Why Writing on Medium is like Dating
This article is short and important so don't skip over it you lazy bastards
Look, I know I just wrote an article bagging out new writers for writing about writing all the time.
Here is a refresher if you want (It’s short):
But listen, ‘writing advice’ is not my primary genre, okay.
Besides, if you are falling into the sticky web of writing things to get that viral post and you want to escape before getting devoured by the soulless spider, you need to hear this.
I wrote this article some time ago:
If you can’t be bothered reading it, it’s about how creating a persona to attract better dates can lead to the breakdown of a relationship six months down the track when you can no longer sustain that persona.
When dating, sometimes we don’t want to project the honest version of ourselves upfront because we are afraid of being rejected for who we are.
So we pretend to be someone else.
But that someone we create is unsustainable. Eventually, you return to your authentic self and find that your partner is very different to you. That’s when the trouble begins.
So yes, it IS the same if you are writing on Medium.
You have your unique voice and style, but you are afraid that no one wants to hear it. Perhaps you have been rejected already, and that experience led you to this fear that no one will want to read your work.
So you change your style.
You copy the ‘successful’ writers. You write about boring dogshit subjects that you don’t have any clue about, and in doing so, you build an audience. Your life is complete. Congratulations.
The trouble comes six months down the track.
Like in dating, you can’t sustain the Medium persona that you have created.
Perhaps you are wearing the robes of a self-help guru or a writing ‘coach’, but if you are doing it with the goal of success. It’s not natural.
It’s not authentic.
You can’t help but return to your authentic self eventually. Your natural voice and style creep back in, and you feel at home again. Now you have an audience, and you are being yourself again. But no one claps for your stories. No one reads them. Why?
Because they are the wrong bloody audience, you idiot.
You alienated your audience because you didn’t trust your own voice enough from the start.
The point is this:
When you have a unique voice, it’s gonna take some time to build a unique audience. But if you stick with it, they will come, and they will be your unique audience.
That might only be a few hundred followers total. But at least you know then that they are your people and that you arent just living a lie to get some success.
Isn’t it better to have a few hundred followers who enjoy your work than a few thousand who enjoy the lie that you can only sustain for so long?
Ya know what I mean?
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Also, do you like books, kind Sir/Madam/Other? How about bald, penis rocket spacemen who sell books? If so, visit my author page at the cracked head gasket of the economy AKA cockrocket.com.
More from Frank T Bird (That’s me):
