Writing Advice

Write Like No One’s Clapping

Medium is not Pavlov’s dog, or is it?

Why do you write? T’ain’t no mystery. Want to have a good clapping history. Or, do you write because you love it? Or, is it both? Or is it complicated?

Remember Pavlov’s dog? Pavlov was that behavioral scientist who predicted that dogs would salivate when you put a bowl of food in front of them. This is considered an unconditioned response, a response that did not have to be learned.

What Pavlov learned was that the dogs began to salivate in anticipation of the food. They didn’t need to see the bowl. They merely needed to hear the footsteps of the person bringing the bowl to get their salivary glands ramped up.

Now, let’s talk Medium. Medium Writers are like Pavlov’s dog. Writing on Medium creates a similar response. Pavlov’s dog was initially given the food. Medium writers are initially given an audience, claps, fans, and responses. Writing on Medium makes you crave responses the way Pavlov’s dog craves the food.

I get it. I’m with you. I’m a dog too. Maybe, in your previous writing life, you didn’t get the accolades you deserved. Maybe you did. But now, here we all are, together, awaiting our claps.

You’re writing more. Some weeks you’re on fire. Some weeks life is too busy to write, but you’ve got an audience. You’re licking your lips, like Pavlov’s dog, anticipating a response, salivating in anticipation of claps, before you’ve even finished writing the piece.

But nothing lasts forever. Or nothing remains constant. There are weeks applause rolls in. There are weeks it seems like your stories have a stench and are actually repelling readers.

Maybe the glow of Medium is fading for you. The bowl of food isn’t coming just because you write. People read maybe 67% of your work, and they’re not even clapping. The sound of no hands clapping is heartbreaking.

Who cares?

In the Pre-Medium Era, writing was a solitary act. When you completed a story, people didn’t run into your room clapping. If they did, you would have called the police. Unless they were famous people, or people you had crushes on, or people you knew. But generally, writing was a solo gig and you learned to pat your own back.

I don’t know how long you have been writing, but you kept doing it, even when no one applauded you. You wrote poems, stories, letters, novels, essays, memos. You wrote in spite of no obvious lucrative rewards.

Writing in the Pre-Medium Era was like faith. You didn’t need to see your audience, to keep sending your words into the world. Writing was your compulsion. It was how you organized the world.

Now, with Medium, you are facing a new challenge. How do you keep writing when you’ve grown to expect applause, fans, and responses and they seem to be in short supply? You question yourself in a new way. Have you lost your writing mojo? Why can’t anyone see me? Why are so few people clapping?

My advice, and I follow it myself, is to go back to the old ways.

Remember when writing was an action, not a competition, or a gauge of your value? Go there. Sit there. If you are starting to assess your daily value on claps and fans, close your computer and pick up a pen and a notebook. Write in your notebook for a while. Find your roots. Come back when you have something to say, even if no one is clapping.