Should You Write for Illumination? My Thought Processes, Elaborated.
My honest, unbiased opinion-piece.
An upfront disclaimer: I am not paid a commission for this piece. A string of interactions since last week triggered me to write this piece. This story is that trigger elaborated.
I have received many kind comments since my previous story on How I Gained 1K Followers on Medium in 6 months, and thank you for all of that. I have also received many comments from that story on Medium and on Twitter for the same topic. So, I thought, hmm, maybe I should do something about it.
I allowed that idea to settle in for a while as I had other pieces I was working on. That said, the trigger is there, and I have penned it on my notepad. This trigger was whizzing back and forth over the weekend, and it remained fuzzy.
That is the problem with ideas. Converting ideas to writing is not designed to be a business of fuzziness. It is a business about concreteness.
And then, that spark hit me this morning. It came in the form of a question via Twitter. It goes like this: -
“Hi Aldric, thank you for your kind words on the Medium comment. So glad to be part of the Illumination community now. I just had a quick question. How long does it usually take to publish an article that you submit to them? I am just curious, so I can try and time them out. Thanks so much!”
This was my response.
“Hey L**e, my pleasure. They published within a day based on my experience if there are no hiccups in between. Cheers!”
This was the entire conversation. As I did not attain L**e’s agreement to showcase our conversation thread in this story, I decided to type it out instead.
This conversation shot a beam of light into my mind. With light comes clarity. And an elaboration of details follows clarity.
Should You Write For Illumination?
All answers apply. What we choose depends on our pursuits.
When It Is A Yes.
- When it comes to building a content portfolio.
- When it comes to building a tribe.
- When it comes to daily improvements.
All these 3 points have one common thread. That anchor is visibility. When the time comes to show something, we better have our catalog ready. That showcase has to come from an external source for credibility.
If we write stories daily, then we need publications to absorb our contributions. This is like the black holes in our universe. The last thing you want is to receive a private note that says, “We have recently published this, so we will pass this story.”
I don’t know about you, but this is totally not helpful to me. And it is not helpful to you if you are on a journey to build a content portfolio. Having 10 stories published is not the same as writing 10 stories that are rejected and return to our draft folders. It throttles our confidence and we do not get visibility.
Building a tribe requires visibility, and the precursor to visibility is content. We will never be able to get ourselves at the homepage of many others if we do not have a truckload of content published. Of course, we can self-publish.
However, if we are just starting out, then betting on a publication that holds the attention of thousands of readers is heavy-duty leverage.
The final point I make relates to the rejections. I am pretty confident many of us can take rejections in our stride. The difference is pure-play rejection or rejections with feedback.
When we are just starting out, we need constructive and thoughtful feedback. We need to know why we are got rejected.
I got constructive feedback from Illumination’s editors each time my story got rejected. I do also receive private notes for areas of improvement, pin-pointed. It creates a basis for self-improvement.
My Thoughts On People Who Say NO to Writing for Illumination.
- When it comes to perceived lack of writing quality.
- When it comes to lack of curation or selection for further distribution.
- When it comes to low viewership and readership.
If we genuinely believe that any publication, Illumination included, is responsible for the above — By all means, do not publish through those publications. We have the freedom of choice. Why publish and then complain?
I want to make one point with an analogy. The kid that blows past objections and rejections is going to get what he/she wants. That kid that wallows in misery will continue to do so.
Writers are writers. Do not blame publications when we do not get the traction or audience we think we deserve. No, we deserve nothing until we put in the work. No one owes us a living, and no publication owes us an audience.
There are many resident top writers in Illumination whose work gets selected for further distribution ALL THE TIME. Many of the editors in this publication have got their work recognized by the platform and their peers. I do not think they are stupid, and you should not either.
And as a personal appeal — PLEASE. We need to place the responsibility on ourselves for success, whichever definition of success we choose to work towards.
Pointing our fingers at others is a waste of time and complete, and utter bullshit. Stop blaming publications for our lack-of-success. Blame ourselves instead. Take the blame, absorb the responsibility and keep pushing the edge of the envelope.
My Takeaway — Let Us Get To Work.
Yes or No — You decide. And stop the blame games. If blame games work, the bottom 99% of the world population would be richer in net worth than the top 1%.
Unfortunately, that is not the case and will never be. The top 1% are tough as nails. They are like kids who never knew objections, rejections, and they keep pushing their limits.
The top writers I know are tough as nails. They write a lot. They write about their bad days when they have one. They write about achievement when they get one. Take the time and go through their work. You will realize one thing.
They work.
So, should you write for Illumination?
I think you need to ask yourself if you are willing to do what it takes to leap-frog yourself to success. Blame the man behind the machine, not the machine.
A racehorse is a racehorse.
The jockey is the man with intent. The racehorse is innocent.
Aldric
About the Author:
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure.
Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.