The Perfect Storm
Story of my HeArt Pure Fiction Challenge
It was the perfect storm between watching the Everything is Copy documentary and trying out online dating for me. Online dating was worse than I imagined and emphasized my intuition because I had resisted for so long.
But I could not ignore the stories that kept coming to me — that is just the way I am wired, like most writers. Following the perfect storm theme, I decided to write on Medium more seriously and wrote my favorite piece of the last year:
When I started this story, I knew it would explore Gen’s ventures into online dating. I thought it was important for her to have a scene with herself. Single women have a lot of habits, which do not just include looking for partners. Gen, in particular, is focused on self-love and luxury. Candles, baths, and wine fill the background in her stories.
It was important to me that she rushed home and relished in an encounter with herself. To show that she loved herself, because that was essential in how she pursued online dating. That she had the desire to love and please herself, which is essential if you want to be with someone else. To me, if she starts here, then I feel confident that she knows what she wants, and that she has the love to give. I wanted readers to know who Gen was before she opened any dating app.
So I wrote Quickie, and was true to my commitment to write more on this platform. I will tell you, I have read many articles about writing and earnings on Medium — a few by one of our generous hosts for this contest, KL Simmons
I was writing steadily and in my first seven months, I did not even make a dollar combined. And I was thankful for every cent — people were reading my stories! I was so humbled and happy because of that, as any writer would be. I made more money through the end of last year and am thankful people continued to read the stories I wrote.
Outside of writing, I read stories by others and made friends here. People who wrote such amazing pieces, I wanted to support them and all of their endeavors. I utilized the suggested stories on my homepage and got a story from KL, which led to writing for Pure Fiction, her and JA Vassili’s love child. I am working on another story for them, hoping someday to write something as stunning as this story from JA:
My story Too Cute was published last month on Pure Fiction, inside of a year since I decided I was going to prioritize my writing on Medium:
Just over a year later, I am thankful to have maintained that prioritization. But the things I got aside from my dedication has been community, reading great pieces by my community and entering this contest. It was not even a resolution made in January, just something I wanted to do and have done. This year, I am no less committed doing the 100 Story Challenge. 100 stories in 100 days! Crazy, but so fun!
I hope not to slow down. It seems like Quickie was not such a quickie for me after all! It was the start of everything and why it holds such a special place in my heart. You can read the rest of the stories in the series here:
KL and JA, you guys are AMAZING! Everything you do keeps me writing, and your generosity extended to this contest reflects all of that. Thank you both!