Caitlyn, of the North, I hope I got your title correct. Look at you with 35 green hearts and 28 comments. I guess all you had to do was ask for help, and look at everyone who came out of the woodwork! I guess we all want to be needed, or need to be wanted.

I feel your pain, I really do. I was 21 when I decided I was going to become a writer, and I switched my major from mechanical engineering to English, and I’ve never been sorry, except for sometimes at the beginning of my newspaper career when I made $5 an hour with my newly minted college degree. But that time was short-lived, and the truth is, I have been employed as a writer nonstop since April 1988, and I’m so glad I stuck with it though it took many, many years before it felt like my experience paid off.

I haven’t seen what all the other comments are saying, but I did glance at what Oliver Shiny wrote because I like Oliver and follow him which is what led me to your story. And really, Oliver is right. You have to put in the time. Do you have a college degree? You said you are writing these posts at work — do you have a writing job? If not, you should get one because that is truly how to become a better writer — writing on deadline day after day after day until, as Malcolm Gladwell says, you get about 10,000 hours under your belt. At that point, writing will be second nature to you.

If you want to be a writer, go get a job as a writer, either at a newspaper or in social media or blogging or writing freelance or corporate communications or blogging. But do something where you get paid to write because that’s the only way you’ll become a professional — you have to have some skin in the game. If you have a job now that is not a writing job, volunteer to write anything that needs to be written at work. Volunteer to do their social media posts on your off hours or to write stories about your department for the company newsletter. Join a writing group and get your work critiqued every week. The more people who see your work, the better you’ll become.

And one word of advice about writing on Medium. The best way to get followers and make friends is to comment on other writers’ posts, to add meaningful comments that further the discussion, to be honest and open and vulnerable. When you write a post, make sure you have an opinion. You’re concerning yourself with whether your post is six minutes or longer. Don’t worry about that. In fact, it should probably be shorter than six minutes. What you should do instead is, write about what you’re passionate about and you’ll never have to worry about how long it is. It will be just as long as it needs to be to make your point.

Do you have a strong opinion about Donald Trump? Love him? Hate him? Tell me why. What about abortion? Do you think women should have the right? Or are they murdering little humans? Do you think the state legisalature should shut down Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas as an end-run around the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in 1973? Neither did the U.S. Supreme Court. They ruled just last weekend that what Texas lawmakers did was unconstitutional, but the state already has an illegal, three-year head start on shutting down perfectly legal health clinics.

Do you like guns? Do you think people should be able to openly carry guns to class in college? Starting August 1, that’s what they’ll be doing in Texas. Can you tell I live in Texas? Where do you live? What crazy shit are they doing in your state?

What are you an expert on? There’s no doubt something you know more about than most people. Form an opinion about something that is happening now where you live and write about it. Support your argument and put yourself out there in the marketplace of ideas and see if your ideas can stand toe to toe with others.

This is what a writer does. You’ll have to become a quick study and read everything about what you’re writing about before you decide which side to support, but when you’ve made up your mind, don’t be afraid to express a strong opinion. Yes, you’ll get knocked on your butt by some dude who thinks he’s going to mansplain everything to you. Watch how they do it on Medium and see what happens when the one knocked on their butt comes back for more argument. There are some fierce arguments here, and that’s good.

I’ll be happy to read your stuff and help you out. Just say the word and I’ll give you my email and/or phone number because I have a soft spot for the young writer because I was in the same spot you are today nearly 30 years ago.

So hit me up. Or if you’ve found somebody else to help you, alert me when you’ve posted a story. I’d like to keep up with what you’re doing. Just send me a message of add my name with the @ symbol in front of it at the bottom of your post and it will notify me. In the meantime, I’ll tag you on some of my stories if you want to read them and see what I’m talking about when I say pick a side, have an opinion and put it out there.

Best of luck to you, Caitlyn, of the North. I have a feeling you’re going to be all right. Plus, you’re from Alaska, where my Medium friend Alexainie lives. That’s a good omen.

Peace . . .