The ILLUMINATION Editors Work Tirelessly Helping Authors to Bring Their Stories to Life — Part 1

Here are some practical tips for new writers.

An ILLUMINATION editor’s time is limited and precious. All the editors at ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications are volunteers. Many have full-time occupations, run their small businesses, or have freelance hustles like me.

We would love to spend more time shepherding new writers, but time and the daily growing list of submissions are our enemies.

The ILLUMINATION pubs approve hundreds of stories weekly. It would be an improbable goal to want to spend limitless time with each author helping them craft the best possible submission.

One important lesson I’ve learned while writing and editing is the more one knows about Medium, the more successful the stories will be in reaching an individual’s writing goals.

To that end, I decided to use my collection of search term tools and resources on a quest to dig out and share many of the questions people ask about Medium.

Come along for the journey.

1. How do I format my articles on Medium.com?
2. How do I withdraw my article from a publication on Medium?
3. How do I write and publish a post on Medium.com?
4. How do I submit a story to a publication on Medium.com?
5. How do I create compelling titles and headlines for my Medium articles?

You may want to scan the answers for the ones that interest you most. Or you want want to refresh your memory.

1. How do I format my articles on Medium.com?

How you format your stories on Medium is much a personal decision. Although there are some essential elements, every story has.

I’ve laid out the options, and you decide which ones you like.

The Kicker, Title, and Subtitle are the first three parts to consider.

The Kicker is used to identify a story series. I’m just finishing one titled The 93 Immutable Laws of Freelancing. Story Series kickers are a great way to let the reader know there are more stories on the way.

The story title must grab the reader’s attention and pique their interest.

The subtitle supports the title and gives the reader more information about the article.

Here’s an example:

Next comes the imagery.

A story’s lead image or photo is sometimes called the “hero” image. The image should tell the whole story. Don’t settle for the first terrific image you see when searching a free photo site. A better one may be hiding further down the page — keep scrolling. There are more royalty-free photo sites popping up each week. I use:

www.unsplash.com

www.Pexels.com

Here’s my image for Freelance Law #62: The Law of Cock-a-doodle-doo

Please note the attribution below the photo. All photos or illustrations must be attributed, even if they belong to you.

Now that we have the reader’s attention, we must deliver on the story title and present a great story.

1. The opening paragraph — If the story’s title, subtitle, and hero photo have done their job, the reader finds themselves in the first paragraph. It’s time to hook them into your story. Here’s how Herman Melville did it in Moby Dick:

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. …”

This opening paragraph alludes to adventure, life on the high seas, danger, unseen tropical islands, unpredictable winds and weather, and countless forms of sea life.

2. The body — the body of the story depends on the type of story written. Is it about morals, love, human interest, a fairy tale, romance, action, or tragedy?

3. Perhaps the piece is informational and educational about technological advancements like ChatGPT. Ensure you bring the reader with you in writing the body, and don’t assume anything.

4. The closing paragraph — is “the why” you took up the reader’s valuable time. It’s time to recap, make your point, to introduce the takeaways. It’s time to reinforce in the reader’s mind that reading the story was time well spent — the story has value.

5. Encouragement — I like ending my Medium stories with encouraging words. I use “Write On!” to cheer authors on to stay the course and keep writing.

2. How do I withdraw my article from a publication on Medium?

To remove a story from publication, go to the story page and choose the three dots ( … ) at the top. Next, choose Remove Story from publication.

3. How do I write and publish a post on Medium.com?

Let’s divide this question into two parts, How do I write a great story, and how does it get published?

Let’s talk about preparing a great story to be published on Medium. There are eight parts to an awesome story.

1. The Kicker — Think of the kicker as an attention-grabbing headline above the story headline. Use kickers to announce a series of stories. I’m currently publishing two series. One is titled The 93 Immutable Laws of Freelancing. My second series has three titles Starting a Freelance Hustle, Running a Freelance Hustle, and Scaling of a Freelance Hustle. There are ten or so stories under each kicker.

Once you enter the story title and subtitle, then enter the kicker.

• Place the cursor in front of the title text and hit return.
• A blank line opens above the title. Enter the kicker text.
• Highlight the kicker text and choose the small “T” from the story editor.
• That’s it.

2. The Title — Headlines are everything in newspapers, magazines, blog posts, webpages, whitepapers, how-tos, FAQs, and Medium stories.

A poorly written headline can doom a great story.

Here are some tips:

• Write your whole story in the headline.
• Headlines should be brief.
• Use keywords in your headline so readers searching for that theme find your story.
• Use adjectives.
• Name the story after your main character.
• Make the title memorable.

Think about doing a title-writing exercise. Here are seven titles spun in different ways:

Self-interest:

Read About How Food-for-All is Changing the Face of Fundraising.

Curiosity:

More Food Banks turn to Food-for-All for Fundraising Advice. Why?

Offer:

Attend a FREE Food-for-All Workshop on End-of-the-year Fundraising.

Urgency:

Tomorrow is the Last Chance to Register for the Food-for-All Fundraising Workshop.

Humanity:

Find Out How Food-for-All is Working to Rescue 200

Orphans in 2023.

News:

Learn How Food-for-All is Becoming the Gold Standard in Feeding the Poor.

Social Proof:

Find Out Why 4 Million People Watched the 2022 Tour De France on Mobile Devices.

Don’t be satisfied with your first title attempt. Write several titles for your story. Then let them sit for a spell while you work on the body of the story. Come back later to see if the title you chose still resonates. If not, make another attempt.

Don’t use the title as clickbait. Do you want fans or clicks? Readers will quickly figure out your strategy and never return.

3. The Subtitle — A story’s subtitle has three goals to support; the title gives the reader more information about the story and piques the reader’s interest. Here are a few of my story subtitles.

4. The imagery — A story’s lead image or photo is sometimes called the “hero” image. The image should tell the whole story. Again, don’t settle for the first terrific image you come across. There may be a better one hiding further down the page — keep scrolling. There are more royalty-free photo sites popping up each week. I use:

www.unsplash.com

www.Pexels.com

You must credit the creator of the image when publishing your story. If it’s you, say so. Medium’s editors will bounce your story if it’s posted without citing the owner of the image.

5. The opening paragraph — If the story’s title, subtitle, and hero photo have done their job, the reader finds themselves in the first paragraph. It’s time to hook them into your story. Here’s how Herman Melville did it in Moby Dick:

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. …”

This opening paragraph alludes to adventure, life on the high seas, danger, unseen tropical islands, unpredictable winds and weather, and countless forms of sea life.

6. The body — the body of the story depends on the type of story written. Is it about morals, love, human interest, a fairy tale, romance, action, or tragedy?

7. Perhaps the piece is informational and educational about some technological advancements like ChatGPT. Ensure you bring the reader with you in writing the body, and don’t assume anything.

8. The closing paragraph — is “the why” you took up the reader’s valuable time. It’s time to recap, make your point, to introduce the takeaways. It’s time to reinforce in the reader’s mind that reading the story was time well spent — the story has value.

9. An encouragement — I like ending my Medium stories with encouraging words. I use “Write On!” to cheer authors on to stay the course and keep writing.

Write On!

These are the elements of a great story.

Publishing a story on Medium is a breeze.

Here’s a quick checklist to make sure your story passes editorial review and gets published as quickly as possible:

1. Once your story is ready to publish, run it through a spelling-checking checker.
2. Think about using a free grammar checker such as Grammarly.
3. Grammarly also has a plagiarism checker. Stealing another’s work is not permitted on Medium.
4. Ensure all your photos or illustrations are attributed with the owner’s name, the image’s title, and a hyperlink to its location on the web.
5. You may want to share your story on Twitter; check the Share to Twitter box.
6. Don’t forget to add your five topics in the Change topics box.
7. Once you press Publish, ensure you Meter your story and Send a link to your email subscribers.

That’s it.

4. How do I submit a story to a publication on Medium.com?

This is a two-part question. First, how does one join a publication, and second, how to submit a story to a publication?

Let me tell you how I came across ILLUMINATION.

As I was reading stories, I kept seeing ILLUMINATION’s name at the top of the story page.

I became curious and looked up the publication.

After reading what ILLUMINATION was all about and its editorial guidelines, I decided to apply.

There are over 200,000 publications on various themes and subject matter on Medium.

Each publication has its editorial policies and guidelines. Read them carefully before joining.

Let’s suppose you’ve found the perfect publication, applied, and have been accepted.

Submitting a story for distribution by a publication is easy.

Once your story is ready for publication, choose the three dots ( … ) at the top of the story page and pick Add to Publication.

From the drop-down, choose the publication you wish to distribute your story.

After choosing Select and continue, your story is ready to publish.

5. How do I create compelling titles and headlines for my Medium articles?

Headlines are everything in newspapers, magazines, blog posts, webpages, whitepapers, how-tos, FAQs, and Medium stories.

A poorly written headline can doom a great story.

Here are some tips:

• Write your whole story in the headline.
• Headlines should be brief.
• Use keywords in your headline, so readers searching for that theme find your story.
• Use adjectives.
• Name the story after your main character.
• Make the title memorable.

Think about doing a title-writing exercise. Here are seven titles spun in different ways:

Self-interest:

Read About How Food-for-All is Changing the Face of Fundraising.

Curiosity:

More Food Banks turn to Food-for-All for Fundraising Advice. Why?

Offer:

Attend a FREE Food-for-All Workshop on End-of-the-year Fundraising.

Urgency:

Tomorrow is the Last Chance to Register for the Food-for-All Fundraising Workshop.

Humanity:

Find Out How Food-for-All is Working to Rescue 200 Orphans in 2023.

News:

Learn How Food-for-All is Becoming the Gold Standard in Feeding the Poor.

Social Proof:

Find Out Why 4 Million People Watched the 2022 Tour De France on Mobile Devices.

Don’t be satisfied with your first title attempt. Write several titles for your story. Then let them sit for a spell while you work on the body of the story.

Come back later to see if the title you chose still resonates. If not, make another attempt.

You might check my recent interview conducted by Dr Mehmet Yildiz, chief editor of Illumination Integrated Publications, on Medium, introducing me and my book to the writing and reading community.

Every new writer to ILLUMINATION must review the critical points in the onboarding pack, which has several useful references:

Here is the checklist which helped many new writers:

Here’s ILLUMINATION’s photo handling policy as well.