Overcoming The Fear Of Medium
Being among thousands of great writers can be intimidating. This is how you can get rid of that fear.
If you have stumbled upon this marvellous platform, there is a high chance you have considered writing an article at some point in your life.
Maybe you’re nothing but an avid reader wanting to dip your toe into the pool of great wordsmiths.
I, like so many before me, joined Medium in hopes of finding a platform where my words and my stories could come to life and find like-minded people they would resonate with.
I clicked on so many “How To Succeed On Medium” articles during my first week that I was certain the algorithm would never show me anything else.
The advice varied from one author to another.
Write about what you know.
Forget all you know and let your creativity flow.
It’s all about consistency.
Forget consistency and look for quality.
Have a distinct voice.
Stick to your niche.
Write about whatever you want.
I am still losing my mind over it.
The truth is, every writer has their own journey.
At first, I vowed to publish an article every other day. The topic didn’t matter. I was convinced that every single thought, every minor detail had the potential to blossom into a remarkable story.
I wrote about finding balance in your life. I wrote about how to clear your head. I wrote about the pandemic. I wrote about everything and anything I could think of.
I was exhausted after two weeks.
My brain turned to mush when my eyes caught the brightness of a blank page.
I decided to keep notes on my phone about the interesting things I encountered during my daily walks through the city. Notes were easy. Short. Unassuming. Always there.
Needless to say, most of them never made it off my phone and into a paragraph.
They still lay there, completely forgotten. Some of them barely make sense anymore. One of them says: “Old lady with a carton of milk”. I have no idea what I wanted to make of that.
It took a weeks-long Medium break for me to figure out what was truly going on.
I was terrified of Medium.
On Medium, we are surrounded by marvellous minds that weave beautiful tales of humanity, society, personal struggle and growth.
Every day my phone would ping with another incredible article with hundreds of claps and comments. The words of the author flowed so smoothly. They had gained so much recognition they could actually get money from their work. I could never live up to that.
It was completely overwhelming.
Until I took a long, hard look at myself and the platform and discovered the following rules for surviving on Medium:
Write Outside The Platform
Seeing a blank canvas with a small “Draft” next to the Medium logo in the top left corner can cause a panic attack (totally *not* speaking from experience!).
Open a programme you feel most comfortable in.
For most of us, it’s probably Microsoft Word. It’s familiar and cosy. It helped us through college assignments and never-to-be-sent long letters to past lovers. It’s versatile and it requires zero commitment.
Let your fingers flow across the keyboard, even if what you’re writing doesn’t really make any sense. Trust the process.
Copy & Paste One Paragraph At A Time
I find that my stories truly gain structure when I divide them into several individual paragraphs.
What I wanted to convey does not always come out in the order I wrote it.
Sometimes the best opening paragraphs appear somewhere in the middle, a hidden gem of an afterthought.
By copying & pasting each individual paragraph you are forced to read through everything with a fresh perspective and figure out how to make it flow more naturally.
And it is of big help with redundancy and repetitiveness!
Cut The Proverbial Ties
As my Instagram bio above the link to my Medium profile states:
“Screaming my thoughts into the internet void.”
Once you hit publish, let it go. It’s done. Move on.
Only go back to read it if you are looking to learn from it, re-evaluate your writing or respond to a response someone left on your story.
Obsessing over stats will not make them grow. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Now I prefer to think of it as a scream into the universe. Once it leaves your lungs, it’s gone.
Maybe it will reach someone. Maybe it won’t. You did your best.
Let Your Niche Come To You
Researching keywords and trending topics will only stress you out.
Why?
Because you will be reading hundreds of excellent articles on topics that are already widely covered.
Stop worrying about what niche is the least explored and how you can take advantage of it.
Your voice is what makes your writing special. Your personal experience is what makes it unique.
I began writing on Medium convinced I will be publishing How To’s and Step By Step articles because that was all I was seeing in my recommended section.
Now, I write about myself and my personal experience (even though I often wonder who could possibly care about the thoughts of a 20-something wannabe writer). Some might be more helpful to others. Some refer to travel and are honestly more of a thank you letter to the people I’ve met.
Who knows, one day I might write a tech review.
The point is, I didn’t choose my niche. Self-reflections came naturally, after hundreds of unpublished drafts.
Your “niche” will find its way to you too. Mostly because it’s already in your heart, waiting to fill the blank page.
Find Someone You Connect With
The best part of Medium is discovering newcomers like yourself.
Responding to someone’s story is the best thing you can do for yourself and the other person. Let people know they wrote something that resonates with you.
It shows you have the same way of thinking, similar interests or points of view. It shows you are, in a way, connected.
I responded to Emilie Tran my first week on the platform, an article about translation in language learning. It was a random find and neither of us had many followers at the time (tho someone’s account grew quite nicely now!).
To this day, I religiously read every single thing Emilie writes. I might dare to say I feel like I found a friend in their articles.
Once you stop viewing Medium as a way to succeed or simply as a platform on which you can freely share your thoughts it becomes a lot easier to just write.
It should be, first and foremost, a community.
Respond to articles. Join a publication. Find people who admire the way you put your thoughts into words.
Stop worrying about perfection. It’s non-existent.
Who knows, maybe one day you will accidentally write a trending article. ;)
