{"id":1194,"date":"2015-05-22T08:38:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T15:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2015-05-22T08:38:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T15:38:33","slug":"dear-medium-publishing-is-not-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=1194","title":{"rendered":"Dear Medium: Publishing is not Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s get one thing clear: Writing is not publishing and publishing is not writing.<\/strong> To write is to transfer ideas from mind to words. To publish is to distribute those words to an audience.<\/p>\n

\"Medium\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0To me, this is an important distinction, the difference between an act of creativity and a means of transportation.<\/strong> That\u2019s why when someone refers to a piece of software or to an internet site as a \u201cwriting tool\u201d I become perturbed.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I take issue with Medium \u2013 which I love as a reader \u2013 describing itself <\/a>as \u201cthe best writing tool on the web\u201d or when a Medium user calls it \u201ca fantastic writing tool\u201d<\/a> or when Ev Williams, Medium\u2019s CEO, says the company\u2019s goal was to build “a great tool for writing.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Sorry, folks, but Medium is not a writing tool. It is, as Medium itself proclaims<\/a>, a \u201cpublishing platform for on the web?\u2014?or anywhere?\u2014?for words and pictures,\u201d one \u201cthat started with the writing experience itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key words here are \u201cpublishing platform\u201d and \u201cwriting experience.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Digital publishing requires a distribution mechanism (software) and the one provided by Medium is certainly versatile and easy to use. Kudos for that.<\/p>\n

Writing requires nothing other than a brain (some would argue even that is not a prerequisite) and a means to record the words. In that sense, a pencil is a \u201cgreat writing tool.\u201d<\/strong> As was the typewriter I used in my first reporting job and the IBM Selectric in the next one \u2013 both dropped words onto paper in rapid if sometimes erratic fashion, words that were then distributed by a \u201cpublishing platform\u201d called a printing press.<\/p>\n

Of course, publishing in the digital world is cheaper, quicker and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 more widely accessible<\/strong> than in my days as a reporter. Software and publishing platforms such WordPress and Medium and Twitter (and before that Blogger and Movable Type) removed the gatekeepers and opened the communication floodgates (for better and for worse).<\/p>\n

Writing is the same, though. It\u2019s still hard, it\u2019s still difficult to get it right. The words still come out one at a time whether they\u2019re landing on paper or on pixels.<\/strong> The language is the same, the rhythm as well. Occasional brilliant thoughts don\u2019t change, nor do the more frequent clunkers.<\/p>\n

So, thanks Medium for providing a beautiful means of sharing my thoughts, of publishing my writing and of interacting with a community of other writers and readers (all good things)?\u2014?but whether I type those words (using my keyboard writing tool) into your lovely, clean interface they look they same as they do when I type them into a Word document or into WordPress window.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s get one thing clear: Writing is not publishing and publishing is not writing. To write is to transfer ideas from mind to words. To publish is to distribute those words to an audience. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0To me, this is an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,26],"tags":[671,668,669,670],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-technology","tag-ev-williams","tag-medium","tag-publishing","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nDear Medium: Publishing is not Writing - Tim Porter's Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=1194\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear Medium: Publishing is not Writing - Tim Porter's Second Draft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let\u2019s get one thing clear: Writing is not publishing and publishing is not writing. 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