Tablets Of Stone

Tip Of The Day — The Five Unspoken Commandments Of Medium

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

Having featured George Orwell’s six tips on writing style yesterday, I thought it would be good today to share some tips from Wesley Van Peer which I discovered within Medium, and which I came across in a promising new publication started by zany zhuzhster Robin Wilding, called “Ink and Tears”, which can be found on the link below:

The tips are very different to Orwell’s, but equally valid, particularly as they relate largely to how to succeed on the Medium platform.

As you will have gathered by now, Medium has its own unique and quirky culture and earnings formula, and operates in a quite different environment to that in which Orwell was writing.

Wesley’s piece is written in a lively and entertaining style that probably breaks all six of Orwell’s rules, yet is all the better for it.

I would encourage you to read it, but to paraphrase his rules the executive summary is as follows:

1. Write with feeling

2. Engage

3. Be original

4. Be yourself

5. Edit, then edit again

I guess it just goes to show, that it is a case of horses for courses, different rules for different schools.

Wesley’s five commandments seem like an excellent selection for the Medium platform, and I look forward to reading more articles from “Ink and Tears” in future.

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

Previous tips:

Day 20 — George Orwell’s six tips on writing style

Day 19 — The importance of interaction

Day 18 — Replying to comments

Day 17: Engagement

Day 16- Attention-seeking behaviour — the importance of your first sentence –

Day 15 — Keep it snappy — headlines —

Day 14- Subject selection —

Day 13 — Making time —

Day 12 — Deadlines —

Day 11 — Layout —

Day 10 — Niches for Riches —

Day 9 — Do your own research —

Day 8 — Choosing your subject —

Day 7 — Reverse engineering success —

Day 6 — Planning —

Day 5 — Location —

Day 4 — Dictionary and thesaurus —

Day 3 –Quotations

Day 2 — Mind your language — learning new words

Day 1- The Notebook

As always, thank you for reading.

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