Doing these four things will set you up for an easy* writing experience
To build a workable template, follow these steps and make notes as you go:
Step 1 — Learn the Rules
Find and learn the environmental, platform, and niche ‘rules’ and standard practices. On Medium, the publication style guides are 95% identical. Reproducing the common styles from the outset will see your work correctly formatted before you know what a specific publication wants.
Pro tip — when you give an editor, or reader a piece that looks like what they are expecting, they won’t immediately dislike it. If it doesn’t look like it should, they won’t like it before reading the first word.
Step 2 — Mimic Popular Styles
Copy the niche’s best writers by learning their styles, forms, and audiences. Read their work and know who they write it for. Their audience is your audience, so follow their followers.
Step 3 — Analyze Effectiveness
Gather feedback from peers, readers, and your stats on your work. Ask yourself if you’re giving them what they want. People might lie, but stats won’t, so learn how to read them.
Step 4 — Finalize Your Process Template
Template your story development process to ensure it follows the rules, styles, and reader tastes you’ve had success with. Then repeat and refine it as you continue to learn and develop.
Advice — If Medium changes, learn what they are and adapt to them — don’t complain, just figure it out. The only thing you’re going to be able to change in this scenario is yourself.
Templating your process and repeating it makes work more manageable because you’ll always know what to do next. Templating will ensure your piece fits 90% of the most common formatting requirement you’ll encounter on your platform or in your situation. Templating minimizes the chance wrong formats will distract your readers from your content.
*Easier. Writing is hard, but when you have a template, it makes it easier to follow.
So, if you’ve got a story in you but don’t know how to get it out, I’ll help you do that in a way you can be proud of! Here’s the link to get started on your writing path – Writing Coach
Join my email list — HERE and get a free pdf copy of my ebook —How to Cheat — Field Notes from an Adulteress
Why I wrote a book on cheating.medium.com
© Teresa J. Conway, 2020
By Teresa J Conway on .
Exported from Medium on April 8, 2021.
