3 belangrijke lessen die ik heb geleerd tijdens mijn eerste maand publiceren op medium

Een vriend heeft Medium een ​​paar jaar geleden voor mij aanbevolen en ik heb het bijna meteen gedownload. Ik hield ervan alle verhalen van de persoonlijke ervaringen van mensen te consumeren en de reacties te lezen van mensen die hun leven aangeraakt hebben.

Ik at alle artikelen op over "X manieren om X te doen", "Beste ochtendroutine" en andere hoofdpunten voor zelfverbetering. Ik probeerde constant alle schrijverslessen in mijn eigen leven op te nemen. Ik kan niet eens beginnen met het tellen van de verschillende ochtendroutines die ik de afgelopen jaren heb geprobeerd.

Maar een ding dat ik nooit heb gedaan, was schrijven. Ik ging nooit zitten en zette mijn gedachten op het toetsenbord zodat anderen het konden lezen.

Maar nieuwjaar, nieuwe ik. Ik besloot dat het tijd was om echt mijn hand te proberen bij het schrijven, en in deze korte tijd heeft het me veel geleerd. Dus, als je een heleboel artikelen hebt gelezen en niet hebt bijgedragen, volgen hier enkele belangrijke lessen die ik tijdens dit hele proces heb geleerd en die je kunnen helpen wanneer je besluit om te beginnen.

# 1 - Goed schrijven is moeilijk

Dit is de grootste les die ik heb geleerd. Ik had geen idee hoe moeilijk het was om goed te schrijven.

Tijdens de universiteit studeerde ik computerwetenschappen en moest ik op een bepaald moment een schrijfles volgen. Ik deed het goed, en omdat ik gedurende mijn carrière effectief heb gecommuniceerd, vond ik het niet te moeilijk om een ​​blogpost te schrijven.

Het blijkt echter dat goed zijn in e-mail absoluut geen correlatie heeft met het aanspreken van lezers op een echt onderwerp. Ik weet het - geschrokken.

Om mijn schrijven te verbeteren, vond ik een Medium- artikel met een aantal goede schrijfcursussen. Ik besloot me in te schrijven voor één op Udemy, Writing with Flair: How to Become Exceptional Writer en sta versteld hoe onwetend ik was.

I now am more cognizant of how many extraneous words I place in sentences, and how much I repeat things for no reason. Getting better at writing is making me want to write even more. I now look forward to it each day, and try to publish at least two articles a week.

Writing has started to consume most of my waking thoughts. And the more I do it, the more I appreciate all the writers on here. I now see their little nuances and the way they capture reader’s attention through cadence.

And spacing.

It’s amazing how many great writers are on here, and I feel privileged to have the ability to produce content with them.

#2 — You Have to Find a Voice

This has been even harder than I expected.

Throughout my lurking days, I would read tons of interesting articles on a variety of subjects. From app programming to self improvement, I would peruse anything that struck my interest at that time.

But coming up with material to write is a whole different story. What should I write? What should be my focus? What do I feel qualified to share my experiences on? Why should anyone read this? What can I write to inspire someone?

Turns out, I still don’t know. I’ve dabbled with a couple articles on my favorite morning routine, the one thing standing in your way, and others, but I settled on a slightly different approach.

I started a group of articles called The 3, which detail an influential entrepreneur, inventor, or world-changing person and determines three areas that set them apart from the crowd in the hopes of inspiring others to attain these same traits.

The first article of The 3 highlighted Elon Musk, and received decent interest. In fact, it is my most read article to date. It made me feel that I could provide value to others through this voice.

It, along with some of my other articles, was picked up by The Startup. However, the second edition of The 3, featuring Peter Thiel, was not. While I don’t know why specifically, I can only assume that it is because it needs work, which inspires me to learn even more.

I’ll keep trying to figure out in which way I can present the most value. And I’ll still keep making content even if no one reads it. I’m happy to just keep improving and being allowed to participate in the game.

#3 — Creativity Creates Vulnerability

This stands to reason, however you don’t really understand the feeling or appreciate it until you do it. I have gained a whole new level of respect for people who make things and put them out for public scrutiny.

Writing or creating anything and displaying it opens up a myriad of emotions.

From feeling that everyone is better than you and you don’t deserve to do it, to feelings of euphoria when someone reads and comments on your articles.

Medium is a great platform to initially get out there. The comments and feedback from others is generally thought-provoking, supportive, and helpful. You don’t have anyone just looking to demean or devalue your work. This is huge in helping to gain confidence and feeling safe in putting out true thoughts and emotions.

This is one of the reasons I think Medium is such a good place to take that initial step.

I published my first article and received very little response. I felt, however, that it had to be perfect before I released it into the world. In fact, I wrote about my experience in my second article, which surprisingly got picked up for publication. I was ecstatic. I couldn’t believe that I was actually “a writer" for a publication on Medium. After reading for so long, I was actually a part of this.

Not everything I write gets published in a publication. That’s not a surprise. I’m learning. I’m learning from all the others out there who receive thousands of claps, and tens of comments.

I’m not a great writer, but I’m trying to be.

One day I hope to get there. I hope to be the one who people look to for that piece of advice, or that experience to help them through their day.

I’m not there yet.

But I’ll get there.

Thanks

Thanks for reading this. You have made my day. If you like this, please clap or comment or both. I hope this helps you to get out there, like I did, and try writing too.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 291,182+ people.

Subscribe to receive our top stories here.