ARTICLE | HOW-TO | PROMPTLY WRITTEN
The Curious Workings Of Tags
A How-To tutorial
I am sure you have often heard people say ‘tag me in your story’, right? Well, that is actually called ‘a mention’ in Medium-speak. This results in you using the ‘at sign plus the person’s Medium ID’ — example: @ + ravynehawke using just the ‘at sign’ and ‘my ID’, minus the ‘+ sign’ would show up thusly, Ravyne Hawke.
However, this is not what this How-To tutorial is about. Tagging uses keywords and these keywords are to go in that cute little box that shows up when you hit the publish button. Example:
💥PW’s Required Tags💥
Here at PW, you are required to use (1) one of (4) four tags, at all times when submitting your work. 💠Note: Do not use the hashtag (#) when adding these to the tag box. It is unnecessary. This is just for visuals. I realize my previous tutorial caused confusion, so let me be clear, DO NOT include the #. Just the words:
- Poetry — for poetry and prose poetry
- Fiction — for all fiction work regardless of the length
- Essay — for all personal essays (can include outside articles or videos so long as they are used in conjunction with personal information), creative nonfiction, rants, and shortform (if the shortform is of a personal nature)
- Articles — for all works that contain advice, movie reviews, outside of Medium articles or videos (if related to advice or movie reviews) etc., and for rants and shortform that contain outside information or advice.
I am well aware that we sometimes may not know whether to use the Essay tag or the Articles tag. If it is only personal, it is an essay. If it contains outside sources that involve advice or opinion, then it is an article. Use your best judgment.
Any stories that come into the admissions queue without (1) one of these (4) four tags, an editor will delete one of your tags and add a required tag.
Why are they required?
PW is set up to automatically place your stories into (1) one of those (4) four categories. Example from the homepage:
If you leave off one of those tags and an editor does not catch it, your story will temporarily show up at the bottom of the homepage under ‘Latest’ and then it will disappear into oblivion. None of us wants that.
Note: two of those tags will earn you a Top Writer position if you publish those types of stories frequently and use those tags —💠 Poetry and Fiction💠
Other Useful Tags
Other Poetry Tags
The following are useful poetry tags:
- haiku
- tanka
- sonnet
- Free Verse
- Blank Verse
Always try to use a tag that describes the form of poetry you are writing. The above list is only examples, as there are many poetry forms you can choose to add. Other tags:
- Dark Poetry
- Poetry On Medium
- poem
- micropoetry
Other Fiction Tags
The following are useful fiction tags:
- Flash Fiction
- 100Words
- 100WordStory
- drabble (100 word story)
- pentina (100 word story)
- centina (50 word story)
- microfiction
- Short Fiction
- Short Story
- Horror
- Fantasy
- Science Fiction
- Mystery
- Crime
- Thriller
Other Functional Tags
These are functional tags, many will earn you a Top Writer status if you write these types of stories and use these tags frequently:
- writing
- reading
- art
- books
- book reviews
- advice
- food
- inspiration
- health
- nutrition
- Mental Health
- Life
- Life Lessons
- LGBTQ
- Movies
- Music
- Religion
- Spirituality
- Self Improvement
- Self Awareness
- This Happened To Me
- History
- Historical
- Ancient History
This is not an exclusive list. There are many other functional tags. These are just the most popular.
Other Emotional Tags
This list includes human emotions that can direct a reader toward your work.
- Love
- Death
- Life
- Joy
- Happiness
- loss
- pain
- sadness
- evil
Again, this is not an exclusive list. There are a lot of emotional tags. These are just the most popular.
Other Tags
You may find some of these tags useful
- Ghosts
- hauntings
- vampires
- werewolves
- supernatural
- paranormal
- angels
- fairies
This is also not an exclusive list, but it gives you examples of other tags you can use.
Miscellaneous Tags
Some other helpful tags:
- prompts
- writing prompts
- Monthly Theme
- essay
- essay writing
- articles
- nonfiction
- Creative Writing
- rant
- short form
Again, not an exclusive list, but some other options for you.
Conclusion
Medium gives you five tag slots. Use them all. Make them mean something. This is one way readers find your work. Some publications, like PW, will ask you to use certain tags for certain things. Use them.
💥One last noteworthy mention — ❗❗❗DO NOT use the pwprompt tag unless you are an editor ❗❗❗
I hope this tutorial clarifies the Tagging System here at Medium. If you have any questions, please leave the question in the comments.
Thank you
~Ravyne Hawke, EIC
