Why It Seems So Hard to Write Well and Earn Money on Medium
And how you can overcome this struggle
The basic rule of being successful on Medium is to write a lot or consistently.
The moolah comes from having your articles seen.
To get them seen is to send them to publications.
And to be accepted into publications, your drafts need to be good enough.
That’s why you need to write a lot.
Practice makes progress.
Easy.
So What’s The Problem?
Tom Kuegler has zero sympathy for those who quit Medium after their first 4 articles. In many of his articles, he emphasized writing and showing up every day no matter your mood.
I haven’t quit Medium. But I haven’t been writing on here every day either.
The reason is not laziness. Maybe it kinda is when it means “being unwilling to work or use energy” for something.
But laziness is often an underlying symptom of a psychological issue.
Writing For Money
You see, I’m a freelance SEO writer. I’ve been writing keyword-optimized articles for fintech clients for more than a year now. So believe me when I say I do write every day — if not for clients, then at least for my own eyes in my journal.
Somehow, writing for money has sucked out the joy of writing for fun.
I’m not sure if it’s me not feeling fulfilled with what I write about or it’s the laptop screen that keeps making my eyes droopy (in which case I might need to get my eyes checked and maybe get a pair of blue-light blocker spectacles).
Whatever it is, I’ve become lackluster and reserved.
Where Art Thou Focus and Confidence?
Prioritizing client work left no room for other kinds of writing.
Or rather, I felt tired after spending days researching, outlining, drafting, and editing for clients that I could only spend my free time on self-care.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about my work. I am living the so-called dream life of freelancing and being paid to write.
But everything has its cost.
In my case, I couldn’t seem to find time to produce other types of content without sacrificing my well-being be it physical or mental. My priority has been my well-being. If I am not well, I can’t give my 100% to my clients. So I need to set aside time every day for meditation, yoga, and exercise.
Even if I tried to “hustle”, my body would just shut down when it has had enough.
I bet Tom won’t buy this excuse and would still have no sympathy for me. And to be honest, I did feel annoyed at myself for not taking the time to write more.
Because of the lack of practice, I didn’t feel confident to write and I didn’t trust that my own thoughts or opinions had any value.
That’s when I knew I needed to change things around.
Getting Out Of The Rut
I took some time to realign my intentions and what came out of it was the desire to continue writing. This is because writing is my strength and it’s one of the best outlets for me to express and develop my thoughts.
And so I wrote the shitty first draft of this article by hand. Yes, with pen and paper — sorry, a fountain pen and an A5 sheet of Rhodia paper.
Fancy, I know. But I thought that if looking at the screen for too long impairs me so much, I should go back to the classic Jane Austen way.
You gotta do whatcha gotta do to get the writing mojo back!
I also set aside one day for outlining or thinking about this article. Doing this allowed me to be curious and just let my mind wander. The next day, I would draft it. I’d then leave it to brew and come back to edit within the next few days.
This task-batching concept has helped me to get things done and not overwhelm myself.
Start Slow
We’re living in a fast-paced world but I feel it’s important for us writers to slow down especially when we’re struggling.
By slowing down, we are forced to choose what’s important and we can have clarity on how we spend our time.
You may also start to remember what got you excited to write in the first place. Was it the desire to create stories like you read in books? Or was it the feel of your hand moving across a piece of paper?
Rediscover that moment.
Acknowledge them.
Bring them back to life.
May we work through our struggles, find the joy in writing again, be consistent with it, improve our craft, and get published.
