What is the most dangerous thing you can do to undermine your desire to write? Listen to naysayers saying you have no talent. Especially, those few here on Medium who criticize your writing style.
May I suggest writing the way you feel most comfortable? Rules that you must follow are what editors require before they consider reading your submissions for publication. If you publish your own material outside of publications here on Medium or elsewhere, write as you see fit. I don’t mean to work to improve your writing but do not try to be perfect before you publish your first story. You will never publish if you do. You can use the platform to improve your style and even experiment.
Work to improve your skills and craft, explore your style too. Your writing style is your fingerprint.
I am sure you know many of the best comedians test out their jokes usually in comedy clubs where they may even appear unbilled. They see what works and what does not in front of a live audience. They are test marketing.
You can use Medium for the same reason. Write certain things as you choose and publish for money or views using more formal writing. Using one style, test, learn and experiment and in another, write with a more direct purpose. Publish your experimental pieces as unlisted if you just want to limit the audience.
What defines your style?
If you read my writing, you will notice a certain style to it. I do not, for example, begin a sentence with ‘And’ unless it is a quote. Many other writers do. The word ‘and’ is a conjunction. If you begin a sentence with ‘And . . .’ it is not connecting to anything. It makes no sense to me.
That is an element of my style. It does not have to be yours. I am also against the oxford comma.
Once, I got a phone call from someone who disagreed with a sentence from an article I published nationally in a Catholic newspaper. I wrote articles and opinion pieces for it regularly which helped me in graduate school. I did not recognize the sentence as the reader related it to me and checked to see if the editor changed the wording. What is the first thing I looked for? If any sentence in the piece began with ‘And’. Sure enough, there were several in the article. My writing was edited. I explained it to the reader and then explained what I originally wrote.
Your style is your signature. When people complain on Medium that you do not write properly, listen to what they say but discern whether to put it into practice.
Your unique voice
I edit a newsletter written not by writers but by members of an international organization. I always have to weigh the difference between changing a writer’s words to a more correct style or leaving them as is to enable their voice to come through in the article. This is especially for those writing from other countries. I usually edit for clarity and spelling but little else. I need to make sure that I do not remove the writer’s personality from the piece.
It is the same with you. What you write on Medium is in your voice and what you say and how you say it is as important as the rules of spelling and grammar.
Some writers on Medium complain about grammar and spelling errors by some popular writers. As I look over their writing, including those I follow, I find some write in their second or even third language. I overlook those errors and focus on the message. They are communicating to me in their voice and not in their primary language. Their less than perfect English is not a barrier to me understanding their more important message. As a reader and part of their audience, I can overlook their errors to glean the message from their own viewpoint and culture.
If I hold my nose and turn away because the writing was not to my standards, I might miss an important message that enhances my life.
I am reading you because I want to know what wisdom you share will enhance my life, educate me or challenge me. If I find a spelling mistake, am I going to believe you have nothing to say to me? Probably not, although it does undermine your credibility somewhat, depending on your background.
Spelling is important but . . .
I often read American journalists on religious issues and many spell ‘altar’ wrong. They write ‘alter’. Despite calling themselves professional reporters, they just communicated to me they know little about their subject — religion. Their credibility suffered. If that same writer was Brazilian addressing religious issues as they impact the Latin American economy, I may not judge the misspelling as a commentary on the writer. I may overlook it as an error due to the reporter using a second or third language.
Some will comment that you should not be writing at all because your words do not conform to their standards of a writer. Never take those critics seriously.
Many writers on writing were nasty in the 1970s
When I was young and wanted to be a writer, many books on the craft and career choice began by telling readers they should look elsewhere. I am not talking about people who actually read others’ writing, I am talking about an attitude common among popular writers to aspiring young high school and college students. They condemned virtually everyone else considering writing as a career choice. Occasionally, I see the attitude here and it really turns me off.
I just read a piece here on Medium from someone, also a boomer, as I am, who said if you are not writing well by the time you graduate high school or at least by early college (this is a paraphrase) you will never make it in writing. I strongly disagree.
High school (public) was a time of survival for me. I was too busy trying to focus on graduating alive than whether I would make it as a writer. There, I developed a deep hatred for all things school that took decades to heal.
I still maintain a school picture from the end of my ninth grade of the entire class, eighteen are flipping the camera the bird. I was not one of them. What was then called junior and senior high school was a nightmare. If I was so focused on just crossing the finish line in one piece, how much energy did I have to try to be a good writer? None. If I was born later, Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 would have been my daily anthem. I settled for Alice Cooper’s School’s Out.
I attempted college at the insistence of my family but then gave up and joined the Navy. My public school system ruined education for me until I finished my enlistment. I then returned to college and graduated magna cum laude. I now have a Master’s degree. I learned to write on my own in the Navy in my spare time. High school had nothing to do with it.
One book inspired me toward writing after I graduated high school — I forget the title. The writer was an English teacher from Maine. I wonder today if the author was Stephen King long before he made it big. He did not begin with: “if you want to be a writer forget it, you can’t do it.” It began with great instructions on writing.
If you want to write, write
Write if you have something to say. Always work to improve your craft. Your voice, although imperfect, is still something you need to express. Experiment with your own pieces from Medium and use your best techniques for publications and what you are writing for views, money or both.