Dear ILLUMINATION Writers, I’d Like to Propose a Deal

As a designated ILLUMINATION editor and writer, and three-month veteran on Medium, I would love to help you. But you may not need it.

Three months doesn’t sound like much. But I learned a lot and also achieved the coveted curation accolade. If you’ve yet to be honoured in this way and would like to see what my curated story looks like click here. Before this happened I’d pretty much accepted that I didn’t write how Medium wanted me to write and I was okay with it.

Somehow, all that accumulated knowledge, following others and building a following, reading other people’s stories and responding to those people and their stories paid off. It was also fun. I made many friends, found inspiration and entertainment. I was also encouraged by so many good people, you know who you are, but especially Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Estacious(Charles White), and Suzanne V. Tanner. And I was helped to make an overly edited story publishable by Debbie Walker and Meg Stewart in Middle-Pause.

Getting your feet wet

I was consumed with writing five articles a week for the first month. I wrote in a not quite stream of consciousness way, but let’s say there wasn’t a lot of formatting happening. I assumed I was in curation jail. I don’t know if this really exists or not.

I also followed fifty people per day. Sometimes based on their stories, other times clicking on the link to the right of the hands at the bottom of their article to find out who clapped for the story I enjoyed. I would then click on fifty of those followers.

Suzanne V. Tanner impressed me. She read for the first year. When she was ready she published her first story. It was a hit. She had done her homework.

Choosing to learn how to do it right

The second month I started reading everything I could find about how to write the Medium way. I read and implemented tips given in Medium Curation Guidelines. Also, Casey Botticello’s Medium Blogging Guide, Medium Formatting.

I had my own hit with The Best Things in Life Are Free. I sat up in bed at 3 am on a Sunday morning with a plan to tag everyone who had ever clapped or responded to me. Copying a pasting those names took hours. I had already written the article and checked with Grammarly and also Autocrit (it’s free), so after a final read-through, out loud, I pressed publish. What a day! So many claps and responses and interactions.

I joined some publications. Middle-Pause, where you are welcomed and encouraged.

The Get Fit Gang, add you as an editor and you can post anything related to wanting to get fitter and sharing advice to help others. You have to publish your work first then add your story to the publication. This is how you do it. I am proposing we use this method when publishing on ILLUMINATION.

As a writer for these publications, you receive a huge volume of notifications. This can be a disadvantage as you receive a notification every time a writer submits an article.~Sam Arnold

A challenge to be vulnerable

In the third month, Debbie Walker, in her regular newsletter asked us to write love letters to everyone we loved, but first of all to ourselves. I wrote A Love Letter to My Son first because writing about me was too hard.

If you write about yourself, I can recommend that you be honest with yourself and your audience will recognise your authenticity.

Rising to the role of editor and not actually needing to

When the amazing Dr Mehmet Yildiz launched ILLUMINATION, I was bowled over by his skills and tenacity in conceiving and delivering such a monumental achievement in only a few months. I was also chuffed to be included as both a writer and an editor.

I took my editor role seriously and dove straight into a story by Volo Vash. I wrote notes and suggestions. Volo was very gracious to me. But was probably wondering what on earth I was doing.

The author (I’m sorry I don’t recall their name) of the second article I got to before another editor published it, thanked me for the suggestion of using Grammarly to highlight typos, spelling, and grammar mistakes. She did say she thought people mostly turned a blind eye to these sorts of things. Then a little later, she left a note to say that The New York Times asks readers to let them know of any typos on every page of their articles. I haven’t confirmed this but thought it was an excellent idea! I would because I enjoy proofreading.

I didn’t find the time to edit any other stories and was glad I didn’t because the good Dr wrote Innovation Agenda to tell us editors we weren’t proofreaders — hallelujah!

Our editors are not proof readers. Articles submitted to ILLUMINATION so far are at high standard. Our writers are professionals who care about the quality of their content.

We can all self-edit. Grammarly or other similar tools are great for highlighting typos and spelling mistakes, they don’t always get it right but you can choose to ignore the suggestions when you are confident in the quality of your writing.

To the deal, if you think you need a hand after you’ve done these 4 points

• Have you checked your Title and Subtitle format?
• Is your title image landscape? By all means, use portrait but Medium’s preferred way is landscape. And make sure you state the source even if it’s you.
• Have you read your story out loud and does it flow well?
• What did Grammarly underline in red? Correct those typos and spellings!

If you would still like me to read your story before publication please send me a draft link to [email protected]. I will do my utmost to run it through Grammarly and read it out loud. But you know you could do that for yourself, right?

If you are happy with the quality of your post, please use either of the options Medium currently has available.

Many thanks for reading, fellow illuminators.