My First Month on Medium With No Writing Background
A dollar and 45 cents later.
22.05.20
Today marks the exact 30th day I have been writing on Medium.
I’m surprised I’m still writing on Medium; I was expecting myself to give up after a week. I’m glad I didn’t. I challenged myself to publish articles every day, if not at least every other day. It has been hard to keep up with writing and publishing, mainly because I’m juggling between writing and school. Nonetheless, I still make time for writing.
I’ve lost count on the number of times I wanted to give up when I saw my articles’ earnings were nothing more than a few cents. I kept checking my stats every few hours throughout the day, hoping to see a new following or just one more read for my stories. I was desperate for more claps and engagement for my stories. As a complete beginner in freelancing; I’m still experimenting on what works and what don’t. My ultimate goal is to earn a decent income from pursuing my writing passion.
I first discovered Medium while reading Elna Cain’s blog. I don’t know what was in me that decided to give Medium a try. On the same day, I signed up for Medium’s Partner Program and published my first article 5 Tips to beat Procrastination. The next few days, I was actively researching on Medium and trying to find ways on how to earn using the Medium Partner Program. I learnt the importance of publishing in Medium publications, and it’s crucial to find the right publisher for your stories. That was when I came across Any Writers. Thank you, Clarissa Wilson, for giving me the chance to write for Any Writers, even though I was a complete newbie.
After I published my second article Why we see change as a negative, eight days later, I decided to apply as a writer for bigger publications. I’ve read about how Medium publications are a must to succeed on Medium. I applied to A Few Words, The Sixth Sense, The Ascent, Warm Hearts, Be Unique, Hello, Love and ILLUMINATION. I still can’t believe they would let a complete newbie like me write for them. Grateful for being accepted into the publications, I was determined to write and publish as frequently as possible, to improve my writing and to increase my chances of getting into bigger following publications. The only reason why I applied to so many publications was to find the perfect home for my articles.
Another exciting milestone is starting my publication, The One Stop, in the hopes of gaining exposure for my articles, without having to wait for publications editors to approve and publish my works.
What I’ve picked up over the past month on Medium:
How I write
There are tons of writing advice on how to write more efficiently and increase the number of words daily. I’ve tried almost all the writing tips out there and figured out what suits me best. Every day, I get started on a new draft which is about 500 words long. I aim to write at least 500 words a day.
My drafts go through two rounds of editing. On those two rounds, I play the role as an editor, trying my best to look at the articles from another point of view. If I’m feeling inspired, my first draft can be up to 1000 words long. I find brainstorming then drafting an outline works wonders for me. I start with penning down my ideas on paper (yes, I still prefer old-fashioned pen and paper). Once I’ve got the ideas jotted down, I do my research and add in more points for elaboration. The next step would be to free write. What I mean by freewriting is typing my entire train of thoughts out. I type whatever I think of, literally. For instance, today I had a bad day because I overslept. I woke up two hours later than usual. I was in a grumpy mood, and I skipped breakfast.
Once I’m done with this mini writing exercise to warm up my fingers and brain, it’s time to get down to business onto real work. I start working on my articles, and I type away without worrying about grammar or paragraphs. I make sure I’m not distracted, and my train on thoughts are still there. I prefer to work on at least two articles concurrently. I know multitasking isn’t a good idea; however, I find switching between different articles allow my mind to focus better. Sometimes I end up writing more words for each article.
Experiment what works best for you. What works for the top writers may not suit you at all, so take the time to figure how your optimal writing schedule. Some writers advice not to multitask and work on more than one article, but I find multitasking improves my concentration. Daily writing and publishing may not be the best for you, but most writers need more practice. Every writer’s problem is different, so we need to find the right solution to solve it, which means finding the best method for you.
During the past month on Medium, I’ve signed up for every newsletter on writing tips that I could find. You name it, and I’ve probably have signed up for it. My reading lists kept increasing as I was furiously adding on articles daily. As of now, I have 591 articles in my reading list.
I’m still trying to find my unique voice in writing, even though occasionally I still suffer from the imposter syndrome. I provide a new point of view on articles even though they may be controversial. I firmly believe I’ll find an audience for my writer’s voice.
Every article I write and publish gives me a great sense of achievement, no matter how they do on Medium. I wrote those articles, and I’m proud to show the world my writing. Every cent I earn reassures me that someone out there enjoys my writing, and that is enough to keep me writing on Medium. I want to see what happens when I commit six months writing here, what happens after a year of writing? I believe in my writing enough to show them to you. I’m not ashamed to acknowledge the fact that I’m a beginner and my writing sucks.
What works for me and what doesn’t
I’ve recently started to use the strategy of follow-for-follow and responding to articles on Medium to build a presence for myself. I know follow-for-follow to gain followers is not the best way to go about getting a valuable audience, but as a beginner, I need to do something to be noticed.
1/5 of the time, within 48 hours, my articles are published, but that isn’t the case for the majority for my articles. Some don’t get published at all. I write every day, but I don’t publish every day. Only when the publication decides to publish my article within 24 hours, then I can keep my streak of having an article published a day. I’m currently working towards publishing daily. Hitting the publish button gives me a sense of accomplishment. I’m not afraid to show my artwork to the world. Views motivate me to write more; people are noticing my articles.
None of my articles is curated yet, and I’m not sure if they would ever be curated. All it says is “Hang tight, we are processing your articles.” I guess there is still a chance for my articles to be curated and reach a greater audience.
As of today, my top earning article is 28 cents while my lowest earning article earned 1 cent. The earnings don’t discourage me from continuing to write and publishing my articles. Deep down, I understand that starting of all things is always the most difficult. Once you start, everything gets easier from there. You need to take the first step in creating your success. There are articles where I have no claps at all.
Create small goals as you write
Setting small goals helps to motivate writers to continue writing because there is exciting to look forward to every day. The small goals you set will eventually become your milestones in writing.
The Takeaway
Success doesn’t happen overnight. The writer needs to show up every day and write. Your readers are here, even if you aren’t. One warning, though: don’t focus so much on the quantity that you end up neglecting the quality. As writers, we need to improve our craft and not to produce the same quality articles each day. We need to increase the standard of our articles, if not anything, multiplied by zero is still zero.
Setting small weekly goals and monthly goals help me stay motivated to keep writing on Medium, and it can help you too. There is a reason for me to keep writing on Medium and achieving my goals, so there is no reason for me to quit. Are you going to give up so easily on something you love?
If you do, then I don’t know what else in life you persevere on. There’s a reason why we stick to what we are doing. Passion drives us to stick on to what we love.
Thanks for reading!
