Medium Publishing Checklist
An Editing Process
TL ; DR
[ ] Finality— Is it finished?
[ ] Purpose — Is it worthwhile?
[ ] Length — Anything lacking? Anything redundant or superfluous?
[ ] Depth — Not enough or too much supporting content?
[ ] Simplicity — What does Hemingway say?
[ ] Quality — Sleep on it? Proof read? Crowd edit?
[ ] Publicity — Share? Cross post? Guest post?
I made a commitment to myself to make a habit out of clicking the Medium Publish Button. As my writing became more prolific, I began to develop a routine and system before publishing content. Even though it’s just a few weeks old I want to share my checklist, both to support and to get feedback from the community here.
Finality:
Is the story finished? Does it have closure?
If you are not sure try using the words “The End” at the bottom to see if it flows. If you know the story is not finished go back and finish it. This checklist is only useful for finished work that is almost ready to be published. It’s pointless to go through this checklist before finishing the work, thus this is the #1 item.
Purpose:
Why did you write this story? Will this story improve someone’s life?
I have abandoned many stories because their purpose seemed vague, or they had multiple purposes.
The goal is to communicate one good idea or one good story clearly.
I often have to split up my stories into two separate articles. I always keep drafts here on Medium. I have about 50 drafts at any given time. I also keep a draft that has several different ideas inside of it!
Length:
Is it too long? Is it too short? Is anything important omitted? Is anything redundant or superfluous?
I published a book review that is 18 minutes long and it has a read rate of only 11%. Yet it has a whopping recommend rate of 37% of readers. Had I known the length would influence readership this much I would have split the article up into parts.
On the other hand my worst performing story was a 2-minute attempt at comedy (now deleted) which had a read ratio of 79% but only 1 recommend: me. I guess people didn’t find it funny.
I think the optimal window for a story here on Medium is 4 to 6 minutes. Aim for that.
Depth:
Where can I include photos or links that would enhance my story? Is it too deep, or is too much random content being thrown at the reader?
I’m always reminding myself of this highly influential song from my childhood.
“Shove me in the shallow water before I get too deep.”
But then I have to decide: Is this video itself too deep? Does it bring value or distract and pull the reader away from this story? Sometimes these decisions can be hard. Would you keep this video here knowing that the only relevant content is just a few lyrics?
Simplicity:
Did I run Hemingway?
I run every story, including this one, through the Hemingway Editor. I always try to get the readability to the green zone before I publish. Here are the Hemingway metrics for this article:
I also want to mention another favorite writing tool: The Visual Thesaurus.
I can spend hours looking at word maps. I use both of these tools in nearly every story I write.
Quality:
Did I sleep on it? Did I crowd edit?
I learned a very crucial lesson early in my writing ambition. I cannot accurately judge the quality of a piece of work on the day it was created. I have to sleep on it and look at it with a pair of fresh eyes. I’ve made the mistake of publishing too early too many times.
Also, if you are not using Medium’s don’t write alone feature, now would be a good time to start. I call this crowd editing. So far I have only found a few people that are willing to spend the time proof reading my work. People are busy!
So now I turn to you, the Medium native crowd: If you are interested in having me as a proof reader please hit me up! I want to become a better editor by helping others. And I hope you are willing to proof read some of my work as well.
Edit: Since writing this I cofounded a writing and editing community called the Medium Writing Cooperative. Join us!
Publicity:
After Publishing did I share? Did I ask my network to share? Did I cross post or guest post where possible?
I always share on Twitter and Facebook, as well as send emails to my friends. I am also building a mailing list for those who enjoy my work and want to be kept up to date. I would be honored if you joined it.
I am looking into guest posting as well. I don’t think guest posts or “co-authors” are fully utilized in blogging. When artists combine their talents or their fans they see bigger gains. Musicians are privy to this. I think as bloggers we should consider teaming up or even friendly publicized competitions.
Once again, if anyone is interested in exploring these ideas please feel free to contact me. I’m always open to new writing projects and ideas.
If you think of anything that should be added to this checklist please let me know. Thanks.
Thanks for reading. If this post is valuable please recommend and share it so more people will see it. I appreciate it!
