My Story As A Writer On Medium
Something I would like to share as a writer
I feel truly honored to be tagged for this challenge where writers can freely talk about their achievements, failures, and struggles so far. The credit for this brilliant idea goes to the father of Illumination and all Illumination publication branches, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz. You can also participate in this challenge. The link is pasted below.
1 — As a writer, my major pain points and struggles
I want to reach the stage where writers like Tim Denning and Matt Lillywhite are. I believe with continued efforts, I will reach there someday. As a writer, I struggle with time management and procrastination, which becomes a major reason for not being able to publish articles to my optimum capacity.
2 — As a writer, my desires and aspirations
As a writer, my dream is to have a large dedicated audience who will want to follow my work, irrespective of which platform I write on. I aspire to work so hard that I earn my due respect in the writer's community across the globe and on global topics as well.
3 — Here are my top five stories that received the most views
a) 12 Weirdest Foods from Ancient Roman Cuisine
The story describes the weird foods that were very popular and being consumed in the ancient Roman era. Some of these foods will make us modern folks feel pukish, just by the thought that they were cooked and eaten. For e.g. a sow’s uterus.
b) A Token Of Love For 329 Followers
This story was a new year gift from me to all my followers then. I had put my blood and sweat into compiling this one. This was my way of saying thank you to each and every writer who had followed me on this platform and encouraged me as a writer. I had tried to give a summary of each of their last two stories in my words as a way of their work’s endorsement.
c) People stopped inviting me to gatherings because my social anxiety made me a flake.
This story talked about my long-drawn issue with social anxiety. I wrote everything from how I realized something was wrong with me, how I fixed it slowly, and how I overcame my issues. It was my first hit article on Medium.
d) A Cocktail Of 45 Publication Names, Cheers!
This story is special as it brought me into the limelight as a writer. People appreciated me for the creative way in which I used 45 publication names and spun an essay around it. This one was tough to pull but totally worth it.
e) 13 Reasons Why the Prison of Alcatraz Was the Most Legendary Prisons Of All Times
This was the first-ever historical article and the most popular article that has also been one of my highest earning stories ever. This story also was a lot of pain to compile but it was received very well. It talks in great detail about an abandoned prison of Alcatraz, its daily functioning, its inmates, officers, systems, securities, and so on. It is a perfect concoction of thrill and terror.
4 — Here are my great stories that did not receive the required level of attention from readers
I had placed high bets on this story that talks about the history and evolution of toilets from the 15th century. This story covers the grossest ways of sewage systems to the most modernized ways of handling waste in an organized manner.
b) The Great Indian Sex Education
This story was special as I procured it from a childhood memory. Learning about sex for the first time was a big deal and it still is. Despite the knowledge being half-baked, I tried to add subtle humor to the story by narrating it from a novice’s point of view.
c) About Me — Bhavna B. Narula
This story has the highest emotional value as it talks about my entire life’s journey until now. Honestly, I had hoped for a much stronger response than I received.
d) It’s The Year 3021 and I am Finally Curated
This piece was a new horizon for me where I tried my hand at fictional comedy and that too futuristic. I added as much creativity as possible. It talks about my experience after a thousand years from now when my story finally gets curated on Medium.
e) The Plague That Made People Dance Themselves to Death
The dancing plague is the most amusing story I have ever written. We all love dancing but could never think that in ancient times, dancing had become a reason for mass deaths. Deaths that were extremely agonizing and uncontrollable in nature.
5 — These ten people read my stories regularly. I am grateful to them.
Dr. Preeti Singh, Dr. Fatima Imam, Josh Balerite Acol, Kasun Ranasinghe, Upasana Sharma, Abhay Salvi, Shashwat Agarwal, George Blue Kelly, Brajendra, A Rustic Mind (Manali Desai), and many others. I am so grateful to these people, that their constant support of all my stories has really encouraged me to give my best.
6 — These ten writers I follow regularly.
I follow a lot of people but the topmost are —
Dr. Preeti Singh, Upasana Sharma, George Blue Kelly, Brajendra, A Rustic Mind (Manali Desai), Josh Balerite Acol, Dr. Fatima Imam, Kasun Ranasinghe, Michael Stang, Terry Mansfield amongst others. I love these writers and their work and despite my laziness to read, I am forced to catch on to their stories.
7 — I plan on writing about these topics. My reasons …
I would like to write about art forms such as acting, dance, and music, health and well-being, book reviews, Human resources, corporate cultures, environment, as I feel I can really contribute to these topics from my previous experiences.
8 — I plan to read more about these topics. My reasons …
Humor, Self-development, psychology, and human behavior. I have developed a special interest in these topics lately.
9 — I want to read more from these writers.
Michael Burg, MD (AKA Medium Michael Burg), Spyder, Amy Culberg, Ryan Fan, Matt Lillywhite, Kiran Yasmin, Vishnu*s Virtues, The Maverick Files, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, and Salman Hasan. There are many other writers that I love reading but because of the restriction and from what I could recollect, I have mentioned the above names.
10 — If I were the owner of Medium, I’d implement these features to support writers and readers…
a) Set a fixed payment for Indian writers depending on the number of words.
b) Instead of selling our writeups, Medium should buy them from us. That would be a gamechanger!
c) Let authors clap for their own stories. Why not? Claps don't determine the revenues anyway. We can and should be allowed to show some love for our own stories.
d) Same stories lurking on the homepage for days. That's irritating like crazy.
e) More transparency on the Medium Partnership Program is required. Instead of just informing us about the lumpsum amount earned, it should also give us a breakup of the amount earned from the previously published stories. How on earth are we supposed to know, if the money that our previous stories are earning is reaching us or not.
A huge thanks to Dr. Mehmet Yildiz for this amazing idea. Thank you, Dr. Preeti Singh, and Brajendra for mentioning my name. I am glad to be a part of this and I loved sharing my thoughts freely as a writer.
P.S. I am sorry if I forgot to mention the names of some amazing authors. I respect every author on this platform and wish everyone a stroke of good luck in their writing endeavors.
Thank you for reading :)