How I wrote my first Medium post.

I have wanted to share things on the web for a long time. I had ideas and several experiences to share. But I was quickly confronted to the challenges of formalizing, starting, organizing, or simply writing… I finally managed to bring this project to life and now I can share how I wrote my first post.

Photo by Adolfo Félix on Unsplash

I proceeded in 8 steps:

1. Write down every idea
2. Write the introduction
3. Write clear sentences
4. Tell a story
5. Re-read and adjust
6. Publish
7. Analyze and adjust regularly

Write down every idea

I always have a notebook with me (or I can use my phone) where I write down various ideas. I usually note the following things:

• Topics that cross my mind and that I would like to write about
• Ideas from others that make me react

First, I write them in bulk without specific organization. I do this quite often. In fact, as soon as I have an idea that comes to me.

After a while, I get enough material, usually on several topics. Then, when I have more spare time, I read my notes and I organize them in a digital notepad. For that, I use oneNote but you can use any other tool, or even just a notebook.

Once I’m there, I start writing step by step.

Write the introduction

Among my notes, I choose the theme that strikes me as the most interesting at the time, and I try to write a first version of my article’s introduction.

For this, I read or re-read several examples of introductions. This enables me to find inspiration and select styles or syntax that I like, but also to avoid those I do not like.

Write clear sentences

Well, now that I have an introduction, it’s time to write the rest.

For this, I re-read my notes and sort them out, using a mind-mapping for example. Sometimes I do several mind-maps when the subject is complex, or when there are several approaches.

I choose the structure that I like the most, the one that makes the most sense to me. Then I try to write detailed sentences for each branch of the mind-map. I often write several sentences with different style and I chose my favorite.

I re-read the elements that I have selected from time to time in order to refine them.

Tell a story

Now that I have well constructed and clear sentences to explain my ideas, I use them to build a consistent story. I regroup them into paragraphs and try to draw a structured summary by ideas/theme or timeline.

Once this work is done, I look for links between the sentences and write every necessary transition.

Here, my article is almost complete. I just need to read it one last time before publishing.

Re-read and adjustment

This step is sometimes very short but it is necessary (at least for me).

I re-read the whole article carefully to correct the spelling mistakes, and to make sure that everything is consistent. If I have the opportunity, I have my text re-read by other people.

I adjust my introduction if necessary and I also make some final arrangements to my text.

Publish

Well here it is, time to publish the text (it takes some courage)!

Analyze and adjust regularly

Once the article is published, the work is far from being finished. For a while (I use this “while” very loosely for now because of my lack of experience), I read the statistics and comments about the article.

Based on this, I correct and adapt the text and then republish it instantly.

Sometimes, following a content that strikes me, I make corrections, add images, links and republish.

Thank you for reading, good luck and see you soon …