Panning for Gold

Trying to write the once-in-a-million article

Photo by MUILLU on Unsplash

I’ve been writing on Medium for a little over two and a half years now. It’s been an off and on, inconsistent and irregular journey. I’ll go through periods where writing on Medium feels like a joy — something I want to do — and then there are periods where it feels like a thankless task, something I would rather not do again.

I doubt I’m alone in feeling this way. Although Medium is a great outlet to express creativity, engage with readers, and publish at one’s own pace, writing on the platform can feel like panning for gold.

You know what I’m talking about. I’ve written articles that have flopped, articles that have succeeded, and articles that fall on the scale between. And no matter how hard I try, I can never predict how successful an article might become.

Sometimes weeks will pass by where I’m dipping my pan in the water, over and over and over again, sifting through the silt and dirt, and I come up empty. My pan yields no gold — no successes fall into my lap.

And yet, just when I think I should give up, I find a dusting of gold in my pan. The hard work and repetitive, labored process has paid off.

Even when the gold is in the pan, you never know if it’s the real thing. It could be fool’s gold — or just the…