How I operate on this platform…
Transforming My Medium Life
Reflections on Change: 2nd in the Self-Discovery Series
Everything changes. Nothing is static. Change is the one constant in Life. What was good for us yesterday may be toxic for us today. We certainly know this to be true about products that were commonly used in the past but have since been found to be dangerous or even deadly for human consumption: tobacco, soda pop, cocaine, teflon, coal, asbestos, lead based paints, plastics.
I have found relationships can be this way, as well. Constantly evolving, constantly changing as changes occur within me or the other person or entity. Whether these changes happen because I have new information, or I have the opportunity to reevaluate old information which changes my opinions, the result is the same. Whether one of us moves on, leaving old habits behind that the other individual still clings to. Whether I find myself in a different part of my journey than the other person in our shared relationship. This does not mean that the relationship itself is flawed. This does not mean that either person or entity holds the blame for the changing dynamics of the relationship. Sometimes our parameters change, what we contribute to or require from the relationship changes. And we learn how to do without that which no longer serves our well being or adds to our higher purpose.
I don’t remember which came first, the decision or the action. I came back to reading and writing on Medium after being gone for four months and found I had lost interest in haiku, was unable to read some familiar writers, some great genres. I honored the need for these changes by following my heart and my gut. I was already contemplating getting out of the partner program for reasons of social conscience feeling that, like education, literary art on Medium could be freely available to the public. Like Tre L. Loadholt believes, as it says right in her submissions guidelines for A Cornered Gurl. “All content published in A Cornered Gurl will be free — there will be no locked/paywalled pieces here. This is a read-for-all environment and it will remain that way.”
I did not discover until spring 2019, well into the second year of writing and publishing on Medium, that the paywall, stats, email notifications, or curation existed. Without commitment documentation I joined the Partner Program in summer of 2019 as a social experiment to see how my work was valued in the capitalist system followed on this digital platform. Even before the changes that were implemented in payment algorithms on Medium in late 2019, the experiment had confirmed that this could not be a source of supporting my sustenance. The meagre pennies that were payment for my heart-work and hard work in this small literary corner of Medium are also not proportionate to the value of my time and effort, if not my ability. This weekend several ideas coalesced that have brought major changes to my writing on Medium.
- An editor who, in the past, has made suggestions to change my titles to make them sound more banal and therefore worthy of being clicked on, (and that I have successfully avoided doing by withdrawing my submissions) made a recommendation on the image of another piece I had submitted last week. I had no motivation left in me to explain why that particular photo was from a collection a friend had shared with me from their own camera so I could not attribute it myself or to another source, or why the image complemented that piece of work. I had no energy left to say that this was not the sort of editing I welcomed or needed, being an editor myself. I simply withdrew my submission, and as its publication wasn’t time sensitive, I let it rest on my hard drive for a couple of days. Then I went through the entire list of publications where I have been generously welcomed and have the privilege of publishing. None called to me immediately. So I went and had a bowl of the Thai coconut curry I had just made, with a whopping big cup of hot chai and a piece of homemade peanut brittle on the side. As one is wont to in times of introspection.
- A second cup of chai (not chai tea, this is redundant. Chai means tea in Hindi and many other SouthAsian languages: Chai=Tea) had me wondering about the Big Medium Questions. The tea thing was just a break from the narrative for you, the reader, to go make a cup of tea for yourself.
- A. What did I want my writing to provide for me? Hah! Too long to answer here. B. Was this the best place for my work to be displayed/consumed? Again, needs a couple of paragraphs. C. How many relationships with other writers and readers had changed since my return after the 4 month integration away from Medium this past winter? Wow! Okay, a totally new essay for this answer! D. Where did this poem feel most at home? BOOM! Although many of the editors of publications I regularly publish in have become friends off-site, the poem was calling for me to step away from everything I had begun to assume had to be my reason for continuing to write on Medium. So for those who haven’t seen/heard of/read our series on Good News Daily entitled Why I’m Here, the reason was right there!
- I sat down immediately and began to go through the gajillion posts on my profile. All right, there were about 500. Happy? I deleted a goodly number of them with plans to rework and relaunch them for a larger audience. One by one I converted the rest to unlocked pieces while the Sun set on Saturday, sitting in the dark as my dog growled from hunger and the full moon came up…there are many still left but I am continuing to work on the portfolio as Medium asks me each time I click on save changes “Are you sure you don’t want to allow curators to recommend your story to interested readers?” to the unnerving “No one can find your work if we don’t showcase it for you” to the more ominous “No one will ever read your work again, or know who you are…bwahahaha”, or something to that effect. I’m nowhere near done yet.
- Then I opened my stats and looked through maybe 10. Really, who looks at their stats, 500 of them? I could see that regardless of how many people were declaring their fanhood by leaving claps and comments, (invariably the same 15–20 people who really really love me) multiples of that number were actually reading the pieces without engaging or interacting with me at all. This.is.fine.with.me. Now I knew I was reaching wayyyy more readers than the subtle inadequate declaration on each post notification of “Blah de blah has ten fans”. No Medium, Blah de blah is reaching many more people than your inadequate fan-system claims. Reaching out to more people who actually read my poetry and prose is the aim for now, though even this motivation may change in the near future.
- Next I walked through my curated poetry. With my fingers on the keyboard, not on my feet in my shoes. Oy vey! There was little or no increase in the numbers of claps, comments, views, or reads than in uncurated work. What often happened was that a whole bunch of new followers were added to the growing roster who may or may not be reading what I write, who may have reasons I am completely unaware of for following me, or for being on Medium in the first place. So I will no longer be writing locked pieces behind the metered paywall.
- This brought me to going through the list of my followers. Many a robot or pornographer was found and blocked. One may have been a pornography writing robot, I can’t be sure. Phew…cut my remaining list down to size.
- When I came back last month, I deleted a lot of the daily Quotables from Good News Daily thinking they were crowding out my actual literary writing. But who knows how someone might have been cheered up on a hard day upon seeing/reading them in the way that they cheered me up or made others smile who I knew were reading them regularly, some of my constant readers and supporters. But I am leaving the surviving Quotables on my profile, perhaps compiling them into a post that I can update when or if I add more inspirations or chuckles.
- I’ve opened up Submissions to Good News Daily for anyone who would like to join me in writing for it. We can decide on a post to post basis what will be most suitable to share here but for now, just holler in comments if you’d like to be added as a writer. No worries about sending your first draft to the email in Submission Suggestions. Although I will be writing only unlocked pieces henceforth, I am not asking contributors to do so at this time. I may revisit this proposition in the not-too-far future.
- All of the work from the last two years is going to be uploaded into separate posts categorized by publishing home or by genre. This is not going to be available by the end of this essay, but I’m hoping it will get done fairly soon. I will tag reading time for each post as they will have multiple pieces in them. This way you will be know how much time to set aside, how many cups of chai you will need to get through them, or if you will need something stronger than tea. If you choose to read them at all.
- With all the research that went into it, this essay took several days to write, which is a really long time for me to work on a single piece. But you know what took longer? Always takes longer? Finding a legally acquired image that represents the poem/essay it is attached to. This takes the longest time, every time! Amiright?
12. This update has been brought to you by the letter M, for Medium & Me!
I’m going to tag a number of new followers. Please feel free to submit a short piece entitled Why I am Here about what brought you to writing on Medium. You have until Wednesday March 25th to submit it. Please make sure to send your confirmation of intention to submit in the comments of this piece. Or feel free to ignore the invitation if you so choose. If you decline, we won’t get to know you and everyone will be very sad. Don’t be sad if you haven’t been tagged. Give a shoutout to be added to the writers roster and Good News Daily will send a confirmation.
The following is a link to the essay that I wrote. There are several others essays in this series from Roy, Mark Starlin, Jack Herlocker, Dennett, Dana Sanford, Linda Caroll, Kay Bolden, Harper Thorpe, Tre L. Loadholt, Jane Vogel, Daphelba DeBeauvoir, and James Finn. All great writers who provide wonderful reading. Do yourself a favor and read them all.
Kristi Johnson, Poison Ivy, Heath ዟ, Dave Anthony, Markham J Moody, Lisa Alletson Jenise Cook, Christopher Rivera, James Knight, America Zed, Simran Kankas, Jenny Justice, Christina M. Ward, Sylvia Wohlfarth, Charlotte Franklin, Ashwini Dodani, Sylph Hemery, Jennifer Marie Gady, J.D. Harms, Gail Boenning, Christyl Rivers, Phd., Noe (Lisa Arana), Suzanne V. Tanner, Laura Johnson, antoinette nevitt, Farida Haque, Mike Johnson, James Khan, List Craig, Molly Skeen, Zada Kent, Siva Raj, The Solitary Cook, Elle Rogers
