Support new Medium Writers
As a writer for Medium you may notice and wonder why some people only clap once for a Story of yours.
The answer could be that the person doesn’t know that they can clap more than once, and building upon this, it could be that she / he is new to Medium.
It took me a while to discover that I could clap up to 50 times, and then a while more to get comfortable with this.
When I started writing on Medium I never thought that I would get claps or applause for anything I wrote or much interest in any of my Stories.
I nearly fell off my chair when I applied to be a writer for 2 publications and was accepted. I was greatly encouraged by Tina Viju who read and liked my Stories and gave me the maximum applause, or a lot of applause for them.
A little bit of kindness or support to someone who is new at something can go a long way.
I LOVE to write as I love to breathe, and have blogged since 2012 and written Guidelines and information for work colleagues and bloggers alike. I like to do this, because I want to help or support others.
Taking note of who is new to Medium via going to the writer’s Profile page and seeing when they joined and how many Stories they have published is something that I love to do.
I do this for people who follow me and interact with my Stories, and for writers of Medium Stories that I find and like their Stories. Then I follow them and check “New from your Network” every day, to visit and read Stories of new members, and others that I am interested in.
Clapping a Story that you like, written by a new Medium Member, can be like “gold” to that person. New or “old” Medium members alike will appreciate your interaction with their Stories, or showing your appreciation or acknowledgement that they have written something that you like or found useful.
I remember when I first started writing on Medium in November 2018 that it was a place of awe and possibility and excitement for me. I also felt daunted because I am an introvert and only just started really caring for (or loving myself).
On the flip side, I “went for broke” because I am a curious and creative person. I am a “doer” and applied to join Publications “just in case I was accepted”. I am proud of myself for “trying” and for sharing on Medium, and grateful to the Editors of the Medium Publications who have accepted me as a Writer.
If people like Tina had not given me encouragement to keep sharing my writing, it is quite possible that I would have stopped writing on Medium.
I have never had a story curated or a wide readership, and I need some encouragement to keep doing some “public” things, such as continuing to write on Medium. That’s me, and perhaps the same for other Medium writers.
A great thing about Medium is that when you delve in and interact with writers, as well as share your own writing, you can enrich your own life with knowledge or experiences imparted by others; and you can encourage or motivate others to keep on writing and sharing.
You can balance your time with writing on Medium and reading other writer’s Stories, and include encouraging others by showing them genuine appreciation through claps, and / or mentoring them through Private Notes and / or Responses.
There is no pressure upon you to do this 24 / 7 because it does take time. You know your own time-table but circumstances or factors, like how you feel emotionally or how your health is, come into play.
Don’t feel pressured into clapping the new Stories of everyone that you follow. I follow some Medium writers as a “tag” or a Bookmark, to possibly read one of their future Stories because I’ve come across something they wrote that I was interested in.
Each day or second day I will look at Stories from my favorite Medium writers and Publications. But we all started somewhere.
If you have time to read Stories of brand new Medium writers (e.g. by searching upon Topics or Tags as I often do also), then give them some love and support if you like what they write.
Do what you can when you can in Life, and support others along the way.
