The Last Checklist You Will Ever Need For Writing

I’ll keep it short and sweet: Follow the steps of this writing checklist below to ensure top-quality Medium stories every time!

The steps below are those I follow every time I write a story on Medium. I will keep this list updated as I learn new and better ways of writing. Please(!) reply with any additional tips you might have!

1. Jot down story ideas as titles for story drafts — pick a story to finalize!
2. Use https://answerthepublic.com/ and Google Keyword Planner to find the most popular phrases and keywords related to your topic. Write them down along with your notes.
3. Based on your ideas and what you got from point number 2, draft headlines and jot down notes under each to build out the framework of the story.
4. Picture your target audience and write a short description!
5. Write your content (this is the big one — I can’t help you here, friend). Keep your target audience in mind when writing. Make sure to sprinkle your story with the relevant phrases and often with your target keyword(s).
6. Check your story to make sure you have used lists, bullets, and sections to improve readability
7. Ensure you include a summary, conclusion, or takeaways section
8. Work to make your intro and end-section memorable and cohesive
9. Tweak your title by using: https://www.isitwp.com/headline-analyzer/
10. Make sure your title is in title case (use https://capitalizemytitle.com), and your subtitle is in sentence case
11. Copy your text to https://hemingwayapp.com/ and make adjustments to increase readability
12. Include at least 1 picture (preferably min. 1200 pixels wide)
13. Make sure all pictures and facts have proper credit/citation — and check that links work!
14. Make sure all pictures have an Alt text — preferably including your keyword (s)
15. SEO optimize by checking how often your target keywords are represented in your story — go for 1% of the total word count. Ensure representation in the subtitle, intro, and end-section
16. Choose fitting tags/topics with a big following. You can check the following by going to “https://medium.com/tag/[YOUR TAG]/latest”. Note that you need to replace space with hyphen (e.g. self-improvement) and that you need to use all lowercase letters in the tag (why parts of URLs are case sensitive, I will never understand…). Note also that the first topic gains more visibility than the rest, so make sure to put the most fitting topic first. I usually pick from: Advice, Business, Finance, Inspiration, Investing, Leadership, Life, Life Lessons, Money, Personal Finance, Productivity, Self Improvement, and Writing
17. Time for re-reads! Read once to check for humor and energy. Again, keep your target audience in mind. Make sure to use analogs, metaphors, and vivid language. Be personal and do not write like it’s a school textbook! Read once again to check for grammar issues (read this story for a great tip on this) Read one last time to spot opportunities to backlink to your own stories — like I just did above ;)
18. Add your favorite call to action at the bottom.
19. Consider a publication for your piece, such as New Writers Welcome, or if you just want to self-publish.
20. Release that beautiful piece of written art into the world!

Final words

Make the writing journey your own! I have tried to stick to the most generic steps to ensure great quality stories. Create your own checklist or bookmark mine above. As stated in the beginning, I’ll make sure to update with any added ideas I get in the comment section or when I learn new tips and tricks.

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