She Made 19 Cents in December. Now This Medium Writer Is Killing It
More important, her writing has been a cathartic outlet
Her name is Klara Jane Holloway. She recently moved to a 55 and older community, and I loved her story about earning 19 cents one month.
It was honest.
Vulnerable.
It was a great article because it made me feel sympathy for her.
And it cracked me up because I looked at the number of claps and realized Klara Jane was killing it with her story about earning a whopping 19 cents.
It had 2.3K claps and 56 comments and it’s still going strong.
A slow start on Medium
I started reading her stories — or she reading mine — about a month ago, and when I saw her 19 cent story in my feed, I became curious about Klara Jane.
I wanted to know why she earned only 19 cents and how she has done since then, and her story is an inspiration to anyone struggling to gain traction.
Klara joined Medium in June 2021. She wrote 12 articles in her first six months on Medium, including one month where she wrote no articles.
“I went through months of stagnation where I added over 50 titles to my drafts but no stories to go with them.” — Klara Jane Holloway
She said she tried to develop stories from her titles, but then her thoughts became scattered and she’d give up after being sidetracked in her thoughts.
But then something happened in December right after her 19-cent month.
A writing breakthrough
Maybe, it was the encouraging words she received from other writers for her 19 cent story, or maybe, she found her writing voice to share her great stories.
Whatever the case, she has been on a writing spree since writing that story.
She wrote 21 articles in December. Four got over 2k claps. One story on her move to a 55 or over community received 4.1K claps and 85 comments.
But the story I remember most was about her daughter going missing. Her daughter had a history of drug addiction, and her family was very worried.
Klara Jane got a phone call from her daughter at the ICU from a hospital an hour away, and she wrote in a way so I could feel all her different emotions:
“Of course, I’m glad she’s alive. But couldn’t she somehow have notified us in the last 10 days? Over Christmas? Her two children worried sick?”
“It’s easy to go from worried, heartsick, said, and unable to sleep… to WTF?”
“I’ve gone through this countless times in the past 25 years.”
“I will always be a mother and worry about my child.”
“I will still feel frantic that she’s in a morgue someplace unidentified.”
Writing as a cathartic outlet
One of the other stories I remember reading was about COVID being like a serial killer snuffing the life out of the last couple of years of her mother.
Her mom’s nursing home went on lockdown in 2020, and she was mostly confined to her room without her family being able to come and see her.
“Suddenly, my mom was confined to her room, all alone. One family member was allowed to visit for one hour 2x/week. That was a privilege I begged for because my mom was often scared and confused.” — Klara Jane Holloway
Klara Jane continued to write stories about her daughter and the effect of her drug addiction on her health, writing 34 stories in January and February.
I took away two things from Klara Jane’s amazing writing turnaround:
- She found her niche in writing personal stories.
- Writing about her family was cathartic for her.
“I needed to vent and NOBODY wanted to hear about her anymore. So, I got on Medium and vented by writing that article,” she told me in a comment.
The lesson for Medium writers
The lesson here is if you’re just starting out on Medium and not getting many claps or reads and you’re thinking about giving up due to low earnings, it all can turn around if you’re willing to be open and vulnerable about your life.
Klara Jane’s writing makes me feel like I know her from her stories, and another key to her Medium success is she regularly comments on stories.
She also promotes writers by sharing stories she enjoys on Reciprocal.
That’s the formula to me for success on Medium: Stand out by letting readers get to know you and build a relationship with other like-minded writers.
Klara’s story, “How Reading More Stories and Writing Less Has Improved My Earnings,” is a must-read for any newbies seeking to build their audience.
Thanks for reading my first story in Reciprocal.
Three writers I enjoy reading are Bernie Pullen, JF Danskin, and Paul Walker.
The first story is about Bernie’s experience of wild camping with her family:
The second is on JF Danskin’s breakthrough in his writing:
And the last is Paul Walker’s story of his first kiss:
Check out my YouTube video on tips for writing great titles. And if you want to read thousands of stories on Medium and write cathartic stories like Klara Jane’s use my link or if you want to buy me a coffee, I’d greatly appreciate it.