Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Tip Of The Day — Day 6

This is part of a series of daily tips for writers which is published to share ideas and suggestions on our craft. Everyone will have different advice on how to write, so the tip below is just a personal selection which I hope you will find useful, and do share any of your own in the comments. I hope you find it useful.

It is usually worth planning your article before launching in, choosing your subject, doing some research, and perhaps brainstorming ideas.

However, some writers find that over-thinking can impede the flow of an article: sometimes it is best just to launch in and tidy it up afterwards. It depends on your preferred way of writing.

The subject

Is it a subject that potential readers will be interested in? Have other writers already tackled the subject? If so can you give it a novel spin? Think about which topics on Medium you will tag the story, and consider the size of the topic group.

Heading and sub-heading

Think about a catchy headline and a good sub-heading. This is vital to draw your reader in.

Picture perfect

It is said that a picture tells a thousand words, so choosing a good one from Unsplash, Wiki Commons, or another free source can do wonders in terms of readability. You may want to use further photos or graphics throughout the article to break up too many blocks of text, to aid readability. Be sure to comply with copyright.

First sentence

A first sentence needs to grab the reader’s attention.

Structure and paragraph headings

Review the structure of the article, and paragraph headings.

Word count

Consider how long the article will be. Some commentators suggest that on Medium, about three minutes is the optimum reading time — the Goldilocks length.

Format

Using pull quotes, lines, dropped capitals, bold and italics all help to add visual appeal to an article, to make it easier to read, and to break up blocks of similar text.

The grand finale

Finish the article in a way that rounds it off nicely. This may be a summary or conclusion, could be a phrase that refers back to the start of the article, or a call to action.

You may wish to thank your reader, invite comments or put links to further information at the end of the article.

Quality control

Be sure to allow time for spell and sense-checking your article. Grammarly can assist with this, and sometimes getting someone else to read it through can help spot things a writer overlooks: we tend to find it harder to spot our own mistakes.

Timing

There are differing views on this, but it can be worth considering when you publish — some commentators believe you will get more views publishing at the right time of day, especially if you live in a different time zone to America where most Medium readers reside. Others suggest early in the month seems to earn more. I can only suggest doing your own research!

I hope you found this article useful, and do share any tips of your own in the comments.

Previous tips:

Day 1- The Notebook

Day 2 — Mind your language — learning new words

Day 3 –Quotations

Day 4 — Dictionary and thesaurus —

Day 5 — Location —