How I Write Killer Stories In 20 Minutes

Get more out of your writing time

So, your goal is to earn money on Medium huh?

I’ll take a guess:

You’re probably not even close to the American minimum wage ($7.25/hour) with your writing.

If you want your time to pay off, you have to work on how long it takes you to write a good story.

I don’t know about you, but I have a life. Besides sleeping, going to school, cooking and eating, exercising, and meeting with friends, there’s not that much time left in my day to spend on Medium.

So, I developed a method with which I’ve written 6 stories in the past 2 hours, that will make me at least $5 each.

Here’s how:

Use a template

Using a template to structure your stories makes them more organized, and easier to read and write.

You don’t have to invent the wheel from scratch every time you write a story. Using the same structure for many of your stories makes your writing process much more efficient and purposeful.

You don’t have to spend time despairing of how to structure each one of your points so that…

a) you can accommodate all your ideas

b) make it easy for your reader to follow

In fact, I’ve used a template to write this very story.

I’ve created a functional story template in Google Docs. Feel free to access it here and steal it for your own stories.

Plan your stories

Planning your story including the question to answer or a problem to solve and possible subtitles in advance will help you to avoid clutter and writing unnecessary fluff.

When I started writing, the ideas would come to me as I was writing. When I started writing a story I usually had no idea of where I would land. It took me 3h+ to write stories that were impossible to follow for readers.

And that’s fantastic if you’re just writing for yourself, in the ideation process, or journaling.

But if you’re writing for other people (especially on the internet), you’re trying to give them value quickly.

Some writers on Medium who have mastered this step include Daniel T., DeryaSefer, Dan Long, Kevin Shan, and Bin Jiang (or at least that’s what their stories seem like). Check out some of their stories and learn from them!

Develop your message

Settle for your niche (your niche can include multiple topics) and become confident about what you want to tell the world.

What kind of writer do you want to be?

Staying consistent with the message you are telling your readers will not only assure you the interest of your reader base but will also make it less daunting for you to create new content.

Here are 4 questions you should answer for yourself:

• What do you want to write about?
• How do you want to help your readers?
• How do you want to be seen by your readers?
• What is your purpose?

Another decision you should absolutely make before you continue:

I set a timer: It took me 23:43min to write this story. I took my time with this one ;)

Remember, this is how you can create killer stories in 20 minutes:

• Use a template (steal mine here)
• Plan your stories
• Develop your message

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