What You Can Learn From What I’ve Learned

Writing for a year

You are not going to “make it.”

If your definition of “making it” revolves around earning lots of money or becoming famous, or both, that will not happen here.

Sure, a very thin slice of writers will “make it” in that sense, but it won’t be you and it won’t be me. Almost certainly not. There are perfectly good reasons why that is true. Those reasons have been written about at length in a variety of other stories.

However if you’re here writing and reading regularly then that’s great. There’s real value in that. Better still, if you have a variety of non-dollar-driven motivations for writing and posting stories, then that’s awesome.

Let me backtrack a bit, to the early days when I just knew I was going to succeed — monetarily — on Medium.

Between May and June of 2020 my earnings jumped an order of magnitude, from $2.35 to $30.19! Very exciting huh?! It was too early to predict financial success, but I quietly and secretly hoped for it. Then in July, when my earnings more than doubled when compared to June, I KNEW I was on the way to the financial big time. I fully expected that August, or September at the latest, would be my “break out” month. I’d crest the magical $100 a month threshold and keep going, straight up from there.

Remember though, I — steadfastly — don’t write for money, but it would have been nice. More about this later.

At the time though I reasoned that a measure of financial success would have added an extra level of validation, beyond followers, claps, reads and more that come from being part of the Medium community.

That’s not how it played out.

Instead, I peaked at $72.22 in August and have fallen to the “fifties” and stayed there ever since. This, in spite of the fact that I’ve continued to write and post at a furious clip, promote my stories on social media, garner attention and otherwise bask in the Medium experience.

And, that’s what it’s really all about, the basking in the experience.

Maybe, offering a writing course (not qualified at this point) would help my bottom line. Ditto for pitching my stuff to other venues, contracting out my services or doing something else above and beyond the confines of Medium. But, I’m not currently doing those things, nor do I have plans to do so.

And, if even one of those ventures succeeded and I doubled or tripled or quadrupled my present monthly take, it still wouldn’t make a bit of dollar-denominated difference.

So, I go back to my core writer’s values: joy, community and response. I get joy from writing, simply writing. I like/love the fact that I’m part of a community of writers on Medium. And, I love it when readers and writers respond to my stories, either by highlighting, clapping, “responsing” me or including me in their projects by tagging. It’s all good.

Plus, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my roster of three core writer values has expanded to include “experimentation” and “self expression.”

Bottom line

If financial success on Medium ever comes my way I won’t shoo it away. But, I don’t pursue it as an end in itself. There was a brief moment when it seemed almost inevitable, but that turned out to be self delusion. Also, a complete and errant departure for me.

I’m far happier, and frankly infinitely more successful, doing just what I’m doing now and writing for the reasons noted above.

Define “success” for yourself and stick to it. You and your writing will be better for it. Besides, it’s November and you have a lot to be thankful for.

I’d love to know your thoughts. Please feel free to share them either publicly or privately on this story.

Be well and stay healthy and safe.