My Best Articles of 2021
A completely subjective, biased, opinionated list
Another year of writing on Medium
A year in which the platform has seen some major changes, including the demise of major publications (I still miss you, P.S. I Love You!) and the steady shift that all online platforms of this type must inevitably go through. Money on the Internet is blood in the water, and dull-eyed predators can’t afford to ignore it.
I’ve had one foot out of the door since I got here. Yet here I still am. Still reading. Still writing. Still nurturing the connections I’ve made here with people I wouldn’t have met any other way.
I don’t do it for the money. When I first started writing here, my intention was to build a fan base for my fiction. I’ve given up on that too. I’ve come close enough to my dreams that I have a good idea what they would look like, and they’ve lost most of their appeal.
We all like to complain. Looking at the numbers, a good moan seems like a surefire path to literary success around here. But honestly, more than anything else, I’m grateful. Grateful that Medium has encouraged me to write more than I ever have before in my life. That it’s forced me to confront why I do this and why I persist in doing it, even when I know I’m not going to gain anything…