WRITING | IMAGES | PICTURES | READING | READERS

Is A Picture Worth 1,000 Words?

How Images Get in the Way of Your Story

Why do writers use pictures in Medium? Do they help our readers engage with us? Or do our readers find images distracting? Do we use too many? Not enough?

Look at my picture above without looking at the title of my article and subtitle. Does that picture tell you about the story? Maybe it doesn’t tell you much of anything. I guess it’s kinda interesting or kinda ugly, depending on your perspective.

Maybe the picture below that I spent a few minutes creating myself in Power Point, having not graduated to Canva, tells you more. But you’re still reading words.

Word clouds are all the rage today. But since I’m not wasting time creating one, I spent a few minutes looking for a copyright-free word cloud. One that might indicate something about Medium.

To give the image credit and credit to myself for finding it, this word cloud does give you a sense of what writing on Medium is all about. And I might use it as the only image if I were writing a story about what to write for Medium. It’s a good image that would explain my story and with an eye-catching background.

You can hate me for this, but I’m guessing that writers who include half a dozen images in their story, including a couple they’ve created themselves, spend more time doing graphics than writing. And I have a feeling they have more fun finding or making images than writing.

I could have written this story and a second one in the time it took me to find the images I just posted including making one of them.

I admit I’m lousy at graphics. The only reason I didn’t flunk art in elementary school was that no kid flunked art. I don’t care. I have no apologies. I am not an artist or a graphic designer. Nor do I want to be one. It’s tedious, boring, and rarely ends well.

I am an historian. I am a teacher. I am a feminist. I am passionate about Bach, Willa Cather, and the Colorado mountains. And into books, classical music, and the mountain West and Southwest in general. Fascinated by old family stories and how they’ve shaped my life. Intrigued by self-improvement and mental health but less than I was in the past.

AND I am a writer! Given my interest in and knowledge of many things, I have much to write about. Ah, Medium is a good place for me. Pinterest and Instagram, not so much. I don’t need lots of pictures.

You, on the other hand, may be knowledgeable in one thing and passionate about it. You also have lots to write about. Medium is a good place for you too, and you don’t need lots of pictures.

Do People Still Read?

Writing in “Wired,” Paolo Gaudiano asserts that “It has been estimated that more than 80% of the activities we do online are text-based. While many of these online activities are enhanced by multimedia content, the bulk of the information still comes from text, and that’s unlikely ever to change.

Medium has 60 million readers! So what? 320 million active users look at pictures on Pinterest. One billion people check into Instagram see images every month. 5 billion watch or listen to YouTube every day. Yes, the numbers are huge. I still argue that 60 million isn’t shabby. We’re not competing with the numbers on Pinterest, Instagram, or YouTube.

Medium and its many publications are for writers and readers. I have never read that Medium is for artists or photographers. People who don’t like to read and would rather look at pictures don’t come to Medium.

When I first started writing on Medium, I dutifully inserted 4–6 images in every story. And I wasted a lot of time looking for pictures — when I could have been writing. I don’t do that anymore. I put a picture at the top. Then I write. Maybe at the bottom, I’ll put a thumbnail picture next to a link to entice you to read another story I’ve written.

Originally, I followed a suggestion from someone whom I thought knew what he was doing. I inserted links and thumbnail images of other stories I’d written in the middle of the story. Then I realized, I was saying “Hey, reader, stop what you’re reading and click over to read this other story.” I stopped doing that.

If you’re doing that, you need to stop also. Put the other story or maybe two stories you’d like your readers to read at the end of your story. Be sure that your suggestions are to stories that are similar or complement the story they just finished. If I don’t have another story that goes with the current story, I don’t add a link to a story on a different topic.

Once in a great while if the picture is compelling or the story is long, I might add a second picture. I recommend reading the stories of top writers on Medium and in publications you’re interested in. Most of them do not splatter pictures throughout their writing. They write.

What Happens When You Have Too Many Pictures?

When you insert full-width images in your story, the reader stops reading and, at least momentarily, loses the focus of your story. Why would you want to distract your reader from the focus of your writing? Even a picture that matches or visually explains your story engages a different part of the brain than reading.

Exceptions to this guideline include inserting graphs, charts, or images that shows how to do something you’ve explained. Sometimes an ordered list of 4–6 steps or directions in a large font on a solid background helps a reader “get” the steps. (One line each and few words to a line.) Think meme with only text.

Often I stop reading at the second picture. I lose interest. I’m a reader. Reading is the reason people come to Medium.

I’ve heard it said that pictures in the middle of writing act as “pattern breaks” as if that were an important component of good writing. Huh? I want my readers to read what I write. I don’t want something that interrupts their focus.

Every time you want to stick in another picture, insert a compelling sub-title instead. That’s a “pattern break” that makes sense and leads your reader to your next point or the next section of your text. A picture, on the other hand, stops the text.

If they only read a little bit, that’s a message to me that what I wrote that day may not be interesting or well-written. It’s not a message to add another image.

In the end, it’s our job as writers to keep readers reading our writing. Not looking at pictures.

P.S. Given that Medium is evergreen and some top writers report that all of a sudden a piece they wrote months ago goes viral, it makes sense to go back and edit what you wrote. It’s a good excuse to remove excess images. Maybe choose a better image. Change a title. Proofread again. Even revise.

If you change a title or revise, be sure you make those changes in the settings for your story. You can read how to do that here:

Watch for my forthcoming book, Oh Look, There’s a Squirrel and Other Stories.

If you’d like to be added to the list to receive a free copy of a short e-book, “9 Tips for Readable Writing” and a free review of one piece you’ve written (no longer than 1,500 words), send an email to [email protected].

While you’re reading here on Medium, catch some good stories on Illumination from Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Michele Thill, Alena Powell, Margaret Eves, Phil Truman, Tim Maudlin, Vickie Trancho, Alun Richards, Helen Boss, JeffHerring.com, Linda Halladay, Marjorie McDonald, Ntathu Allen, John Kremer, Nomanono Isaacs, Jacqelyn Lynn, Kelda Ytterdal, Enigma Series

Given raging ADHD, it’s no surprise that focus does not come to me easily! In addition to writing about writing and sometimes adoption and ADHD, I also write random stories from my life, what I’ve observed, what’s in the news, what annoys me, anything that tickles my fancy.

For a Black Lives Matter from a white perspective, see my stories For White Folks from an Old Gray-Haired White Woman with Arthritis. And Teaching Kindergarten at an all-Black school.

You might also like musings on Staying at Home because of COVID 19: The Good, The Bad, and the Not So Ugly.