You want to write a book. You need 100 organic followers. Here's why:

#WordOfTheWeek soon to be #WordsOfWisdom

It will be my first complete year on Medium.com in a few weeks. A few weeks ago, I finally reached and surpassed 100 followers. Many of us came to Medium.com to achieve this as quickly as possible to create another source of income and bolster our respective writing careers. Eleven months into building my platform and qualifying for the partner program, I love writing more than I care about the virtual pennies on the dollar that come with the time put into doing it right, which is the point.

They say, "It's not work when you love what you're doing."

I used to hate that. No professional athlete will say they hate living out their childhood dream of getting paid to play a game. On the other hand, those same athletes rightfully will take offense if you dismiss the time, effort, and other sacrifices they made to become professional—which all amounts to work. To the coaches, trainers, commentators, equipment managers, and other behind-the-scenes staff working in professional sports, you can see that the love of the game drives them more than the money. Hence, they choose to work for less pay in a job that keeps them happy before working in a career path with more money, room to grow, benefits, control, and much more.

All this is to say that you must have finite goals as a professional writer. You need small attainable goals — baby steps — before executing the larger goals. If you want to write a book, you must write many sentences. If you're going to write a novel, you must write several short stories. If you want to write a good book, you must write many good sentences. Often, that means writing many bad sentences, some decent blog posts, a handful of forgettable books, and eventually, some better ones.

I'm leaving out the various Wix, BlueHost, and GoDaddy accounts. I invested in business coaches and writing apps and even took a trip to Puerto Rico for a writer conference. I recently shut down a Buymeacoffee.com account in pursuit of my calling as a writer. Some people call it a "niche." Others claim to be gurus in certain areas. You must keep writing to find out what you're in it for. Some of you will write best-sellers, others will perpetually remain potentially paid until you get into a natural habit, and after all that, you still may not be a "good" writer.

The crossroads between improving and being good is between consistent work and people affected by it. I did not say "consistent good work" or "positively affected people" because "good" and "positive" don't matter in modern society. I plan to delve into that later, but for now, to my writers, write a lot before you write more. Keep writing until you find your people. I've found over 100 people here on Medium.com, more on Smashwords.com, and for various reasons, I've cycled through thousands of followers from Instagram — which I no longer use — to my reviving Twitter/X.

Typically, this #WordOfTheWeek series has a more meaningful aspect. This week has reminded me that things are not always deep and meaningful. Sometimes, you "do what you gotta do" to get paid, a thought which led me to turn this weekly series into a spirit-led (aka as inspired) #WordsOfWisdom series — much more direct and, ideally, more concise. Practical advice like "Get 100 followers organically to prepare for writing a book worth selling" and "Become a verified author on Medium.com to elevate your credibility" is what I envision. For now, however, keep writing.

Comment with thoughts or share this post with someone who needs the reminder. Clap if you find yourself meditating on something different and want more thoughts like this. Subscribe to receive weekly thoughts directly to your email and any other ideas I may have in the theology and self-development realm. I also have a Twitter/X with mostly basketball content.