Medium-Well Organized

On Writing

All the writing tips I’ve shared on Medium

As I suspected it would be, the following is one of my more popular stories on Medium. I wonder why? Could it be the insanely click-baity title? I doubt it’s the part where I mention it will take work.

Writing Tips

Nuts, bolts, and other tools a writer ought to stock up on.

First, a challenge. This is open-ended, and you can take as long as you want to before claiming bragging rights. If you do take me up on it, leave your links as comments on this story — I’d love to read what you write, if you’re willing to share:

I temporarily took a “can’t beat ’em, join ‘em” approach. Turns out, it was harder than I thougth. Can you spot the “error” here? (Where I accidentally described good writing, not bad?) If not, don’t feel bad — so far, only one person has. I left it like an Easter egg, so you could feel smug if you spotted it:

It’s important to understand your value and your rights.

When giving advice, beware of tone and pronouns that can alienate the reader and make them less receptive to your ideas.

Journalistic Integrity

You write a timely story, based on what you know to be true today. You find out new information tomorrow. You owe it to people to go back to the old article and make corrections — or to delete the old one and write something new. Don’t let incorrect and misleading stories hang around past their useful life, just to earn a few pennies.

When you report on a newsworthy item, be sure you dig deep enough to get the story straight. Don’t make up “facts” and call your credibility into question — it’s fine to take the information and say, “I think this means…” or “In my opinion…” But don’t be like these reporters:

Collaboration, Collaborating, Pantser, Plotter, Writing Style

Writing with others can be fun. It helps to know where your styles complement one another, and to establish ground rules. Now and then, the rules are implicitly understood, and the energy is almost palpable — that’s when there’s synergy.

Critique, Constructive Criticism, Feedback

Writing is work. Critique is generally free advice, like, “Your slip is showing,” or “Did you know you had toilet paper stuck to your shoe?” Learn to use what works, discard what doesn’t, and say “thank you” when someone’s gracious enough to spend minutes of their precious time on this earth to give it.

Challenges, Writing Challenges, Writing Prompts

Being a Writer, Thoughts on Writing, Writing Advice

These Stories deal with general advice and lessons learned in a lifetime of professional writing. Am I a hack for hire or a literary genius? Who knows. That’s for future generations to decide. For now, I’m just the one in the hard hat, trying to pull those roadblocks out of the way.

Shameless Self-Promotion, Promotion, Showing Off, Building A Portfolio

One way to stand out: don’t use the same stock images everyone else is using. Unsplash is easy, lovely, and safe. If you use it, be sure to dig deeper than the first three pages of results, assuming you want images that stand out on Medium. Or use less-common keywords. Or make your own — it’s not that hard, and original may trump “professional photography,” if it is uniquely yours, and you own the rights to it. Here’s how to get started:

Speaking of original and owning the rights to your work — don’t steal. How hard is that to undertsand? Apparently, impossible for cheaters. Let’s make sure they never prosper, here, on Medium.

Publications, Submissions, Submitting Your Work, Submit Your Writing

There’s a relatively new publication in town, and we would love to see your submissions.

We have some specific requirements, so do read this first:

Guest Posting

It’s not you, it’s…well, maybe it’s you, but how can I be sure?

Watch This Space…

The way Medium organizes Stories (or doesn’t) grows more frustrating by the day, so I’ve devised a way to organize my own. Sure, I could put them all into my own Publication — but then that would mean pulling them from others. So, instead, I’ll put THESE into my own Publication — and keep these Stories up-to-date, as time goes by.