The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Writing

Cue: the theme music from the Clint Eastwood movie

Writing has a lot of benefits.

It allows for creativity. You connect with fellow writers and readers from around the globe. Sometimes you even make money.

But as with everything in life- with the good comes the bad. And yes, sometimes the ugly.

The Good

The last month brought a couple of more viral articles. Again it was marketing and sex that aroused the attention of readers. (Pun definitely intended)

7 Sex Questions You Really Want to Know the Answers To But Are Too Afraid To Ask

The 7 Words Writers Need To Stop Using in Their Headlines

I guess the number 7 could be my lucky number. Perhaps I should have used it in the email subject title.

I also ran my first Medium Mentor course and met 18 talented writers from around the world. Writing does make the world a lot smaller. So does COVID I guess.

The Bad

In last month’s email, I mentioned an article I wrote about a 17-year old, Flynn Blackie that really took off. I got comments and requests and messages galore on that one. All positive. Well, except one.

One person who was mentioned in it asked me to remove their name from it- which I did. It did spur on a follow-up article, though.

How Name-Dropping Can Go Terribly Wrong (A Lesson Learned By Two Writers)

Both myself and Flynn learned a lesson from it- and we had a good dialogue afterward. I still believe he will go far in the business world.

The Ugly

I write a lot for Newsbreak- it’s a great challenge to try and write targeted local stories and fast-breaking news. However, the comments I receive on the articles are the lowest of low. It is sad to see the racist, sexist and homophobic comments that readers like to leave.

Thankfully Newsbreak recognizes this and allows writers to delete such comments. My delete button has worked overtime this month.

On the positive side, one of my articles was featured as the number three trending article last week on Newsbreak.

Just a shame about the comments.

The Bonus

In addition to writing, I love to interview people. (I also love to be interviewed if anyone wants a chat! Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

This week my latest podcast interview came out. It is with Chris Monks, the Editor of McSweeney’s- perhaps the world's best satire and humor website. He gives an insight into writing, editing, the unpleasant task of rejecting people, and more. You can listen here.

Also, a summary of my interview with Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph can be found here. You can see his response to me asking him about Netflix and chill! He gives some amazing insights into Netflix and advice for entrepreneurs. Also, personalized dog food.

Finally, while I still have you, if you are a writer on Medium or are thinking about it, check out my Medium Mentor Community course. The first course sold out in 2 days, and we have just released our next one starts July 25

Thanks for reading!

Ash