Dear Reader: we need to talk about your role
It’s become clear that our mutual objectives are not being achieved, so we ask you to join us in a new strategy.
Update: I wrote this before Medium began allocating most of its financial resources to celebrity and print published writers, and have since moved most of my work to my own member platform using Mighty Networks over at creativeonion.me.
Thank you for your time today.
First, we’d like to be transparent: this conversation is not going to be an easy one to have. We believe, however, it to be essential to moving forward with a strong relationship, so that we may achieve our mutual objectives, and begin to realize our full potential.
While the relationship between Writer and Reader has always felt the awkward presence of the third wheel of Commerce, our mutual friend has gained far more than his fair share of power over the last two decades. It would also be foolish, by now, not to acknowledge that the arrival of our youngest team member, Technology, has fundamentally changed the dynamics of our relationship with you, Reader. So we’ve set out to understand the problem, and to design a solution.
First: we must accept that both Commerce and Technology occupy permanent roles within this fine old establishment of Human Consciousness. Whatever steps we take forward, we must admit, dear Reader, that these two elements — the productive yin of innovation and the vacuum yang of profit — will inevitably be the conductor through which we two communicate.
Second: with the first in mind, we must also acknowledge that the balance of power — specifically control over information — has, since Technology joined us and took up her desk in Commerce’s frigid wing of the office, shifted. This leaves us, dear Reader, in the minority.
As Writers, we obviously prefer to control what we create.
We understand, Reader, as the logic of empathy dictates, that you likewise prefer to control what you consume.
Third: (and here’s where it gets a bit sticky) it’s our conclusion, dearest Reader, than in an effort to exert some measure of agency and control (as is perfectly understandable), you have abandoned en masse the older, traditional bastions of communication channels in favor of independent news organizations, social channels, unsourced videos, and memes. You select the stories which resonate with your Human Experience, which we as Writers well understand.
This also, of course, is our goal.
But because Commerce and Technology have so so thoroughly fortified the filter through which we may communicate, our beloved Readers, it’s our regrettable conclusion that the content you’ve come to consume is of low quality in every way. Yes, the careful, thoughtful research of joyful investigation is missing. Yes, subjectivity reigns. And yes, we’re terribly concerned about the sharp trends towards hate, disconnection, and isolation we see in your preferences of late, Reader. We also understand that so many of the tools at your disposal are simply shit.
But there is one trend which concerns us more than all these factors combined: Reader, you seem to have lost your taste for story. For suspension of disbelief. For whimsy. For that meditative mental and spiritual act which is transporting yourself to another dimension for a moment, in the mind. For the journey towards those brilliant pinpoints of universal Human Connection.
As Writers, and also as Humans, this simply cannot be tolerated.
And as Writers, we look to our forefathers and mothers for answers, and we know this one thing to be true: there is truth in story which transcends what is evident. It provides a color and depth which no scientific diagram can illustrate in black and white.
It is also our belief that, given better options, you, Reader, would prefer to have higher quality information — stories which move you — available to you.
With these mutual goals in mind, we have devised this strategy, dear Reader.
It’s simple: you pay us. In exchange, we write what we know we need to write. Then you read, and tell us what you like and dislike and what moves you, and make your future financial contributions accordingly.
Because chewing up the chaos of the universe like bubble gum and turning it into ink — now zeroes and ones — is our business, and yours, Reader, is to chew up those zeroes and turn them into experience.
Technology, who is not without her feckless lovers, has given writers an ally in this platform, the aptly named “Medium,” and a tool with which to bypass the fortress of static and advertising Technology and Commerce have built between us. Medium has been diligently — and successfully (to date) — addressing issues 1 & 2 as mentioned earlier. And it takes the legwork out of helping authors get paid.
We hope you’ll embark, of your own accord, on some type of media cleanse, perhaps; we hope, of course, you’ll get a $5/mo Medium membership and engage with us here — or with writers on Patreon, or wherever else your Tribe of Writers abides. What you do, Reader, is ultimately up to you.
But you need to know what we Rough Riders of Medium — and we hope Writers across other platforms — are going to do:
We’re not going to write listicles about productivity
We’re not going to write more clickbait counterpoint opinion pieces
We’re not going to invest significant time forming and articulating an opinion about current events, to the detriment of a larger creative work which can convey the same core message more successfully
We’re not going to adhere to the forms of writing that “perform best”
We’re not going to be afraid to speak our mind out of fear of others’ offense
We ARE going to find connections in the Human Experience through radical listening and experience, and to make this the focus of our work
We ARE going to to write in the forms our instincts tell us are right
We ARE going to write about the past, present, and future
We ARE going to take our jobs fucking seriously
We ARE going to tell it slant.
Reader, you may wonder what your role is in this new strategy. We think it’s quite simple.
You can come back to story.
If you’ve grown weary of noise and disconnection, dear Reader, know that we have, too, and that we invite you to join us in a new approach.
Medium, of course, is by no means the only way to execute our strategy. We Writers can write anywhere; on Facebook, Tumblr, homemade zines, etsy — free avenues abound. What doesn’t abound in these avenues, however, are paying readers, so if you are to join us on free channels, Reader, you must be mindful of the stories you encounter which move you, and to support the author of this content, so that they can impact others with their work.
We write what’s important.
You express financial gratitude for what you find important.
We keep writing what’s important.
And so on.
Thank you, again, Reader; we do appreciate your time, and all your do for our Community. Please be sure to send your feedback our way; you know how to get ahold of us.
Best,
— Creative Writers of Medium
