How Medium Taught Me That I’m Not a Writer

I joined Medium a couple of months ago. I was a professional ghostwriter of five years experience as well as working a 9–5 corporate job for 20 years, writing risk reports. I thought I was a writer.

I learned that I was wrong. I was never a writer.

I have now been educated by countless successful writers on Medium who make thousands of dollars at it. These are the things I’ve learned. Things that have made me realise that I’m not a writer.

• I don’t write every day

Damn those corporate devils

20 years ago I made the mistake of taking a job at a company that I’ve been with ever since. Those soulless corporate bastards pay me a good salary and bonuses and pay rises and dividends and a pension.

They had the nerve to give me a job I enjoy and I made the fatal error of becoming good at it.

So, I prioritise my job over writing, which means I don’t love writing enough.

Selfishly not writing but making memories

Sometimes, after work, instead of writing I am selfish. I give my time to my partner of eight years whom I’ve barely spoken to all day because of the demands of our jobs.

So, I’m not addicted enough to writing that I prioritise it over quality time with the love of my life.

Sometimes, at night, instead of writing, I am lazy. Too lazy to summon the will to create or be productive for a minute longer. I instead choose to enter the time sink of Netflix. Just to do something that doesn’t involve thinking. Just for a wee while.

So, I’m not committed enough to sacrifice my mental wellbeing in order to use that time to be a writer.

Alan Moore or Stephen King On Writing?

I don’t read “good” books about writing. I foolishly read genre fiction for the sheer escapism of it when I should be reading about writing.

So, I don’t care enough about improving as a writer to spend what little reading time I have reading about writing.

• I don’t know anything about online writing

I thought writing was just pen to paper / fingers to keyboard / typewriter. Turns out its SEO, keywords, partnership programs, affiliates, backlinks and algorithims.

One talented and no doubt successful writer taught me that actually an AI can do all my writing for me and I need only put in 30 minutes a day.

So, what do I do that ever made me think I was a writer?

• I write when I can without sacrificing my family or mental health by pushing myself into a state of toxic productivity.
• I write when I am going to enjoy it so that writing doesn’t end being a chore but remains a joy as it has been for my entire life up to this point.
• I write stories about characters, in other words, people. Not, having learned a little about it, Online Content.

Except for this. Damn.

This has been a piece of satire in response to the volume of stories appearing in my feed which tell me in the most dogmatic way how to be a writer.

In particular implying that if every waking moment (or every spare moment) is not spent writing, then you are not really worthy of the name.

I mentioned toxic productivity and have experienced it first hand.

It applies to art as well as work and its lethal.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Transmission ends.