4 Tips to Get Your Stories Curated from the Editor of Inspired Writer

Thoughts you should consider before hitting the publish icon

“You have 0.1 of a second to capture someone’s attention.”

That’s how much time editor Ash Jurgen says you have to make a reader stop scrolling and decide to read your article rather than just skim right past it.

Never thought about this? As a new writer to Medium, I hadn’t, either.

Maybe, that’s why my story, “Wisdom is a Butterfly” has flopped so far in A Parent Is Born publication, getting only eleven reads from 45 views.

It needs a better headline!

Here are four tips from Ash that you may not know about curation:

Write strong headlines

Your story may be great, but as Ash would say, it needs a stronger headline.

Something that will make someone want to click on the title. Something that tells a potential reader more about what they will gain from your story.

Curation occurs when a story gets claps and views, and so rule number #1 on being curated is: You have to first get someone to want to read a story.

How many times have you written a headline that could’ve been better?

That’s why my story, “To the Mother at McDonald’s” for Inspired Writer became “The Unbearable Uncomfortableness of Being an Autism Dad.”

The second title is catchier and tells the main subject of the story.

I also switched the publication to Artfully Autistic, but it’s best to keep an article with a publication after you submit it … it’s just good etiquette.

Feel like you’re in a fog?

Starting out writing on Medium can feel like walking into a fog.

There’s a lot of clickbait titles, but a lack of solid information on important topics like how to get your story curated by Medium for further distribution.

And who knows how to understand the mind of the algorithm?

So I asked Ash for curation tips as I was changing my story title and my wife was texting me an article on a hiker slipped down a 900-foot cliff on a hike.

She does this every time my son and I are going on a hike.

Substantiate your claims with links

Ash explained to me that Mr. Algorithm is a Computer Science kind of guy. He favors more technical style writers than poetry, fiction or creative writers, so we have to feed Mr. A the kind of information and data he likes the most.

This means providing links to back up any statements. Mr. Algorithm wants to see all claims you make be substantiated with links to where you received the information because, yes, he’s an English teacher in disguise.

Quotes, book titles, newspaper articles and, most of all, studies and research. Link any claim you make, and Ash says the algorithm will start noticing your stories and increase the chance your story gets distributed to more readers.

Because you’ll be tickling him … in his geeky sweet spot of his software.

I just read Zulie Rane’s article, “6 Hilariously British Things We Desperately Need in America,” and she links five different sources in her story. That seems to be a good rule of thumb for how many links you want to make in a story.

Write for the reader

This is one I’ve read several times, but I like the way Ash puts it:

“People don’t know who you are, so involve them in the story. It’s not a diary or journal — people don’t care about that. Whenever you write think if a stranger would care enough to read it. What will they learn? What’s in it for them?”

Basically, this means trying to hook readers with a personal story. But then you need to zoom out to broaden the focus on a larger topic — and to always keep in mind how the information in your story is benefitting your readers.

One effective way to involve readers in a story is to directly address them as Nicole Akers, the editor at Publishous, does very effectively in her story, “Good Girls have Needs To:”

Life has been taxing. You’re done being bored and stuck in a repeat loop of activity. Each day is like reliving Groundhog Day, where you can’t change events but are stuck in the vicious pattern of dull, monotonous actions. You’re ready to try something new, but you are forced into certain constraints.

You ache to get a few minutes alone with your partner. A quickie will do. Perhaps in the middle of the day will be good. The kids are doing homework or have their pretty little faces buried in their own games. Maybe, just maybe, you can escape for a few minutes of “me” time.

You have to meet everyone else’s needs. The kids have needs, and your partner has needs, but you suppress your needs because you’re so busy catering to everyone else that you fall into bed exhausted, with nothing left to give.

But, you still have needs.

I think this would hook most female readers. As a guy, it hooked me as well.

Bring a unique take on things

As Ash told me, 80% of the stuff on Medium is the same. These same topics are not going to pass the .1 second test to capture your reader’s attention. We’ve all read these stories and we’re tired of reading these same stories.

We have to think about those subjects we have something to offer to others. I write about recovery, neurodiversity and parenting because I have personal experience on these subjects and have something worth saying to my readers.

Your topic might be sex or software. Whatever it is, bring a unique take on it.

Final thoughts

A quick review: Write a strong headline, substantiate your claims, write for your audience and bring a unique take to your writing.

If you’re new to Medium, you might not know how to tell if a story has been curated? Or you veterans may forget to check if a story has been curated.

Here’s the drill on how to know if a story is curated: Go to your Stats on Medium, click the icon “Audience Stats” and click on one of your stories.

It will say “distributed” if Mr. Algorithm has chosen for it to be curated.

I just checked my Audience Stats and found out that several of my stories had been distributed the past couple of weeks, and I didn’t even know it.

So I am excited to apply these four tips from Ash to see if I can keep pleasing my new English teacher, Mr. Algorithm.

Thank you for reading my story. You might also like some of my other stories.

Let me know if you have any tips to help a story to become curated by Mr. A.

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