can’t write a story like this every time.
How you can do it
I’m not educated. I check the box that says some college. Graduated high school with a C average. (ringer for academic decathlon team) I type 45 words per minute.
I’m just some dude who knows how to tell a story. The story continues on Twitter. You can meet the story in person at GCW shows in L.A. I am the main character in an episodic narrative written by me staring me.
Be your future self now. Imagine your last story did 13.7k claps. If you act like a big deal and have talent you will become a big deal. Live your stories because the best stories come from life. Be the main character in your life. Manifest your future self.
Everyone has one signature story in them. It’s the story you tell verbally that your friends want to hear again.
I’ve filled this publication Write! Right? Write! With all of my best writing advice. I’m planning removing my advice content from Medium and putting it behind a paywall on my website.
Medium isn’t dead, it’s evolving. Be one of the new top writers.
Get it while it’s free.
Do you have what it takes to make thousands on Medium? You’ll never know if you don’t try.
Why that one? I’ll never know. Here’s my other three signature stories as good or better than Secrets About my Father.
Best
Funniest
Feels
Forget the money, what I’m most proud of is inspiring this story from Benny Carts. We are not so different.