If your posts don’t go viral, don’t do this.
Hey new/confused writers, I have a favor to ask.
I know many of you want your articles to go viral. I mean, we all like traction, who doesn’t?
But that is not the main point of your articles. That should not be the point at all.
In the beginning, every other post I clicked on had more than a thousand claps and 20+ comments and it made me wonder if I’ll ever manage to have that kind of engagement and felt demotivated before even writing the first word.
It still hasn’t happened, but do I look like I care? Well, you can’t see me, but I don’t. ;-)
Effort, consistency, and quality will eventually bring the appreciation you deserve and it’s worth waiting for.
But many of the Medium writers I found are not ready to wait and have chosen a wrong, yet heavily treaded route and that is what I am talking about in this post.
In the midst of very useful Medium advice by established writers, I see articles by people whose only agenda is to make their posts go viral. I mean, sure, many of us deserve recognition for the efforts we put into our writing but making virality the sole reason for writing a piece — man, at this point we most probably detach ourselves from *quality*.
I know this quality talk has been stated by many writers before, but I still find these kinds of posts in my feed, and that makes me sad.
For many of these virality guides, writing about making money on this platform is the ultimate step to making your posts click. So meta, don’t you think? They make money by writing about how you could make money by writing about how to make money.
That is not true, because we have an amazing bunch of writers here who write about anything under the sky and get a huge load of traction (and bucks).
Now, I know the reason for writing is different for each person.
Some are in it for the money, some others for the passion, others for both.
Pardon me, but I can never take the first group seriously. If this offends you, I am sorry.
Listen, writing for money is not a bad thing. Heck no. I’d love to do that too, only if good ol’ Stripe didn’t have beef with my geographical location or something :(
I recently read an article where the writer asks what’s wrong in using one’s passion to pay the bills. There’s nothing wrong. I’m not sitting here trying to cancel the entire profession of content writing.
The articles I have issues with though, reek of cunning. I wouldn’t have written this half-rant if I hadn’t read a few articles where the authors suggested that we abandon any other genre of writing whatsoever and focus on writing about writing, about shortcuts to increase your income, and about Medium tips and tricks.
I am targeting those articles where writers claim they made an insane amount of money in a very short time by writing about this platform and ask you to narrow down your topics based on what sticks on the Medium wall. They conveniently won’t tell you how exactly they made the bucks but that’s another story.
That suggestion triggered me. I am not against writing about any of those, I do write about writing — it is one of my favourite topics. This article is one.
But are you asking me to entirely discard fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and all the other genres and write about some overused or fake tips on how to earn quick bucks and sell it to my readers to earn some quick bucks myself? No, thank you. Even if I was in MPP, I would not do that.
Has the art of writing come down to this? Pardon me for being dramatic, but it aches to see people giving out advice on how to abandon your inherent talent or passion to write, and churn out words with just monetary goals in mind. As a literature student and a sucker for writing, I cannot stand that advice.
Again, I would have just rolled my eyes and scrolled past them if they were few and far between. But I’m concerned about seeing an overwhelming portion of this platform occupied by such money-making schemes. Thank God for the filters and recommendations — without them, I’ll be scrolling endlessly to get to a personal story or a poem I’d like to read.
Sure, we do have an audience for these ‘get those bucks real quick’ type articles, I won’t deny it. It’s your choice. I am not addressing you. (Well, I am,…kinda. Can we not encourage such articles, pretty please?)
Many of you might have not seen such posts in your feed and now might possibly be wondering why this girl is making a big deal of it. Trust me, from the day I joined, I’ve been stumbling upon lots of these articles. They crushed my motivation and inspiration as they seemed to mock me for even trying to come up with something to write about that doesn’t involve topics on money-making or making it big on Medium in a week, and having the audacity to expect readers to click on it.
If you’re new and deciding on what to write about, please try to refrain from jumping on the bandwagon of these kinds of posts. If that’s your niche then fine, I guess. But if you give up on your creative talent for ‘get rich quick’ articles, you’ll be letting me down ☹
When you start writing here on Medium, please make sure the first goal of your articles is putting an effort to effectively express your words in topics you are passionate about and bring loyal readers in through your charm. That will bring in money too, gradually. Unless of course, you’re living in a non-MPP country (I’m not crying!).
I hope I didn’t come off as arrogant. I just wanted to get this off my system. I am frustrated at the sheer amount of fake advice and the number of people who back these articles. If I can get at least one person to back off from going that route, I’ll be content.
Love.
And now, before you go, please check out these posts below by our fellow Medium writers:
Matt Hampton shares a beautiful, thoughtful letter to us on the art of story-telling. He writes —
Your loves and losses, smiles and cries, gaffs, goofs, witticisms, nuggets of wisdom, mundane daily routines, and your most magnificent moments will provide the magic that will make those stories your own. Every scent, sight, sound, taste, and touch of your life will help you enrich stories. Those details will make the world of your story real, a place where we let our imaginations and our hearts run for those few moments of escape. You, the storyteller, will break our hearts, make us laugh, and craft the things our dreams will recreate night after night.
Well, isn’t this what writing is about? Please give a read to this amazing piece and you’ll understand better what I was trying to prove with my story. I’m linking his story below.
If you’re new to this platform, I highly recommend you read Rachel Wickremasinghe’s post to attract followers on this platform the right way. She effectively argues against the infamous follow-for-follow strategy and gives tips on thriving on Medium the proper way.
To end this on a beautiful note, I recommend that you read Divya Goswami’s introduction article for the Reciprocal pub. She has a way with words that mesmerize me as a poetry enthusiast.
Would you please consider buying me a coffee? Thank you so much. As an Indian national deprived of her MPP rights, this gesture of yours means a lot!
