NEW WRITER | BASIC FORMATTING
Don’t Turn a Blind Eye on 4 Basics if You Want to Write Right
As explained by a new member with no techie skills
My time on Medium began on April 1, 2021.
We have to crawl before we walk. We walk before we run. Life is a series of steps and it’s no different for new writers. I am walking but not yet running.
I completely understand if that puts me way below your level of expertise and you back out here. I don’t have thousands of followers yet, and I do not have a bunch of viral stories to brag about. However, tooting my horn is not my style, regardless.
I do not have bonuses under my belt nor commas in my monthly earnings.
But you know what I do have?
Something that no one can take away from me is my desire for more. More knowledge, more success, more of what this whole experience offers.
I had no understanding of the platform and convinced myself I never would. There is a lot that I still don’t know, but I accidentally picked up a few things. I am not tech-savvy, so in the beginning, I resigned myself to the back seat. I happily went along for the ride and watched from the rear and side windows.
Occasionally, I got a good look through the windshield.
The landscape was becoming more and more beautiful as I went along.
The view out of the windshield was my favorite.
I wanted to move to the front seat, and I was ready to drive.
As with all new drivers, learning the very basics will keep you on the road. Gas, brakes, turn signal, and using your mirrors will jump-start you as you learn more later.
I read a lot, and still do, many other authors’ stories of interest. I followed writers, commented, highlighted, and clapped for their creations.
By doing so, I started to see a theme that attracted me. The articles that had uniformity were my favorites due to the professional look on top of the good content.
Why wrap a diamond necklace in an old piece of ratty newspaper?
I started digging with my limited understanding. I literally stumbled upon a great resource that I will link to the bottom of this article. There was a recurring theme of must-do items and how to do them. And, I blindly grasped in the dark to accomplish the pared-down list.
Me.
Little ol’ me, just past my mid 50’s and who still can’t do Snapchat, learned the formatting required by Medium standards.
4 Basics to Start Immediately
These are important if you ever want to write for a publication. Should you plan on self-publishing, they are also formatting musts if you want to catch Medium’s eye so they distribute your story and garner more views, more read time, and more earnings.
The bottom line is that you should immediately start creating good, or better, habits. If you aren’t already doing these basic things.
Title
Whether you like to start or end with your headline, try running it through the headline analyzer.
I use Headlines Sharethrough and try my hardest to get an engagement score close to 100. Sometimes it’s just not possible according to your content. Given that, I still never end up with a headline anymore that is less than 80% engaging.
Once you find out your score, scroll down the page to see the number that matters.
Once you have entered your title properly on your new story, highlight it. Hover over it to display the formatting toolbar. The large “T” is for the title.
Subtitle
I don’t use the analyzer for subtitles, but you do you. Maybe I should and may try it when I have more time to devote to the investigation.
Highlight and over the toolbar again to select the smaller “T.” See above.
Photo
Every single photo you upload to your story must have a qualifying credit to meet Medium’s standards. If you are using a picture from your own camera roll, use words to that effect. Example: Photo by Author.
Choosing your copyright-free photo is as easy as going to a site such as Pixabay or Unsplash. There are a variety of others. Until I am frustrated with the selections, I poke around in Pixabay as my favorite.
You can search by people, items, and my go-to: emotions. If I have a crazed character in a Fiction story, I may search by personality disorder. Sometimes I search only by the prevailing emotion like anger. Fear and frustration or celebration, winning and success work great. I have searched bloody finger, scared and father with daughter.
The photo you choose should correspond with your content.
NEVER pick a photo from the first page of offerings. Oversaturation will sink your story into the background. People gloss over an image they’ve seen a million times and are less likely to click on it. They think it’s a story they have already read.
Format Options
There are 2 toolbars you will benefit from to format correctly. Play around on a test document and delete the draft after you have a handle on what is available for your use and why you want to use them.
Bold your text, italicize it, or add a link. The T’s are different-sized headlines, the quotations for isolating and attributing quotes and the drop cap can add visual appeal.
Simply highlight the text you want to play with and the toolbar will appear.
To add a link:
Each time you hit return, you can hover your cursor to the left margin to have a + sign appear. Pressing will give you this additional toolbar for adding photos, embedding links, and separating text paragraphs.
Before you publish or submit, ask yourself these easy questions:
- Do I have a Proper Title at the top?
- Do I have a proper subtitle?
- Does my cover photo fit the story?
- Are all of my photos cited?
Keep in mind, that I am not growing money off trees in my backyard. In fact, I don’t even have a backyard. I only use free access sites for everything.
Grammarly has a free version. I use it.
Every time.
I write my story in a Word document, copy it to a free version of Grammarly, and edit from there. Then I copy my clean version to Medium and add photos and credits. One by one I go through the suggestions until I get to 99 or 100. They hate contractions but I need them at times.
I still have a ton to learn. I feel more sure-footed to forge ahead since I started employing this approach. My only regret is not understanding the ease sooner.
I imagine I’ll write a part 2 to this article when I figure out, read about, and start playing around with the buttons I don’t know or use yet. But to begin on the path of good habits, use these:
4 Basics to Start Immediately
Why wait?
Once you are comfortable with the basics, read this comprehensive layout of all the bells and whistles available:
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