WRITING TIPS
9 Writing Tips for Beginners on Medium
Writing tips that are easy to follow and will boost your views.
In the picture above it’s you.
But this is not a still image, is it? You probably got stuck not knowing what to write from here and you don’t know what‘s your next article gonna be. Trust me, I’ve been stuck there for more than I can think of, but it’s all much clearer now. Writing feels like my second nature.
When I wrote my first article here, I got so into it that I wondered why I didn’t write anything for months already. But then I realized, it was all for good. My article wouldn’t be any closer to what it is now. You know why?
The answer is simple: Experience.
You know, when you are about to start a business, you don’t just jump right into it, do you? You research and research and most importantly? You do some research. You are about to invest some real money and that’s not a toy to play with.
Think of writing for Medium as a business (but not so strict, don’t be afraid, it’s not biting). You have a product (your words) and you have customers (your readers). Your goal is to have a product that is on par with the quality of your customers.
So, what I have here are some tips I filtered out for you (and it’s my first tip), that you can apply to your journey on making yourself active and not passive on Medium.
Spend some Time Reading on Medium Before writing on it.
This could be the only point in this article and it would still be enough. Why? Because all the tips you can gather for your journey on Medium are found by reading all these exceptional guides from people that are experts on the field, that’s why.
But let’s break this one MEGA-tip (God, it sounds like a character from Transformers, sigh) into 8 mini-tips and analyze them further beyond.
1. Trust the writing process, but trust it right.
It takes time and yes it takes effort. Rome wasn’t built in a day. This is probably one of my favorite quotes and it should become one of your favorites too. Don’t be let down by failure from the beginning.
Witnessing the success of others can be your biggest motive but also your biggest enemy.
And to prove my point? Write your first post. Write 20+ more of these beauties. Go back to your first post and compare it with your last one. Tell me how much you have evolved since then. If you already wrote that many posts by the time you read this, do the same, please. Your path to success is one to be shared with others. Inspire people and get inspired by them. We are all here to read a story and learn something from it.
2. Don't try to apply more writing tips than you can digest.
In one month of reading articles about tips for beginners like “X things I should have known before I started writing on Medium”, you know how many of them I kept in mind? Frankly, less than 10.
And most of them aren’t even presented here in this article. All of these successful writers you read from learned on the go. Not from the beginning. They experimented and applied one tip at a time. Yes, you can apply some to have a head start. But only the important stuff which I cover here for you.
Treat your writing like it's a train, and you’ll figure it out more easily.
3. Make a writing schedule and stick to it.
In Greece (yes I’m Greek and yes you should have known by the way I write already sigh), we have a saying that says “Whatever you let go, it lets you go”. This tip is practically this saying.
Everyone in every guide says that you should write every day, especially on the days you don’t want to and you’ll understand how important that is when you apply it to your writing. You want to make it a habit, new normality if I may say. Then you will take it more seriously (if that’s your goal, to begin with).
4. Understand your niche and your tags.
I would lie if I said that I know how to explain this in the best way possible as this tip isn’t something that I mastered already.
But anyway, identify what you write about and try to extract some key-words from it.
When you go to the draft session on Medium, in the top right corner you’ll find three dots. Click on them and you’ll have the option to change tags. You can then experiment and try a different combination of tags to give to your article. Try to keep them as related as possible to the theme of your article and find ones with many followers.
5. Start building your audience.
The traffic that goes through your post is your creation. It doesn’t generate itself. It all comes down to the actual structure of your post that will make someone read it, but you also have to gather some audience.
While my parents would make an awesome audience (and probably the only one, to begin with, sigh), they are Greek. How unfortunate to not even have them for constructive criticism, right?
Follow people on Medium. Most of them will follow back. Especially follow the ones that relate to your posts and tags. Go to the tag you are interested in and you’ll find dozens of stories and writers.
Go to forums, search for people that seek an answer to their problem, and if your article has the answer post it there. You are your advertisement.
6. Write for your readers, not you.
While I would love to write in a much more vague way, this is Medium. While I would love to write about my stories and thoughts more than I intended to, This is Medium. It’s not limiting, but simultaneously it is. The structure of a guide article has to be for the reader. After all, it’s them which you wanna help.
Try to structure your article in a way that helps the audience. Break it down for them, make it easy to digest.
7. But also don’t be so strict with your writing.
Experiment, be playful with your words. Don’t be so serious about it and try to make your audience’s time worth it. I know I will in my future posts for sure…
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. — Steve Jobs
You’ll have followers but you’ll also have haters. You don’t write for everyone. Remember that. You can have 0 followers and 0 haters but you can also have 1000 followers and 200 haters. I’d choose the second one at any given time.
8. Trust your perspective.
One more thing that I kept from reading everyone’s vision about what I, as a writer, should pay attention to when I start my journey on Medium is…perspective. All of them had a different one and all of them were right.
I can’t remember anyone mentioning it though. It’s important to show YOUR perspective to the reader. It’s only reasonable, as it is what will make you different from other writers and will make you stand out to the readers.
Remember when I told you about products and customers? You buy what stands out for you the most, don’t you? Keep your product as polished as possible then, please.
9. Revisit your posts.
Sounds simple and while it is…it isn’t. I’m not just talking about removing that comma that you misplaced or changing that word with a better, sophisticated one.
I’m talking about creating a relation to your posts. Add a new tip. Add a link related to the other article that you wrote weeks later. Make it up to date. For instance, let’s say that you have your top post being about let’s say… improving your daily life and you wrote a post one month later about how to eat a better breakfast. You see the relation between them, right? If yes please add that new post somewhere in the old post. It will also help in bringing traffic to other posts you wanna promote.
Final Notes
Writing on Medium is the easiest thing you can start today. But as easy as it is, it’s hard to master as well. Even experienced writers struggle with being successful in this platform.
But by understanding what you have, you can increase your possibilities of success.
Go on, apply one tip at a time, and you’ll get better in the blink of an eye.
Wanna read more tips? I created one story after months on the platform.