Are You an Online Writer With “Content Fatigue?”

Burnout will kill any amount of success you achieve

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“Another shitty article?”

“It’s not shitty, and besides, I need to be publishing multiple times a day or Medium won’t push my stuff,” I said in the snooty way I have when I don’t want someone to know they offended me.

“But you are burnt out. You don’t even realize the articles you write are absolute garbage!”

“They aren’t garbage and I’m not burnt out!”

“Oh yeah? You are so burnt out that you don’t even realize you are talking to yourself again. Maybe you should get away from your desk for a while and at the very least slow down publishing this nonsense.”

“I am not talki…. Oh.”

I know more about “content fatigue” than the average writer. I got to a point where I was so burnt out from writing every day and publishing that I quit and didn’t look back.

I started publishing on Medium every day in October 2018. I had been doing freelance writing and web design up until that time but was growing tired of dealing with clients who wanted everything for nothing and expected the world on an oyster in a day.

I have massive respect for anyone who can succeed in freelancing with the stresses of entitled clients and companies that want you to work for “exposure.”

I heard people were making real money on Medium (one report even said people were making $25,000 a month) and I felt if I could satisfy a client, I could build an audience and start making as much money as the top earners. I went into online writing with a big head and bigger dreams. After all, hadn’t I been blogging for longer than there even was such a word?

Shouldn’t I be able to attract and grow fans and get people to read and “like” my work?

It took me a year to realize that I was doing it all wrong. I wanted to be a superstar like Jessica Wildfire and grow my following as fast as Shannon Ashley, but I just didn’t have the writing chops to command such an audience.

I was at best a hack.

I was a self-taught writer. I learned my craft from books and sitting down to marathon writing…