How to Edit Articles on Your Phone Using The Medium App

How I push my articles out quickly.

Editing on my phone is one of my biggest underhanded cheat codes to the editing process.

Waiting days before you re-read your article is dumb to me. But I get it. You need a fresh set of eyes to glaze through your post again to make sure it’s refined. To be honest, if I edited like that, you’d see way fewer articles from me.

If you edit on your phone, you can edit in less than half the time it would take for you to edit on your computer. You get a fresh set of eyes because you’re using a different screen. You can edit in small spurts.

So here’s how I edit on my phone and put out articles at a crazy pace using the Medium app.

It’s very similar to editing on your computer.

We all know the basics of editing.

For me, I used to do three scan-throughs total for my articles. On the first round I’d scan for grammatical errors, on the second round I’d cut out any excess fluff, and on the third round, I’d polish it and add more content if needed. That’s what constitutes taking multiple days to edit (on my computer).

My editing process is the same with my phone except I do it a lot quicker than before — it takes me an hour at the most.

The day after I write my article, I plop down on my bed and pull up the Medium app.

If you don’t have it, I highly recommend downloading it.

Medium’s app has virtually the same editing tools as the desktop. You can underline, bold, italicize, create headings, etc. However, I would recommend copying and pasting your pictures on your desktop. It’s much easier copying and pasting via desktop because it can get wonky on your phone sometimes.

In my case, I like to go to Pexels and pull my pictures from there.

Look for spelling errors on your phone and delete shit.

I do these parts on my phone and leave the refining process to my desktop. Why?

Like I said, your eyes are cleaned when you view a different screen that’s also a different size. You’re much more likely to notice grammatical errors and all that jazz. We type on our phones all the time, right?

I can type and backspace a lot faster on my phone than on my computer (courtesy of years of texting).

Since you’re looking at your article from the reader’s view, it’s easier to notice fluff that should be deleted. I delete whole paragraphs because I can picture the reader getting bored to death reading what I’m saying.

So that’s the first two steps of your writing process done in one afternoon that would normally take a couple of days.

Refine on your computer in the morning.

You can’t publish your article just yet after editing it on your phone.

Unfortunately, the Medium app doesn’t have the option of submitting to publications. Publications are key to growing your audience so I’m not going to even touch on publishing your articles to your nonexistent following. Get back on your desktop and make the finishing touches.

For this part, I see if I need to add anything more to my article to give it a bit more flavour (e.g. stylistic changes, headline changes, maybe a better picture, and my call-to-action).

I correct any other grammatical errors I missed along the way.

Once that step is finished, you’re ready to publish! All you have to do is tag your article and submit it to a publication.

Final Thought

Editing on your phone is pretty fun when you get the hang of it.

Here’s a quick recap of the steps you should take:

1. Write your article
2. Check for grammatical errors and start cutting fluff on your phone when you get done, it doesn’t have to be immediate though
3. The next time you get on your computer, start polishing it and making the final touches
4. Tag your article and submit it to publications

So what are you waiting for?

Pull out your phone and start editing now.

Here’s another article I published recently that can help you out even more.

Get my free writing guide that can teach you how to build a writing habit in 90 days or less here.