I’ve Written 555 Essays On Medium. Ask Me Anything.

That, if you’re wondering, is a lot.

Photo by me. Bed head by Hair Story.

On May 7th, 2016, when I was but a sweet summer child, I published my first earning essay on Medium. It’s called I’m 33 Years Old & I Do Laundry With Quarters. It’s still funny, I checked. After that I discovered how thoroughly phenomenal it feels to write whatever you want, any time you want, without needing an editor’s permission or promise of $100 in three months time first. I never stopped. Now, I’m 555 essays deep and declaring myself tenured. Ask me anything you want to know.

Yes, of course you could ask the blogger boys instead, with their assembly line of articles on Medium telling you how to make money on Medium, but I ask you…555? Is that where they’re at? Further still, have they been feeding their soul with all that content? Or have they themselves been trying to make easy money on this platform with the transparency of a freshly squeegeed windshield? When I started writing on Medium I was still groveling for whatever abusive startup job I was “lucky” enough to have, freelancing on weekends and figuring that someday I’d have a life I love. Now, I am a published author who is 100% independently employed because I developed a self worth, voice, and professional purpose in seven years of writing on Medium. Someday is now. Take whatever advice you want I guess.

The biggest impact for me was likely the freedom of Medium. There are no gatekeepers, no bitchy editorial ladder guarding multiple gates to the internet like they own it, preventing me from being what I am—a writer. I no longer beg someone to let me do what I love. I do it regardless of whether or not “it’s a fit” for someone who takes three weeks to answer answer emails and acts like they’re doing me a favor by acknowledging that I breathe at all. I give inflated egos less content to fill the ever-hungry internet bellies they work for and it lifts my spirit every time.

I’m not a particularly brief sort of scrivener. I take my time, and my internet real estate like the market’s good. Most of my essays top a thousand words and there are quite a few that pass the five-minute-read mark. So what we’re talking about is well over 555,000 words written in service of one woman’s professional dream. Honestly I think we’re closer to a million, but I haven’t the patience…