Do You Even Know Why You're Writing?

Only when you know your objective can you know the next right step for you.

Probably a weird post that’s not going where you think. More of a kitchen table conversation than a post, really. So grab some coffee and settle in because I want to know what you think at the end.

I manage submissions for four publications on Medium. Glutton for punishment, I know. Anyway, I got a new writer submission with a note that said this is my third submission. I really want to write for you. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong?

The publication is On Reflection. When I started that pub I had no idea the word “reflection” was so hard. So I modified the submission page. Said I don’t want self help, advice, angry rants, trauma dumping. I want thoughtful reflections on life.

Here’s the kicker. I’m a boost nominator with unlimited nominations. I could be nominating from that publication every day. But I’m not. Because see above. I don’t get enough submissions to nominate reflections every day. Thank heavens there are three other pubs to draw from. Maybe makes me less the glutton for punishment.

So anyway, figured I’d look at the guy’s stuff. See if I can offer some tips since he’s so persistent. Wrote back and said look, you’re a strong writer. But you keep submitting self help. Explained what I want and asked him to try again. Never heard back.

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Every once in a while, someone asks me why I still write on Medium when it’s so clearly gone to the dogs. lol. Here’s my answer. My posts on bears in the woods did $1200 the first week. My witch post did $3K.

They don’t all kick butt. One of my posts in August did $9.24. lmao.

But hey, it beat the June post that did $5 before I took it down to rewrite. I’ll rework the whole thing from a new angle. Delete that one. Start over. See if that helps.

The swings are whack. How do you make $9 on one piece, $3K on another? It’s not like my writing chops fell in the toilet. But maybe Obama posted that day. Or maybe that’s the day Michelle wrote what we can learn about sex from the Dutch.

Some people feel demoralized if a post tanks. Or doesn’t get boosted. I don’t. They’re just words, I got more. Hell, I will die with stories inside me. On Medium, it’s not about how good my writing is. It’s about what else went up that day. It’s about which way the wind is blowing. What caught the public eye that day. Sometimes that’s me.

But also? Back in 2020 I wrote about what the wives of Henry VIII really looked like. It’s my most viewed post this week. More reads than anything I wrote this year. Go figure. But you know, if I can make a few bucks on a piece I wrote 4 years ago? I’ll take it.

One guy told me he moved to Substack and couldn’t be happier. And that’s great. I use both platforms. Because here’s the thing. If you were to graph earnings on both platforms, Substack is like climbing a hill. They go up slowly but surely. On Medium, they’re more like a rollercoaster. The lows suck. But the highs can be pretty nice.

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I used to write on spec. Wrote for an agent who represented a whole bunch of giant corporations, Fortune 500s, print magazines. They’d tell me what to write, I’d write it and get paid a buck a word. Write them 1500 words, they pay me $1500.

Tell that to other writers, some of them say omg, where can I sign up for that? Others shake their head and say no thanks, I want to write what I want to write.

There’s no right or wrong answer. But also? Worth pointing out that publications on Medium are a little like that. Not entirely, but a little. Except no one is telling you what to write. You have to do the homework. Go to the pub’s latest feed (pub/latest). Look for the posts with crazy wild over the top response. That’ll give you some idea what’s flying in that pub. But no one really does that. I don’t know why.

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There’s this author I know. Was writing on Medium for a while to try find readers for her books. She said it was a total fail. Didn’t sell any books at all. She’s a good writer. Not my niche for reading. But we’re not talking self published on CreateSpace, sold 20 copies mostly to family. We’re talking agent and big name publisher. So I went and looked at her posts on Medium. Occurred to me that the audience for her books and the audience for her posts? Totally different readers. Little or no crossover. Asked her if she gave that any thought. She laughed and said no, not really.

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Last one. Lots of writers tell me their frustrations. Probably because I ask when they sign up for Substack. I send an email, say tell me your frustrations. I love that because it lets me talk about stuff real people care about and want to know.

Here’s some of the stuff I hear. One woman said she’s too old to be relevant. Said she’s 50 and no one wants to hear what she thinks. Wrote back and told her I’m over 50. I will be irrelevant when I die. Or stop reading. Live life, write about it. Don’t get caught up in someone else’s beliefs. Interesting has never been an age.

Another writer said he loves writing but he doesn’t have my writing “talent,” so he’s struggling and frustrated. Sent him a couple of links to crap I wrote ten years ago. Told him writing isn’t a talent it’s a learnable skill.

One woman told me she used to earn over $1000/month on Medium. She’s down to about $100 now. Said she guesses Medium doesn’t like what she writes anymore. So I asked her. Are you so attached to what you write that you’d write it for peanuts? If you are? Keep doing it. But if not? Worth thinking about. My history stories used to out earn everything but they don’t pay crap anymore. Now it’s my personal essays and cultural posts do much better. I’m not married to what I write. Some people are. There’s not a right and wrong here. Just another thing worth thinking about.

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I do have a point with all those random stories. We live in a hands on world. What I mean by that is that when things are easy to use, we don’t really think about them too much. Open the box, turn it on, figure it out as we go. Phones, ipads, computers.

I’m just not sure we should be so laissez faire about writing.

But we are. Laissez faire. We fly by the seat of our pants and get disgruntled or demoralized or disappointed when it doesn’t fly. We use writing platforms the same way we use a new phone. Throw a story on Medium or a post on Substack or hit publish on that first book on Amazon. Because it’s easy.

Do you even know why you’re writing?

Sure, because you like to. Because you can’t “not” write.

But what’s the objective? What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to build an audience for a book? Or are you just aiming to make an income writing essays? Do you know who you’re writing for? How important is earnings? Would you write free to build a list or is income part of why you’re writing. Do you think about any of that?

There are no wrong answers. But there should be answers.

Because it’s only when you know your objective that you can figure out the next right step for you. Makes you a lot less gullible to bad advice, too.

Love to know what you think...

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, I also write on Medium.

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