I waffle on what exactly it is that I want to do with my writing. I like the prospect of writing online — I get quick feedback, and honestly, that often establishes and keeps momentum. However, I am afraid of what writing online might be doing to my writing.
When I was in high school, right at the turn of the century (wow, that makes me sound old!), I was taught to become a better writer by circulating my writing amongst willing peers and getting feedback. Doing that in 1999 usually meant that you physically handed a few pieces of paper to a friend or two in your class, and following up later. The feedback was usually detailed, substantive, rich, and hopefully honest. I’m sure that much of the online community that revolves around writing, like Medium, is meant to replicate this process, but scale it. I’m just not quite sure that it works.
The feedback from Medium is mainly recommends — people pushing a little heart button at the bottom of your article. Related to those is the stats of views and reads. Simple logic would dictate that the more views, the better your title, the more reads, the better your initial paragraph, and the more recommends, the better your piece is as a whole. Perhaps there’s more to it than that, but I’m not sure what that would be.
I’ve been writing on Medium with any kind of regularity for just over a year now, and sometimes it seems like something is missing in that feedback set I outlined above. I see a lot of pieces recommended by hundreds of people that seem outright click-baity and repetitive of stuff you find on widely-read inspirational/productivity sites. I see pieces that have very similar titles and content both getting high quantities of recommends. But, I also see good pieces of writing getting a decent amount of recommends. It leaves me wondering how I can get better feedback about my writing, and how I can get better — not just more popular — as a writer through Medium.
If I just relied on what I see most recommended, I think the first lesson I’d learn would be a title with numbers and buzz-words in it. To me, that’s not better writing per se, that’s just swindling. Maybe they’re the same thing — I don’t know. The other lesson I’d learn is to use very small paragraphs — one sentence ones, even. That seems to get people’s lazy eyes moving down a piece. Again, I’m not sure that’s better writing. The third lesson I’d learn is…I’m not sure, actually.
I guess the missing piece for me — and I promise I’ll end this stream-of-consciousness rant, then — is this: can I get feedback on my piece from people, especially if they didn’t like it? Just seeing that 150 people viewed my story, but didn’t read it, and that 50 people read it but only 12 recommended it…I don’t know what to make of that! Why didn’t they read it? Why did they read it through, but not recommend it?
Yes, I get a dopamine surge every time I see that notification alert in the Medium app, or the little green circle with a number in it on the site — I’m only human. But what would really help me out is some constructive criticism. I know that other writers feel this way too, but I just don’t know how to best push that forward here on Medium.
Thanks for thinking this through with me. I’m done now.