BASIC FORMATTING. Everything you need to know when publishing your story!

Guide for newbies and everyone lost in this topic.

Non-Medium members can read this article here!

I’m an editor in Short. Sweet. Valuable. and Long. Sweet. Valuable. and it would be a huge favor if you would read this before submitting your stories here!

Hello writers!

Today I want to talk about how your story looks when published.

As a writer, you have to think not only about the story you write but also about how you represent it. It shows your digital literacy and represents you, demonstrates the skills you have, and attracts readers. Keep this in mind when you are writing your next story.

We want to raise the standards of our publications a bit. That means — slightly bigger number of rejections too. We have a lot of new authors, publishing their first stories here and we are happy about that! We are open to everyone to grow here! But even if it’s your first — some basic formatting should be added.

🗂 I will share some basic tips to follow:

✏ ️For the start — the headline

Every story is supposed to have a headline, don’t miss this opportunity to attract more readers with a well-chosen title and subtitle. Stories without headlines aren’t approved for publication.

📸 Image (thumbnail)

Next step — some visualization. I want to tell you why it’s important to add an image.

The image you add to your story becomes your story’s thumbnail. In the list of all stories, those without images are hardly seen. They don’t attract readers visually, and as a result, readers are less likely to click on them. However, we want them to read, don’t we? It’s a small detail, but in the end it’s important too.

Story how to add images properly you’ll find here:

📝 Paragraphs

One block of text is really hard to read, and nobody (probably) is going to do this. The same text, attractively divided, can encourage readers to stay longer in your story and read it from beginning to end.

🔧 Grammar

A lot of writers here aren’t native English speakers. And that’s okay. We aren’t either. But we have to try our best to avoid grammar mistakes. Best practice is to check your story in Grammarly when it’s ready.

📎 Sentences starting with capital letters

Do I need to write something more here? ;)

We are asking for these corrections because we want you to learn, grow, and be a better writer.

Hope to see your progress! Let’s grow and learn together! 💪 👏

If you have any questions please leave a comment, I will update this story if needed.

xoxo Justina