Stop Writing For Just a Second and Read This

What I’m learning about writing on Medium

Though I’ve probably had a Medium account for a decade now, I’ve only started being active on the site when I decided to take up writing.

Before then, I hadn’t even paid attention the fact that there was such a thing as the Medium Partner Program. As soon as I realized that you could actually get paid writing on Medium, I felt excited and apprehensive at the same time.

I was excited. Getting paid for writing is exactly what I’m looking for. On my personal website, I currently have a single ad unit at the very bottom of the page, and it fills me with pain.

I hate ads. I believe in content that is truly free: free from corporate influence. I believe in content that is supported by its readership, not by business interests. I believe in spaces where our eyes can be allowed to wander without being sold anything.

In this sense, I believe free content should be paid for, but only by those who can pay, enabling content to be available for free to those who can’t. In other words, I believe that content should be socialized: sponsored by all of us according to our incomes, and made available for everyone.

If only there were such a platform. But oh well, Medium comes close enough.

I was also apprehensive. In my “Recommended” feed, all the content I could find seemed to be from writers hungrily looking for followers, hustling to get paid.

Articles written in obvious haste, riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, written just for the sake of getting something published.

Articles with little passion or substance. So many articles on Medium about how to write on Medium.

It was becoming clear how there is a large section of Medium where everyone is busy clapping but no one is listening, writing but not reading, following just to get followed, desperate for our creations to be interesting enough, but not interested enough in the creations of others.

At first, I kept my head down and started importing my writings into Medium, hustling to get paid myself.

Then I realized that this wasn’t who I wanted to be.

There’s no reward in writing if I lose my appreciation for other people’s words.

I want to be a writer because I enjoy reading. I know it’s controversial to say that, but I don’t think it should be: good writers like to read. Just like good chefs take joy in food. Not everyone who likes to read can be a good writer, just like not everyone who enjoys food can be a good chef. But if you want a chance at becoming a good writer, you have to enjoy the words of others and let yourself be influenced by them.

When I decided to stop posting for just a sec, and start building my follow list and exploring the real content on this site, it took me two minutes to realize that I actually like being on here.

I like that I can highlight or respond to parts of posts that I like and get a conversation started. I love that people who follow me can also see and participate in these conversations. I love the idea of publications — entire magazines built by your average person.

And there’s so much great content on this site that’s not just about how to make more money on this site.

The truth is, being a reader on a platform like this can be just as rewarding as being a writer.

What’s the point of writing if I can’t come up for air in between my five articles a day to read what other people put out?

There won’t be real substance to what I write if I don’t inject into it inspiration from other people’s works.

Content is inspired — by our surroundings, by conversations, the films we watch, the music we listen to, and by the content we read. Content produced in the vacuum of your own mind, without the inspiration from a random sentence you read or something you saw in the news or an observation your friend made the other day, that content invariably ends up feeling just that: vacuous and uninspired.

Is it true financial independence if I end up being a writing machine?

Now this point is more for people like me, who have the privilege of a stable, comfortable job that they love, but are eager to make money writing because they want to feel more financial security or achieve financial independence through something they already enjoy doing.

Is it really financial independence if I have to put myself under the pressure of writing three or five articles each day, with not enough time to polish them into something I’m proud of? Isn’t that just substituting claps and follows for my current boss? Is it healthy to be constantly working under this amount of pressure?

Not to be all “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” on you— I don’t really believe in that. Yes, writing will feel like work sometimes, no matter how much you love it. But there’s work and there’s toxic work. And I don’t want feel that way about writing.

This entire post is written from a place of privilege. I understand that not everyone can afford to slow down or hustle less. If you’re on here because you need to be making this money, I support that wholeheartedly, and I’ll clap for whatever you put out. Get your dollar.

If your goal is to get recognition as a writer, then I think you’ll enjoy the journey a lot better and take a lot more pride in the results if you take your time and do good work.

Currently, my writing is worth a total of $0.56 on Medium, and that’s perfectly okay. I like being here.