What I Learned from ‘How to be Successful on Medium’ Articles

An important tip that never appeared

Whopping 4 views! That’s what I got for publishing my first article on Medium.

Well, I must have done something wrong.

Like every other new writer, saddened by the shattering of their overnight billionaire dream, I too, took to “How to be Successful on Medium” articles to figure the how-tos, what-nots, and the not-so-easy algorithm (obviously, it had to be the algorithm).

In pursuit of the writer’s secret to scoring a thousand views and bagging about the same amount of dollars, I tried my laptop with fourteen simultaneous tabs, all screaming the same thing: read this and you’ll be Medium’s top writer.

So there I was, comprehending one story after another, and dreamily inching closer to the success and validation that awaited me on the other side. At the end of those fourteen-tabs and at 4 am on a Thursday morning, I was equipped and confident with the virtue of those success stories and the 5 or so brilliant ideas that I just came up with.

I slept on it and right after those 8 hours, I sat on my writing table, ready to welcome success as I imagined it, sprinting to me like Tom Cruise in every other Mission Impossible movie. I had decided that I’d write and write and write and write, till my keyboard wouldn’t take it anymore and my brain had used every available word in the English language (maybe even a bit of Latin).

To gradually fuel my flow state, I first began editing an old article so that by the end of it, I could effortlessly pour into a new topic.

After a satisfactory edit and a cup of coffee, it was now time to put all my ideas on screen and give the world the best thing that it never asked for.

But first, let’s read an article or two more, just to reaffirm my methods and reinstate the hundred advices that I might have lost track of.

And here began my journey…

No, not of writing. But of procrastinating.

I read article after another, telling myself there were tonnes of things to learn and I had to ace each one of them before I began writing.

Truth is, I wanted to become a “Medium prodigy”, just like 95% of the new writers on Medium(the remaining 5% are prodigies themselves). I figured I would make it big on the platform, if I could only learn all that it had to teach without actually dipping my feet into the water.

But boy, was I wrong. I wasn’t necessarily waiting to gain all that knowledge to begin writing. It was just plain fear of stepping into a new platform and prospectively underwhelming myself, that kept me back from actually stepping in.

We fail to realise the very evident fact that each of those writers who put up success lessons, aren’t offering hacks, shortcuts or magic potions. All they are doing, is explaining their journey, their takeaways and most importantly, their story of persistence.

It was their persistent desire to create, the continuous itch to write and the fearless push to publish that had put them on podiums that enabled them to write such stories that inspired.

However, there was one little detail that the stories missed. A simple thumb rule, enough for newbies like me (and you) to kick-start our journey: (Dear writers, we don’t blame you. We are spoon-fed toddlers, hard to crack).

Schedule Inspiration.

This is something I picked up from my YouTube idol, Lilly Singh (cue unicorn montage). It’s an easy one to follow: establish start and end points in time, for you to learn and be inspired. After that, you create.

Write, if you’re a writer or make origami, if that’s what you like. The point though, is to be in a position where you’ve had enough fuel, that the only thing you’ve to do to be on that journey, is to turn on the engine. It might rumble a bit, but with all that fuel, you’ll be on a smooth trip soon.

Do not let inspiration be a reason for your procrastination. If you want to be a successful writer, the first step is to begin writing. And keep writing. All those established writers were at a point that we are at now and if they had not picked up a pen or typed a word, you (and I) would instead be staring at blank pages wishing someone told us what to do. And this is what we must do:

Write, without the fear of failure. Write, and we will grow.

You may have 5 or 10 or even 0 views on your initial stories, but it isn’t a reason enough to quit your art. It is an inspiration to start afresh, on a new page each day.

Ironically enough, I’ve handpicked quite a few stories that could get your creative juices flowing like it did mine:

• 11 Phrases to Eliminate from Your Writing
• 9 Simple Mental Models I Use to Write 30 High-Quality Pieces Every Month
• The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Establishing a Presence on Medium
• An Analysis of My Failed Medium Articles
• Medium Top Writers’ Best Advice in One Sentence
• 5 of the Most Common, Easy-to-Fix Problems We See in Curation