Write for the right reasons

Money shouldn’t be one of them— Sorry

I never actually told my children, there’s no Santa Claus — I couldn’t.

They would work it out themselves at the right time. In the meantime, we wanted them to enjoy the wonders of as many childhood Christmases as possible.

I think I was six or seven when my older brother, by a couple of years, shattered my illusions on Christmas morning and told me Santa Claus didn’t exist. It wasn’t the same after that. The childhood magic was lost.

I’ve been thinking about this piece for a while pondering whether I’ll be the one to shatter any illusions for aspiring writers on Medium or other writing platforms for that matter. That couldn’t be further from my intention.

Like thousands of others subscribing to Medium, I love to write, but the reality is we’re not all going to make a living from it. That’s not going to happen — Not by a long way.

The evidence and, crucially, the statistics available on this very platform are stacked heavily against us.

If you didn’t know that already — I’m sorry.

That’s not to say it can’t happen. It can and it does (occasionally). I genuinely enjoy reading the success stories that serve as an inspiration for myself and so many others.

Medium has so much to offer readers and writers and I’d be the last person to say, don’t write.

But, do so for the right reasons and knowing that success in the form of large monthly bank deposits is extremely unlikely.

What’s been playing on my mind is the increasing number of articles focusing on ‘How I made $100 dollars a day, a month; $500; $1,000; $2,500, $10,000…

There was another one headlining in my Medium Daily Digest this morning.

I appreciate these headlines are designed to target new writers and encourage reading time and claps and some of them do offer value for ambitious novices. However, there’s an increasing degree of piggy-backing and espousing of well-established writing practice. Just be aware of it and expand your sphere of influence.

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