Medium is making it rain, and I love it.

I’m supposed to be on a break from Medium to write my novel, but I simply had to return and write about this. To paraphrase Leonardo Di Caprio from Django Unchained, Medium, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.

Medium is the best thing to have happened to me.

Okay, okay. That’s a tad bit hyperbolic. However, Medium is, without a doubt the best thing that has happened to my writing career.

I’ve grown leaps and bounds since publishing my first article here in September 2019. What started out as a fun experiment led to an adventure of epic proportions.

Through Medium, I made my first serious paycheque from my words. After I made my first hundred bucks here, I was hooked. There’s no drug like making a living from the thing you love. …

Medium used to be a place where you can make real money.

In September 2020, the top-earning writer here made an eye-watering $49,581.31. I don’t know about you, but that’s enough for me to pay the rent and keep me in the cheese for a long, long time.

Sure, this is an anomaly. But not by far.

Casey Botticello’s great Medium Blogging Guide shows that starting from Jan 2018, the highest-earning writer here consistently took home over ten grand. Furthermore, in mid-to-late 2019, the numbers would explode.

Check this out:

Your Writing Must Make Your Readers Laugh, Cry, Or Orgasm

Otherwise, don’t bother.

A bit harsh and hyperbolic, I know. But too many people write blandly. Writing with the intent to inform is good. Writing to inform and entertain is divine.

It’s the difference between that school hag who made studying a drag and that standout teacher who somehow made Math fun.

So write with the intention to educate, yes, but also with the intention of engaging your readers. Make them feel something special, something primal, something deep in their blood and guts and soul.

The ability to do this is what separates the good writers from the unforgettable.

To Write Interestingly, Live Interestingly

“How…

There was a bit of a positive hoo-hah on the Medium Facebook Groups last night.

Apparently, Medium is giving away bonuses worth $500 for the month of April. I saw that Jhemmylrut Teng received the bonus, congratulated her heartily, then shrugged and moved on.

It never occurred to me that I would be one of the recipients as well.

After all, my views for March and April have been abysmal. I have also written several, err, feedback pieces to Medium over the last two months. You can check them out here:

Although my intention in writing these pieces was to…

I was twenty years old when I got brutally knocked out in front of my friends and family.

Let me take you back to the worst night of my life. It was June 2016, and I was working as a storeman in the Air Force. Well, that was my day job, but my real passion was mixed-martial-arts.

I spent most of my teenage years in a grungy fight gym learning the way of the fist, and by the time my twenties rolled around, I was already an undefeated fighter. I held a record of three wins and no losses, and…

There’s a lot of hoity-toity writers out there.

You know the type. The types floating above the rest of us, preaching that it is somehow wrong to write for money, that it sullies the art to write for anything other than cobwebs and love.

I’m not one of them. I grew up in a family of small-time, blue-collar entrepreneurs, and I agree with Steven Pressfield when he says that yes, writing should be treated as an art, but also as a hard-hat profession no different from plumbing or boxing.

I, therefore, think that there’s nothing wrong with writing for fame…

Readers, be warned: Things are about to get heated.

A caveat before I start to throw hands: I didn’t write this article with the intention to criticise the skill of my fellow writers. I would never do something like that.

I believe that the will to write is more important than the skill, and that if you manage to sit down in front of the typewriter to put out some words into the world, you have already overcome yourself. You have already triumphed.

What I am about to criticise is the moral failings of some “writers” here. I chose to…