The Medium Quick Reference Guide®
Chapter 7: Writing/Editing Great Stories

Chapter 7 covers writing and editing your story. We’ll talk about writing the story and then changing the copy.
Writing a Great Story
Let’s talk about preparing a great story to be published on Medium. There are eight parts to an awesome story.
1. The Kicker — Think of the kicker as an attention-grabbing headline above the story headline. Use kickers to announce a series of stories. I’m currently publishing two series. One is titled The 93 Immutable Laws of Freelancing. My second series has three titles Starting a Freelance Hustle, Running a Freelance Hustle, and Scaling of a Freelance Hustle. There are ten or so stories under each kicker.
Once you enter the story title and subtitle, then enter the kicker.
- Place the cursor in front of the title text and hit return.
- A blank line opens above the title. Enter the kicker text.
- Highlight the kicker text and choose the small “T” from the story editor.
- That’s it; you’re done.

2. The Title — Headlines are everything in newspapers, magazines, blog posts, webpages, whitepapers, how-tos, FAQs, and Medium stories.
A poorly written headline can doom a great story.
Here are some tips:
- Write your whole story in the headline.
- Headlines should be brief.
- Use keywords in your headline, so readers searching for that theme find your story.
- Use adjectives.
- Name the story after your main character.
- Make the title memorable.
Think about doing a title-writing exercise. Here are seven titles spun in different ways:
Self-interest:
Read About How Food-for-All is Changing the Face of Fundraising.
Curiosity:
More Food Banks turn to Food-for-All for Fundraising Advice. Why?
Offer:
Attend a FREE Food-for-All Workshop on End-of-the-year Fundraising.
Urgency:
Tomorrow is the Last Chance to Register for the Food-for-All Fundraising Workshop.
Humanity:
Find Out How Food-for-All is Working to Rescue 200
Orphans in 2023.
News:
Learn How Food-for-All is Becoming the Gold Standard in Feeding the Poor.
Social Proof:
Find Out Why 4 Million People Watched the 2022 Tour De France on Mobile Devices.
Don’t be satisfied with your first title attempt. Write several titles for your story. Then let them sit for a spell while you work on the body of the story. Come back later to see if the title you chose still resonates. If not, make another attempt.
Don’t use the title as clickbait. Do you want fans or clicks? Readers will quickly figure out your strategy and never return.
3. The Subtitle — A story’s subtitle has three goals to support; the title gives the reader more information about the story and piques the reader’s interest. Here are a few of my story subtitles.



4. The imagery — A story’s lead image or photo is sometimes called the “hero” image. The image should tell the whole story. Again, don’t settle for the first terrific image you come across. A better one may be hiding further down the page — keep scrolling. There are more royalty-free photo sites popping up each week. I use:
You must credit the creator of the image when publishing your story. If it’s you, say so. Medium’s editors will bounce your story if it’s posted without citing the owner of the image.
We talk in-depth about images in Chapter 8: Jazzing Your Story with Images & Embeds.
5. The opening paragraph — If the story’s title, subtitle, and hero photo have done their job, the reader finds themselves in the first paragraph. It’s time to hook them into your story. Here’s how Herman Melville did it in Moby Dick:
“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. …”
This opening paragraph alludes to adventure, life on the high seas, danger, unseen tropical islands, unpredictable winds and weather, and countless forms of sea life.
6. The body — the body of the story depends on the type of story written. Is it about morals, love, human interest, a fairy tale, romance, action, or tragedy?
7. Perhaps the piece is informational and educational about technological advancements like ChatGPT. Ensure you bring the reader with you in writing the body, and don’t assume anything.
8. The closing paragraph — is “the why” you took up the reader’s valuable time. It’s time to recap, make your point, to introduce the takeaways. It’s time to reinforce in the reader’s mind that reading the story was time well spent — the story has value.
9. Encouragement — I like ending my Medium stories with encouraging words. I use “Write On!” to cheer authors on to stay the course and keep writing.
Write On!
Now that we understand the components of a great story let’s talk about using Medium’s Story Editor and the New Line menu.
What’s in a Shortform Story
Medium allows short and long-form stories. A short-form story is a post of 150 words or less, not counting the kicker, title, and subtitle. If you write a story of 150 words or less, Medium automatically classifies the piece as a short-form entry.
Medium recommends you not try and monetize posts of 30 words or less.
During the launch of The Medium Quick Reference Guide, I wrote short and long-form stories and published them in two different Medium Publications. I published the long-form stories, the entire chapters in ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, and the short-form stories, on ILLUMINATION as teasers to pique people’s interest. Thanks to Dr. Mehmet for this idea. The strategy was highly successful.
What’s in a Longform Story
We’ve talked about the elements of a great story; let’s take a 10,000 ft. view of a typical story at Medium.
Most stories at medium are between 400 and 2,000 words. Medium readers seem to prefer stories that can be digested in one sitting. There is no hard limit on the number of words. Make sure your story is interesting and compelling, no matter its length.
Medium’s platform is a great way to share your thoughts and ideas. The number of subjects of interest is almost endless.
Learning the Story Editor
You’ll likely use some editing tools while writing a story and later when proofreading and editing.
If you highlight any text in a story, the story editor appears. Let’s go through the buttons on the pop-up.
Bolding Text in Your Story
Navigation:
Story Editor pop-up -> Click the first button
The first button bolds text.

Italicizing Text in Your Story
Navigation:
Story Editor pop-up -> Click the second button
The second button italicizes text.

Hyperlinking Text
Navigation:
Story Editor pop-up -> Click the third button
The third button allows you to add a hyperlink to the text.

Adding H1 and H2 Tags
Navigation:
Story Editor pop-up -> Click the fourth/fifth button
The two T’s format highlighted text as a kicker, title, subtitle, and header (H1) and H2 subheader (H2) tags depending on where you are in the story. H1 and H2 tags provide structure to an article. They help to separate the author’s thoughts and give readers a better understanding of how the story is organized.
We’ve covered kickers, titles, and subtitles; let’s focus on adding H1 and H2 tags to our highlighted text.
The large “T” creates header text, while the small “t” creates subheaders.

Adding Quotation Marks & Indents
Navigation:
Story Editor pop-up -> Click the sixth button
The quotation marks button performs three actions. Clicking the button once indents the text, clicking the button a second time puts quotation marks around the text, and clicking the button a third time returns the text to normal.
Highlighting the text anywhere in a paragraph affects the entire section.
Clicking the button once indents the paragraph.

Clicking the button a second time italicizes the paragraph.

Clicking the button a third time returns the paragraph to its original state.

Mentioning Another Medium User
To mention another Medium user in your story, type an ampersand (*) followed by the person’s name or username.

To add an emoji to your story, type a colon at the beginning of a line followed by the name of your favorite emoji.

Superscripting Numbers
Medium currently supports superscript for numbers only. For example, to add a degree symbol to a number in your story, simply type “It was 7⁰ outside when I woke this morning.”

Adding a Numbered List
To add a numbered list, enter the Number 1 period (1.), then press the spacebar.

Adding a Bulleted List
To add a bulleted list, enter an asterisk (*) at the beginning of a line and press the spacebar.

Adding Drop Caps
Navigation:
Story Editor pop-up -> Click the seventh button
Drop caps make a story more visually appealing. Drop caps:
- Attention-grabbing.
- Gives a story a sense of tradition or history.
- It can be used as a branding element.
- Indicate the beginning of a significant work in some cultures.
To add drop caps, choose the paragraph, and the story editor pop-up appears. Choose the drop caps button.

Inserting Code Blocks & Inline Code
Navigation:
Click on + -> Opens New Line pop-up -> Click the first button
Adding a code block allows you to add a code to your story. Open the New Line menu and choose the parenthesis { } button.
To add inline code, type three backticks ```.

Preventing a Story from Being Published
Place the letters T-K anywhere within the story to prevent your story from being published until you’re ready. T-K stands for “to come.”
The letters T-K appear in the left margin of your story.
Note: The dash (-) was added so this story could be published.

Checking Your Word Count
Navigation:
Your Story Page -> Highlight text
You can check the word count while in draft or edit mode by highlighting any amount of story text.
Select a passage in your story and highlight the text; a word count appears in the upper left corner of your page. Highlight the whole story to see the final word count for the entire post.

Sharing a Draft &Getting Feedback
Navigation:
Your Story Page -> … -> Click Share a draft link
Want to share your story with a friend to get feedback before publishing it?
While in edit mode, click on the three dots (…), then choose Share. Copy the link and send it by email or in a text.

Unlisting a Story
Navigation:
Your Story Page -> … -> Click Managing unlisted settings
Unlisting a story makes it private. The people directly linked to the post can only view the story.
Checking Your Revision History
Navigation:
Your Story Page -> … -> Click See revision history
Revision history gives you the ability to revert to a past version.
The book chapters are hyperlinked for easy access. Click on the title that interests you most.
Table of Contents, Foreword, Introduction, 1: What is Medium, 2: Navigating Your Homepage, 3: Getting to Know Your Homepage, 4: Exploring the Profile Picture Drop-down, 5: Searching for Stories from Your Homepage, 6: Navigating Your Story Homepage, 7: Writing/Editing Great Stories, 8: Jazzing Your Stories with Images & Embeds (Sf), 9: Publishing Great Stories (Sf), 10: Managing Your Stories (Sf), 11: Tunning Your Account Settings & Preferences (Sf), 12: Getting More Email Subscribers (Sf), 13: Using the Help Center to Get Answers (Sf), 14: Gaining Your First 100 Followers (Sf), 15: Building a Following with Publications (Sf), 16: Earning Money at Medium (Sf), 17: Continuing to Gain Followers (Sf), 18: Boosting Your Brand with a Newsletter (Sf), Appendix A: Locate Commands Fast, Appendix B: Top70 Most Popular Topics, Appendix C: Top 50 Medium Publications, Appendix D: Keyboard Shortcuts, Glossary.
You might check my recent interview conducted by Dr Mehmet Yildiz, chief editor of Illumination Integrated Publications, on Medium, introducing me and my book to the writing and reading community.