The Sturg’s Medium Origin Story
How did I decide to get started with writing and editing on this platform three years ago?
I started on Medium on August 15, 2021.
At the time I didn’t think anything much of what I’d do with it. I figured it would just be another hobby for me at the time. I just knew that I wanted to figure out what all of the talk was about.
Backtracking a little further back. I’d been aware that the platform existed before that day. I had seen it around for at least a year before I decided to go for it. Before that, I thought it was just for professional writers because I’d seen so many well-written articles and even some from cool social media connections I’d made through various groups I was in.
I read a story about Joe Biden leading up to his election in 2020 that put the platform on the radar even more. It wasn’t a piece that was praising him, but criticizing him. I was following the Democratic primaries at the time as I was a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter.
I read the article and it gave me more than enough to know that I didn’t want Joe Biden as the candidate the Democrats should run against Donald Trump, one of the biggest threats to our democracy in recent history. I almost considered not voting when he got the nomination but I decided to hold my tongue and my breath and do it anyway.
This was my first impression of this platform but it certainly wouldn’t be my last as I was ramping up to prepare to contribute myself. At the time, I didn’t know it. I just knew I needed a better habit than sitting at the TV all day while I was in constant and chronic pain. Trying to play video games until I fell asleep was certainly getting stale and counterproductive. Also, I could only learn so many languages all day before I started to get bored.
That was one day, until I was mindlessly scrolling through YouTube, and saw a friendly yet unfamiliar face at the time. It was Zulie Rane. At the time, I had no idea who she was. She was on YouTube talking about how she became so successful writing on Medium. She looked like she was having fun and I just couldn’t resist trying it myself.
Within a week of watching that video, I signed up. I saw that the subscription was $5 a month at the time, and I just had to jump on it. I am not a rich person but I made the money available to try something I’d shied away from since college. I figured that I was investing in myself and at the very least I could find a productive use of my time and a way to get my thoughts and ideas written down and saved somewhere.
What waited for me was completely unexpected. After a few months of writing a few articles per month and slow growth. I decided to go all in. That’s when I started discovering publications that I wanted to join as a writer. I also started writing multiple times per day instead of just 4 or 5 times a month. My interest started gaining some steam.
I started this next part of my journey by creating my first publication. I didn’t think much of where it would go. Then I found out that I could edit in different places as well. I didn’t even think about doing that when I started my own publication. I just figured that I would do my publication and figure out what I wanted. I even started one a few months later that initially housed only my older stories that I published before I found publications.
My catalog began to grow. My audience was growing just as fast. I was finding a lot of readers. The more publications I started editing and the more people I connected with, I found my days consumed with Medium-related activities. Then I started collecting publications of my own.
Then I found Discord. The online community more catered toward my previous life had bridged the gap between my love for gaming and my love for writing and community.
At this point, I had already been a part of many publications and had created many more of my own. But at this point, I found my family, my people on Medium. I could name all of the writers who I’m grateful to for helping me get to the next level on this platform but they already know who they are and there are a ton to name.
I have built a strong sense of community and friendship on Discord with these brilliant people over the last two years. I talk to them often. We participate in writing groups together.
We call each other on the phone or on Discord’s audio chats. We join publications together to edit. They join my publications to help me edit. I’ve had an amazing support system leading up to being selected to be a Boost Nominator in the Boost Nominator Pilot Program since October 2023.
Medium opened up an entire world for me that I never thought possible. I was just a depressed, anxious, disabled, chronically hurt, gamer who just wanted to find a place to fit in and find a community. I never imagined that I’d get that and much more. I already had a supportive, loving partner of over a decade who’d moved across the country with me.
Now I say that I have a group of friends on Medium that I would metaphorically and literally do the same for if they ever needed me to. Who figured that someone who always feels left out, an outcast, and an outsider would find a platform like this?
It all started with our current President, continued with a current Medium employee/former top writer, and the next chapter is continuing with a supportive and caring group of people that I just couldn’t imagine my life without, not just my writing life but my whole life.
This is what Medium has done for me. This is my Medium origin story and there’s still so much left unwritten.
This prompt was one from the Wordsmith’s Weekly writing group on Zoom from the wonderfully brilliant and talented, Susan Brearley. She is amazing and I recommend checking the group out. They meet every Sunday. More information is available here. I will also include the link to register for the writing retreat in October in Rhinebeck, NY.
