A useful guide to writing your Medium article
On 2021 we decided to create a Medium account for the XD team. We have a talented group of more than 80 designers, and we thought we could invite members of the team to write about different topics… We have so much content already created from conferences, workshops, talks, etc. we thought we could use those as a base to create articles for our new account.
It all started when we asked some people to write about certain topics that we knew had some expertise around design topics (As a design team we wanted to talk about topics related to design). As time pasted and more people began to read the articles and saw the impact they had, they wanted to get involved and write about things that they like or are passionate about, so they asked us to write about all sorts of things around design, teamwork, remote work, leadership, etc.
In this year of leading this initiative, we’ve gathered various feedback, data, tips, and resources that we’ve found useful in improving the article writing process. To celebrate the first year of the XD Medium account, I’d like to share some of these insights with you.
To give a little context…
As mentioned before, It’s no surprise that writing an article for the first time is intimidating for most people. This was also the case for most of our authors, and it seemed that direct invitations to write articles were more effective than opening the invitation to new articles. When we realized this and analyzed the reason, we scheduled a conference call with the whole team to discuss the process of writing an article in our team.
What we wanted to achieve with this meeting was to make our team aware of the support that Medium XD team gives to each writer during the process to make them feel more comfortable and confident in writing. After the meeting, we’d quite a few volunteers who wanted to write their first article.
It seems like the unknown is challenging and intimidating most of the time. But if we break down the process and the tasks involved, we can overcome that. Once a new writer starts the process, everything else runs smoothly and we always have a finished article to publish.
So I’m going to break down the process we follow in hopes that this will help anyone who wants to write an article but feels intimidated to start.
Our Process
0. Warm up
The first thing you should do is refresh your knowledge. Even if you’re an expert, it doesn’t hurt to look for gaps in your knowledge in existing articles. Not only does it help you feel confident, but it might give us a new idea of what to write about.
Make notes of quotes and references you could use to illustrate (but don’t take them too seriously).
1. Brainstorm
Brainstorm all the possible directions your topic could take you.
After you’ve collected ideas, topics, etc., start grouping them into clusters (affinity clusters).
Remember, the more you bite, the more you’ll chew. Pay attention to what you want on board and start connecting dots to make sure you don’t leave anything unresolved.
2. Define Information
After considering several possible topics and ideas, define the topic you want to pursue for your article.
Take inspiration from the practices at UX and ask yourself… Who’s the article intended for? What do I want to achieve?
I will talk about ________ so that ________ will now understand/act/become/think/learn __________.
While you’re at it, you can also determine the style of your text. Is it a numbered list? Persuasive article? A narrative?…
When you’re done, set the title of the article (most of the time the title comes to mind and makes more sense when we finish writing the article so it’s okay if you still aren’t sure how to name it”).
3. Information and resources
It’s almost time to start writing your article! Before you do, let’s look at a set of writing recommendations to help you be prepared.
• For a 5-minute read, we recommend you write a 2-page letter.
• You can show your personality in your article
• Leave out unnecessary details. Summarize the memory effectively. Imagine a movie editor: What needs to be in the story? What can you leave out?
• Remember to show the conflict clearly. Good stories show the development of the conflict, the crisis (called the climax), and then the resolution of what happens next (whether the outcome is positive or negative).
• If something feels forced (even if you really want to include it), leave it aside. Maybe it’ll click later, or can be the topic for a whole new article.
• Find a connection between ideas: Which output offers you an input?
• Don’t try to achieve perfection. Be flexible.
There are many tools we recommend if you want to double check the grammar of your article… Some of our favorites are: InstaText, Grammarly, Hemingway, and for citation, Scribbr.
4. Draft
Time to start writing! The easiest way is to just get started. You can worry about the details later. Make sure you’ve a structure that you want to talk about in your article and start from there.
If you use images to support your article, you should include placeholders or a short description of what you want to write.
TIP: When you finish your draft, read it out loud. It’ll probably sound funny at first, so make corrections accordingly.
And make sure all statements and questions are closed.
5. Feedback
When writing an article (or working on anything else), we tend to get bogged down and sometimes we overlook mistakes or improvements. Feedback is a great way to change that!!! Send your draft to a colleague, a friend, or someone who could help you and ask for feedback.
This can be on grammar, technical aspects of the topic, or any other way of improving the article. Evaluate the comments and make corrections you think are appropriate, revising as necessary… Ask for as much feedback as you need, and keep improving your text until you feel confident enough to publish it.
6. YOU’RE DONE!
Now you can upload your article and share it with the whole world! Don’t forget that there’s a lot of content on the internet, so make sure you share your article on different social media platforms (like Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to get more attention.
Our Year in numbers
This has been a work of all our team members, and we have successfully uploaded more than 30 articles since we open the account. We have found the platform to be an amazing opportunity to connect with people who has your same experience or interest, and network and learn about professional profiles similar to yours.
As a team we have found this experience extremely valuable. Sometimes as professionals we tend to keep our knowledge inside our team, and this tool allows us to get exposure with the rest of the community to engage and share the knowledge each of us has.
Now that you’ve this guide with tips and resources to get your article started, take the first step and comment on what topic are you going to write your article about?
Illustrations by Ana Landero
