The Grasshopper #13, Lucking Out
Serendipity in writing, and life
“Yes, right: worry is the essence of craft. “I’m afraid my story will suck” can become “How might my story suck?” which can become “How is my story actually sucking in this draft?” which can lead to “Let me attend to the possibly sucky component parts of my story, in order to ensure that it no longer sucks, or at least sucks less.”
George Saunders
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means … Why did the oil refineries around Carquinez Strait seem sinister to me in the summer of 1956? Why have the night lights in the Bevatron burned in my mind for twenty years? What is going on in these pictures in my mind?”
Joan Didion, specifically in reference to her fiction
(The Bevatron is a particle accelerator in a lab at Berkeley). Didion quote from an excellent essay in The Paris Review on the glimmer of inspiration that can lead to a novel, a topic I am completely fascinated by.
“A great man should die as a shattered jewel, rather than live as an intact tile.”
Seventh century Chinese saying as quoted in the novel A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Luck in creativity is not an accident. You labor along, not always believing in what you are doing but doing it anyhow, because that is what we do. And then something serendipitous takes place.
Maybe your plot takes an unexpected turn that brings a lot of loose ends together. Or a perfect article title pops out and the following article writes itself. In the essay that follows this, which originally appeared on Medium, I look at what I have learned about the platform after publishing over 700 articles, which I guess is borderline compulsive.
One of the main takeaways is that you won’t know which article is going to resonate with readers. There are too many variables like subject matter, timeliness (a big one for me because I write about current events), that catchy title, or maybe just pure luck.
But, as in any endeavor, you bring yourself to the path of the lucky by doing the work. As I’ve mentioned before, Michael Ondaatje is one of my favorite novelists, seemingly capable of writing one miraculous book after another. It may seem like luck, but he spends seven years on average writing and honing each story.
He makes his luck.
The following piece was written as a primer for writing for Medium and was originally published there, so I’ve left in the references to the platform and this newsletter as they originally appeared.
700+ Stories: Seven Things I Know About Medium
And one I can’t teach you
This one is actually #703, which is either nuts or just a sign of early onset dementia. It’s neither of those things, but I wouldn’t have reached this number if there wasn’t some value in it.
I’ve wanted to write a kind of guide or primer to writing on Medium for awhile now, though I know the site is awash in that stuff, often written by people who haven’t published that much. So I’ve been hesitant because most of the writing I do here is not about money, getting followers, or other attempts to game the system.
I write about real world topics, politics, current events, and climate, because those are my passions these days and, to be honest, they draw readers. These topics are front and center for most of us, whether we like it or not.
It’s the zeitgeist. Which is defined, btw, as:
‘the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.’
Thanks to the Google for that, our instant source of all knowledge. Which brings me to the first of my pearls of wisdom:
Write about something really important to you
Whether it’s money, food, relationships, or dogs, write about it and that writing should seek to convey just why you get excited about that stuff. Look at the highest performing writers here as measured by followers.
They are impassioned, angry, obsessive, or otherwise deep into what they are writing about.
So, do some self analysis about what you really feel strongly about. And don’t worry if it seems lightweight or too niche-y. This is a big world here and there are lots of readers who share your interests.
Focus on readers, not writers
I do a lot of writing about writing but I have migrated that work to my newsletter, The Grasshopper (shameless plug), in part because I feel there is too much writing advice here. There is a second reason, which I will get into shortly.
The real gold here is the readers. Many are writers or aspire to be writers, but many are just looking for great articles on things that they find interesting, articles that you seldom find in other places. I know, because I am one of those readers and I’d personally like to see better content here.
It’s ok to write for money, or not
The subject of making money and the Partner Program is ubiquitous here, which is unfortunate because that stuff often hides the higher quality content and seldom offers much in the way of applicable advice.
But money is a part of why I write. It is my profession and has been in one form or another for most of my life. So, here is some advice about money here. First, join the Partner Program if you haven’t. Use my link so I can make an extra $2 a month (that’s a joke, as is that referral program, imho). Do it so more writers get paid.
The big factors in making a few dollars are quality, frequency, length (potential read time), formatting that is mobile reader friendly, and consistency in your choice of topics. Let’s run through them quickly (not necessarily in the order).
Frequency is much discussed, for good reason. As my stories published number shows, I am a very frequent contributor, typically daily, and it does make a difference in earnings, up to a point. But quality is just as or more important because it brings readers back. You make money by building a loyal following, which is why they call them followers.
I’ll save you the effort of checking. I have just under 4000 at the moment, which puts me somewhere in the upper middle. The big guys are in the 10,000+ category and they share one common thing: They write about topics they are passionate about and they have a consistent voice.
Yes, I know those are two things. But they are intimately related and they are the things I cannot teach you. One of the reasons for frequency is to get better at this and one of the values of followers, and revenue, is they show you are achieving those goals.
Length and formatting are the basics, when it comes to money, because they affect read time, the number of minutes readers spend on the page, which is how the algorithm decides how much you make.
Short pieces get read but the payout is less. My sweet spot is between 500 and 1000 words, basically because that is what I need to convey my point(s).
Formatting has two caveats: white space is more reader friendly and brevity of thought keeps them moving along. I used to be pretty involved in digital marketing and research conclusively shows that the last thing users look at are big blocks of text.
Keep things open looking.
Your choice of topics is critical to building an audience. Too many writers here keep writing the same article, which indicates they either don’t know their topic or it is too narrow, or overdone. One of the criteria I use is tags.
When you apply tags they tell you how many follow those topics. I write about Politics and that tag has a lot of readers. Get to know the tags you consistently find yourself using- they tell you your sweet spot, topic-wise.
Readers like personalities
The good news is that you have one. So don’t try to sound like someone else. Be yourself and don’t censor out your quirks. But this is tricky because trying too hard to be clever or cynical, for example, shows. Ditto for being a self-proclaimed expert.
Expertise is demonstrated, not stated. I’ll let you suss that out, but it is the truth.
You should be enjoying this because readers can tell. To be honest, I love writing here. Unlike much of the writing I’ve done in my life, including book deals, marketing, magazine articles ( mostly gone, alas) and other paid writing, I get to do my own thing here and I get immediate feedback.
It’s fun and very satisfying. And I can always tell when I’m trying to force it. Btw, those articles that I try too hard on seldom make much money. Be yourself, it pays in multiple ways.
Earn followers, don’t ask for them
Fortunately there is a lot less begging for claps or follows than there used to be. Or maybe the algo is filtering that stuff out. I hope so. A reader who follows you because they got some value or insight out of your writing is 100x times more valuable to you.
Btw, I pay zero attention to claps. Early on, in the olden days, they had an effect on earnings, but that was a false premise. Read time is the number you should focus on if you focus on any stats. A clap is not an indicator that the story actually got read.
Be professional in your editing, grammar, and spelling
Typos, poor sentence structure, misspellings and other edit errors kill readership. Editing, like writing, is both a skill and an art form. I’ve been edited by pros and it was enlightening. But self-editing is generally the only option here. Some publications may actually edit but I don’t write for publications because I didn’t find it made much difference.
Here are two major tips for self-editing, especially if you are a beginner. Never edit right after writing. These are two distinct mindsets. If possible write one day and edit the next. Try to be hard on yourself when in edit mode. Besides typos, look for content that doesn’t add to the story or impedes the flow. Cut it.
Reading your stuff out loud is a very powerful way to find things that need edits. Try it.
Finally, be a member of the community
About six months ago I decided that I would no longer respond to comments. The topics I write about are often controversial and I get the occasional threat (very rare here). I block them. But I consider myself a part of a community here and there is value in that.
I do occasionally comment but always try to add to the conversation in a positive way. If I can’t, I skip the commenting.
The best way to contribute here, besides writing, is to read, to seek out interesting writers and explore their stuff. It is a basic rule that to write well, you must read well and widely.
I think that’s it, for now. I’m happy enough with story #703 and I hope someone finds it useful. For me, there is value in assessing what I have learned from all that writing, the equivalent of several books worth of prose.
That thing I said I couldn’t teach you? It’s in here already.