Should You Publish on Medium Daily- As a New Writer?

As a New Writer, Consumed with Self-Doubt, Should You Be Publishing on Medium or Any Social Media Daily?

The standard advice from blogging and social media gurus is to be consistent and publish daily, which makes sense; if we want to earn and or gain a following from our content.

The same advice goes for writing. That is to write daily consistently. However, does this mean we have to publish daily?

As new writers, our self-doubt is often sky-high and crippling. We put ourselves under considerable, unrealistic mental pressure and drive ourselves mad!

We do find the courage to blog and show up on social media. We are writing daily the best we can. It feels good, and we think we are doing okay.

However, our self-doubt is saying, “but… you are going to run out of ideas soon.” “You don’t write well, and it takes ages to write and edit?” “If the publication rejects your work?” “And I repeat, you don’t write well.”

How can we not implode when all we want to do, is to crawl into some hole? Screaming and shouting, help me! We desperately want to write gold, and our self-doubt has ground us a holt. On top of that, all writing advice says to publish every day. It’s driving us insane!

This Post Is for New Writers:

• Who has realized that they like to write but have realized this late in life; By late in life, I mean you never dreamt about it as a kid. This means that you feel you have a lot of catching up to do.
• Who lack confidence in their writing and all that goes with writing well.
• Who has loads of ideas on what to write? However, daily publishing isn’t attainable due to life’s responsibilities and the fact it takes you days to write a decent piece, even with the help of Grammarly.
• Whose self-doubt is like Godzilla.

So, Let’s Begin

1 — Believe You Are a Writer

Firstly, you know you are a writer when all you can think about is writing -Unknown.

Don’t lose hope, and carry on. If every day you wake up and all you can do is think of writing, then writing is for you.

2 — Top Author's Advice to New Writers

J K Rowling’s advice:

• Read as much as you can; that is the best way to recognize good writing.
• Know what bad writing is.
• Imitate your favorite writers. It will help you find your voice
• Resign yourself to writing a lot of rubbish — you must get that out of your system.

Source: Youtube on JK Rowling

Steven King has also said, to be a good writer; you need to be a ferocious reader.

3 — Daily Tasks for Consistency and Fun

• Read daily to improve writing, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation. Also, to find your voice and to know what good writing is. Read actual books as well as Medium Blog posts.
• Write paragraphs from books that resonated with you. Then mimic the writing style using your own words.
• Write daily to improve your writing. However, this doesn’t mean you must publish daily, especially if that is causing you stress.
• Don’t plan every free waking moment for writing or blogging. Structure in days that allow time to have fun with friends and family or to be ill.

4 — Get Some Training

Buy books on writing or enroll on an English /Creative Writing course.

Courses and books will help you gain confidence in your writing and help you understand what is good vs bad writing.

5 — Overcome the Fear of a Blank Page

• Force yourself to write about any topic you find interesting. This will build your writing muscle.
• Don’t worry about niching down.
• Your first or second draft doesn’t have to be perfect — Just write.

Tim Ferris's writing goal is 250 words per day. To get it done, he writes whatever comes out, even if it is sh***y, because you can refine and edit later. This removes the pressure of it being perfect.

6- Editing Your Work

“You will write a lot of rubbish, which is part of the course” — J K Rowling.

You might love a sentence or two that you have written. But if that sentence, paragraph, or page doesn’t add to the story, get rid of it. Steven King explains when editing our work, get rid of “your darlings/babies.”

It is in the editing where your writing takes shape, and you improve it.

Don’t write and edit at the same time or on the same day.

7- To Publish Online Daily or Not?

Figure out a publishing schedule that allows for life, responsibilities, and fun and gives you space to create your work without creating self-imposed pressure.

Don’t force yourself to publish daily, but write daily.

For example, use your non-publishing days to write articles ahead of time, creating a bank of posts that can be scheduled or submitted to Medium publications. Again, this will take the pressure off.

Once we have joined the Medium Partner Program, we want to earn big money. Hopefully. But, we see the pennies rolling in.

It is very easy to follow the advice that says to post daily consistently. There is nothing wrong with this advice, especially if we want to earn.

But, I feel this is a catch-22 when we are not confident in our writing. I believe consistent publishing doesn’t need to be daily as a new writer, but writing daily should be something we do.

Publishing daily and watching the pennies roll in could damage your writing confidence.

I feel we should find a balance that allows us to write and read daily but doesn’t require us to publish daily.

That way, we grow in ourselves, and we don’t get to fixated on churning out content whilst we develop our writing muscle.

The worst thing that can happen to a new writer is burnout before finding their writing voice and muscle.

Parting thoughts.

• Be mindful of the writing advice you read. Be self-aware of what will benefit your mental health and long-term writing career.
• Becoming a good writer will take time. Trust your journey. Give yourself time to grow.
• Consistency will bring about incremental improvement over time. Figure out what consistency is for you. It doesn’t have to be daily. It has to work for you and your life circumstances.
• Live life, and remember to have fun with family and friends.
• Exercise, eat well, get out in the fresh air, and meditate.

• Publish posts on Medium consistently, say three times a week, or less, so you are visible to Medium and your friends on Medium.
• Get the balance right, so you don't crash and burn before you even find your writing talent. Obviously, if you are earning hundreds per month, that is a different matter. But, if you are earning pennies (like me), take the time to get better at writing quietly without publishing daily.
• Cherish your mental health because when you burn out, it impacts your dream and others around you.

Here are two articles that discuss Creative Exhaustion and Writers' Mental Health. They are worth a read because exhaustion as a creative can be a serious issue!

Sources: JK Rowling's Youtube Video, Steven King — His Book on Writing. Tim Ferris — An interview, but I can’t recall where.

© 2023 Bella of Thoughtsnlifeblog

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