Last week I emailed out a review of my personal writing goals + what helped and I said I would email you about my “work” writing goals this week.
But then something happened…
earlier in the spring I fell while ice skating. I put my arm out to catch myself and you really should not do that actually, sooooooo I hurt myself.
It took a while for me to realize it wasn’t healing, and then it took forever to get a referral and an appointment with a specialist, which I finally did on Tuesday.
It really woke me up to how I need to rest my arm more, which is hard since it’s my dominant hand, and I run a business and am a professional writer…all of which means a lot of using my hand.
It’s just one more reason to forgive myself for any lack of ‘perfection’ in what you see me writing or doing, including what you see me NOT do.
So I’m not really going into how my writing went professionally in as much detail this week as I did with my personal goals last week, or at least it will not be as polished.
Let’s be HONEST, my priority this year is on me as a person anyway so it doesn’t give me as much juice to write about the work side.
But now I’m having fun writing this email and my wrist is ok at the moment so I’ll share a bit, why not.
In the last 6 months I:
-wrote 26 articles on Medium, Linkedin, and for On Purpose Women
-taught about how to make writing emails fun at the Vibrant Entrepreneur Conference
-appeared live on camera several times for a Writer Spotlight for On Purpose Women
But I will say that for Medium, I have learned to stop writing as much. LOL
I wrote 17 articles for Medium in 6 months.
My goal in December was to write one article a week, and I realized after a couple months that it wasn’t making me happy so I slowed down.
Instead of focusing on quantity, I focused on being a little more strategic with my topics, article headlines and what publication I was submitting each piece to.
I also was inspired by Becca Syme who spoke about vertical integration in a youtube video; it is the idea of generating many pieces of content in a similar topic, like a ladder people can follow back and enjoy.
I pay attention to what I LIKE writing about, and what people seem to like reading on Medium and go from there.
Right now I have two lines of content I have been building out on Medium:
- Stories about Japan, meeting my husband there, our love story, the culture, etc.
- Articles about Writing
Medium pays money as I said in this story
Last month, although I only wrote 2 articles on Medium, I ended up making the most money for the month since December. This is compared to months where I wrote 5,4,3 articles.
It was under $4 total for my highest grossing month in May but it is still cool
Cool that I have been learning to work less and earn more, and my previously written articles are still in rotation and being read.
That shows me how they are strong and cover an enduring topic people will want to read for some time to come.
One story leads to the older ones on a similar subject so people can keep reading if they want to and I get paid for all of that even though the older articles are already done.
I know from writing a book and publishing it, that $4 is comparable to what I would make for a single book sale, possibly more. And instead, all I wrote were a few articles.
So yay!
I went from zero followers on Medium to 377 followers since December also, so that’s cool. More friends.
I do enjoy the chat and conversation in comments on Medium which is one of the reasons I originally decided to write there (as I say in this article).
Want to read me on Medium?
My profile is here: https://medium.com/@sofia.wren
The articles I link above are all via friend link for your viewing pleasure.
Note if you are not a Medium member you won’t be able to read all my stories but you can look throught the previous posts on this blog to find friend links for each article that will let you read for free.
Or just become a member! Use my link to throw me a few cents: https://medium.com/@sofia.wren/membership
And a final word on Linkedin + my new newsletter there
I was entirely in the dark about Linkedin being a cool place to be,
but when I was teaching about how to have fun emailing this spring,
I talked to someone who had a good experience having a Newsletter there.
So I decided to give starting a Linkedin Newsletter a try, specifically for articles about writing as leadership and topics related to that.
So far I have 50 subscribers, and everyone subscribed instantly gets my new articles emailed to them.
That’s pretty cool considering I didn’t think it took much effort to grow that subscriber list at all.
I recommend it for other people to try. I recommend Medium, too, they just have differences.
You can check out my biweekly Linkedin newsletter “Writing to Lead and Transform” here.
And of course,
be sure to add me as a connection on Linkedin!
Lastly, I have two helpful resources for you.
You may know I have complex PTSD from a fraught childhood AND grieving my last parent, my dad, but I have still been fighting.
I have been in the fray fighting for the girls in Sierra Leone to get funding through Her Future Foundation, running my own business, trying to get my health together, and a million other things that are triggering or annoying or hard.
I do that because I have the burning desire to keep crawling forward but also because I use tools to help me get into a better place.
My writing lately has been very influenced by an exercise I have done many times this spring.
It helps me to understand what I am really here to do, what I need to say, what my purpose is, and helps me to keep going even though things are hard.
This first tool is in the free class I created with the exercise that has helped me reconnect to the change I am here to make in the world.
The exercise is one I put into a free class.
I said it expired Tuesday….
but I haven’t gotten around to taking it down
so feel free to watch it until I get around to removing it maybe tomorrow or whenever I have the juice to do so!
Read more about that free class on the blog here.
I mentioned this and how much it has helped me personally in my review last week.
I have been using EFT/Tapping for many years to work through difficult emotions. It’s a tool where you tap acupressure points.
Jacqui Acree has really taken this practice to a new level, and she is offering a class series for free.
Here’s what I got out of her work:
– I’m feeling much more ENOUGH.
– I’m feeling more self-forgiveness about the limits of my abilities.
– I’m feeling more self-trust to do business and life *my way.*
– I’m feeling more realistic about what I can put on my plate so I don’t stress about what I can’t do.
The increase in self-compassion is gold AND
I am getting emotionally difficult things done as well.
Her work has helped me across the levels of personal and professional and I highly recommend.
The event is free and there are 3 classes. They are available through June 21st.
Sign up for free here
