Once I’ve Earned $43.28 On Medium The Pressure To Write Is Off

Why I have no strong desire to be a Medium High Flyer and why you shouldn’t either.

I’ve been writing here on and off for a while now. I began in the heady days of 2018 when the sun was high in the sky, the birds sang in the trees and the algorithm was in my favour.

In the early days, I read all the productivity porn I could get my hands on. I did my obligatory one month of an article per day. It didn’t go well. I had a few early, random successes. As it happened, these coincided with a dip in my offline wages. The ‘Gods of Curation’ smiled at me in the early days. Was it a strategy to keep new writers here? I suspect so.

Two years down the line, I’m still here, and I’m still writing.

The class of ’18 were an interesting bunch. Some of them were very driven and pumped out article after article. Some of the class of ’19 and ever ’20 have far surpassed me in output, followers and wealth. I wish them well. I suspect they’ll burn out long before I do. They’ve tied their life to writing.

And there’s nothing wrong with tying your life to writing. I just don’t think you should tie your life to writing here.

Why Haven’t You Quit Yet You Grumpy Old Bird?

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy being The Argumentative Penguin. My followers often find me in the comments section and then make their way to my work after. Some of my early followers may even remember who I was before I wrote under my nom-de-plumage-aqautique.

Medium is a great place to be. I read far more than I write, and I comment far more than I should. I’ve debated some of the best writers on here and most of them aren’t idiots.

Most of them; there are some notable exceptions.

But for me, and I suspect for many people, writing is about creative expression. Stephen King calls it telepathy. I take a far more Taoist approach. One small section of the universe, using imaginary squiggles to communicate something new to the rest of itself.

Pretentious huh? But, also… kinda true.

Which is why I don’t really squiggle unless I want to. I don’t feel compelled to write here to make a living. Sure it’s nice when something you write gets picked up and appreciated, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t. Chill. Especially you newbies. Play the long game.

I look at those people penning identical essays day after day and ramping up their rhetoric to suit their audience. There’s only so many ways you can tell everyone that America is the worst place in the world or the eleven new sexual positions you’ve discovered since yesterday’s overshare-buffet. There’s only so many times people can screech ‘All white people are evil’ and ‘Men are trash’ before the message, however true, becomes diluted.

I read those articles and think ‘good on you’ and ‘screw that for a laugh’ in equal measure.

Why $43.28?

It’s a question worth asking. Human nature means that you’ll always try and outdo what you did yesterday, last week, last month, last year. You’re always chasing success and it will always elude you. The hedonistic treadmill means you’ll stay yoked to your work without a cut-off.

$43.28, that’s mine. It’s the total cost (once I’ve exchanged currencies) of my: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Audible, and Marvel Unlimited subscriptions.

That’s all this writing has to cover — and I‘m pretty loosey-goosey about that. I’m not going to self-flagellate if I’m a few dollars short. In turn, those 4 subscriptions are like steroids for my creativity. I read a comic every lunchtime. I watch a TV show per week and I take a 2 hour walk every evening and listen to an audiobook.

At the moment, Skullduggery Pleasant. Hilarious. Not even slightly aimed at my demographic but it doesn’t matter.

These subscriptions allow me to write scripts for stage and screen and encourage me to do so. My day job outside of Medium is to build entire worlds in my head and hand them off to my agent to sell on my behalf. There’s some small joy that comes from writing on this platform — but it pales in comparison to character dialogue, plot arcs, and the genuine creativity of breathing life into your imagination.

Medium isn’t the endgame. Medium is a small part of the writing plan and that’s why the pressure comes off just shy of $45.

If you’re a writer like me, and you get your creative kicks elsewhere then don’t be afraid to take it easy. There are some months I write nothing at all because I have nothing to say. I’d rather say nothing than hollow out my soul for a few bucks here and there. I’m not on the productivity treadmill, and I hope you’re not either.

Creative writers need: Time. Space. Inspiration. Imagination. Work Ethic and in my case… Coffee on tap. Happy writing one and all.

Oh and if you got this far, thanks for reading. Your $0.02 has been added to my vast wealth of almost $43. Fancy adding another $0.02?

Still reading? Guess you were hoping for a newsletter or something? Keep moving, I sure as hell don’t have time for that.