This is The One Writing Guide I’d Wish I Had When I Started Writing on Medium

If you feel down, confused, or wanting to quit, heads up: here you have 5 No click baits lessons that can help you to save time and effort

You’re a writer. You have a story to tell, and you want to share it with the world. But where do you start?

If you are like me, you probably had some attempts before considering Medium. I already paid two times for two WordPress blogs that fell flat. No interest at all in my articles.

This is why Medium is soo much better when we want to build an audience: the place is filled with people wanting to write, read and learn. Of course, there is a competition. I believe all of us dream about becoming viral, but this is another aspect. By joining Medium we do not need to worry about how to find readers. They are already on the platform. Millions of them.

You can read about this in this excellent article written by Casey Botticello:

How we catch their attention is another story, for the moment is enough to know that they are here. And they do read. A lot.

Of course, some of them are falling for the “follow-for-following” game and you might be one of them (I was for a very short period) but let me tell you straight on:

Lesson no. 1: Don't waste your time with Follow-for-Follow Game. It is not worth it.

Some of the people whose writings I am checking, again and again, follow no more than 50 people at most.

But their articles? It's a pleasure to read them. They are well-written, humorous, and informative.

For example, Matt Lillywhite: 31K followers, follows 27.

OK, I suspect that some become his followers hoping to find more advice on how to go away with murder, which is why his article How To Get Away With Murder In Yellowstone National Park has such a low number of claps (some people might've been afraid to clap because they wanted to hide their intentions).

Here is the point: if you write well, your audience will grow organically and people will read you because they like your writing, not because they hope you will return the favor for them.

Work to make your writing so damn well to be worth writing for what it is not as a favor.

Lesson 2: read because what you read is worth reading not because you hope to be followed.

Do not waste your time reading things you don't find helpful, interesting and you don't like reading. Yes, wandering aimlessly on Medium is still better than scrolling down on Facebook or Twitter or whatever social network you use to distract yourself. Medium gives us so many opportunities to learn.

Why not maximize those opportunities?

So read! Read a lot. Read to learn and learn how to read!

What do I mean by learning how to read?

I have so many people commenting without reading. Why? For a follow? I am doing my best to support the people here and I did follow (almost) everyone who followed me.

But that was disheartening. The feeling I have after spending a few hours pouring my heart on words and receiving a comment like “great article, please follow” made me want to snap back.

Luckily for me, I have a(not so) secret weapon to deal with those … scammers. I know the zen-like way to cuss.

So I simply say “thank you for giving me the opportunity to practice again and I move on. But (and this is a big BUT) if you don't have this skill and you cheat your fellow writers, you will soon feel the Karma of Writing taking a toll on your motivation to write. What goes around comes around and you will attract the same type of interactions.

What to do instead?

Read less, if you feel so. But the few articles you choose to read give them the attention you want other readers to give yours. Clap, comment if you feel so, and do not do this expecting an outcome. Do not judge the writers for not answering your comments. We don't know what the others are passing through.

Maybe they are working two jobs, struggling to find the time to write two articles per week. Maybe they are depressed. Or traveling and they did not have access to the internet for weeks.

They are not under no obligation to answer our comments. They know better than us what are the urgencies in their lives.

So we clap and comment if you want and that's it. We did your part, what happens next is not for us to want to control.

Learn what to read. Again, read what you are genuinely interested in.

Do not fake it. Fake it until you make it does not apply here. Maybe there are some exceptions, but most of the successful writers here would say the same thing: focus on becoming better. This is a goal worth pursuing. And you might be surprised by the results.

Lesson 3: Do your research. Google is our friend here.

I'd wish I did this when I start here. It would save me so much time! I fell for so so many click baits!

So go and follow them and learn as much as you can from them. Medium is so full of articles about how to do this and that to gain x billions of followers, hit the jackpot, become viral… you can spend a very frustrating month reading only contradictory advice and without learning anything…

Go for the curated articles. Many big publications are publishing their newsletter about the articles they found most interesting.

I particularly love Illumination Curated Collection.

There are so many good articles curated every day that I cannot read all of them! Seeing my articles in that list makes it even more of a must-read for me. It is the type of reciprocity that I love the most. The more I read good stories the more I learn, the biggest the probabilities for my next articles to be curated.

A virtuous circle I wish for anybody to experience.

Lesson 4: Be patient.

Yes, there are a lot of stories about overnight success here. It might happen, why not? The point is not to enter the writing arena to chase this unicorn. You might end up depressed, discouraged, and wanting to quit.

Remember, many of those “overnight success stories” are not at all overnight.

Or, they might be a joke:

Lesson 5: Consider committing to one year before deciding that writing is not for you.

I can honestly say that I thought about quitting. I had a moment when I felt I'd hit a wall. I wanted everything to be faster. I doubt myself. I was trying to peak at the profiles of other writers:

Are they more successful than me? Are they gaining followers faster than I? What am I doing wrong? What are they doing better? — this is a good question if we want to learn. Are they better writers than me? and so on…

The fact that I paid for a full year made me keep going. I paid for this. I committed to something. I will not let myself quit, lose confidence and money.

And, considering that the money we pay here is less than we pay for a site domain and a host, without the advantage of the amazing community we find here, that was a small price to pay for a motivator.

Those are the most important things I’d wish I’d known before starting writing on Medium. If you wish to know more, follow me for more articles about the best resources we can use to become better writers.

Thank you for reading until the end. 🙂

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