This week, I returned to Medium (platform for writers) for real, so to speak. I had shut-down my account, and removed all content, in January, but found that there wasn’t a better way to share writing, having examined all the options. I have actually been back since March with a completely clean slate, and was concentrating on using Medium as a major reading resource, and not much else. And I had it in mind to continue that way until I had made-up my mind about what I was going to do about my involvement with Bishopston Writing Group (BWG).
The issue of BWG has been one of whether to continue with them, whilst only having 3 permanent members, or moving to do something else with more people (my preference for many reasons). BWG is simple, albeit with a fair amount of work required, whilst working with more people is more complex, but the thing that moved the dial on Medium was not that consideration, but instead, was something that was initiated by Medium, themselves.
They invited me to evaluate a new app, currently in Beta, that they were developing to operate within, or alongside Medium, which would provide inline AI query assistance to writers, and a social ‘notes’ environment, which is one of the biggest gaps in the Medium offer. And this would (currently) only be available to their premium membership. Was I interested in taking part?
My response was a resounding ‘yes’. And although my experience of that valuation will remain for another possible mpost further down the line, I will just say that I considered it to be something that had the potential to significantly improve the experience of operating within the Medium platform.
Thus, I made the decision to start writing on Medium again, albeit with many filters in place, and operating at my own pace So, now, I find myself having written 3 messages on Medium, available from this website using ‘friends’ links, and posted here, where all future Medium links will be listed.
My other intention was to move from self-study to more formal study again, but I was only going to do that from September onwards. I will now re-examine that intention to determine whether it is realistic or not. I have until September.
For the time being, I am operating out of a dark corner of Medium, but have already been accepted to write for the ‘Never Stop Writing’ publication. So, I have to decide whether to proceed with that, or whether to run my own community on Medium, or whether to use the new AI app within Medium to do that, and I am currently leaning in that direction.
As for what happens with BWG, I cannot make-up my mind, but I have until late July to decide, in consultation with the other group members regarding any future intentions they may have, at that point. So, more decisions to come.
So, this will be a year of decisions for me, which will sound insignificant to most other people, but the decisions I make will have far-reaching consequences for the rest of my life, however long that might be. Surprisingly, I don’t find that I want to run away from making the decisions. And it seems that I am already acting to effectively change my week-to-week activity.
There will be more to come, for sure, and I haven’t even mentioned Tao Te Ching as yet.
Fraser