It happened on Medium: April 2024 roundup
Last month’s most-read stories, most-highlighted sentences, and a few of our favorite poems in honor of National Poetry Month
The gardening season is officially upon us. I spent the weekend putting together a raised bed, sowing grass seeds, perusing my local Gardening Club sale, and dreaming about what my garden could look like in one month, one year, or even a decade from now.
I think about this a lot: If you put in the work today, and every day, for the next ten years, what could your career, language mastery, crafting project, or any other thing look like?
This brings me to one of the many, many things I love about Medium: Some of the best work on the internet lives right here, and it’s there for you to read and learn from whenever you want, at any pace that feels right for you. For example, over the weekend, I found:
- Timely advice about growing tomatoes from angela w
- A great story with tips on how to write dialogue by Shaunta Grimes
- A gorgeous story connecting two concepts, gardening and writing, by Geoffrey Gevalt
“Wait! I started my thing a year ago and I’ve ignored it since! Is it too late for me?” I hear you, and I’m happy to report that progress is not all or nothing. Most projects can be brought back to life with a bit of TLC, no matter how long you’ve neglected them.
For example, this weekend I finally spent some time working on my long-abandoned novel after picking it back up during last week’s Writing Hour, hosted by our very own Scott Lamb. If you need a nudge to get back to your own big project, I hope this serves as one. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy it.
And if you need inspiration or advice? Explore our topics pages to find some of the best writing on just about any subject.
Medium by the numbers…
In April 2024…
- You published 1.4 million posts.
- 2,751 stories were Boosted. 2,003 of those came from the publication editors in the Boost Nomination Pilot program.
- You created 64k Lists.
- Bonus stat: You published 172 drafts by participating in (Finish Your) Draft Day! Congratulations to anyone who finally hit publish on an older draft. You can check out the full list of Draft Day stories here.
April’s most-highlighted passages
“And to every Medium member: Thank you for being a part of this community. We’re so glad you’re here.” — A word of gratitude from our CEO Tony Stubblebine in his piece “Thank you for one million members.”
“If a nation so divided came together to feel and witness a phenomenon so extraordinary, is it too big a dream that we come together to witness the phenomenon of humans working toward the good of a nation?” — Reflections on the solar eclipse from Natalie, wife, mother, teacher, and writer in her piece “My First Total Solar Eclipse Left Me in Hope of a Human Phenomenon That No Longer Seems Impossible,” published in The Hub Publication.
“When it comes to writing online, ‘how I’ beats ‘how to.’” — Some truly stellar writing advice from Brendan Charles, author of The Write Path newsletter in his piece “Why I Shifted From Pure Writing to Documenting Instead,” published in the Writing Cooperative.
“Until Starbucks figures this out, small indie coffee shops have an excellent opportunity to thrive as they offer their patrons artisanal coffee, personal service, and a sense of community.” — A hopeful note about how smaller, independent communities can still find their niche even when facing a titan of the industry from Simply Sophia, author, artist, and attorney, in “Starbucks Has Lost Its Damn Mind,” published in Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs.
The 10 most-read stories in April
- “Reverse Searching Netflix’s Federated Graph” by Ricky Gardiner, Alex Hutter, and Katie Lefevre, software engineers, in Netflix TechBlog
- “5 total mistakes to avoid at the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse” by Ethan Siegel, writer, astrophysicist, science communicator & NASA columnist, in Starts With a Bang!
- “The guide to Git I never had” by Jake Page, Developer Relations Engineer at Glasskube
- “MVP is Over. You Need to Think About MVE” by Pete Sena, Founder, Operator, and Investor, in Entrepreneur’s Handbook
- “Team USA Is Proud Of Our New Women’s Track Uniforms: A Birthday Suit With a Nike Logo Sharpied On” by Emily Kapp, comedy writer, in The Belladonna Comedy
- “The 4 Hats of a Full-Stack Data Scientist” by Shaw Talebi, Data Scientist, in Towards Data Science
- “Yes, it is genocide” by Amos Goldberg, a Holocaust and genocide researcher
- “The Complexity of Choice: Abortion, Motherhood, and the Adoption Conversation” by RICHELLE CAREY, keynote speaker and journalist
- “There’s Something About a Run in the Rain” by trail/ultra runner and author Jeff Barton in Runner’s Life
- “The Illusion of Writer’s Block” by Robert Roy Britt, editor of Aha! and Wise & Well, in The Writer’s Guide
Most popular stories from the Medium archive
What is the lifespan of a story? In my opinion, some stories are never truly “done” — they continue imparting wisdom, entertainment, and knowledge years after publication. Here are a few older stories you read, shared, highlighted, and applauded in April:
“I Made the Pizza Cinnamon Rolls from Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter” by Geraldine DeRuiter, founder of the award-winning Everywhereist blog and author of All Over the Place. I read this story when it was originally published in 2018, and you know what? It hits just as hard today.
“[Mario] Batali’s another drop in the bucket. He’s not the first, he certainly won’t be the last (he already isn’t). The misogyny runs so deep that the calls now come from inside our heads. We blame ourselves. We hate ourselves. We wonder if our skirts are too short, if our bodies are too noticeable. If we’re asking for too much, or not enough. We don’t trust ourselves, even when we should.
We try to follow a half-written recipe and think it’s our fault when it doesn’t work.”
“4 Things I Did to Improve My Vocabulary” by Devin Gleeson, coach and writer, published in Writing Cooperative. Want to build something, even if it’s your vocabulary? You have to work at it. And the conclusion is *chef’s kiss* so good!
“I imagine that some readers came to this article hoping to find quick tips and tricks. I also imagine that encountering suggestions like “read with a dictionary for several years” or “learn Latin” feels irksome, disheartening, and impractical.
Here’s my apologia in two bullets:
- When you play learning as a long game, the compound interest and long-term rewards are astounding. When you play it looking for a fast fix of hacks and shortcuts, the results are commensurate.
- I’ve tried the hacks and shortcuts. They don’t work.”
“The Japanese Art of Making Boring Tasks Better” by Kaki Okumura, author, published in Forge. Originally published in 2021, this advice is as relevant and true today as ever.
“When we are positive towards our work — even boring work — people notice, and our attitude uplifts the spirit of those around us. Knowing that you’re doing work that is respected and uplifting to others can make any boring job better.”
Boosted stories from new writers
Brand-new writers to Medium in April wrote some fantastic stories, and our boost nominators were on the lookout for them to find and boost their work. We’re thrilled to have their writing here! Here’s a handpicked selection of some of my favorites.
“‘I think I might die if I made it’” by Giovanni Colantonio, musician and gaming journalist.
“‘I’m not trying to exaggerate, but I think I might die if I made it,’; a naïve girl once dreamed as she looked up to her idols. Now peering out from her gilded cage, a weary Swift fears that she was right.”
“How do you accidentally run for President of Iceland?” by Anna Andersen, content designer, in UX Collective.
“As a content designer, I was intrigued. How could so many people accidentally start a campaign for President of Iceland?”
“N-of-1 Trials and Analyzing Your Own Fitness Data” by Merete Lutz, student data scientist, in Towards Data Science.
“I hope that after this tutorial you take the initiative to download your own data from whatever fitness tracker you can get your hands on, and play around with it. I know everyone can come up with a hypothesis about how some variable affects their health, but what most people don’t realize, is that you’re closer to getting a quantifiable answer to that question than you think.”
Celebrating National Poetry Month
April was National Poetry Month here in the U.S., and our resident poets celebrated in earnest. We saw over nine thousand pieces published under the Poetry and Poem tags on Medium in April. One of my personal favorites was Maria Nazos’ “Woman to Woman,” detailing a conversation between two women who have an ex in common — one believes she can still change him, but the other knows the truth. “When It’s a Total Eclipse” by Mika Oka describes the eclipse periods in our own lives and how we can overcome them. I’ll end with kristina gaffney’s evocative and unsettling creator-turned-would-be-destroyer — read this as a companion piece to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein if you’re up for some body horror.
As always, you can read more poetry on Medium on the poem and poetry topic pages.
New publications on Medium
Here are some of my favorite new arrivals in April:
- Ever wished you could find a place to read fun facts and significant new and old discoveries on fossils, paleontology, and evolution? There’s a Medium publication for that! Check out Fossils et al. for all your paleontology needs.
- As a linguistics nerd, I was thrilled to spot Babel, a new publication dedicated to celebrating the captivating diversity of human languages.
- Looking for a place to read and publish book and poetry news, prompts, and essays? Newcomer bookish nook can scratch that itch for you. (Special mention to their first & final column analyzing the first and final lines in books!)
Want to read even more great stories from Medium’s writers and publications? Head on over to Staff Picks. And to learn something new from Medium writers every weekday, subscribe to our latest newsletter, the Daily Edition.
Medium can be a place where words become reality: a promotion, a book deal, a notable person reaching out to you. If you’re a writer on Medium, let me know in the comments about the impact one (or more!) of your stories has had on your life.
If you’re a reader, take a moment and think: What Medium story lives rent-free in your head? What story has impacted the way you live your life? I’d love to know!
