Why I Chose Medium to Start My Writing Journey.

Reading has never been a habit I’ve been able to stick to consistently. I like the idea of being a reader more than I actually enjoy doing the reading. I go through spells of wanting to be the guy with the big bookcase on the wall that I can pick from, then retire to my wingback chair and smoke a pipe while getting lost in a good book.

Sadly, that is not the case. I find that my attention span is so weak that it becomes a chore to read, regardless of how fascinated and wrapped up I am in a book. I like to think about things and ruminate on ideas while gazing idly out the window, which doesn’t seem as much of a task as starting and finishing a novel. I’m also a slow reader, not that I can’t read quickly but that I prefer to read slowly so I can completely understand every sentence. Otherwise, I know I’ll forget plotlines and character names.

The ideas I chew over in my head, with my eyes glazed over, are ones that I feel the need to verify through conversation to make sure I haven’t missed anything or to make sure I was even on the right lines in the first place. And then I found medium.

I have no experience of writing blogs or articles outside of writing newsletters for work. I certainly have no experience of writing about my point of view or the thoughts that circulate in my mind when I’m walking my dog. Suffice to say, I’m very much a novice. Discovering Medium, however, presented me with an opportunity: the opportunity to express my ideas and views on the things I enjoy thinking about like movies, music, and relationships in my life.

If you’ve read this far you’ll see that I have no idea how to structure a paragraph never mind a piece. These are skills that I haven’t used since high school so excuse my rustiness.

It’s also important to note that where I come from one's peers, parents and teachers don’t encourage creativity. It’s much more advisable to pursue a trade or learn about business or accountancy than it is to try and make a living in a creative field because “you’ll always have something to fall back on”. And it’s precisely that safety net that suppresses creativity, knowing that if you don’t chase your dream career you’ll always have a Plan B. So why should I give it everything I’ve got? I’ve always got my business management degree to fall back on right?

I digress.

What initially caught my eye about Medium was the real people, writing about real things, that are really important to them. The fact that they’re not paid to push someone else’s agenda really spoke to me. I have reservations about media outlets that bow down to advertisers and have to monitor everything they print so as to not upset any sponsors.

This is a way for me to get my ideas down on the page and see where my fingers take me. Squeeze everything I can out of a subject and explore the tangents. I think Medium’s platform allows me to do that with its minimalist design, I see the blank page and feel compelled to fill it.

It’s exciting to not know whether anything I write is good, bad, or indifferent. I’m keen to see in a year’s time if I’ve improved and to see what I’m writing about then and compare it to what I’m writing about now.

I have a few plans for my “writing journey”. Like I said before, I like to analyse movies and music and think about things that don’t really matter just to get an idea in my mind about what the world means. Medium, I feel, is the best way for me to do that right now.

I was also drawn in by the way medium rewards their members for quality writing. Regardless of whether or not I agree with someone’s point of view, you can tell they’ve taken the time to express their feelings on a certain subject… And in over 280 characters. I also like how they’re rewarded by the amount of time a reader spends on their story, given Medium’s new algorithm.

There’s something about reading a story on Medium that’s immediately more personal and relatable than reading a standard column in a newspaper. You can feel the passion and the level of care behind the words of the author. This is exactly how I see myself writing in the future. Writing about what I care about, what’s meaningful to me.

I had mentioned at the start that I lose interest in reading quite easily, but I can honestly say that since joining Medium I’ve taken in every word of the stories I’ve read so far.