I initially wondered if my short humor would find a place on Medium. It did. And that gave me encouragement to write other things, like fiction and poetry. I am not getting rich, nor do I have the popularity of those who write the type of essays Medium likes to feature, but I have a small group of regular readers who respond to my stories. An audience. That is what I really want.

I ignore the “how to succeed on Medium” advice and hacks. And the writing “rules” for the most part. They don’t work for me. My writing is all over the map. I just do my own thing and try to continually improve. Honestly, I don’t want to write like anyone else. I don’t understand why anyone would. I love originality and creativity. I think they are good things. I look for those qualities in a story.

I love the freedom to write whatever I want. To me, writing what I want, and having people read and respond to it, is success.

There is nothing else like Medium for me. The essay writers can have the home page. I like my tiny back corner of it.