First Month
My first month on Medium
Today, the 6th of December 2022, marks exactly one month since I published my first-ever post on Medium.
Even though I had been reading Medium articles for some months already, I was not in the slightest aware of what it really means to write on Medium!
The first word that comes to mind is — overwhelming. By sheer volume, frequency and, for the most part, depth of the articles posted daily. Actually, make that hourly.
I take my hat off to you, writers of Medium! I know there is a promise of a tangible reward that motivates many, but that alone cannot account for the level of dedication and consistency required to publish post after post for months and, often, years on end. It is truly a remarkable effort!
My very first foray into writing on the internet happened in 2012. It was the year my daughter went to Uni, and for the first time, we were no longer living together. I turned to writing and started a tiny blog on wordpress.com. It was a cosy little corner of the internet, and I kept at it for some years. I wrote about it here: Blogging.
Even after I stopped blogging, I continued writing more-less regularly, and some of my short stories and poems found their way into some small-time literary journals. The first publication happened in June 2018, two months before I lost my daughter.
Life stopped. In all its aspects. Except for words. And tears. I wrote and cried and wrote and cried … day in and day out. For four years, three months, and 16 days to date. Even when I could not talk, or breathe or walk … I wrote. Still am. Which is how I ended up here. Not only but one of the reasons. The others have to do with job loss and becoming a recluse. But that might be for some other articles.
I remember being surprised when the first green light popped up on my profile … someone left a comment. It was Yana Bostongirl— thank you, Yana! I wrote a response but didn’t realise I didn’t post it correctly. A few hours later, someone else sent me a message letting me know how I could rectify it … and it went on from there.
Every day I learn more about how to format correctly, update canonical links, how SEO works, how to insert links, the importance of consistency and reciprocity, and much more — Thank you all!
When the little green light announced 100 followers, I could not believe it!
Since then, Illumination, The Power of Poetry, The Lark and The Shortform have all been kind enough to publish my articles — Thank you!
At the time of writing, the stats page tells me this:
For someone who had no followers or readers of any kind apart from two great friends…it means a lot.
Like many, I write because I can’t not to. Still, every writer needs a reader; our words become stories only if and when someone reads them. Because they recognise elements of their own humanity in ours, in the whispers of the words we have written.
Thank you for reading.
