Member-only story
From An Anxious Medium Writer
“How do I make it as a writer?!”
The more I write on Medium and try to succeed, the more fear I feel when starting a new story. Will it get curated? Will it come out good enough? How much time does it take before I publish it and can get to the next idea?
How can I publish faster, more, better? How can I push myself harder to produce more quality content?
First of all, it’s not called “content.”
I realized that I couldn’t avoid the mistake so many writers talk about. Trying to emulate someone else’s success.
This leads me away from my authentic voice (wherever it is at the moment) and towards the attempt to write like somebody else. There are these ideas in my head that certain types of stories “read well” here on Medium. The self-help guides. The super vulnerable personal stories. The semi-philosophical thought pieces.
I have tried them all, but focusing on being like someone else usually leads me away from what I really want to say.
I come to treat my most personal work like the corporate blogs I used to write for my clients. I think of them as pieces that “must” contain certain elements and not others. I am being mental and strategic about them, rather than writing from the heart.
