The Digital Drama On Medium, Yay or Nay?

Drama, Drama, and More Drama — Should Writers Bond with Readers Through Personal Stories?

Stop!!! ✋ huh… What? 😟

It’s the Police of Planet Medium, you idiot.👮🏾‍♂️ His Majesty, King Nour the Great, 🤴 ordered us to triple-check writers’ IDs.

Oh… Why? 🤔 Don’t question the police of His Majesty, you fool!

Let me see! Check his Medium identification number — processing… 75%, 93%, 100%, data analyzed! 🤨 Throw him in prison and let him rot with the other desperate writers. 🥸

Hello! My name is Nour the Great, and I’m the digital identity of the King of Planet Medium.🤴 Everything you know or believe about me on this planet is a story I typed on a tiny keyboard while taking a dump. That piece of crappy information was sent straight to your screen at the speed of light as you were taking a piss.

The stories I told you about myself might be true, or I might have been fooling you and fabricating the image of wealth to get you to read my content and earn $230 a month from Medium to buy toilet paper. Many of you might believe what I said, and many won’t; what do I care? I have double-flushed the toilet already, and my stomach feels better anyway. But the question is, does it make any difference if you find my stories relatable, enjoyable, and valuable, and can my stories impact your toilet? I mean, anyway? 😉

(If you are not a Medium member, use this link to read this story)

Many starting writers get confused about sharing their personal experiences when they write online; some fear exposing their vulnerable side and looking weak in front of their friends and the public. Others like to write formally and lecture, like Kim Jong-un, and many believe that if they share their personal lust stories with readers, they can bond with a reader much more quickly; after all, lust creates bonds.

Well, wrong, wrong, and wrong! All these writers are confused about the big picture of writing.

Get up on your feet, squeeze your butt, and answer the following: What is the primary job of a writer? Is it to write? Is it to bond? Is it to entertain, or is it to share stories? Careful, boy, if you answer wrong, sugar mama will slap you on that shaky rear.

Wrong! None of the above. The writer’s job is to transform; even lifting someone’s mood from pessimistic to optimistic is a form of transformation. Slaaaaaap! Do I hear ouch? Good job, sugar mama, on that decent work!

It’s the writer’s job to figure out which tool of the writer’s toolbox they must leverage to transform a reader from one state of mind to another. If the writer finds that sharing their personal story and lessons fits the article’s purpose, then they must share it.

They shouldn’t use a story to ask for pity or cry for attention if they consider themselves professional writers. I find it weak if the writer only shares their story to bond without any lesson. A writer’s job is to write to transform, not to talk about their divorce or abuse problems repeatedly to feel better about themselves and get some empathy from a few readers.

I can talk about my divorce story and stretch it for years, but is it relevant to my main message? What do I gain as a writer if I repeatedly discuss my divorce? Nothing but a bit of empathy turns into pity and boredom, and eventually, it’s ignored.

What does my audience learn from me talking about my divorce day after day? Don’t get married if you are broke and want to be rich. But is that the message I want to deliver to my readers? Hell no!

Not every reader is interested in your story, but they are interested in hearing a story that helps them overcome a challenge. As a writer, you should use your article as a canvas and draw sketches from observations about how different people, including yourself, behave and deal with difficulties to overcome a challenge.

When you can tell stories that relate with a reader, you create a bond; it doesn’t have to be your story; it could be a story of your friend, a brother, or a fictional story of your imagination. If the reader believes it, learns a valuable lesson from it and helps them overcome similar life challenges, you have succeeded as a writer. You created a more powerful bond than someone writing to hear a reader saying I feel you, may god help you and that sort of superficial relationship.

That was my take on this private matter; now I can release you from the prison of the desperate writer and throw you in the jungle with the lions; you have become a beast! Show the losers how to compete and keep their ass surviving. Haum, that was the lion’s bite on your ass. Run!!!

It’s time for you, my fellow writers, to share your perspective about whether writers should tell their personal stories to bond with readers or avoid all the drama and keep it formal. The stage is yours now.

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— © Nour Boustani 2023