When The Silent Monk asks for feedback from 6 Medium Top writers 😃

The Silent Monk has always been stupid but has never been stupider. When he got tired of building engineering products for a prestigious ‘Fortune 5’ company, he thought he could use his artistic skills and try his hand at creative writing. However, it has been three months and no one is reading his articles 😧. And he is deeply contemplating where is the mind of a smart intelligent person, whom he often considers himself to be, going wrong.

Hence, in the spirit of seeking constructive criticism, he invited six Medium writing superstars — each of whom is considered as Medium gods. They are all seated in a room across a round table, and The Silent Monk is explaining his articles. Trust me! it did not go well, and the height of Monk’s stupidity is out in the open😃.

One of the Medium superstars said — “So Mr. Monk! Some of your readers praise you a lot, yet you have meager views. What would you make us read today?”

Today I will be sharing with you a poem that breaches the boundaries between realms of ……..

Even before The Silent Monk could finish the topic of his poem, three Medium gods stood up and walked out of the room laughing at his stupidity. One of them even whispered, “Yet another poet, who thinks he can match our status!”

Three writers leave the conversation😃

The remaining three had put their heads down with a hand on their forehead. The fourth writer was frustrated but kind enough to explain the following —

“Mr. Monk, Medium is unfortunately not a platform where you can become big just by writing poems. If poetry is your first love, you are probably sailing your ship in the wrong sea. There is an explanation for why you have meager views.” He also stood up and left the room.

Fourth writer also leaves the conversation!

Now there are only two writers left — one is a god of writing technicalities, whereas the other is a goddess of audience engagement.

The Monk was still recovering from the aftershock of all the writers leaving when the fifth writer started asking —

Mr. Monk! I see you also write articles. But so do the thousands of other writers writing tens of thousands of articles on Medium.

Can you please explain what is the hook for your articles, that the readers will only read your article and not read anyone else?

And also explain if your headlines are SEO optimized?

The Monk was once again clueless which was evident from his face. Hearing all these terms such as hook or SEO, he thought he was in yet another engineering course rather than a creative exercise.

Never mind if you know nothing! Lets evaluate the headline for your following article!

https://medium.com/reciprocall/monk-those-who-dont-get-married-lose-out-on-this-e898b40f804

Could you have not named it as “Monk, Those who don’t get married — are f*****.”?

You see, “monk+marriage+’f’word” all in a title! Perfect eye catching and a click bait article!

What else would you want?

The Silent Monk somehow gathered courage and said — “Dear Sir, I always write about positivity and gratitude. So I make sure I do not use any of the ‘f’ word, or ‘m’ word. The most offensive word I have used is ‘shit’. You see, I like to keep my articles clean.”

Both the writers were now stunned. They looked at each other in total shock and did not know whether to laugh at the stupidity of the Monk or at their own stupidity that they agreed to for this meetup.

Mr. Monk, now I know why no one reads your articles.

One last question — do you write about productivity, or starting a side hustle or how much money you make from Medium, or an occasional rant, etc.

The Silent Monk replied — I can write on all of this, but I prefer to write on life and my learnings from a cup of tea.

The fifth writer had now lost all hope, stood up, and also left the room.

Now remains only The Silent Monk and the sixth writer — the goddess of audience engagement.

She was the most kind and was feeling pity for yet another failed writer.

Mr. Monk, I have read quite a few of your articles and know them to be good, and with a lot of wisdom. But I know they won’t fly.

Mr. Monk always remember, we are writing for the world and not for ourselves. If we have to write for ourselves, we better start writing a journal rather than blogs and articles.

We must understand that we might be writers, but we are salesperson first. We have to write stories that sell.

Either we create a product that everyone already wants to buy — such as make more money, or the heartbreaks, or a side hustle. 
Or we improve our craft to such an extent — that even if no one wants it, they are so impressed by its beauty and buy it eventually.

You unfortunately are vying for the second category Mr. Monk, and hence its a tough road ahead.

She passed a smile that was only masking the sadness inside. Eventually, the sixth writer also left the room.

The Silent Monk is left alone in the room, absolutely stunned. Guess what he is thinking — If writing is also becoming such an engineered product, I think I am better at my engineering job itself.

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