Still Another Story About The Medium Writers Challenge

Maybe I Won’t Write About Martial Arts Again

Photo by G. Gauthier

In September I posted some information on my blog, Original Content, about changes coming to Medium’s partnership/payment program. Otherwise, it looks as if I haven’t done an update there on my publishing experiences on Medium since March. I did publish a couple more humor pieces on Medium this summer, which deserve their own post at some point. However, today’s subject at Original Content was the Medium Writers Challenge, which took place in August with winners and honorable mention essays announced in the last week or so.

In short, the challenge was a contest. There were four writing prompts, which might also be considered categories. I entered two essays, one for each of two prompts. Won nothing.

Generally Speaking

However, this was a positive experience because:

• I completed an essay I’d started a couple of years ago and revised a second one. Finishing things is always good.
• I did this work in a timely fashion.
• My work was published at two more Medium publications, which means that I now have a connection with them and can submit to them again.
• Taking part in the challenge got me two more essays on Medium, and, supposedly, the more you can publish there the more of a following you can build up within that closed community.
• While Medium is a closed community, every time I publish there I can promote the work to the wider world and a few more readers may learn what I do.

What Have You Learned, Gail?

I don’t know if I actually learned anything, but I do have some theories about what was going on with the two prompts I submitted for and what the winners and honorable mention writers did that I didn’t.

Were The Judges Looking For A Specific Length? There was a minimum word-length — 500 words — for these prompts. I did meet that. But the winners and honorable mention essays I read were much, much longer. Medium keeps track of how long it takes to read the materials published there. My entry for the Death prompt, Enough, was a four-minute read. Keeper Of The Place by Randi Ragan, the winner of the Death prompt…