Why I Decided to Participate in The Medium Writing Contests

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Abstract

writing had slowed to a trickle, and then it just stopped. It was hard to stay motivated. The life of a writer can be a lonely one. So I was excited to find Medium and to even have a chance to earn a living writing.I heard stories of people earning a full time living by writing on Medium. We’ve all heard about the people making thousands of dollars monthly on Medium. I felt encouraged by these stories. I knew I could write well. I’d been published at some good places. I’d won some awards. I felt that I had finally found a way to keep writing after not being able to afford to go into even more student loan debt for grad school.My work was well received on Medium. The response I got from readers was amazing, but being someone with a creative writing background, I soon found out that things like listicles and self help articles were what was really successful on Medium. People loved my more creative non fiction, that I started writing when I realized that fiction had just slightly better chances on Medium than the proverbial snowball in hell, but the audience was mostly not one of people who loved reading great writing, but business, advice, self help and the sort.My work was regularly distributed on Medium. I’d been published in a

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number of the bigger publications, but there didn’t really seem to be a place for creative writers on Medium, so I went from writing every day, to writing once a week, to finally stopping writing on Medium all together.People seemed to be rewarded more for writing click bait headlines than for actually producing high quality writing. After reading some of the most financially successful writers on Medium, I was saddened to see that some of them were not actually good writers at all. Okay, at best. So I stopped. I didn’t write a thing for a few months.A couple of weeks ago, I decided to give Medium another try. Even if the creative writer wasn’t really what Medium’s audience was looking for, at least I’d still be writing. So I was really happy to see the writing contests. Finally, Medium was making an effort to actually reward the best writing, not just the most clickable title, or the most outlandish promise in a self help article.I don’t know if I’ll win any of the writing contests, but it’s reassuring to know that there are real writers judging the writing contests and they are looking for the best writing. So even if I don’t win a thing, it’s nice to know that the people who do win will actually be writers.</article></body>

Besides the chance of winning one of the writing contests

I’ve seen a number of people express concerns about Mediums writing contests. Some have said they won’t be participating in them for reasons ranging from author’s rights to judging criteria for the writing contests. I think it’s a great effort by Medium to use their writing contests as a vehicle to finally reward writers for the quality of their writing.

I found out about Medium about nine or ten months ago. I’d published a few short stories in some literary journals, but never anything that could earn you anything more than the chance to build an audience that would possibly buy your novel one day, if you were able to write something good enough to get yourself a reputable literary agent and a publishing deal.

Over the last few years, my writing had slowed to a trickle, and then it just stopped. It was hard to stay motivated. The life of a writer can be a lonely one. So I was excited to find Medium and to even have a chance to earn a living writing.

I heard stories of people earning a full time living by writing on Medium. We’ve all heard about the people making thousands of dollars monthly on Medium. I felt encouraged by these stories. I knew I could write well. I’d been published at some good places. I’d won some awards. I felt that I had finally found a way to keep writing after not being able to afford to go into even more student loan debt for grad school.

My work was well received on Medium. The response I got from readers was amazing, but being someone with a creative writing background, I soon found out that things like listicles and self help articles were what was really successful on Medium. People loved my more creative non fiction, that I started writing when I realized that fiction had just slightly better chances on Medium than the proverbial snowball in hell, but the audience was mostly not one of people who loved reading great writing, but business, advice, self help and the sort.

My work was regularly distributed on Medium. I’d been published in a number of the bigger publications, but there didn’t really seem to be a place for creative writers on Medium, so I went from writing every day, to writing once a week, to finally stopping writing on Medium all together.

People seemed to be rewarded more for writing click bait headlines than for actually producing high quality writing. After reading some of the most financially successful writers on Medium, I was saddened to see that some of them were not actually good writers at all. Okay, at best. So I stopped. I didn’t write a thing for a few months.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to give Medium another try. Even if the creative writer wasn’t really what Medium’s audience was looking for, at least I’d still be writing. So I was really happy to see the writing contests. Finally, Medium was making an effort to actually reward the best writing, not just the most clickable title, or the most outlandish promise in a self help article.

I don’t know if I’ll win any of the writing contests, but it’s reassuring to know that there are real writers judging the writing contests and they are looking for the best writing. So even if I don’t win a thing, it’s nice to know that the people who do win will actually be writers.