|Blog|Blogging Tips|Writing|
Success Stole My Mojo
And the 3-step strategy I used to get it back
Last month, I lost my Medium mojo in the most unexpected of ways. It wasn’t a fight with a troll or being shamed or anything like that. It wasn’t from frustration or the loneliness of the Medium echo chamber.
I had a story go viral, and it threw me for a spin.
The problem was, the piece was far from my favorite. I wrote it in an hour. It drew on a voice that didn’t much sound like me. It was curated (ah…curated…) in “Humor” and I don’t even think of myself as funny!
The UpShot
This story begins from the best possible place — a successful collaboration with the excellent P.S. I Love You editor Tre L. Loadholt.
I awoke one morning at the end of September to a gentle rejection on a piece I had submitted the day before.
The piece was light and fun.
It had a number in the sub-header.
But, it was too autobiographical and therefore not all that readable.
This was it:
The “no” was gentle, and Tre is a great editor.
In an early morning blissful writer-editor back and forth, she asked for an additional 1–2 lead in paragraphs, along with some tweaking to the body of the piece.
She critiqued. I edited. She responded “I love what you added!” and off the piece went, into the ether.
All in, I had spent no more than three hours on it, start to finish, editing included.
When I saw it live on P.S. I Love You, I was proud of myself for keeping to my own publication goals and benchmarks, but I did not have special expectations for or attachments to the piece.
But, the inter-web had other plans…the piece went viral, surpassing my own personal follower count in views within several hours, with a 60+% read ratio.
The article took on a life of its own.
Watching reads tick upward was both exhilarating, and very disconcerting…
The Downside
If you read Suggestion Box, you know, I have monetary goals for Medium, in addition to my aims to improve as a writer and invest in my audience, I am here to make money.
Viral stories matter to me.
If I take my goals seriously, I have to pay careful attention to them.
I have to understand what makes one story go viral and another flop, so that I I can do my best to replicate their success.
I’m also something of a control freak…
Watching this story go viral really threw me for a loop.
It made me doubt the voice I’ve been honing as I improve my skills as a writer, as with this piece, I had inadvertently stumbled onto a voice that folks seemed to like more than “mine.” I wrote the piece, but it didn’t exactly feel like me.
I didn’t see it coming, but there I was, sipping from the perfect cocktail for writers’ block:
Anxiety+Self Doubt = Writers Block
The Upside of the Downside
It took me several days to work it all through, and it’s a good thing that I did.
In the weeks that followed, I’d come to learn that the definition of “viral” that I was using while riding the emotional waves of “Oh, You Thought It Was Love?” were quaint at best. The lessons that I learned in this episode would really be put to the test with “Primal Sex,” now just about to cross 17k views, and counting…
Things started to shift for me as I sat with the “humor” curation.
“Humm…” I thought. “Sarene is funny…” (I write under a pen name. Sara is really not all that funny…) “Who knew?!”
Working with an excellent editor helped me to refine my sense of my strengths and it gave me a taste of a different kind of success. It was an important step on the ever-unfolding journey to hone my writer’s voice.
It took me two-weeks and 10,000+ words to integrate the positive aspects of this roller coaster ride. I had to allow the voice that I’ve been honing to break apart a little, in order to make room for what I had learned in this episode.
My Voice, Redeemed
The deep dynamics that lie beneath this story are about “the writers’ voice.” It, above all else, is the diamond we must polish consistently if we want to succeed as writers.
On one hand, it’s a brand, and in that way, it has to resonate with the target audience it’s addressing.
On the other hand, it also has to be our own. If it’s not, using it day after day will empty us out, leaving us feeling used and spent.
When I review my stats for recent months (yes, I’m pro-stats analysis, though I admire the Zen of you who do not check…), I keep my eye on three recent pieces, the “mini-viral,” the “mega-viral” and one other, my most beloved piece, “The Mistake That’s Costing Us So Much Pleasure.”
“The Mistake..” is a piece that I wrote in my third active month on the platform. I can see now that it’s too long, too heady, and would have earned me far greater success had I broken it down into five separate stories.
But, its message is the message that most motivates me as a writer. It’s a balance of my authentic voice and my brand. It’s even little bit funny. And, while its revenue is dwarfed by “Primal Sex,” it’s still my second highest earning piece, over time. It’s my own Little Engine That Could, and I love it.
It’s what I read when I fall into the ditch that is:
Anxiety+Self-Doubt = Writers Block
Should you ever find yourself in a similar ditch, here’s what I recommend:
Digging Your Way Out of the “Who Am I?” Writer’s Block Ditch, in 3 Steps
- Name the triggers — For me, here, I felt out of control and lack of authenticity, classic triggers for me.
- Look for the positive — Triggered yes, but I was tasting success, and being stretched to see myself in a new way, “funny.”
- Take a beat, then go back to basics — Growth is always a process of mini-breakdowns, followed by new, better integrations. Let yourself break, then feel yourself grow.
