Must I Niche Down?

A reflection into my writing journey and struggle at finding a niche

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

It’s been 10 years since I dabbled into writing. I have had over 5 blogs, you might see that I first wrote on medium in 2016.

If you ask why I’m still so far behind on the scale of success, my answer would be a mixture of reasons such as life happening, loss of focus and motivation, and failure to niche down.

Every single course, article or book I’ve ever read about blogging or writing has the advice about niching down.

I can be very much a rebel in matters pertaining to life but I didn’t deliberately choose to go against this advice of niching down. I’ve tried it, I did pretty well with my last blog which was more of Nigerian tourism and culture but then lost it due to life and some changes in the Nigerian banking system.

Three months ago, I picked up writing again. I’ve been more dedicated and more diligent and have been writing mostly on medium and some other sites. If you’ve seen my medium posts, you will notice that I still haven’t niched down.

My failure to niche down in writing really stems from my inability to niche down in life.

A long time ago, in junior high, I remember a comment made by one of my teachers. I was slated to represent the school in a French language debate competition and he had commented that what I was doing was a total waste of time as he believed that I would end up being a science student.

I did end up going for science in senior high school but guess what? I was one of the few science students who attended literature classes.

I must confess that I had heard horrible tales about the further maths teacher and therefore opted for literature classes instead. It was an odd sight to behold but I had fun being in that class.

In medical school I did niche down, for the first three years, I was committed to nothing but medicine and I did really excellent in school.

And then I made a bold decision in my third year to travel to Asia. My interactions with others made me realize I was missing so much by just burying myself within medical textbooks. I realized that my knowledge was really too limited to interact with others.

So on getting back to school, I joined an international student club, went for their meetings and did some more traveling.

My grades dropped, but my life was so much richer.

I do want to achieve some success as a medical writer, so I’ll try niching down again but if I feel the urge to write a poem or share a life lesson or write about my spirituality, I’ll be damned if I fail to do that.

I’m a wife and mom, I have several relationships I’m navigating everyday , I work as a medical doctor on weekdays, I belong to a church and try to attend every Sunday. I read a mix of whatever is good, whatever is excellent, whatever is praise worthy. You see there’s a lot to learn from and therefore a lot I could write about. It can feel overwhelming but I’m learning to prioritize and make time for each.

I don’t think I’m confused about niching down, as much as I want success as a writer, I don’t want to miss out on the richness that all the other topics hold.

It’s been a long journey of trying to find a balance and here’s what I’ve been doing to achieve that;

1. Writing: I haven’t stopped writing. Whether I’ve readers or not. Whether I’ve had good success or not. One day, when I finally know the game inside out I’ll be glad I never gave up. I write on medium, a blog and substack sometimes.
2. Writing E-books: One can always sell their compiled knowledge on gum road or distribute it for free or join the Amazon KDP program. One of my books on Amazon is a compilation of Tiv native riddles and their translations. I also have a few more collections and it makes more sense to release it as a book than to write about it.
3. Undertake a medical communications internship; It takes me a longer time to write health/medical articles and yet those articles of mine tend to get the fewest views. So in addition to taking some courses about writing on health, I’m currently undertaking a health communications internship program to get more tutelage and guidance on how to communicate medically.
4. Something else I’m considering doing is utilizing medium’s publications to write articles streamlined to a particular niche. I’d let you know how that goes.

I’m sure there are authors who have switched from one niche to another and have been successful about it. I don’t know many who have tried their hands at a variety of topics and yet still have good success. If you know of any I could learn from, please recommend in the comments below.

To my readers who don’t quite know what to expect the next time I post, thanks for taking a chance on me.