Medium’s Minimalism — A Love Letter
I may use Medium to write my dissertation
It is probably due to my mild obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) [not to be confused with OCD — the more intense of the two which is marked by truly debilitating compulsions], but sometimes I cannot stand Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Wordpress’s writing interface, etc.
It all just gets in the way.
All of the tools that are supposed to help me only distract and harm my writing. Controlling margins, spacing, fonts, intends, wrap around text, the list goes — painstakingly — on. It becomes so easy to “color in the lines” when I am writing on any other platform other than on Medium.
So, Medium UI and UX programmers/engineers, from the bottom of my heart, Thank You.
This is my love letter to you.
Seemingly Seamless
The edge-to-edge writing space that Medium provides to write on genuinely makes me feel like I have a blank space with which to process my thoughts and hopefully share them with others.
Not having to worry about coloring in the lines while I am writing helps me to write nearly as quick as I am thinking (with some delay for typing, of course) which allows for an external processor such as myself to be able to express ideas very quickly. As someone who needs to talk about something to truly learn about something — to truly make it stick — Medium has been an indispensable resource both in writing and reading.
When you are writing a new story on Medium, the screen simplifies so much that even the editing functions disappear until you once again click on blank space. Once more, keeping you focused on the content knowing confidently that Medium will handle the formatting.
Medium prides itself on not having ads (the closest thing I ever see to an Ad is the occasional self-proclaimed self-help guru which Ryan Fan does a great job at poking fun at). This principle extends itself into the writing platform as well in that they already minimal approach embedded in Medium’s DNA is pushed even further to the periphery. All of the standard icons lack dropdown function until you click them (helping to avoid accidentally backing out of the editor). The alert icon does not appear to get push notifications (keeping me focused on my new work and not over previously published material).
Lastly, invisible margins are just beautiful.
Functional Formatting
Formatting is important — but who is really in charge around here? I am in the early stages of PhD work and among just my peers at my small school we have three different formatting guides that we each must follow. APA for myself and my psychology and counseling friends. Turabian for my Theology and Philosophy buddies, and SBL for the Biblical Studies and History folks.
Formatting and uniformity is important but ultimately, we need to be concerned about user interface (UI)and experience (UX) for the people reading our work and Medium’s default settings lend itself to an amazing writing and reading experience.
The spacing is clean between sentences, paragraphs, and sections. The Wraparound text options for inserting images is immaculate and maintains spacing well as it adjusts content.
<- See, case in point.
The purpose of formatting and style guides can be helpful in allowing a field to maintain uniformity in cataloging and tracking down sources or allow different authors to collaborate on articles/books without having to wrestle about which margin sizes or how many spaces go behind a period. Guidelines can be less helpful when it slows down the creative or collaborate process. So, just write your research articles on Medium!
Delightful Details — An Ode to the Ellipses
Perfectly centered in the body of the text. Dividing sections without causing a disruption in reading flow. Evenly spaced both vertically and horizontally. Ellipses as a formatting tool is classy.
I would also be remiss if I did not talk about the block quote formatting and function.
Block quotes make me feel like I really know what I am talking about even when I am unsure.
More practically so, they really do allow writers to pull a reader’s attention to something that may otherwise go overlooked. As someone who has had to read a lot of material I do not want to (bland research articles and the like), I have many times glossed over something poetic or profound when I am reading other material because my brain was in “skim this to get the basic thesis of the article and move on” mode. Setting something apart with the small block quote feature is effortless, clean, and ultimately practical.
Block quotes make me feel sophisticated — Alex R. Wendel
Concluding Comments
Medium is a great place to hone your craft, regardless of the discipline or market for which you are hoping to write. It has a myriad of niche communities of readers and writers in which you get to take part.
One of the benefits of writing here on Medium is that is handles most of the heavy lifting in terms of formatting and style which allows you to focus on the content — and content is what people are interested in reading regardless of whether or not it fits within the APA or MLA guidelines.
So read, write, and get smarter about what matters to you.
