Back in 2015, when I was floundering and not quite sure what my creative purpose was, I decided to experiment by repurposing some of my blog content on Medium. Medium is a social media platform for writers and readers where you can write articles and, hopefully, gain a bigger audience for your work.
Due to my fears, my procrastination and my constant chasing of the sparkly I only lasted for three articles. I think I assumed something would happen and that I’d then have ‘no choice’ but to continue writing on Medium. But not much happened. Back in those days I think I expected instant results without much work on my part but I’m older and wiser now. I now realise that to get results you need to be consistent, you need to keep creating and you need to leave your writing cave and communicate with others on the platform.
There’s no magic, just hard work.
After being inspired by a few members inside The Confident Creative Club I re-started my Medium adventures a couple of weeks ago. For a week or so prior to this I was researching the site: reading articles, following people that interested me and working out how the site worked and how you created an article. I was also trying to work up the courage to post.
Why courage? Well, in the beginning I found Medium extremely intimidating. I still do a little bit. But bear in mind I’m an unconfident creative so that’s par for the course. I don’t think I’m the only one though. I’ve found a few articles on there that talk about anxiety when posting, that some writers have little self-belief and the urge to procrastinate is strong.
When I eventually found the courage (or got bored of my fear) I published my first article. This made me feel more anxious and scared than I have in a long time — and I’ve done lots of scary creative projects in the last couple of years. Seriously, my heart was thudding in my chest and I had a pit of anxiety in my stomach. I thought I was over all that, but it appears not.
I know there are other people like me out there who’d like to write on Medium but feel scared or they have a lot of self-doubt. So I thought I’d create a video diary series to share my journey and to perhaps inspire and motivate others to give it a go.
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If you want to come and find me over on Medium you can find me at: helenredfernwriter.medium.com