Almost One Year With Medium & I’m Still Learning How To Use It.

I feel embarrassed about the fact that I still don’t know Medium too well. I know how to read & write stories, but all of the algorithm talks make me question myself as a writer. Am I good enough to be on this platform?

Let me start by talking about what I don’t know.

Unsplash Photo By: Carl Heyerdahl

I don’t know how to reply to someone in a private message. Someone sent me a private message with tips on citing a section of my article, and I got frustrated because every time I clicked to write a reply it took me to my article rather than the message box. How would I write back? I had to play with the site more to get the hang of it.

I have a hard time highlighting parts I like in another writer’s article. I couldn’t in a section of an article leave a direct message to then clap for it afterward. When I respond to a section of an article I want to clap right after. Instead, when I highlight a part and respond, it kicks me off the article and then I can’t find which one it was.

I avoided this by saving the article I like so I can then go back and clap for it.

When to write

I tend to get an idea of what to write and jot it down right away before I forget. When I started on Medium I had a whole list of topics that I wanted to write about but then as time went on that list changed completely. I realized that not everyone is into reading the same topics as me and I had to improvise.

Intimidation & insecurity

I was insecure about my writing due to past experiences and hearing other writers shame each other made me even more nervous to write. It wasn’t until I read an article from Tim Dinning and he explained the importance of owning your writing without hesitation and being confident in your work that I realized he had a point and that’s when I wrote the article “Find Your Why” which turned about to be one of my favorites.

I don’t know how to create my own publication. I hear that having your own publication on Medium is the way to go but I am having trouble creating a publication especially editing it to my liking.

Medium

Compensation