How To Survive On Medium (After Failing on Medium).
Last April I discovered Medium and decided to give it a try. I am a poet. Poetry is a hard sell on Medium, as it is everywhere else. Within two months I had 1600 followers. All was well. And then I responded to one comment. One. That one response ignited a flame war. I went all PTSD and my Vietnam “Kill all the motherfuckers” personality kicked in. The result, to put it mildly, was a disaster. Mainly a disaster for me.
Now I am back. I’m still a poet. I have a modest number of followers. I get a modest number of likes and even fewer comments. That’s fine by me.
Learning from your mistakes is always key to survival. So what are a few things I learned from my colossal fuck up?
1: Stick to your core business. In my case, that’s poetry. Just do it, publish it, and let people make up their own minds. It will fly or not.
2: Avoid commenting on comments, especially other folks' comments. A lot (maybe most) of Medium consists of endless comment conversations. People seem to love that. Perhaps they find it therapeutic. I generally find it self-indulgent and boring. If you write poetry, you don’t get many comments and most can be answered with a simple “thank you.” Say thank you and move on.
3: Avoid publications that are clearly set up to promulgate specific points of view. They don’t want to hear of any others. Don’t think your writing will be welcome there. It won’t. Don’t think you will change any minds. You won’t. What you will be is savaged by ALL the publication’s members. Out -numbered and out-gunned, you will have a very bad experience.
4: Know the rules. If you are a white, straight male of a certain age, you are not allowed to express any contrary opinions about certain taboo topics, among them history, Millennials, politics, political correctness, gender, rape, racism, sexism and, especially, anything that has to do with women. You are the Other here. You are privileged, even your toenails are privileged. You will be attacked, flamed, trolled and run out of town on a rail. Just don’t bother. Let those who only agree with each other continue their endless pat on the back conversations. Ignore them. Don’t even start. What is the point, really?
5: Stick to your core business. In my case, that’s poetry. Just do it, publish it, and let people make up their own minds. It will fly or not.
I know that as listicles go, this one isn’t as exciting as 21 Ways To Part Your Hair Before An Interview, but it's all I’ve got.
And so it goes. Write poems. Publish poems. Be grateful for your readers. Avoid the rest of it.
That’s good enough for me.
