Take the Few Seconds to Respond to Articles Which Touch Your Heart

Your caring and support will be appreciated for a far longer time

Responding to Medium articles is a passion of mine. I love the exchange of responses. I cherish the connections I’ve made with multiple fellow writers in the six months I’ve been writing on Medium.

That being said, it boggles my mind how few readers typically respond to the most beautifully crafted, heartfelt articles.

My sole purpose in writing this article is to encourage more readers to consider giving more responses to articles, as an expression of support for the writer’s effort. Especially to those articles written from the heart. Highlights, although appreciated, don’t pack the same punch.

My heart and caring for our community is invested in this article. Not to go all “kumbaya” on you, but we’re all in this together to support each other.

That’s enough of my “holier than thou” preaching. It’s time to step off my pedestal. Knowing me, maybe too late… lol.

A Typical Article Birth Process

You find yourself tossing and turning in the middle of the night. As hard as you’re trying, there’s just no getting back to sleep. You reach for your cell phone to check the time. It’s 4 AM. Oy!

You catch yourself thinking about what to write about for your next article.

Idea 1… nah. Not enough to say about that. Idea 2 … nah. It’s too much about me, it would read like a personal journal. Idea 3 … nah. There’s already a hundred articles written on that topic.

All of a sudden …

Boom! It strikes you like a lightning bolt. A topic that’s so different you just know your article will be unlike any other one that’s out there. Or at least anything you’ve ever read. Yet, your gut tells you the theme would be most relatable.

Even better. It comes from your heart. From your life experience. You’re excited to share a valuable life lesson you’re learning, with the intent to help others dealing with similar challenges and situations.

A subtle, knowing smile arises upon your face. It conveys to you … yes, you’ve found yourself one gem of an idea. You’re biting at the bit to get started.

Content packed, albeit ill -formed sentences are flying through your head, so rapidly and voluminous you just have to get them down before you forget any precious one of them.

Screw getting back to sleep.

Next thing you know it, you’re frantically key-stroking away at your laptop. Finding it near impossible to key in each letter fast enough to keep up with the steady stream of words cascading through your consciousness.

You get all your thoughts down. Well, at least the most important ones. You press the Save button.

Now you can return to sleep, step one of your mission accomplished, eagerly looking forward to resuming with the article when you wake up.

Over the next two days, you finish off the article, and submit it. You’re pleased with your work. Even more than pleased, you’re excited. Very excited. This is a good one.

Your Baby’s Reception

Your article gets published the morning after. (Thank you, publisher, for your consistently rapid response time).

Go, me!!! You expected it to be published based upon your prior history with this publication. Yet, reading the words “Your article has been accepted to …” never gets old.

You move on to writing your next article. The household chores you neglected doing the past couple of days because you were obsessively working on the prior article can wait another couple of days.

The next morning, you look at your notifications, and you notice you got 30 reads, and 16 highlights, many of which were on your “most proud of” phrases you put the time and effort in to nail.

But only one response.

16 highlights … that’s cool.

But what’s with only one response.

Why the vast discrepancy???

Pardon Me for a Wee Bit of Sarcastic Humor

Your first thought …

Maybe my words didn’t resonate with my readers to the extent they were motivated enough to comment.

Wrong! Give yourself more credit than that. Your content was highly relatable.

Ok, them maybe my readers would prefer to respond to me via email, phone call or letter but are too shy to ask me for my email address, phone number or home address.

That’s creative , but silly. I’ll give you one more guess.

Maybe it’s because my readers are waiting until there is a new technology that will amplify their spoken response through a “magical microphone” which has the capacity to transmit itself from wherever the reader is on the globe directly to my laptop headset.

Now that’s utterly ridiculous. But very funny. Maybe you should write your next article for a humor publication, haha.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re out of guesses.

Now, here’s the real reason … (drum roll)

Wait a sec. Stop the drumming. I can’t resist one last slice of sarcasm.

It’s because using Medium’s respond feature is just too darn complicated. One would need an instruction manual to figure it out.

With words similar to ..

“After you highlight the phrase you want to respond to, just to the right of the highlight icon, you’ll see a circle with a nub extending out at approximately the “5 o’clock” position of the circle.

Click on the circle. A window will appear on the right side of your screen. You’ll see a blinking vertical line, pulsating at a rate of approximately one beat per second. That’s where you key in your response. After your entry is completed, click the Respond button. It’s in forest green, in the lower right hand corner.”

If you need further assistance, contact technical support at (987)654–3210

All Kidding Aside

Here’s the reasons why I make a habit of responding to articles. None of which can be adequately expressed via highlighting.

To Express My Admiration for People Who Write From Their Heart

They’re not just sharing their knowledge as a classroom teacher would for a student. They are sharing who they are. Oftentimes, being vulnerable, sometimes sharing things they’ve done that, let’s just say, they’re far from proud of.

Because above all else, the writer cares about and want to help their readers. Highlighting a phrase or two feels at best like I’m extending my arm out to give a weak handshake as in “that was nice” when the author deserves a warm hug of a response.

To Express Specifically How I Found Their Words Helpful

A highlight cannot convey what I liked about their words or how much it meant to me, but only that I liked it. It cannot express “I really related to that”, or “I’m gonna think about that next time I …”

A highlight does not establish any connection between the writer and reader. As Medium writers, we’re told to write for the reader and not for ourselves. I couldn’t agree more. What better way to help writers write for the reader than letting them know what touches our heart, and how it impacts us.

We can only do that through responding. Highlighting doesn’t cut it.

To Encourage Other Writers

Writers have vastly different skill levels. Even in those articles that are not particularly well written, I’ve found there’s always something I can find to compliment. As the expression goes … “seek and ye shall find.” Whether it be a single well written phrase, or a bravely expressed heartfelt sentiment.

Medium is a tough, competitive world. You can write the most brilliantly crafted, powerful article and the likelihood is the upper echelon large publications will reject it. (that’s not to say don’t try)

If there is anything I can do to encourage any writer, regardless of their skill level, I do it by responding. Many times, I’ve responded as many as 5 to 10 times on one article. That’s how good the article is. That’s how much I want to encourage the writer, to convey to them that the effort they put into painstakingly finding their words was not for naught.

To Form New Friendships

Through exchanging responses, I’ve made several new Medium friends. It’s likely I’ll never meet any of them in person, yet that doesn’t diminish our caring for each other. That’s the magic of responding from your heart. You get back what you give out. It’s beautiful when that happens. I’m grateful.

Takeaways

I’m retired. I have lots of time on my hands. Certainly more so than those of you who are currently in the work force.

So, I get it. If I were still employed, I expect I would be highlighting more, and responding less. So, just do what you can.

One last thing … how do I find a graceful way to encourage you to respond to this article? I’m smart, but not that smart, haha!

Ooh … I got it…

So here’s the deal. If there is anything you’ve written you would like me to read, respond to this article with a link to it. I will be most happy to not only read it, but also to … duh …respond.

I don’t only talk the talk, I walk the walk. You’ll see.

Happy reading and writing!

Art