writing on medium

Why You Should Schedule Your Stories Than Hit ‘Publish’ Immediately

Powering up your writing with a Medium feature that 99% of writers ignore (and the smart ones use)

Tell me if this happens to you…

You hit the publish button, the page refreshes, and a new avatar of your story emerges, releasing a queer cocktail of hormones in you.

A feeling very similar to seeing your child, all dressed up, on the stage and under the limelight. And you are on the edge of the seat, craning your neck to have the best possible view.

And then slowly you start reading your story — but, this time, pretending as a reader.

As you read, tiny things pop up. And then some more. They irk you, small changes that have skipped your watchful eyes. ‘How did I not see that?’

As you go down the road, you feel you could’ve done way better than this.

‘Damn!’

Well, it happens to me every time…

— — — — — — (Pause )— — — — — —

Before we get to the ‘why’ part, let’s be a bit patient and allow people who have been in the dark all this while, to catch up with us.

Thank you.

— — — — — — (Play) — — — — — —

What is scheduling a story?

That’s you telling Medium — “Not now, later.”

In vanilla words. Rather than publishing the story right away, you instruct Medium WHEN to do it.

Simple.

And yes, it works only for stories that you choose to self-publish.

How to schedule?

Still simpler.

Sitting right beside the dominant ‘Publish & send now’ button, sits this meek undervalued option — Schedule for later.

And as you click the option, it asks you — at what date, and what time, please?

(dusting my hand…)

And now, we get down to the crux of the matter.

WHY???

You look hard-working, while you sip a margarita.

Or mojito, if that’s what you like…

(my knowledge of drinks stops here…so I cannot give any more options)

You work late into the night and are finally done with the story. You look at one of your two allies at the time — the white noise of the rhythmically ticking clock (the other is the team of crickets outside) as you stretch your back.

Hmm…it’s an ungodly hour to publish. Not now…in the morning.

And as you hit the bed, you zone out completely, with the morning silently slipping into the afternoon.

Happens, right? Well, no more. Just schedule it.

Another time when you know your boisterous cousins are coming soon and the house will be a spontaneous party zone, making it difficult to even write a grocery list, let alone a Medium post…wait, don’t sweat — hail the schedule power.

And look consistent to your readers — while you party with your cousins or roam in the deep alleys of slumberland.

How cool is that!?

Scheduling gives you the power to be flexible and remain consistent.

Scheduling is like the suspense account.

And the old banker in me awakens.

Okay, in banking parlance, a suspense account is a Bank’s internal account where money is parked before it is allocated to the final account.

So, the money has practically left, but not reached yet.

Understand one thing —

The same story looks different as a ‘Draft’ and as ‘Published’, even without a single change.

It’s the same as you in a tuxedo at home and at a convention — your mannerisms change, you behave differently.

A draft is like you in pajamas — picking your nose and scratching your butt. The moment you publish, you are out and under the scanner — more conscious about how people around are perceiving you.

Use that intermittent period of elevated perceptual ability to calibrate your story better.

Editing a scheduled story is much easier than editing a draft. Try this once and you will see the difference.

Let your stories breathe.

It’s a fact.

When you feel you have finished a story, you are actually 80% done.

The best writers let their work breathe before they don the editor's hat and start snipping away the fluff. Stephen King suggests keeping the work for six weeks before editing.

Sorry Stephen Sir, we don’t have that kind of time.

But this is most probably the best editing practice of all time. Because when you move away from the story, let it breathe, and come back again, the missteps are more clearly visible.

As if the slips have sedimented down during the time, making it easier for you to filter out.

Finally…

Truth be told here…I came to know about this feature after a long time of using Medium.

And the dumbest part was I was using this feature on other platforms. I don’t know how I missed it for so long.

Maybe due to the urgency to see my ‘child’ on the stage…?

But after knowing about it, I feel more in control of my publishing strategy. And I surely intend to use it to the fullest to rev up my process.

What about you?

Oh…and you can also join my inspireletter (I do not call it a newsletter…coz I have no news per se) — The Write Shot. I help new writers overcome the beginner’s syndrome.