Gameful Blogging on Medium.com: Gameful Life

By Victoria Ichizli-Bartels

Are you one of the majority of writers on Medium that don't make their living there, whose earnings are lower than their children's pocket money? Are you doubting the worthiness of the time you spend blogging on Medium, even if at times you enjoy being there?

 

Then read this book and explore the 13 levels of a fellow writer's adventure, who sees the whole process as a fun game or even a game platform, and doesn't plan to stop "playing" or "designing" her writing and publishing "games" on Medium. Learn how she creates and continually develops exciting game designs for herself that keep her going and creating. 

While reading this book, you might recognize the lows you experience and the emotions like doubts and second-guessing. At the same time, you will be able to remove the drama and their seeming significance and instead start seeing them as fun challenges in your games, for which you have all the tools to master, avoid, or escape if you fall into one. 
Learn how to gain the feeling of success now — as you type the words on the screen — rather than some distant future. Discover how you can stay motivated and driven; how you can encourage yourself in the process and get back up after falling into temporary despair; how to recognize what entices you to continue creating on Medium; how to devise your own reward system, and more. 
But most of all, learn how you can see writing and publishing on Medium as a fun collection of games, of which you are both the designer (or at least co-designer) and player, and how to have fun doing what you love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria Ichizli-Bartels
• Release date: May 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201047139

Book preview

Gameful Blogging

on Medium.com

Thirteen Levels in the Epic Adventure of a Top Writer and Super Creator on Medium

Victoria Ichizli-Bartels

Gameful Blogging on Medium.com

Thirteen Levels in the Epic Adventure of a Top Writer and Super Creator on Medium

Book 6 in Series Gameful Life

1st Edition

Copyright © 2021 Victoria Ichizli-Bartels

Based on content originally published on Medium at optimistwriter.medium.com.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved.

The author is not a lawyer. This book and the content provided herein are based on the author's opinion, personal experiences and observations, and are for guidance, entertainment, and educational purposes only and do not take the place of legal advice from your attorney. Every effort has been made to ensure that the content provided in this book is accurate and helpful. However, this is not an exhaustive resource on the subjects covered in this book. No liability is assumed for losses or damages incurred as a result of the information provided. You are responsible for your own choices, actions, and results. You should consult your attorney with any specific project questions and needs.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate website addresses and other information at the time of publication, she does not assume any responsibility for errors or changes after publication. Further, the author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites and their content.

The author reserves the right to make any changes she deems necessary to future versions of the publication to ensure its accuracy.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author.

Cover design by Alice Jago

The blog icon used on the cover is by Ainsley Wagoner, US, via the Noun Project.

All trademarks and brands mentioned in this book are for clarifying and reference purposes only. Rather than putting a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, the names are used in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, and where the author (who is also the publisher) was aware of that claim, they have been capitalized.

The author has joined the Medium Partner Program and gets paid for her writing there. Any other trademarks and brands mentioned in this book are proprietary to their owners and are not affiliated with this document in any way.

The sources to the quotations made in the book are given before, after, or in the same places as the quotes in the text.

For my fellow writers on Medium.com.

Thank you for being a terrific writers’ community who helped me feel that I wasn’t alone in my writing game, even in times of lockdown.

Who wants to become a writer? And why? ... It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower of life, even if it's a cactus.

— Enid Bagnold

A note on the links

Throughout this book, you will find links to my articles that have served as chapters for this book. I have provided friend links to these and some other pieces I have published on Medium. A friend link allows you to read the article behind the Medium Partner Program paywall¹ for free — without being a subscriber (member) of Medium. Please note that the links to other authors' articles are not friend links, and I cannot tell whether those pieces are behind the paywall or not.

Level 1. Introduction

Appeared on Medium.com as: Who Am I to Write a Book about Writing and Publishing on Medium?

Subtitle: Someone who has fun doing it.

Published on: Feb 17, 2021; 8 min read

Read the original article at: https://bit.ly/37s76Hi

Welcome to Gameful Blogging on Medium.com

Hi,

My name is Victoria, and I am probably one of the lowest-earning authors on Medium.

It’s mid-February 2021 and my earnings this month are $2.41. It may well turn out to be my worst month ever, since starting to publish on Medium in May 2020. Last month, January 2021, was the worst so far, with $7.85. My best was June 2020 with $25.53.

My earnings are decreasing, and I am publishing less than I was before. And yet, I am writing a book about my experiences on Medium.

Why?

Because I have fun being on there. I enjoy the simplicity and comfort of the text editor. I love the newspaper feel of the default settings of the profiles and articles (even if I rarely read newspapers ;D).

Most of all, I know that my stories² find people on Medium. Like in a bookstore, people come to Medium with the intention of finding something great to read. Then they pick something with a fun title and a great-looking image and start reading. The more they love reading it, the more time they spend with the story.

And I can (almost) look over the readers’ shoulders, by seeing how many have read my article to the end, who highlighted the bits they loved, and I can even hear from them in the responses. A self-publishing author’s paradise!

But for me, the best thing about writing on Medium is that I get to play with my content there, create a library of articles on the topics I am passionate about, get feedback and continue playing more with this content, until books take shape and are born.

The interesting phenomenon I am observing about myself is that the less I earn and the more unpredictable and uncorrelated the views, reads, earnings, and other parameters in the stats and Medium Premium Program status are, the more relaxed I become about my time there. I realize now that it is because I enjoy it and have fun.

What is this book about?

I have discovered my very own unique approach to being on Medium. It is a gameful and playful one. And I constantly adjust its design, along with my other real-life games.

Even if I don’t grow physically anymore — I am 48 years old as I write this — I hope I am still growing and developing in other ways. Turning my life into games helps me maintain this growing, learning, and gameful mindset, without too much effort.

I turn my whole life into games, and teach others how to do so too. I call the approach I use, and which crystallized over the years, Self-Gamification³, and it embraces the synergy of anthropology⁴ (and the awareness it brings with it), kaizen⁵ (reducing everything to its smallest and most effortless steps), and gamification⁶ (including the gamefulness and playfulness it embraces).

I write about this approach and its endless aspects in my books and articles. It is also the topic I most often write about on Medium.

So, this book is about approaching blogging on Medium using the synergy of Self-Gamification, by being aware, progressing with small steps, and enjoying — as well as celebrating — each step on the way, gamefully and playfully.

Who is this book for?

This book is for any writer who second-guesses her blogging time