Writing For You
Who is Reading Your Stories?
I’ve been keeping track of what I make and how many stories and followers I have gotten since I began writing on Medium in November 2021. It has been a journey of more than two years, and it seems appropriate to think about it at the end of another year.
During my first year and two months, I earned $ 59.68. I had 4,421 reads and 523 followers. I wrote 288 articles.
During 2023 (not counting the last two days), I earned $ 145.57. The earnings at Medium look to be about $145 this year. I had 4,108 reads and 392 followers. I wrote 193 articles. What does this tell me? Not as many people are reading my stuff, but I am earning more. They seem to be reading more of each article than they did before. Maybe I am getting to be a better writer. Or maybe it’s all my imagination and is all due to algorithms tweaked and twiddled with by people younger than myself who have not yet developed a social consciousness. Who knows?
I tried to write for more publications during 2023. I published through BBB-Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs. I reached out to DEP-Dancing Elephant Press and Illumination. A few articles went into Catness because my cats are quirky and hold a dear place in my heart.
I don’t follow social media because I find it to be exhausting. If I did, I might have garnered more readers. But then again, maybe not. The reason I have determined this is I feel that folk who engage in social media platforms typically don’t like to read much. They like bite-sized pieces of writing. They also like pictures or videos, which I don’t do other than Pinterest. I write.
The number of reads doesn’t actually bother me right now. I have long held the idea that if somebody is supposed to read something I wrote, they will read it. It’s like that old saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. That goes backward, too, and says when the teacher is ready, the student will appear. I try to remember that when I think of people reading my articles, in my imagination. That person might read the article years after I wrote it, long after the world has moved on.
The things I write about are ordinary. I also take the viewpoint of a 68-year-old woman in a long relationship with her husband of 46 years. I am also a psychic, an ordinary one, who has what people might think of as odd viewpoints. Sort of like how a hippie might be, I suppose.
A couple of times in my life, people have called me a hippy, though I disagreed with them. Still, that’s what they thought — a happy hippie psychic chick.
I am happy with who I am and do not seek to change that. I am not a gadfly and rarely get dressed. But I consider myself not to be that different from writers of old who wrote in cold, dank rooms bent over their paper, scratching and crossing out what does not ring true for them.
Maybe it is just my imagination.
My best wishes to all who read this. I wish you encouragement for the times when you falter. I wish you the knowledge that others you have never met in life are there for you, standing in support, just like we at Medium do for each other.
I say to you, be true to your heart and not what other people think is the best for you. This is your life. Conduct it as you see fit.