My Third Month Writing on Medium

I was thrown off track like a derailed train.

A few weeks ago, I completed my third-month writing on Medium. I’ve been a tad under the weather lately, so I’m just now getting around to posting my update on how that month went. Like they say, better late than never.

For my third month, I started strong. I had a great attitude. In the first seven days of the month, I posted five full-length stories and eight shorter stories that contained links to full-length stories at the end. I was on a roll. I was certain that I had gotten the hang of this whole Medium thing. It was only a matter of time until I would be a Medium success story. Look out, Tim Denning; I’m going to kick your ass. Just kidding, of course.

And then it happened. What happened? Nothing. I had built it, and no one came. Crickets. No one was reading what I had written. I was crushed.

I don’t know why it hit me so hard, but it did. Maybe it was so upsetting because I had done what all the successful writers say to do; I had written consistently. Unfortunately, my number of readers was in the crapper — all of that effort for virtually nothing.

It wasn’t easy to consistently squeeze all of that effort into my chaotic life, but I did it. And for what? I felt like I had been spit on.

I took the lack of readers very hard. I got depressed and couldn’t write for a while. I questioned whether I should keep writing on Medium; maybe I didn’t belong.

Finally, I pulled myself back together and started to write again. My number of readers seemed to improve a bit, and that made me feel better. I was gaining momentum.

And then there was more drama. Ev Williams posted about some changes taking place with Medium. Of course, I overreacted because that’s what I do. Fortunately, some kind fellow writers calmed me down and convinced me that the changes would have no immediate effect on me and that I should keep on writing. So, that’s what I did.

A couple of days before the end of my third month on Medium, I wrote another story and went to get my second Covid vaccine shot. And I got sick. I was done for the month. I was derailed.

Here is what I learned from my third-month writing on Medium.

Things are going to happen in your writing world when you are a writer. You go along the best you can in your writing life, and when you get off track, you do your best to get back on. The best thing you can do is keep your head down, put the blinders on, and keep writing.

Tune out the noise about changes to Medium and views being down. Ignore your stats. Just keep going. If nothing more, you build a writing portfolio, improve your writing, and interact on the platform. That’s a pretty cool thing.

Things are going to happen in your real world too. When it hits the fan in the real world, you do what you can in your writing life when you can. Health, physical and mental, is the most important thing. Without your health, you have nothing.

Let’s check out my stats for my third month.

My third month was my most prolific. I published 15 full-length posts and ten short posts with links to full-length posts at the end. I think that’s pretty good given the circumstances.

I published in Illumination and Synergy.

When it comes to the Partner Program, my goal has always been to make more money each month than I made the previous month. The first month, I earned $9.54. The second month I earned $27.46. And the third month, I earned $27.21. Wah, wah, wah. I didn’t meet my goal.

Oh, well, life goes on. Even though I didn’t reach my goal, I still managed to work on my writing skills, enjoy myself, and interact with some great people on the platform.

Things are going to happen in life that knocks you down. When difficult things in life happen, you do what you can, when you can. Do your best to get up and get going. But if you need to stay down for a while, that’s okay, too. Until next time, onward and upward.

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Linda Kowalchek is a work in progress and a member of the typewriter generation. She spends her time with her husband and her rescue cats waiting for golf balls to crash through their windows. PSA: Don’t live next to a golf course.