Before You Thrash Your Bookmarked Stories

Your Medium bookmarked stories can enhance your life and writings.

For me, reading Medium stories is like the experience of a little child wandering on the seashore. Over and again, one more interesting seashell captivates him. At his last picking, the child thought he has seen the most intricately designed seashell. Just a few steps later, he finds out in ever-increasing amazement that even more, beautiful shells are yet on his way. With his pockets getting fuller with each step, the child ends up discarding most of his earlier picks.

That about sums up the experience of many Medium readers (and writers) especially new writers like me. What do you do with your personal throve of all those fantastic stories you eagerly threw into your bottomless pit of personally curated stories — your favorite Medium stories?

Do you discard the contents of your personal library just because you don’t have time to read all those books or recall all that you have read so far?

One of my all-time favorite Medium stories is Manage It Like That (MILT) — A Nigerian story. The author, a fellow Nigerian, wrote a story that accurately depicted the “way of things” in my country.

This story about the social conditions that made possible the atrocities of the Nazis during World War II also caught my attention.

I became a pro Medium reader and writer last year. Of course, I read more than I write. What with such inimitable influential writers like Genius Turner, Ayodeji Awosika , Tim Denning , Boateng Sekyere, Jessica Wildfire, Dr Mehmet Yildiz and many others? The first and the last names on this list took me into their wings. Not long after I caught my teeth publishing my first story on Medium, Anangsha Alammyan published my first curated story. It was most uplifting to see and read my article in a Medium publication — BAOS for the first time. I still wonder how a genius like Genius Turner ever makes time to read, comment and offer guidance and attention on such a punny writer as I am.

Dr Mehmet welcomed me into the shining light of Illumination ever-expanding family of publications. Under his mentorship and guidance of outstanding editors at Illumination publications, my writings have improved a bit (Well, so I thought). I have since written one or two stories similar to the ones that piqued my interest at first. Some stories I consider my all-time bests never catch fire. Some others, I considered average often resonate fairly well with my readers.

Since becoming a Medium pro, I’ve bookmarked almost a thousand stories. Did I tell you I will rather read than write? At any rate, reading is never an end in itself. I read to improve my life with the insights gained from my reading.

The goal is to narrow the knowing-doing gap with each new read. So, it is not how many books you have read that matters, but, how your life’s game has stepped-upwards because of your reading. Plus, let’s bring humanity into all those reading, writing and publishing.

Who will imagine a William Shakespeare writing without first learning the alphabet or brushing up on his Queen’s English primer or whatever texts were used in his days? No more can any writer grow or better his writings without reading other writers’ works.

I was going through my list of bookmarked stories, almost a thousand of them. I eventually pared down the list to less than one hundred.

Don’t just trash those bookmarks. Review and save some.

Going through the bookmarks, several stories immediately reengaged my attention as they did at my first reading. For each of such stories, I clicked the share button, copied the Medium link to the story and save it to my OneNote, Zoho Notes or my e-Notty notes taking app on my Android phone.

Next, I copy the title of the story and paste it by the recently copied link. I must forewarn you, this is a painstaking process. But for me, this is more than worthwhile. These stories are life-transforming. Through them, my life my confidence along the way has increased while on this writing journey.

I return to these stories repeatedly. Occasionally, going through the list helps me gain some fresh story ideas. Plus, some of my stories also featured in my curated list. I enjoin you to do the same.

Less distractive minimalist tools enhance your productivity.

I have written here and here on some of these minimalist tools and how writers can use them to speed up their productivity. No, I’m not claiming to be an expert. I’m just trying to share, especially with new writers what I’ve found helpful in my writing adventure.

My primary note-taking app is Microsoft OneNote. In the past, I used Jotterpad to write and curate stories and stories links on my phone. But mid-course, the developers changed the licensing terms to my Jottterpad pro licence. Initially, it was a loss, but it turned out to be a significant advantage. After my being “locked — out” of Jotterpad, I searched for and discovered an even better writing and “stories-curation” app, Notebook (by Zoho), an entirely free app, and e-Nottty, (less than $5 one time-off license).

These apps let me write in simple or markdown text formats. Besides easy syncing to any of my cloud storage apps, I can curate and organize my writings and stories by tags, titles and chapters.

Some useful Medium writing links

I was introduced to useful writing editor tools like Grammarly, the Hemingway App, and Pro Writing Aid by my editors at Illumination publications. Special thanks to Genius Turner and others for sharing these invaluable writing tools listed below;

• 15 Medium Tips You Don’t Hear Much About
• Medium Article, Image Focal Point
• Headline Analyzer
• Another Headline Analyzer
• Title Case Converter

Final Thoughts

Instead of discarding your throve of bookmarks of fantastic Medium writings, filter the list and save some. These can offer additional insights for future stories and writing ideas. Minimalist writing tools can enhance your productivity because they are less distracting. Use them along with the other writing links in this article and watch your productivity soar.

Thank you for reading my story. Connect with me and share ideas on tools and tips you have found profitable in your writing odyssey.

DISCLOSURE

The author is not in any affiliate marketing relationship with any of the products mentioned in this story.