I’ve been posting stories online for over a decade. One of the worst parts about writing on the internet is that if that platform goes down your stories go with it.

For example, I posted fanfiction on the website Polyvore for about three years. In that time, I posted dozens of fanfiction chapters and one-shots. In 2018 the site shut down, and my stories were lost forever.

If I could go back, I’d save everything — even if most of it is fluff pieces about how much I adored Justin Bieber and Diggy Simmons.

My true history lies in…

I’ve been thinking about more ways to connect with my Medium followers. A few days ago, I hit 700. I don’t think I’ve even met 700 people in my entire life. And yet, 700 people decided to bet on a weird Black girl from Virginia. That is incredible.

The support that my followers (and, the general Medium community) have given me over the past seven months is amazing. I appreciate every read and comment I get.

I wanted to find a way to connect with my followers more, and possibly build a community. …

These questions were created by Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) for the writers of the Medium publication The Brain is a Noodle.

[1] What did you like to do most when you were 10? They say that this hobby is likely what brings you the most joy in life — is this something you still do?

Honestly, I did the same things at 10 that I do now: writing, watching television, listening to music, and playing video games. Since I turned writing into my job, video games are probably what brings me the most joy.

Retro games have been my vibe recently. I just realized that my GameCube still works — got to love that durable old tech. I’m trying to 100% The Simpsons: Hit and Run. Wish me luck!

The only thing I don’t…

Trigger warnings: colorism, childhood trauma, racism

The books I read as a child featured two kinds of main characters: white people and talking animals. Books like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Inkheart, and Redwall ate up my free time.

I curated a long, vibrant list of vocabulary words from my excessive childhood reading habits. But — the words “diversity” and “inclusion” weren’t on that list.

Growing up, it was hard to find books featuring Black main characters. …

Medium’s curation system recently got a Dr. Miami-style facelift. On Facebook groups and throughout Medium, writers generally reported that they were getting more stories curated than ever before.

I witnessed a shift in curation in late February, where five of my articles were curated overnight.

This led to me achieving a 90% curation rate in March. This is a stark comparison to January, where my curation rate was 18%. (For both months, I’m excluding short form stories and stories I didn’t put under the paywall.)

The question is: did the boost in curation correlate to more earnings?

Where’s the money at?

Even though my…