The reason I am so excited about Medium now!
Writing for more than two months and then…
I have been writing on this platform, Medium, for more than two months so far. It was a kind of big challenge for me because this is the first time to write in two languages, English and Japanese, on a big public platform. I was not very sure if I can be comfortable to be here as a writer, but now I am really involved and intensely getting into it.
In the first month, it was very quiet. I wrote more articles in English than in Japanese, because there are very few Japanese readers using this platform. English is not my mother tongue, so it is not easy to write in English. Anyway, I wrote what I could write with my English. I read a lot of posts as well. There are so many beautiful pieces on this platform. I read in English as much as I could to expand my English vocabulary.
Little by little, I got more and more followers. I received some responses, claps, and I had some sentences highlighted, which motivated me to write more. Some people say that Medium is “a network,” not just a social media or blogging service. I understood that now.
Exchanging the messages and communicating with each other is a fun part of the platform. It encourages you, inspires you, and you want to get more into it. It is a nice feeling to be connected with someone who you wouldn’t otherwise. As long as you say something, someone listens to you and responses you.
However, there was one thing that I was a bit disappointed. It was that my Japanese posts were not read much, because there are not many Japanese readers (I had some readers who don’t understand Japanese, still, left nice comments. Thanks!). So, I started my publication for Japanese people who want to read in Japanese, as I wrote before.
At the same time, I got an invitation from one of the poetry publications. What a coincidence!
In this month, I am going to write more in Japanese to put in my new publication, but I will write in English too. I don’t know how my project about increasing Japanese users of this platform works. No matter what happens, it’s my experiment and experience. It will be another story of mine. That’s why I am so excited about Medium as a writer. I feel like I am a little child who just got a brand-new toy!
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HANA is a Japanese born writer who writes stories and poems in both English and Japanese. If you are an English reader, you can follow her English publications, ‘Etude of Creativity (poetry, haiku, fiction)’ and ‘Japanese Writer (blogs & essays)’ or on Twitter.