The Year of the Great Comeback Challenge

How a successful Medium writer kicked a former successful Medium writer in the rear to get her back on the bus.

I’ve seen some great returns in my life, and I’m not even talking about GameStop.

Joe Montana, down by 7 with ten seconds to go, connecting with Jerry Rice for the win.

Tiger Wood donning the green jacket again last year after his horrific fall from Mt. Olympus in 2009.

My Uncle Martin conning Macy’s into refunding his money on a shirt he bought, wore, laundered, and returned after a wedding.

But none of these epic achievements motivated me into attempting to rejuvenate my lagging showing on Medium like the post by Jessica Lynn today on Medium success. Specifically, how to get “Chosen for further distribution.”

A little backstory here.

My Medium star has never shone as brightly as Jessica’s. She has reported 9k followers and a boatload of earnings. But neither was I chopped liver my first year and change on the platform.

I started out getting curated with my first article and reached the coveted 7% status in earnings that month. My income grew each pay period until it peaked at four figures.

And then I hit the pandemic wall. I think you know whereof I speak.

For the first time in my life, I couldn’t come up with a single coherent sentence.

My creative spark continued to dwindle, and I just gave up trying. Things will get better when we handle the virus.

You know how that turned out.

The rest of my life puttered along well enough in it’s pandemic isolation, though productivity — editing for clients, editing my novel, exercising, and so forth became more difficult as the months passed. I got my work done, but it took longer and seemed harder.

Sometime around the end of the year, however, I came out of my sluggish bubble. I’m back to walking a hole in my rugs to reach a gazillion steps a day. I sprint every morning to finish up that novel with a writing partner, and daily, I promise myself to get back to Medium as ideas for posts start to fire up my neurons.

And yet, promises, promises, promises.

So far, I’ve published only three articles since the New Year.

Three.

I’ve been counting on my renewed enthusiasm for non-fiction writing to take hold. But as I’ve learned that painful, basic lesson about creative work, articles don’t write themselves.

And then along came Jessica Lynn to kick me where it counts.

Intrigued by her title, (see her article below), I read a line that hurt my heart. She said since she’d started writing on Medium, she’d seen better writers come and go.

She was talking about me. Not because I’m a better writer, I’m not. But was I a flash in the pan? Someone who grabbed the attention of my followers but couldn’t do the follow through? Was I a here today, gone tomorrow writer?

It was my come to Jesus moment as I saw myself promising I’d do it tomorrow, believing that because I’m busy in other areas of my life, somehow my former track record of daily and sometimes twice-daily posts will just take over.

Perhaps you’ve heard me scoff at people who post their 30-day challenges to prove they can write an article a day?

Maybe I did that when Jessica posted her first month-long writing challenge. She writes that it got her started on Medium. She did three in a row and after 90 days, her habits were in place, and she was on the road to future succes.

But that wasn’t for me, I’d think. I don’t need a carrot to get me writing I’d say. And at the time, it was true. Maybe I’ll never win a Pulitzer, I’d tell myself, but at least I’m prolific. My version of the old joke about the food in a restaurant being terrible, but at least they serve big portions.

Well, today, I’m eating my words.

And if I don’t like the taste, I’m blaming it on Jessica Lynn.

But thanking her as well because I’m finally motivated to do a 180 and turn my Medium gig back toward the consistency, if not the financial success, I used to enjoy.

The one thing I learned as a new Medium writer hunting success was the importance of daily writing, Jessica’s first bit of advice. So while creation and money may be harder to come by than they were in the olden days, back in 2020, I will put my one learned skill to the test by returning to daily writing.

Starting today, I’m beginning The Great 30-Day Come Back Challenge. My purpose is to test myself come back from the trough of inactivity and once more soar to the heights of productivity, relatively speaking, and get back to daily posting.

If you need a boost to perk up your dashboard with increasing numbers of posts and followers, then jump on board. I’ll report back on March 13 and let you know my numbers. Wish me luck.

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. Thank you for reading and stay safe.