I’ve Written Over 40 Tech Articles — It was Time I Published Something I’d Never Thought I Would

A short story about how I got into writing on Medium and where it’s going now.

Photo by Ardi Evans on Unsplash

I used to write a lot and then I stopped

I started writing on Medium back in 2018, when I still in college. And it wasn’t about tech at all.

At that time — the anxiety that comes from writing about what you care about on an online platform overpowered my desire to continue.

I could feel people’s virtual eyes on me even if I didn’t end up getting too many views. I hated it. It made me want to delete my account and never look back.

I hated the attention not because I thought my words were shit, but because I cared too much of what people would think. I worried for hours after hitting that green publish button and got scared over any comments that arrived in my inbox.

It was harrowing, and I never wanted to experience that again.

So I chose to forget about it.

My theory was that in a few years, I would grow permanently out of this awkwardness. None of it would ever scare me anymore. And I decided that it would be then that I would continue my writing again.

Hell, a part of my mind even thought I’ll never want to write my thoughts out loud ever again.

But it didn’t happen that way.

Times change and people might change on the exterior. But they don’t fundamentally change on the inside. You certainly do become better at hiding things, even from yourself.

If you changed internally, you wouldn’t be yourself. Your imperfections make your identity. Running away from them is never the solution.

Trying to hide from my own writing was my biggest mistake, and it was an eye-opener.

When I started writing again a year and a half back, it was about something that I was more comfortable about. It was tech. I loved learning near technologies and then I loved teaching about them, and my biggest superpower was my writing.

Having received some good advice from seasoned writers also helped quite a lot.

So I decided to try again.

It was my 7th or 8th article that went viral. Not my first or second.

I didn’t wait for views or comments this time. I told myself I am doing this for myself, and for sharing my knowledge with whoever finds it useful.

And that was it.

I had discovered the key to overcoming my anxiety.

It had always been what others think of my post. Now, I only focus on what I think of my post.

I do a shit ton of work for each article — that matters. My work provided value for someone — that matters. I love writing — that matters.

It doesn’t matter if one person out of fifty doesn’t like it and tries to say something about it. It’s their right to say it, it’s your right to ignore.

So now that I’m here, having amassed a bit of a following, I feel comfortable sharing the other side of writing, i.e., my reflective side as well.

Dear Elegant Chums

I had never would’ve thought about beginning this new venture without the support of my new and existing 350+ readers, so thank you for being here.

It is with your love and support that I’ve come this far!

Here’s a comment that I got in my inbox recently:

this honestly made my day :)

It is always good to share my experiences and thoughts on things that I live each and every day, and I’ll now be using this new medium to do that.

See y’all chums soon!

:D

PS: As a bonus, I’m giving away the Notion template of the exact method I use to keep track and manage all my personal projects. It’s minimal, to the point and just does the job. I never use anything other than this whatsoever. If you’re interested in owning it for FREE, here it is: https://ko-fi.com/s/b31e903ec3