Sometimes You Write a Shitty Story. Get Up and Move On.
Don’t write stories daily you are not proud of. The algorithm god is not worth your soul.
There are days that I am happy with the stories I have written. I finish, I am satisfied. There is an interesting concept, a message I wanted to convey, and a satisfying conclusion. And to top it off, after I publish it, there is a strong positive reaction.
And then there are times when I am writing and writing, but with each sentence I hate my story more, with each paragraph I hope I can recover but fail.
I would be better off scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch, but it is 1am and I’m tired. Which, of course, is a self-fulfilling prophecy because there is no way I won’t write garbage at 1am.
I click publish even though I am unhappy with the product. I am certain the story won’t do well. I question all my life choices as I put myself to bed.
And then the next day comes and I have to deal with knowing that I made that awful decision to publish a dog turd.
There is so much pressure to write daily on Medium. Something about the algorithm everybody keeps talking about. I don’t understand it exactly, but from what I understand Medium promotes writers that churn stories out daily. I am not even sure if it is true but it sure seems true.
And there is a lot to say about this. I am sure Medium does reward writers who churn out stories daily to an extent, and writing daily will also helps grow a back catalogue faster.
But it can also lead to creating content that is not exactly FDA approved. When I look back at my content, there are a few that give me an upset tummy.
It is so easy for me to hate myself in this moment. To reflect and think about how I succumbed to the pressure to ‘post every day’ at the cost of quality. The kind of person I might be becoming. And I realize something huge. I didn’t publish a dog turd. The truth is I am the dog turd.
I have become the person that values quantity over quality. The person that wants to write to make a quick buck rather than write because of a love of the craft. The kind of person who would sell my soul to the devil for a candy bar.
But of course, this is not the reality. I am not a dog turd for deciding to publish something I am not proud of. Nor am I a bad person because I was tempted by the allure of making money on Medium.
I am human. Warts and all. Flawed and capable of making wrong decisions.
From now on if a story is not where I want it to be, it can hangout in the drafts for a while. I can come back to it another day when something in my head clicks and I realize how to make to make it work. Or maybe I won’t figure it out and it can sit in limbo for all of eternity. That is okay too.
The only thing I can do is learn and do better next time.
Don’t get me wrong, I can and will write more bad stories. It is inevitable.
But if I do write bad stories, let it be because I am growing and improving as a writer and am trying things out. Experimenting. Taking risks that fail. Don’t let it be because I am trying to appease some algorithm god.
I didn’t come to Medium to satisfy an algorithm. I came to Medium because it was a place I could hone my craft, get feedback from others, and be part of a community. I’m guessing the same is true for you. Don’t be tempted by the idea of continually churning out new product if the product is garbage.
