5 Types Of Posts I'll Never Nominate For A Boost On Medium
For the most part, I think these are lazy writing.
Happy Friday,
A couple of times every week, I spend a few hours scouring Medium, looking for great writing I can nominate for a boost. Stuff that stands out. And that’s hard to explain, but we all know it when we read it.
We get to the bottom and say wow. I wish I wrote that.
Because here’s the thing. My publication is still little and growing. I don’t get enough posts per week to fill my nomination quota yet.
So the way it works is that if a nominator’s publication doesn’t have enough posts that tick all the boxes, we can go look in the wild. I love when I can find new writers or writers who have chops, but their audience is still tiny.
It feels great to be able to help writers get more views.
But three months in, here’s what I’ve discovered. There are types of posts that I’m so tired of seeing. And I’m not talking about the mistakes writers make, like the giant linkapalooza at the bottom of so many stories. I wrote about those last week.
I’m talking about the writing style. In my opinion, they’re a little lazy.
Here’s 5 posts types that make me say thanks, but no thanks…
1. How to fix your life!
Lordy, there’s a lot of those. How to manage your budget, how to get things done, how to stop procrastinating, how to live your best life, how to, how to, how to.
My opinion? That’s lazy writing. Why do so many people think they can give advice to random strangers whose life and situation they know nothing about? Tell me how “you” did that thing, and maybe that’s worth reading.
Write a piece that tells me how you paid off your debt and got your crap in order, maybe we’re talking. How you stopped procrastinating. How you are living your best life. But otherwise? The odds are too high that the “advice” is just regurgitated garbage off the internet. Thanks but no thanks. I’ll pass.
2. Unqualified mental health opinions
If I had a nickel for every person who doesn’t know the difference between a narcissist and an asshole, I wouldn’t even have to work. Same goes for depression, bipolar disorder and anything else a mental health professional requires years of training in order to diagnose. Sure, tell your story. But do everyone a favor and stop there.
3. Too many big words
The minute I read pompous arse words, I’m out of there. It’s not that I lack vocabulary. I have a stupidly high vocabulary. Most bookworms do. But there is zero need to use stuffed shirt words like utilize, inexorable, ameliorate, or cognizant.
First they make you sound dumb. Like you’re “trying” to sound smart. That’s not according to me. It’s according to a Princeton study. But even more so? It’s this.
The point of writing is to express, not impress. And when you use 5 dollar words, it tells me you’re trying to impress people instead of trying to express something clearly enough for them to understand. So I’m out.
4. A synopsis disguised as an essay. (aka short reads)
I am stunned by the number of people that tackle really loaded topics in a short read. If you’re writing about your Mom’s dementia, or a toxic relationship, or that time you were homeless or some other serious and emotional topic, surely you can cobble together more than 2-3 minutes? It feels more like a summary than an essay.
And that’s fine. Really. I’m not the story police and I’m not here to tell anyone how long their writing should or should not be. But it’s real rare that I’d nominate any of those, because there’s just not enough meat on the bone. You know? They leave the reader wanting. So they’ll get declined. Shoot for 5-7 minutes on serious topics. Those 2-3 extra minutes really do make a difference.
5. Careless writing, even in the title.
Typos happen. I get it. I’ve made more than my share of them. I’ve probably made more than your share of them, too. lol. But in the title? It screams careless. The title is what — ten words or less? If you have bad grammar and typos in the title, I know the story is going to be filled with them, too. Funny thing is, I never really noticed how many titles are a train wreck until I started looking for posts to nominate.
Same thing with the opening. The title, subtitle and opening are where it’s easiest to lose a reader. Do yourself a favor. Check and double check your title, subtitle and opening paragraph before you publish. Don’t lose readers to careless writing.
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Those are the things I scroll by when looking for writing to nominate for a boost. My pet peeves, if you will. I didn’t include meta posts because they’re not eligible for a boost anyway. Ditto for the people who love to “slam” other writers for clicks.
Do you have pet peeves I missed? :)
On Medium…
If you enjoy my writing, scroll down just a little and click the heart to let me know. Thanks and have a great weekend!
xo,
Linda
Hi Linda, reading your stuff makes me curious about substack open rates. I read that the norm is 20 to 25%. Four posts in and I'm getting 70 to 80%. Should I be joyous or am I missing something ? I#d value your opinion, ........ even if it's brutal.
Peace, Maurice
I'm with you on this one. I distinguish between "prescriptive" and "descriptive." It's the difference between "I'm anxious" and "Here's how to fix being anxious." A lot of ready-made answers appear on Medium.
Titles remain a problem for me. I need to take a "Fix your title" course, and one of these days, I'd like to write a piece for your woman's history pub. If my title stinks, I know you'll tell me.
I did just have my first "boost," and I was excited... more so than I thought I'd be, but that might be it for a long while. I will, though, make sure not to do your cardinal sins.