A Review — The Game Plan for Writing Boost-worthy Stories on Medium
With special thanks to Grace Mary Power
It was a game changer for me as a new writer on Medium — The Game Plan for Writing Boost-worthy Stories on Medium by Grace Mary Power.
I have been writing since 2010 while in the employment of the government and the passion carried through over the years. Initially, none of my writings were published for public consumption as they were meant for a specific industry within the economy.
Fast forward 13 years, with me nearing semi-retirement, I decided to pursue my passion for writing more rigorously — to ensure my thoughts are recorded on the Net for public consumption in the years to come and of course, to earn some side income. We could never continue working perpetually full time till the final sunset, can we?
My first month on Medium was a learning curve. For one, it was to my delight I found out that Medium articles were in long form as I loved writing long form pieces as opposed to ‘tweets’.
Secondly, topics were aplenty. One can write just about anything because there were no restrictions on the topics. I remember reading an article by a writer who had been writing on Medium for more than three years. It said Medium is first and foremost for writers to write, earning comes second. Thus, Medium promotes authentic pieces written from one’s life experiences — it allowed a forum for writers to explore their life journey and share incidences that could add value to the readers.
With that as the starting point, I started to read articles from regular writers and publications to understand the trend of writing acceptable to Medium, as only this platform uses human curators to boost articles. It was much later that I realised that editors of publications were also responsible in nominating articles that were published in their publications for boosting.
Many things were still grey and then Google published the Human Content Update (HCU) which changed the entire blogging landscape. People no longer wanted SEO optimised content, readers now wanted authentic writings. Real stories.
If SEO game was no longer the in thing, how does one play the Medium game? The play here refers to the intricacies in writing boost worthy articles.
That was when I discovered the guide written by Grace Mary Power.
The guide sets the tone for the writer by asking some basic but specific questions — the five big questions. Those questions covered topics like willingness to share personal stories and the motivation to get those stories boosted. That sets one thinking. I bet not many writers started their writing career with specific objectives in mind. Those questions starting the thinking process.
Next comes the criteria for a boost worthy story — COWMA. This acronym is explained in detail in the guide which serves as the beacon of light for a new Medium writer like me.
Then comes the deep dive into the boost criteria. What are the criteria in an article that is sought by the human curators. Grace had answered this in detail.
The good thing is Grace had not only listed down the criteria that writers need to fulfil to get their articles boosted, she had also explained other crieria that may cause the story to be rejected, for boosting. What not to do is a lot easier to adhere to, for a novice Medium writer like me. Thus, once I ensure that I had avoided all the no-nos, I check my article for adherence to the required criteria.
Grace had added to this by providing a few examples of stories that were accepted for boosting and those that were rejected.
Most importantly she had provided an excellent idea on how to ensure a writer’s article or story is boost-worthy and that is the ultimate game plan.
I consider this guide as my beacon as I share my personal experiences and the learnings that could add value to the readers on Medium. Another important aspect is my ability to explore my past experiences and derive the effects and learnings that would certainly be good guidance for me as I navigate my own life. Added to that would be the experiences of fellow writers, from which I can derive my own learnings. Medium had provided that platform.
I would like to thank Grace Mary Power for the guide that she had written for the benefit of everyone who is keen to see their stories and articles boosted on Medium.
In an era of AI and SEO manipulation, it is such a refreshing relief that there are over 100 million readers on Medium seeking authentic stories and the Game Plan for Writing Boost-worthy Stories is there to provide guidance.
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