Rediscovering My Passion for Writing After a Long Hiatus
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Chapter 1: The Unexpected Break
I took an unplanned hiatus from Medium for 17 months, yet my profile continued to gain traction. During this time, social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram attracted readers to my Medium articles while I focused on living my life.
Before diving in, I apologize for any grammatical errors or misplaced phrases. It has indeed been 17 months since my last piece (back in 2022)!
Section 1.1: The Addiction to Social Media
My absence from Medium was not intentional. Writing and reading have always been my passions. Medium inspired me to write regularly and engage actively on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. My goal was to increase my visibility in hopes of finding a literary agent for a young adult fiction project I was working on back in 2022.
Little did I know, I would become obsessively consumed by the minutiae of my posts, leading to a toxic addiction. I spent countless hours each night, biting my nails down to ragged stubs while I obsessively drafted and redrafted the same article multiple times. Once I felt I had perfected it (or was too exhausted to continue), I would invest another 2-4 hours creating and editing promotional videos for TikTok.
All of this effort for a mere $10 from Medium at the end of the month and 200-500 views on TikTok. Ironically, my motivation was not financial; I became hooked on the challenge of gaining visibility through Medium and Instagram. This obsession negatively impacted my sleep, health, and even my job.
Due to late nights spent writing and editing, I often arrived late to work, which resulted in my supervisor issuing a second warning for tardiness. After realizing a third infraction would lead to an unpaid suspension, I made the decision to step away from writing altogether. By not writing, I could avoid the compulsion to promote and post.
And so, I embraced life in 2023.
Subsection 1.1.1: A Year of Change
In 2023, I traveled with my partner to Cuba and Costa Rica. While I did draft an article filled with travel tips, I chose to keep it in my drafts as I repeatedly promised myself a long break.
I managed to read 25 new books that year—a notable achievement for someone working 60 hours a week! My partner proposed, and we became engaged, and I also became pregnant with our first child. By the end of 2023, I welcomed a son into the world.
Despite my hiatus, the urge to write lingered. It was hard not to feel envious while reading works by exceptionally talented authors. In January of this year, I finally decided to revisit TikTok and Medium, and what I discovered was surprising.
Chapter 2: The Resurgence of My Content
The video title is "Steven Bartlett's OBSESSION: The MINDSET Behind Diary Of A CEO | Rich Roll Podcast." This video delves into the mindset behind success and persistence in the creative world.
Upon returning to TikTok after nearly a year, I was astonished to find that many of my old videos were still gaining traction. My true crime content, covering topics like the Ariel Castro kidnappings and the Jeffrey Dahmer case, continued to receive views and engagement. These videos linked back to my Medium articles for those seeking more detailed narratives.
Checking my email, I discovered I had gained 100 new followers on Medium and received a $24 payout for articles written over a year ago. While this pales in comparison to others claiming thousands from older works, it felt significant given my absence from publishing.
People were still engaging with my content, applauding and commenting. This indicated that new readers were discovering my work through Medium and TikTok, despite my year-long break.
However, Instagram's engagement had drastically declined over the past year. This platform had been a major source of readers from 2020 to 2022, yet my consistent posting resulted in minimal interaction. It took me weeks of effort to accept this reality, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Rest in peace, Instagram!
I gleaned two crucial lessons from this experience. Firstly, if the content is compelling enough, it can attract viewers without my constant involvement. Simply posting more articles and videos won’t boost visibility if the audience is uninterested. Secondly, social media platforms will continue to promote my work to those interested in the subjects I tackle.
Section 2.1: Moving Forward
As of April 2024, I began to gradually re-engage with Instagram and TikTok. It became clear that Instagram was losing relevance, and I was wasting time trying to appease the ever-changing Meta algorithms. I noticed an influx of bot accounts and meme pages reposting the same content weekly. Again, that's a topic for another article.
This marks my first article since November 2022 (17 months ago), and I aimed for this return to be personal and sincere. I hope to avoid falling back into that obsessive cycle of despair. Only time will tell.
And what about that young adult novel that initially spurred my social media journey? After five years of writing and rewriting, along with a 17-month break, it has morphed into an almost-finished, albeit chaotic, manuscript of 685 pages.