I Went Back to the Basics of Article Writing After Hitting Rock Bottom on Medium

When you hit rock bottom, it all feels different.

When in distress, how far you can go is dependent on how hard you fall.

For me! I went back to the very basics of article writing.

That is how much pain I felt.

I wrote an article about the mistakes I made, but I never wrote about how I got through them.

Before concluding my first degree, I had been struggling for a few years about writing professionally or at least having an audience before I was lucky to find Medium.

Although I wasn’t as serious when I joined the community, I knew most folks earned a lot or at least some engagements from here.

But I wasn’t getting any at all.

No money. No engagement. Audience: Nada.

That is why I will always cherish folks like Boateng Sekyere and Jeofrey Ogire who unintentionally walked me through the parts of Medium, till I know what was happening on the website.

Rebirth

It takes just one wrong step to hit rock bottom in life. But mine was more than that. I didn’t just hit rock bottom, but I did so in my career and gift.

I quit my 9–5 Construction job, to focus on writing, and my writing still went from bad to worse.

In my first two months of focusing on writing, I still had awful stats, despite having more than 1.2k followers at the time, I still had a few tens of claps and lesser engagements.

That was what prompted me to decide that I needed a change.

I had seen the mistakes I have been making on Medium, but what about writing itself.

Is my writing good enough?

So I went back to the basics of article writing, and guess what?

I didn’t just learn a thing or two, I even got to understand that there is a distinction between regular articles and online/content form articles.

Article and Article

You can say that the former is an articulated article.

That was one of the main issues I noticed I had after examining the basics of article writing.

I was utilizing the former, which is to write like a columnist. I always wrote as if my content was for a group of students or as if it was some scientific research.

It was always boring, and not compelling at all.

I know I still do, but I have changed a thing or two about my writing style since then.

The basics of regular articles are something around these nuggets;

• Select your topic.
• Do some general research.
• Write out the intro, body, and conclusion.
• Write expeditiously.
• Select an image for your article.
• Edit your draft.
• Proofread your draft and publish.

There is a little more to it, but that’s the main framework, and that was all I did.

Till it dawned on me that I had hit rock bottom on Medium.

Now I had to study the other type of article.

The ones on Medium, Hubspot, and other content creation websites.

They had the same frame but a different mastery to it, one which I am still learning, but I have since seen changes.

Here are the nuggets;

• Select your topic — But ensure it has a pulling force; Happiness, sadness, pity, or anger.
• Do some general research — Research all you can about the topic, but only use what you need.
• Write out the intro, body, and conclusion — Ensure the sentences before every headline and sub-headline work like a magnet that makes the reader keep reading (utilize curiosity).

Write every paragraph with breaks.

Assume the white spaces on the writing screen to be breaks and pauses. Use them to form a link tree to hold down your readers(Fewer words, more space).

• Write expeditiously — Write like you talk, and be honest(You don’t know it all)
• Select an image for your article — Use an image that is striking but confusing to the topic. Use an image that asks the readers a question.
• Edit your draft — While editing with software like Grammarly, check your readability score to know if you have written an article or an article. For regular online content, your readability score should be 70.
• Proofread your draft and publish — Don’t edit and publish on the same day. Choose other days to proofread your articles before publishing.

Once I got myself used to all these basics of online article writing, I have since experienced a huge change in my writing and the engagements I get.

Take away

When you hit rock bottom in any pursuit in life, it is usually for one reason.

…you were never patient enough to learn the rules of the game before starting.

Guess what!

It’s never too late to do it.

• Don’t feel too big to do some digging yourself. To know why you haven’t gotten a single gig successfully on Upwork.
• Don’t feel too big to read more about selling an ebook. To know the mistakes you have made in your E-product business.
• Don’t feel too big to read more articles about writing and earning on Medium to earn more from the platform.

It’s never too late to go and redo the past. Don’t wait till you hit rock bottom as I did.

I’m happy I am back up now, and I can say that I will only go forward from here on.

Thank you for reading my article today. My gratitude towards you knows no bound. I would be publishing another article very soon.