What I learned from writing Medium articles

Here are the facts and lessons that I learned from writing on Medium so far.

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

I have been writing Medium articles for over a year now, having published 33 articles in over a year. My original goal was to write at least two articles per month and I think I achieved it. Now seems to be a good time to reflect upon my progress and share what I have learned.

Why I write

First, allow me to explain why I am writing on Medium. To be transparent, the potential monetary reward was part of the motivation. But my main purpose for writing on Medium was to improve my writing. For me, writing is one of the forms of expressing your thoughts because it forces organization and creativity. Even without earning any money, if I could formulate words to articulate my thoughts exactly the way I envisioned, I get a huge sense of satisfaction.

Everyone knows that names for things are arbitrary and that languages name things differently. People can talk about and debate over and over on the related topics. But when Shakespeare penned the famous phrase, “A rose by any other name would smell just the same,” people might have found a perfect expression (“Le mot juste”) for the fuzzy concept.

Something else happens when I write. Thought is just a concept unless it is expressed. Turning a…