I didn’t know I had a curated article until 6 months had elapsed from the time I dropped it. I might never have known had I not written to Medium support asking why this same story from six moths previous kept showing up on the three-item list that appears below my responses, and was there some way I could swap it out? No, I was told, that space is for “the best” writing, meaning, of course, curated.

That was my first curation. The second took me by surprise because I really didn’t think it was all that good. Somewhere along the line I read a particularly lousy article in one of those Medium digest emails, meaning it had been curated. I wish I could find it. If I had more patience I’d scroll through my responses until I hit one of the scathing responses I left there. Not only was it a heap of unsupported assertions, clichés, and stock phrases, but the guy even used the word less where fewer would have been the correct choice — an error which never fails to curl my toenails.

All of that is to say that while curation will certainly enhance your stats and for that reason the pursuit of curation is probably a good career move, it is not exactly a badge of honor.

I should add that my three(?) subsequent curations were all for things that still take pride in. I even scored a Fiction curation for the second part of a multi-part story, something that I am given to understand is a rarity.

Although my response story list, as I suppose one might call it, is now populated entirely by some mix of three of my five(?) curations, I’ve been in “curation jail” for I don’t know how long now.

Believe in your stories and write on,

-Q