Do You Want to Improve Your Writing or Become an Algorithm Hack?

When it comes to your writing, ask yourself a simple question: What’s my goal?

In this digital age of blogging, social media attention, analytics, and likes, writers sometimes get lost.

I know I did.

I have always loved books and writing became a natural outgrowth to hone my self-expression and storytelling. Maybe it did for you, too?

I think your ego gets in the way of making something good because it kind of blinds you from the actual art. — Mitski

I started blogging with the idea that I’d develop my writing ability, practice in public, learn from constructive feedback, and eventually publish books.

But somewhere along the way, my writing fell victim to my ego. I let things like analytics, likes, and follower counts guide my writing.

I tried to hack algorithms to gain exposure when I should have been focused on better, deeper, more elegant writing.

Ugh.

Fortunately, you can always course correct, which is what I did late last year. The changes I made cost me some followers and exposure, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Shedding fair-weather readers who are only there for cute visuals, listicles, scannable content, and newsletter freebies mean that the ones still following you are in it for the caliber of your writing.

How about you? Are you happy with your writing online?

Do you know what your writing goal is, and where you want to end up? And if you have followers, are you happy with the reason why they are following you?

Stories are the thing we need most in the world

Years ago I created a fine art website to share my artwork and write about the creative arts and things that mattered to me.

Editors of a fine arts and marketing site liked my blog posts and invited me to write a weekly column for them.

The arrangement was fruitful. The fine arts and marketing blog had a decent following, and readers responded positively to my essays. The pressure to produce well-written, weekly posts taught me discipline and consistency.

Busy at my writing desk

Then I began experimenting with my writing. I switched from expository articles to fictional stories, with the creative arts serving as my underlying theme.

I wasn’t sure the editors would support my creative storytelling, but they did, and the reader response was immediate and positive.

After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world. — Philip Pullman

The more I learned to infuse emotion into my storytelling, the more readers approved and left glowing comments. It was a grand adventure, and each week I tried to top myself with even more imaginative writing.

I was barely using social media back then, yet readers were visiting my website and joining my email list simply because they liked my articles on the fine arts and marketing website.

Over time, I compiled the best of my stories and essays into my first book, “An Artful Life: Inspirational Stories and Essays for the Artist in Everyone.”

My book

My creative writing improved, and I was learning to translate personal experiences and deep emotions into compelling stories. Stories that made readers cry, laugh, and leave glowing comments.

But then I read a book that unwittingly derailed my momentum and sabotaged my creative writing.

Marketing is the hangover

Michael Hyatt is an author, blogger, podcaster, speaker, and the CEO and founder of Michael Hyatt & Company.

He has written several books about leadership, productivity, and goal setting. Hyatt and his team produce useful products and content to help people with their professional work and personal success.

I discovered Hyatt’s blog years ago in its infancy before it grew into the company it is today. However, I don’t follow him anymore. Mostly because I miss the intimacy of his old blog posts before he hired writers and grew his company.

One of the things that helped launch Hyatt’s success was his book, “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.”I read the book, and it taught me a great deal about blogging, marketing, copywriting, and how to grow your blog into a business.

The book got me excited about building an audience, followers, and newsletter subscribers, but to what end? It blurred my original goals as an artist and writer.

Write when drunk. Edit when sober. Marketing is the hangover. — Ashwin Sanghi

My efforts to become a writer of artful prose and poignant storytelling got lost in this new world of online attention-seeking, analytics, list-building, product creation, and marketing.

And then I discovered a cool new website called Medium.

People lose their way when they lose their why

When I stumbled upon Medium I was already distracted with this digital world of blogging, list building, and marketing.

I attended a blogging seminar and hired a professional copywriter to teach me tricks like catchy headlines and brief, scannable content.

Where before I wrote succinct, artful headlines for my articles, I transitioned to using a soulless “headline analyzer” app to score the effectiveness of my click-bait titles.

I noticed that many of the most successful writers on Medium focused on self-improvement. As a retired police chief with over 26-years of law enforcement experience, I knew I had a wealth of life lessons I could share with people.

Before I knew it, I was writing personal development articles instead of poignant stories and essays about the creative arts.

I decided to illustrate my Medium posts with colorful cartoons since I was a former editorial cartoonist for several newspapers. Not to mention, the gurus said that original artwork was better in your articles than the ubiquitous Unsplash stock photos everyone uses.

Miscellaneous cartoons of mine

I followed the advice in Michael Hyatt’s book, leveraged my new copywriting hacks, and sure enough, I grew a decent audience.

People lose their way when they lose their Why — Michael Hyatt

Then Medium introduced their writer’s partnership program, whereby writers earn money publishing popular articles behind Medium’s paywall.

I double-downed on my self-improvement articles and spent hours drawing colorful cartoons to illustrate each post. I even took a course to learn more paths to success on Medium.

And success I found. In 2019 I made nearly $70K on Medium. Here’s a screenshot from my Medium payment dashboard in 2019:

Part of my 2019 Medium payments

Part of my 2019 Medium payments

Of course, nothing lasts forever. The COVID pandemic hit, people were in lockdown at home in 2020, Medium’s algorithm seemed to change, curation of my articles declined, and my income suffered.

I was grateful to Medium for providing an innovative platform where writers can share their work and make some money, but I began to realize something profound.

I wasn’t happy with my writing.

I missed one of Michael Hyatt’s most important lessons, the one about losing your way when you lose your why.

I never stopped to ask myself why I was trying to be a self-help writer. I let the audience claps and amazing income blur my long-term goals of becoming a writer of poignant short stories and novels.

In short, I kind of lost my way.

Popularity does not always equal authority or authenticity

If you’re an aspiring writer, it’s vitally important to figure out what your goal is. “Begin with the end in mind,” as the late author Stephen Covey advised.

Do you want to become a novelist? Journalist? Traditionally published non-fiction author? Ghostwriter? Self-help guru or lifestyle blogger?

Whatever kind of writer you want to become, social media sites and publishing platforms like Medium can help you gain exposure, which is a good thing.

Not to mention, there’s great value in “practicing in public” and getting immediate feedback. In his excellent book “The Art and Business of Online Writing,” the author Nicolas Cole wrote:

There are 2 types of writers today: those who use data to inform and improve their writing and those who fail.

But you have to be careful.

Positive feedback and getting paid for popular content can be intoxicating, but first, you have to be clear on your writing goal. Where do you want to end up with your writing?

Also, popularity is not always indicative of quality.

Are you following their content because of what is being shared or by how many shares and followers they have? Popularity does not always equal authority or authenticity. — Loren Weisman

When I started writing on Medium, I emulated some of the other successful writers. I abandoned short stories and artful essays to write personal development pieces since they seemed to attract more attention.

Not that I wasn’t sharing honest life lessons and heartfelt advice. It’s just that I was no longer writing short stories and elegant, poignant pieces.

Page out of my journal. Keep a journal for writing ideas, quotes, inspiration, etc.

I was writing self-help posts. And I spent hours illustrating those posts with colorful cartoons, which I knew would help the articles stand out.

I found success doing this, but I had veered away from my original goal of writing short stories, intending to eventually write novels.

When I created for accolades, my motives were not ‘honest’ because I was creating for the wrong reasons. And when I created for others’ approval, the images were not really mine. — Cole Thompson, Photographer

If you’re writing online, make sure you’re clear on what your writing goal is. Don’t let the intoxication of likes, followers, and money blur your goals.

Don’t become an algorithm hack, stay true to your original creative vision.

Excellence in obscurity is better than mediocrity in the spotlight

I see a similar phenomenon with artists and photographers on platforms like Instagram. They’re all doing the same thing, copying one another. Scrambling for approval and followers.

Want proof? Check out the images in this blog post from Pocket-Lint.com.

They lose their original creative vision and fail to innovate. They put enormous faith in the masses to define what quality is when most often, the masses are swarming around sexy bodies, cat videos, and superficial, derivative content.

Excellence in obscurity is better than mediocrity in the spotlight. — Matshona Dhliwayo

Going forward this year, I’ll continue to focus on my original goal of elegant storytelling. Because stories contain deep truths. They can move and inspire us far greater than any listicle or another morning routine article.

Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here. — Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

How about you? Are you ready to rediscover the reason you began writing? If so, get busy, and start sharing your original stories and best essays with the world.

We need fewer algorithm hacks and a lot more storytellers, so we’ll remember “who we are and why we’re here.”

Before you go

I’m John P. Weiss, a fine artist, writer, and photographer. Every weekend I share my best writing, artwork, photography, book reviews and more. To follow my popular Saturday Newsletter, sign up here.

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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Artworks by John P. Weiss

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