Medium Is One Strange Place
I went from a low to a high checking my stats
I started to write this story about external views wrecking my stats.
Have you noticed this?
Every week I like to divide my reads into my views to get my read-to-view percentage on my stories to gauge how my writing is being received.
My percentage has dropped from 44 to 36 percent over the past month.
It’s from writing about subjects that get tons of external views. I know because I check my stats daily obsessively like a lot of Medium writers do.
I was about to write a rant. Then I saw my top percent story. Ever.
My top percent story ever
My story is about sharing on Facebook a story I wrote on autistic traits I’ve been noticing — my wife noticed first — in myself for the past few years.
And my low was replaced by an instant dopamine rush in my brain. The amazing thing is, it was for an eight-minute story, not a two-minute one.
I reread my 89 percent story to see what resonated with readers and why it did so well— and oh, thanks to readers from Know Thyself Heal Thyself.
You can kick off Autism World Day one day early by reading my story. And if you get frustrated by your stats, here are four tips to sharpen your writing:
- Write better headlines. Y’all know this. You gotta get people to click your story to read it. Get them excited. Use words with emotional connotations. Tell the benefit readers will receive from your story. Keep it short if possible. I like to keep mine (see above) in the 5 to 10-word range.
2. Tighten your stories. Trim the fat. Cut, delete, and chop any info of details to get straight to the point. Get rid of filler words and keep it super lean.
3. Is your main idea clear? As I tell my high school students, stories have a main point, and if yours is not coming through, you may have rushed your story. Double and triple-check to see whether your main point is clear.
4. Quadruple-check your first few paragraphs. That’s where a reader is going to decide to stop reading. So check it and noodle it a few more times.
And if you can ask your brother or wife to read your story, they will tell you what’s missing that you can’t see because you’re too close to the writing
Thanks for reading my story.
Shout out to The Sober Vegan Yogi for her story, “Breaking Free From the BiPolar Disorder Syndrome,” a great story on her personal experiences.
Check out my YouTube video on how to write better titles. Or if you would like to buy me a cup of coffee, I’d greatly appreciate it.
