Expectation vs. Reality: My first month writing on Medium and Vocal + What I Learned
~ Writing on Medium and Vocal in 2024 is my New Year’s resolution. This is my reflection on the extent to which I followed through. This is a real expectation vs. reality.
My goals
FOR HOW LONG
I came in with the expectation that consistency is the biggest tool in “making it” and getting the type of success I wanted. After spending a few days on Medium, I read somewhere that writers only start being more significant after three months of writing. Furthermore, in Dr. Huberman’s podcast episode on goal setting (best podcast), he recommends pursuing goals in 12-week intervals. This aligns with the three-month mark.
Additionally, I chose this. After all, I needed some way to measure my consistency without saying “as long as possible” because I would not have any guidelines as to whether I was just not feeling it that day, and end up resorting to ending my consistency once again.
HOW MANY ARTICLES
In my first few days spent on Medium, I read several articles by creators with around 1k followers telling their stories of publishing every day. I wanted to do that to achieve the fastest growth, and because I was extremely passionate about writing, however, that would not have been sustainable for my lifestyle. So, I stuck to writing 2–3 articles per week.
This evolved to be only two articles per week on Medium and 1 article per week on Vocal.
Results
WHAT I WROTE ABOUT
Since I was (am) new to Medium and Vocal, I was learning what was best to publish on each platform and whether or not I should establish a niche.
~Vocal
It took me the better part of the month to figure out why my articles kept not being approved because of “potential spam or non-disclosed AI content” on Vocal. At first, I thought it was because Vocal seemed only to like my poetry, but I *believe* the reason is that I was submitting my articles to the wrong community.
For example, for the following article, I had first submitted it to “Confessions,” which they rejected, then I submitted it to “Journal,” and then it was well received.
It seems that choosing the right community to submit to on Vocal is crucial!
Even so, overall, I began to feel like Vocal’s community was more suited towards poetry and artistic expression while Medium supplied more concrete value. Both have their strengths.
Thus, when I shifted my view to publishing twice a week on Medium and once on Vocal, I decided I would mostly stop repurposing Medium articles onto Vocal but rather separate the different types of writing I would publish. My new intention is to publish poetry, narratives, and more personal works of art on Vocal while publishing valuable, applicable articles on Medium.
(This is just my thoughts and what I think is suitable for my goals on Medium and Vocal)
NOTABLE EVENTS IN MY JOURNEY SO FAR
~Medium
The first publication I joined was Long. Sweet. Valuable., then Good Writer, then the famous ILLUMINATION. None of these publications were hard to get into; however, it felt like I was one step closer to being like the “other” Medium writers, especially after I joined ILLUMINATION.
I became a Medium member during the second week after seeing a New Year’s deal for only $3.75 this month. (I was planning on getting the membership eventually so I could join MPP, but I’m a huge sucker for deals)
Also, I applied to get the blue “Book Author” badge on Medium and was surprised to get it very soon. It makes you feel really special and proud of the something you made. I still can’t believe I did it.
My poetry book:
Check out samples of my poetry from Vocal:
~Vocal
I got TOP STORY on January 18th, on my poem “being the one to make the first move.”
https://vocal.media/poets/being-the-one-to-make-the-first-move
It was a super pleasant surprise and reinvigorated my passion for writing on Vocal.
CONCLUSION
Near the end of January, I began to slow down and made the excuse to myself that “life was getting busy.” However, I want to get back on track. Again, I want to be consistent, and that means pushing through these days.
This is your sign to keep doing what you are doing as well and record your progress! Good luck :)
Hey! Thanks so much for reading all the way through. Leaving any comment would mean so much to me. Consider following and leaving a few dozen claps. Have a great day. :)
Find me on Vocal here.
