Looking to publish?

Been thinking about this since my therapist brought it up last week.
(Link to previous post.)

I’ve also been poking around Medium.com a lot. It’s such a place of inspiration for me. And a place that feels like it might be a good place to start if I were to possibly look into publishing things I write.

But, where to start?

I decided that the first place to start would be to look at what I’ve already written. So I began rereading my blog. I’m very proud of what I have accomplished here. Of what I’ve written. And while sometimes it does veer off the “official” description, I am okay with that.

While looking back at my past posts, I came up with a list of some of them that I would like to look at closer with an eye at “is this something that I might want to publish?” Not as they are – as much as I do try to polish things before I post them (or go back and polish things up after), I still don’t think anything here is good enough – but I think they’d be a start?

Here are the ones I kept coming back to with this idea in mind.

• Running Away
• The post about D&D and happiness
• My parents – This would be TERRIFYING
• My personality
• Meditation
• A mental health disorder is not the end
• Suicide prevention
• Support networks
• Recognizing hypomania

They would just be starting places. But would they be GOOD starting places?

I don’t know.

A piece on Medium from last year discussed building an audience.

”3 Tips for Buildidng Your Audience on Medium”

I keep coming back to this:

“When you’re just starting out, the most important thing you can do is the hardest thing: craft content that is interesting, useful, and worth reading. It doesn’t have to interest everyone, but it does have to interest someone (or a small group of someones).“

That’s the biggest thing that makes me stop in my tracks, frozen in fear.

Because another post I’ve read recently (crap, I can’t find it anymore in order to share the link!) is that no one wants to read about you. YOU aren’t interesting. YOU aren’t useful to them. YOU aren’t worth reading.

I write about things from my perspective. About myself. About my experiences. I tell my stories. And I’ve had people tell me (to my face, but more frequently behind my back) I’m narcissistic. I’m selfish. I’m self-centered.

I don’t think I am those things. But, hearing them is so painful that it makes me question myself.

It makes me question whether the things I want or have to say are interesting, useful, and worth reading.

I started this post thinking what I write could maybe be published.

I’m ending it having convinced myself again that they aren’t.

I’m glad I have therapy today. Because this is precisely what we will be discussing. Landmine is in place. Let’s go step on it.