How the Writing Life Is a Constant Exercise in Experimentation

Some insight into the new strategies I'm trying on Medium, Substack, and elsewhere

Hello friends!

It's been another week of experimentation. The writing life is like that, and sometimes I feel like the strategies I employ change every couple of days.

I tried a lot of things last week and some of them even worked! In this newsletter I’ll bring you up to speed and let you know about my guest appearance scheduled for this Friday. Let’s get to it!

Boosted and Trending Stories

Last week I had my 150^th story selected for a Boost on Medium. For a complete list of all my Boosted stories, click here. I'm still finding that the Boost selection rate has slowed from what it used to be. I know that's a point of frustration for some of my favorite writers (who are publishing less on Medium as a result).

There are a couple other odd things going on over at Medium lately. The “TRENDING ON MEDIUM” list seems to be really strange. The stories featured there aren't by writers I know. In my opinion, the quality of trending stories seems to be lacking. I don't know if this is a result of somebody figuring out how to game the system, or if there's something else behind the scenes that I am simply unaware of.

For example, this story doesn’t have a very good title, it’s not in the right case, it doesn’t have any subtitle, and the image isn’t all that interesting. The way this looks right now, I wouldn’t even read it, much less nominate it for a Boost. Yet, there it is, trending at #1:

Normally, I recommend that readers visit the trending list often just to get a feel for what's working on Medium. However, with what's on there right now, I don't think there's a lot of useful information to be gained. I won't know for sure until another couple weeks have gone by.

What I’m looking for (for what that’s worth)

As an editor, you more or less have to develop an instinct for quickly accepting or declining a submission. I scroll through a lot of titles that aren't good enough. If I find an article with a good title, I'm often declining it based on the first paragraph.

Remember, as a Boost nominator, my submissions have to maintain a certain level of quality. If I nominate items that don't meet the standard, I'm not doing my job. I take it very seriously and I'm confident in my ability to both write and recognize Boost worthy content.

So, the stuff that's trending lately has me confused. I'll figure it out, but it might take a couple weeks.

The latest stories of mine that have been Boosted have been:

• Unique

• Personal

Avoid “wraparound” content

I still think it's a good idea to support your ideas with links to scholarly articles, but that's less important with the crackdown on “wraparound” stories. Lately, Medium isn't Boosting stories that start with a personal narrative and then segue into a philosophical argument before returning back to the narrative.

I'm disappointed that they've taken this direction because I think that's a good formula for writing compelling and informative articles.

Instead, they want you to go a little heavier on the narrative. This one is a good example:

I was very confident that one would get Boosted when I submitted it. It's a story about a time I got hauled off a bus in Ecuador by a guy carrying an AK-47 (yes, it actually happened). All you have to do is mention that's the topic and you know you've got a winner. Most people don't have stories like that.

Work through your rage

The election is only a few weeks away and I'd like to get back to more discussions on racism. However, anything that seems political is a really hard sell on Medium these days. Fortunately it's going like gangbusters on Substack.

I'm still interested in doing everything I can to edit, nominate, and promote anti-racism stories on Medium. If you have a story about being denied healthcare because you're a woman, that would be something we could work with too. Also, anyone who has experienced anti-LGBTQ+ hatred has a story that the world needs to see.

The most effective strategy is to write the stories that are important to you but conform to the expectations of the platform. I've been advising people to think of Substack as a rough draft. Think of your Substack followers as your “Alpha” readers (normally they're called “Beta” readers... but I'm making a little joke).

Comments on any draft are extremely valuable, except when they're from Russian bots. Actually, I take that back, even comments from Russian bots are helpful because it lets you know you've written about something that's on their radar. If they're trying to oppose you, you must be important.

I'll often throw out a rage draft on Substack, read the comments, wait a few days to cool down, and then write something that I hope will get Boosted on Medium. I did that this week. If you are curious as to how it looks, here are the two links:

• Substack draft

• Medium draft

Even with the “cooling off” period, I thought the Medium draft would be disqualified from a Boost (and it was). It's just tough to get anything Boosted that mentions politics right now. Again, we'll see how things look after the election. It could be that all the stories about politics feel like retreads. We've been covering this same ground for 150 years.

The sad part is that we have to keep talking about the same injustices over and over.

Podcasting

Speaking of Substack, you've probably noticed that I've been playing around with the podcast feature. For the last few weeks, I've been uploading my voiceovers for the articles I wrote around a year ago. I thought this would be a nice way to provide some new exposure to the “best of” stories that have already appeared on this platform.

I used to think of a podcast as a conversation that had to be an hour or so. I've been delighted to see that there seems to be plenty of interest in downloading 5 or 6 minute narratives. Maybe I'll make more of an effort to produce good performative readings. I've experimented with just speaking off the top of my head, but I think the recordings are better if I'm reading off a script.

I honestly have no idea where these podcasts are being distributed to. I get the sense that they're going to some other player, and maybe they will help me find a few more paying subscribers. In fact, that's already been the case. I'll keep doing it.

The Contraband Wagon

Finally, at the end of this week, I'll be a guest on the Contraband Wagon. We'll be having a discussion about the journey to racial awareness. I'm looking forward to it. I already had a brief call with the show's host and I found him to be compassionate and insightful. I tend to get nervous about this type of thing, but that's mainly because my computer has been freezing up on me lately.

Technical difficulties... I have nightmares about technical difficulties. But I plan on using my laptop for the interview because that's been behaving itself better of late.

That's it for today. I've got two articles sitting in draft on Medium that I think are pretty strong. We'll find out whether they get Boosted or not in a couple of days (here’s my subscribe link on Medium if you want to subscribe to me in both places). As a nominator, I can paste in a link and see if an article has been reviewed. Basically everything I write is reviewed, but I really wish they'd provide feedback on why some of the articles weren't taken.

But, we've got to play the hand we're dealt, and Medium has been very good to me over the years. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or excellent article ideas! Think of me as your one stop writing resource!

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Here’s the links for that guest appearance:

To RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/racismdiscussiongroup/events/303998839/?eventOrigin=group_upcoming_events

Website Link For Your Event: https://www.thecontrabandwagon.com/event/conversation-series-132-walter-rhein/

To Watch Our Conversation Live: https://www.twitch.tv/thecontrabandwagon

To Encourage Other People To Apply To Be On My Show For A Convo: https://www.thecontrabandwagon.com/the-contraband-wagon-application/

Instagram Post: 

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My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecontrabandwagon6738

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Thanks for reading everyone! As always, leave your questions or comments below!

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