How to Write Proper Articles on Medium
It’s highbrow time!
It’s highbrow time!
∘ 1. Grammar and Spelling
∘ 2. Sentence Structure
∘ 3. Make your article relatable no matter the topic
∘ 4. Hook your reader early
∘ 5. End by explaining what lesson was learned
∘ 6. Small Details
∘ 7. Conclusion
There are two categories of people who need to read this article. First, you are early in your writing journey, and you want to be better. You Google “How to be a better writer” and you find phrases like “be inspiring” and “grab their attention,” yet they don’t actually tell you how to do any of it. Then, you try writing and wonder why your articles don’t perform well.
The second kind of writer has been writing for a while, but not on Medium. You think of yourself as a good writer and always have an idea for a good story. Maybe you made good grades in school on all of your essays, but you never get boosted on Medium and your followers number isn’t growing as fast as you want. So, you search on Medium for how to write a good medium article and you find phrases like “write stories that flow” and “use a spell/grammar checker” and you think to yourself, “I already do that and what does “flow” even mean, anyway?”
Today, I want to teach you how to write proper Medium articles. Now, I qualified the phrase with “Medium” because every social network community has their own likes and dislikes. I also qualified the phrase with the word “proper” because there are a number of ways to write articles on Medium, but when I say “proper” think “highbrow.” What is highbrow?
Highbrow is a term that can be used as a noun or adjective and is synonymous with intellectual. As an adjective, it also means elite and generally carries a connotation of high culture. Highbrow can be applied to literature, implying literary fiction and poetry. It is considered by some as discerning or selective. — ChatGPT
MUST you write this way? Nope! Just ask Robin Wilding 💎She has a ton of followers and is nearly in the top 1% of Medium earners. None of her articles follow these guidelines (probably 💕😊). However, if you want some help getting noticed, OR BOOSTED BY MEDIUM’S CURATORS, then this article is for you.
1. Grammar and Spelling
Look, I don’t know what to tell you that you haven’t heard one thousand times before. If you’re writing on a computer, you have the ability to run spell and grammar checks. The fastest way to be turned down for a publication is by having bad spelling and grammar. I’m an editor for two publications and I’ve rejected articles because I can tell the writer hasn’t even tried to correct their errors. Nearly all editors don’t mind correcting a few mistakes, but if your article lights up like a Christmas tree in red and blue/green lines, then expect a lot of rejections and you’ll never get boosted.
Tools of choice: Google Docs or Grammarly
2. Sentence Structure
Here is one of the secrets you’re probably missing because there are several common, simple, writing techniques hurting your article.
Conjunctions
Use the words AND, OR, BUT, SO, YET, and HOWEVER to combine sentences. These conjunctions are critical to the flow of your article and will help separate your work from the pack of beginner writers. For example, read the paragraph below:
Today, I went to the mall. While I was there, I saw my mom. My mom said hello. We bought some groceries. They were so good that we ate them before we left.
Or you could write it like this.
Today, I went to the mall and ran into my mom. She said hello so, we walked around and bought groceries all day and ate them before we left.
The first example is choppy and kills the flow of your narrative. If you are trying to write passionately, or convey an emotion, your attempt has failed by the end of the paragraph because you're forcing the reader to stop and start over. Imagine running a race and being forced to stop every 100 yards, but your opponent can run without stopping. Who is going to win?
Always use the least number of words as possible. Have you been told your writing is “wordy?” Conjunctions fix, or at least alleviate, this problem, too.
Sentence and paragraph length
Secondly, the opposite of choppy sentences is a run-on. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can place conjunctions between every sentence to create a Frankenstein. Your paragraphs need to encapsulate the entirety of your idea. I understand most Medium writers often place one sentence on an entire line as if it were God’s truth coming through the screen. But not every sentence is THAT important.
Allow your paragraphs to breathe and grow organically. Conjunctions will help with this, yes, but the paragraph needs a beginning, middle, and an end just like your story. When you cut the idea short, you leave the reader with statements like, “I really liked that topic, but they moved on to something else.” Or “Wait so what does that even mean, anyway? Why didn’t they explain it in more detail?”
One of the frustrating things to see in an article is unfinished or uncompleted thoughts. Don’t be afraid to write eight-minute articles because it might make the difference between someone capturing your message in their hearts or clicking to the next page.
3. Make your article relatable no matter the topic
You don’t have to be an expert in whatever you're writing about to make it relatable to your reader. If I gambled, I would bet most writers on Medium would not describe themself as an expert in any field. I do, however, believe they are more than qualified to write about the topic so, you need to find a personal experience which relates the topic back to your life.
For example, if my article is about ancient Greek philosophy, I might talk about a few classes I took in college where I learned about the culture. I also might talk about traveling to Italy in 2021 or even when my brother and I, at 10 years old, used to watch PBS documentaries about the Greeks and how excited we were to discuss them.
Or how about this example. If my article was about airplanes, I could mention how my first memory of my bedroom as a child was the airplane wallpaper my mother placed on the walls. I could also mention the metallic, blue, P-42 toy I would fly around the room when I was six until all the paint was gone and the propeller broke off.
See! I don’t know anything about airplanes, but I could use those personal stories to enhance my writing. Whatever you write about and whatever message you want to convey, make sure you have examples from your life.
4. Hook your reader early
You’ve only got two or three sentences before a reader moves on. My introductions are under constant revision while I’m writing. Sometimes, the meaning of my article (see point 6) will change so, I’ll reword the introduction to fit the new message. Here are a few of my intros:
During my trip to Paris recently, one of the activities I chose was the Paris Catacombs. I’ve read about the catacombs for years and how you could see piles of bones stacked into designs, so, unlike my family, I somewhat knew what to expect. However, nothing can prepare you for the macabre, dark, and quiet existence of millions of bodies worth of bones in the caves beneath Paris.
Looking back on my childhood, I was lucky enough to be alive at the same time as several creators. Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, and Jim Henson are a few that come to mind. But the artist I enjoy the most is Dr. Seuss.
When I was 13, my youth pastor at church told the teenagers to throw away our possessions and doing so would open us to God. A large trashcan was brought into the gym and left there so that anyone could throw away what they wanted. My friends threw away their favorite CDs, makeup, and old toys, mementos from past friends and relationships, and other items. By the end of the week, the trashcan was nearly full. What did I throw away? Nothing.
The final example is a little long, but it’s not always about how many sentences you have exactly. A good article hooks you as soon as it possibly can.
5. End by explaining what lesson was learned
It’s not enough to write about your pain and suffering if you want to be a top writer on Medium or get boosted. It’s not enough to write about a happy memory or a fun experience. Your story needs to end with a purpose or a meaningful message. For example, it needs to answer these questions:
Why did a reader just spend 5 minutes reading this article?
What was the point?
So what? Why does this matter to me?
If you can answer those questions at the end of the article, you’ll leave a lasting impression on the reader. They might even tell a friend about it or share it on social media. A powerful and articulate ending is how people will remember you. It’s like the last time you see a loved one before they pass. You’ll always remember them as the last time you saw them even if they were once beautiful and young, you’ll remember them as old and sick. It’s a dramatic and morbid example, but true.
6. Small Details
You MUST put a picture at the top of your article. Everything about modern computing and internet sharing supports finding the image and displaying it on every social media site. Medium is exactly the same in that regard as the picture doesn’t need to be the absolute first thing after your title and subtitle, but it needs to be after the first few sentences at the latest. Having an eye-catching picture is a requirement if you want your article to be accepted into a publication and shared across any platform.
Proofread your article out loud or use the built in ‘Listen’ button to have Medium read the article back to you if it’s already published. This is a trick I learned recently, but it helps you hear mistakes in commas, choppiness, flow, and a variety of other mistakes. For example, recently I wrote a long story and I felt a paragraph would fit the flow better if it was placed earlier in the article. However, I forgot to go back and delete the paragraph. So, despite running my story through Grammarly, I didn’t know and published it with both paragraphs appearing. It took over 24 hours for a friend to reach out and let me know! Had I read the article out loud or allowed Medium to do it for me, I would have caught the mistake, made the change, and saved myself the embarrassment.
Use the word THAT as little as possible. After completing your story, search for the word and notice how many times you’ve used it. Most writers will be shocked at how common it appears. To fix this, read the sentence out loud, but don’t say ‘that.’ If the sentence still makes sense without it, delete the word. If the sentence doesn’t make sense, see if you can rephrase the sentence so it doesn’t need the word. If it still doesn’t make sense, leave ‘that’ in. Otherwise, you almost never need to use ‘that.’
7. Conclusion
I’m not professional writer and, as I stated earlier, you can ignore nearly all of these rules and become a popular writer on Medium. However, if you follow all of these suggestions, and pick an engaging, encouraging, and heart felt topic, you’ll grow your audience as soon as possible.
When I started writing on a regular basis six months ago, I could not have possibly foreseen having over 1,100 followers and making enough money to count writing as a small part-time job. Yet here I am on Medium sharing everything I’ve learned with strangers from across the world!
Now, I wake up every morning ready to write and share my thoughts, pain, and motivations. If you want to succeed the same way I did, take my advice to heart and let your writing journey truly begin!
