The Best Story Length for Better Engagement on Medium

Samy Julian
Write A Catalyst
Published in
2 min readApr 7, 2024
Photo by saeed karimi on Unsplash

Medium was created by Twitter’s co-founder, Evan Williams, and was made to support longer posts than Twitter does. This tells you that even though you can write more words on Medium, it’s still important to be keep it brief and straight to the point.

Is it better to write stories shorter or longer than 5 minutes?

After my research, I found out that keeping your stories under 5 minutes keeps readers interested. People don’t want to get bored in the middle of reading. To be fair and honest, some topics need more time to cover properly. If you’re good at keeping a story interesting, you can go over 5 minutes and still keep readers engaged.

The key is to be simple and straight to the point. Writing a long story just to make it long can really make it less interesting. Keep in mind that most readers don’t have a lot of time and have busy lives. Unless your story is unique and catchy, or you’re already well-known, it’s been proven that stories under 5 minutes are more interacted with.

They fit better with how long people like to read nowadays. This isn’t a strict rule, but a tip to help you figure out what’s best for your Medium niche.

Bonus Tip

Also, try to interact more with your readers by replying to their comments and listening to their feedback. Engaging with them can help you understand what they like and what they want more of.

This helps you make your story length fit what your readers like. It also helps create a group of readers who regularly follow your posts, which can make your stories more popular and effective.

Thank you for reading! How long are your stories generally?

A) 1–2

B) 3–5

C) 6–8

D) 9–10

E) >10

Please share in the comments.

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Samy Julian
Write A Catalyst

For tips on building an email list, starting a newsletter, achieving success on Medium, & blogging, subscribe for free: https://medium.com/@SamyJulian/subscribe