Clicking Publish on Medium (RTB)
With some Gravity Assist
I finally decided to click Publish on Medium. I had been writing, correcting & adding more words to my story for past 6 years. Not really knowing when I was done. At some point during that time, I decided to convert my scribblings into a book. This is the story of why I moved here instead.
Unsurprisingly, writing a book requires a lot of work. You need structure, a minimum word count, an editor to review, and a publisher willing to take a risk. Most of all, you need time. With a growing family & job change, this was not an easy task. With constant love & support from my wife and family, I continued writing though.
Then I found Medium. It made writing fun. I didn’t really need to worry about completing a book. In 1000 words or less, I can tell a piece of that story. I can add images, paragraph breaks and focus on a specific topic.
Importantly, I can focus on growing an audience and understanding which pieces they want more or less of. This is not something you can do when you are writing a book. I can now field test specific topics or crowdsource multiple ones much more easily.
Another key aspect is that getting feedback from my closest supporters is easier. They are also part of the audience, but they know me personally and can give more direct feedback. Asking this group to give a feedback on entire book, is not fair to them.
Best of all, it is helping me in writing better and hopefully, telling a more cohesive story. The biggest issue I faced, as an amateur writer, was to maintain a logical flow when writing the book. As you’d expect, there are many ways you can tell a story. Think of it as a puzzle, where each topic is a puzzle piece. You can cut a piece many different ways to assemble your final picture. Now by focussing on a specific topic, I can add different details to it and get more specific feedback on it — enhance it’s shape. Finally, when I take a step back, I can make sure the pieces fit together and add any missing links.
Since this is a Space blog, another analogy is the gravity assist maneuvers for a spacecraft. These maneuvers are meant to take advantage of the gravitational pull of an astronomical object, like a Planet, while the spacecraft is headed on a long journey. Instead of going directly to the ultimate destination, like that spacecraft, I can now conserve fuel, investigate further, course correct, before progressing on to the next leg of the journey. Each story is now an opportunity for me to take advantage of those gravity assists. Completing that book remains my mission, but I can get there without running out fuel.
Medium also has a ton of resources on writing maintained by Medium Staff & community, like Medium Creators. Sure there are other places to write and Medium has it’s own barriers, but Medium is on top of their game right now and I believe in their success.
So, with all of that, my first story is out there in the world. I clicked publish and immediately sent that link to my family & friends. Now, I am on a mission to add more content, spread the word and perhaps, inspire budding writers as well (Anup Yadav & Satyadesai). Excited to see where this goes. Right now I am happy to write about the topic that matters to me the most.
Thank you for being a part of this journey! Let’s fly 🚀
A version of this story was posted as tweet here — https://twitter.com/particlewave138/status/1476662373104734214
