100 Articles, 500 Followers, Zero Shortcuts — What 3 Years of Writing on Medium Taught Me

I’ve just written my 100th Medium article and also reached 500 followers at the same time. Whilst I try not to focus on numbers too much, this does feel like a small win and I think it’s important to celebrate these along the way.

I have no idea if these are good numbers or not and honestly I don’t really care. I write because it’s the one thing (apart from coding) that produces a feeling of sumptuous calmness deep down in my being. I am an anxious soul at the best of times but there is something about the flow of thoughts with the written word that resonates with me deeply. Why not spend what little time I have on this planet pursuing that feeling?

Medium is a great place to do this. I don’t want to suck up to Medium too much but their platform makes the writing experience smooth and enjoyable. It’s the best in class for writing at the moment. I guess that is why I have chosen it as the platform of choice to produce around 100,000 words.

I wanted to share some things I have learnt along the way. Some tips you might say. Take from this what you will. I’m a guy on the internet who writes for a hobby. I was terrible at English at school, I didn’t start reading properly until I was 16 and I’m certainly no Hemingway.

But I think I am getting the knack of this medium thing so if you’re interested let me share my thoughts.

Writing Quality Is The Key

I’ve realised over time that there are just no shortcuts ultimately. If you want to get reads on Medium (or any platform) then you have to focus on the quality of your writing. Pretty simple actually. Not easy, but simple.

Readers can quickly tell if your articles lack quality. Learn how to get better. There are plenty of articles on Medium on how to improve your writing. Here are a few from Maria Cassino: “Delete these 13 phrases” and “Biggest writing pet peeves”.

I’ve learnt about general structures to use — Classic essay arc, the Journey structure, the Listicle with depth and the Question and Answer. I try to mix up the structures I use to keep it interesting for my reader and interesting for myself.

I’ve also learnt the importance of having a strong hook in the intro. This is only something I am really getting my head around recently but I can see it makes a difference.

Personally, I still feel I need to write another 100 articles to even reach an adequate level of writing. There is so much depth to writing and I still feel I am only scratching the surface.

Consistency

In order to improve at any skill I believe consistency is the key. It has worked for me in the past and continues to work for me to this day.

For Medium I write 30 mins every morning six days a week. I can’t really dedicate any more time to this (except on Saturday sometimes) but it’s amazing you can get done if you keep turning up everyday.

There is some saying “It’s easy to overestimate what you can do in a week but even easier to underestimate how much you can get done in 10 years” or such like and it’s true.

Find a schedule. Keep it well within the realms of realism. Stick to it. You won’t write great words everyday but you want to be in the right place when they do come.

Strike Whilst The Irons Hot

Which leads nicely into my next point. If you have a flash of inspiration for an article then jump on it. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t fit into your plan or current article, if you feel truly inspired in a certain moment, then seize it.

There is just something that flows through your words when you are feeling in a particular state of creativity. Something more than the words themselves that seeps into your readers thoughts.

Even if you are writing another article, even if you have 15 drafts open (like I do at the moment!) if inspiration strikes follow that. Your readers will truly thank you.

Have Structure — I use Notion

You do need structure. Writing is a creative process and you want to explore within that space. However, you need to create a space for yourself in the first place and that comes from having some structure.

In terms of structure I mean:

• A place to house your ideas. Ideas take time to grow and form, just like a small plant. You need a place for those ideas to live during this phase. Allow them time to mature.
• A plan of when you want to release certain articles. It’s a good thing to have deadlines, even self imposed ones.
• A high level plan of topics your articles will fall into. I like to have all my articles fall into certain limited categories. Whilst it’s good to explore it’s also good to have a niche. That line needs to be trodden carefully.

The whole idea is giving yourself a solid structure where you give yourself space to explore.

The Headline Is Really Important

I have realised over the years that on Medium the Headline is king. This is what gets users to your article in the first place so it’s worth spending some time on it.

I have seen this with the Medium stats. I have some articles that have high read rates but low views because the headline was weak. I also have articles with a great headline but maybe the actual article wasn’t too strong and the read rate is low.

Hence why my first (and most important tip) is to make sure your writing is good in the first place. When people finally do land on your articles you want them to be engaged and that comes from great writing.

Bonus: Don’t Use AI

I strongly believe if you’re going to write then you should write from your own thoughts and your own point of view. Writing does so much more than just put words on a page. It allows you to go through your thoughts and find out what you really think end believe. It does this at a pace that gives you time and space to adequately allow this to happen.

AI is just so quick and easy, it bipasses all of this. Yes, you get more done. Yes, you can be more productive. But you’re missing the whole point in the process. If you don’t enjoy writing and you don’t want to take the time to allow thoughts and ideas to truly flourish in your mind then maybe writing isn’t for you?

I personally want to read what humans have written. AI’s don’t have egos (yet) and until they do, I don’t want to read what they produce. It’s not interesting and it’s certainly not original.

Writing is scared. Let’s try and keep it that way for a bit longer.

Conclusion

I’ve worked hard on this writing game. I’m using this article to take a moment and have a little look back at what I went through to get to this place. I’m hoping also, some of the things I have learnt along the way can be useful to others who are maybe entering this space.

I’m really happy I started writing these articles. I have no idea if they are making any difference to anyone else but they are making a difference to me. They give me a place to express thoughts and opinions that otherwise would just rattle around inside my head.

I’ve read and continue to read many books and they have enhanced my quality of life so much. I am glad I can contribute to the written word in my small way.

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