What to write, what to write, what...

What to write, what to write, what to... I'm a newbie on both Vocal and Medium, a newer newbie on Vocal though as I have six published stories on Medium and this will be my third on Vocal.

However, my second story on Vocal was first published on Vocal then on Medium. I'm going the same route with this one, and probably the same with future stories unless it's in the short-form. Why you may well ask.

Well, if you read my previous story which is predominantly about being a content creator on writing sites where payment is through Stripe and you happen to be from a country that is not supported by Stripe, as in my case, then it's a bummer because you can't access your earnings.

Stripe

If I am lucky and one day Stripe decides to set up in my country, then at least I already have a wallet in Vocal and hopefully some earnings which I will then have access to. Not so in Medium, no wallet so nothing to show for my efforts. Maybe if I reach 100 followers on Medium which is the minimum you need to join their Partner program which in turn enables you to join their referral program and also earn from your referrals, then a wallet will be activated. I don't know as I have not yet reached 100. I will wait, I'm almost halfway there but I won't be holding thumbs.

So, back to what to write, what to write? I must admit I've been reading more than writing on Medium and Vocal, and here are a few observations I have made.

I haven't been counting how many stories there are in each category nor mentally placing the stories I have read into categories, so this list is not in any official numerical order. The order of the five categories I'm listing here is just my unofficial view. I have also read stories in other categories, but I'm just listing what seem to be the five most consistent topics I read about.

Categories

1. money-making side hustles

2. tips and advice on writing and how to live a good productive life

3. pros, cons, criticism, and compliments regarding writing on Medium and to a degree on Vocal. Comparisons between the two as well

4. difficulties and problems and gripes (I'm a culprit here) about getting accepted on the Medium Partner Program and pay-walled due predominantly to writers from countries not supported by Stripe

5. testimonies on earnings and gaining followers in double quick time and the how to's to accomplish this.

My personal opinion is that there is so much written on the topics listed above, some of it great and most of it worthwhile reading and useful, that I wonder if there is any space left for newcomers. How can anybody adding their experiences and stories to these already saturated niches, if you want to call it that, stand out from the rest?

I'm not knocking this, I think everybody knows that the same thing can be said, and specially written, in many different ways, it's almost the same message just from a different messenger. You can also call it paraphrasing. Sometimes delivered in a superior way.

Learning curve

I understand that the world is in a constant state of change, especially when it comes to technology, for the better or for the worse, so there will always be some morsels of information to add to the basic message and after a few tweaks, voila! You have churned out a new story.

This is the first in a series of articles covering the five categories of writing mentioned earlier and is essentially a discussion with myself about what do the newbies on these platforms write about and how do they go about finding what works and doesn't work for them.

Hopefully some can relate to this and have the same questions in their mind that I have. I doubt there are any right and wrong answers, and I'm not even going to attempt to provide guidelines here. This is a journey I'm embarking on and like life, it's going to be one long continuous learning curve.

Chew, swallow what's tasty and feeds you, then spit out the bones.