Humor/Writing/Medium

How Not to Write a Medium Article

5 ways to stop listing 5 ways to do things and not use words like ‘gaslight.’

Credit: siam.pukkato on Shutterstock

I know, I know. Not all Medium articles are listicles, but they have a happy home here simply because lists work. They’re quickly digestible bite-sized nuggets of wisdom. 70% of my articles are lists and I love writing them, but the other day I realized I had a problem.

I realized I couldn’t stop writing listicles or using trending words. I knew it was out of control when I looked at my latest draft title:

3 Ways To Take 7 Steps to Find 5 Types of Happiness

Without gaslighting yourself

I knew then that I needed help. I’d gone too far. I’d lost control.

I put down my pen and typed “how to stop writing listicles.”

And I’m happy to say I’ve found a listicle to help me!

In 5 different ways! Thank goodness.

Here’s how:

#1. First, I stopped numbering subheadings and started spelling numbers out in the body of paragraphs.