My Process for Writing/Editing a Medium Story

Summary

Linda Locke's article outlines her streamlined and joyful approach to writing and editing Medium stories, emphasizing simplicity and fun.

Abstract

The article titled "My Process for Writing/Editing a Medium Story," part of the "Writing with Joy Series," details Linda Locke's personal method for creating content on Medium. She advocates for a straightforward writing process using the KISS principle, which stands for "Keep It Simple Sweetie." Her approach includes crafting a headline, adding a playful subtitle, selecting an evocative image, writing without inhibition, taking breaks, editing with a light touch, and performing a final review before publishing. Locke emphasizes the importance of separating writing and editing phases to maintain creativity and avoid perfectionism. Her method is designed to maximize enjoyment and productivity, leading to more stories published with ease and joy.

Opinions

Locke views her current writing process as a significant improvement over her past, more perfectionist approach, which she has consciously moved away from.
She believes that spending excessive time on complicated writing methods is counterproductive and can diminish the joy of writing.
Locke suggests that a brief image search, using resources like Unsplash, Pexels, or Canva, is sufficient and advises not to get too caught up in finding the perfect image.
She recommends using Google Docs for a final spelling and grammar check to ensure the draft's quality before publishing on Medium.
Locke encourages writers to read their stories aloud during the final review to refine the flow and make minor

It’s all in the flow.

“I never write ‘metropolis’ for seven cents when I can write ‘city’ and get paid the same.” — Mark Twain

My process for writing and editing my Medium stories uses the KISS method. KISS = Keep It Simple Sweetie

I want to maximize my creativity and fun while writing, then review and lightly edit my story before publishing.

I am a recovering perfectionist with my writing and have resolved to never go back to the days when I would edit and re-edit my stories — overthinking and second guessing myself.

My new motto is: Done is Better than Perfect.

Here’s my writing/editing flow:

Open a new draft in Medium and write a Headline. This helps me focus on the idea I want to write about and visualize it in my mind.

Add a Subtitle under the Headline. This is the tagline for the story and I like to make it short and playful, so it will catch the eye of the reader. Tip: Make sure you format it correctly using the smaller T in the formatting tool.

Add an image that supports the story’s premise and evokes an emotional response. Finding the right image is important, but you can get carried away with finding the perfect one. I give myself no more than 5 minutes to find an image on Unsplash or Pexels or create one in Canva. If choosing images is hard for you, skip this step for now.

Start writing and get into the flow. Just get your ideas down. This is the creative and fun part. Don’t worry about outlines and research while you’re in creative mode. You can add all that later in edit mode.

Take a break. Go do something else for a while. I like to completely separate writing and editing modes. In my perfectionist past, I didn’t do this. I would continually write and edit my drafts. The result — frustration and no fun or creativity.

Start editing. Go through and reread your story and see how it flows. Edit with a light hand and make sure the continuity of the story makes sense. Rearrange paragraphs, make additions, change words and tighten it up. Note: For spelling and grammar checking, I copy and paste my story into a new Google Doc and run a grammar and spell check there. Then I make any suggested changes in my draft on Medium.

Do a Final Review. Read the story out loud and make minor tweaks. Next check the headline and subtitle and make any changes as needed. Update the image if you must, but don’t go crazy looking for the perfect image. Make sure you provide a caption with an attribution to the source and include a description in the Alt text at the top of the image.

Hit Publish. Add your tags. Make sure they are relevant to your story’s topic and that you add all 5. Publish your story.

That’s it! That’s my process. Yours might be different.

But the main point I want to make is that you get to decide how you want to write and edit your own stories.

I like my method because it’s working well for me. In the past I would spend a lot of time trying out more complicated methods that just made my head hurt.

The Result — little or no writing output. No joy.

Now, I write with joy and creativity which results in more stories published with ease.

So, please use what works for you and discard the rest.

But always make sure you leave room for fun in your writing process :)

Linda Locke is a writer and mentor/teacher. She lives in Southern California in Ventura County by the coast with her husband and lots and lots of books.

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