15 Reasons Why I Am Taking a Sabbatical From Medium*

• *15 more or less — because my life has become unmanageable, and I am powerless over writing.

Ernest Hemingway (right) in 1959. He died by suicide in 1961. A tormented writer or just a depressed soul? He went under as many as 13 ECT treatments at the Mayo Clinic. Ironically, his sister and brother also died by suicide, which may be attributed to the hereditary disease hemochromatosis, a condition that culminates in physical and mental deterioration. Ernest was brilliant. I don’t want to be like Ernest. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ernest_Hemingway_dining_at_La_Consula,_1959.jpg

Today is March 10. My last article was published on February 28, and my next one won’t be posted until after April 15.

So, for at least six weeks, I am on hiatus from this clusterfuck.

Oh, I’m sure I’ll do some writing. But it is not going to be at the expense of everything else in my life.

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: there are too many articles about Medium on Medium. And here I am writing another one.

I always thought we were here to write stories of interest to the general public, the external subscribers to Medium.

But many writers are solely here to write stories about Medium targeted to Medium writers — like this one.

How can we grow our subscription base if this is what writers do?

Often, these articles are met with great success and earn a lot of money for their authors.

But is this writing?

Since I’m tired of seeing stories about what I should be doing from the know-it-alls, particularly those of you who have been on the platform less…