Writing

25K Followers Special — Ask Me Anything (AMA), and My Top 25 Lessons+Tips+Articles

Sharing 50+ hard-earned lessons and insider tips, I’m here to answer every single question you have.

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25K Followers Special — Ask Me Anything (AMA) and My Top 25 Lessons+Tips+Articles

You read the title.

We’ll skip the “Never thought I’d achieve this. Incredibly grateful to X, Y, and Z” part — and dive right into the meat:

25 Medium success tips — 5 sections of 5 points each.
25 one-liner writing tips — to succeed on and beyond Medium.
25 of my best articles — 5 categories with 5 each.

The AMA?

This entire article’s an Ask Me Anything (AMA)—you can shoot your questions in the comments…

Right away.
As they pop up when poring through my lessons/advice/articles.
Once you’re done reading this article.

Whatever the questions, I’ll respond to every single one I get — the early question birds will catch the meatiest answer worms, though!

Let’s dive right in.

· 25 Medium Lessons I Sorely Wish I Learned Earlier
∘∘ #1. Ideas — Say Goodbye to Writers’ Block
∘∘ #2. Writing — No More Blank-Draft Frustration
∘∘ #3. Editing — Transform Coal into Diamonds
∘∘ #4. Headlines — Welcome Virality Into Your Writing Life
∘∘ #5. The Pack — Lone-Wolf Writers Don’t Survive
∘∘ Bonus — Don’t “Get” Banned/Suspended
· My Best Writing Advice Distilled Into 25 One-Liners
· My 25 Best Articles so Far — Across 5 Different Topics
∘∘Fitness
∘∘ Life Lessons
∘∘ Self-Improvement
∘∘ Productivity
∘∘ Books
· Yours Truly Is Waiting for Your Questions

25 Medium Lessons I Sorely Wish I Learned Earlier

Instead of bombarding you, I’ve segregated the lessons into 5 crucial buckets of Medium success:

Idea — Capture, Generation, and Execution.
Writing — Drafting, Structuring, and Surfing the Keyboard.
Editing — Restructuring, Formatting, and Polishing.
The Headline — Subheadline, and Section Headers.
The Pack — Readers, Publication Editors, and Other Writers.

#1. Ideas — Say Goodbye to Writers’ Block

View Life Through the Writer’s Lens — be it washing the dishes or hugging your mother, even the mundane has exciting insights.
Capture every idea you get — use your phone’s Notes app. Explore other free tools. Carry around a pocketbook. Use voice notes when you can’t type.
Consume to produce — be it podcasts, books, articles, or YT videos, keep your producer’s mind active. Curate content/sources — turn them into articles or use them as inspiration. Case in point:

Steal from other writers. Any idea + your unique POV = Unique idea. Steal ideas/topics from other writers — and put your own spin on them. No guilt. No shame.
Repeat/repackage old ideas. As Andre Gide said, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be repeated.” Plus, with time, you grow as a person and writer — so your insights will be deeper and different.

#2. Writing — No More Blank-Draft Frustration

Never start writing with a blank draft. Prepare skeleton drafts beforehand — with an idea, a working title, and a loose idea of the flow.
Blitz-write — don’t stop to edit. Use ColdTurkey writer with backspace, copy/paste, and grammar-checking disabled if you have to. Leave a “TK” wherever you need to rewrite, plug quotes, or add research — that’s for the editing stage.
Clear, not fancy. Let go of Shakespearean notions. With today’s dwindling attention spans, high-impact writing = simplicity. The more complex the idea and the simpler the writing, the better. Aim for a Grade-6 or lower reading level on the Hemingway editor.

This article itself has a Reading Grade of 5 (Screenshot by the author)

Indulge all 5 senses. Show, don’t tell. Describe sounds, smells, visuals, feel, and taste to immerse your readers — reading fiction helped me dramatically improve my 5-sense writing. Shaelin’s YT video breaks it down well.
Imitate, then innovate. Copy the styles/ideas of writers you admire. Add your spin. Repeat. Over time, your own style will emerge from this cocktail. Sergey Faldin 🇺🇦, Shivendra Misra, and Ayodeji Awosika inspired my style.

#3. Editing — Transform Coal into Diamonds

Let your draft “marinate” before editing — once you’ve written a draft, let it sit for 12–24 hours before editing it. This ensures a fresh perspective.
The 2X Rule — edit an article for 2x the time you took to write it. Rewrite every sentence — for tightness, clarity, and better impact. Strengthen weak paragraphs. Restructure sections.
Cut out your darlings — don’t get attached to sentences, sections, or paragraphs. Cut out whatever isn’t necessary. Good editing is good deleting.
Logically separate your editing rounds — I usually first do a restructural edit. Then, a grammar edit. And finally, a creative edit. Use my editing blueprint as inspiration for your own.
Pull your best points to the top and bottom — since readers either skim or skim before reading. Remove weak points — and stack the mediocre ones in the middle.

#4. Headlines — Welcome Virality Into Your Writing Life

Aim for click-worthy — headlines that are intriguing and magnetic but also sincere. Avoid the extremes of hyperbolic clickbait and mellow diary-entry headlines.
The 10-iteration rule — Ayodeji Awosika swears by writing 10 headlines a day. I recommend writing at least 10 variations of a headline before finalizing one — take help from CoSchedule Analyzer and AMI analyzers.
Reverse-engineer successful headlines — your own and those of others. Store winner headlines in a document, look for patterns, and create templates.
Process-outcome inversion — Every headline is a promise to readers that “Through X process, you’ll achieve Y outcome.” — bad headlines reveal the process. Instead, reveal the outcome — “The 2-minute habit that 2Xed my productivity” vs. “Bullet journaling: How To, Benefits, and More.”
Treat section headers as mini-headlines — not mere labels. Incite curiosity and interest. This section’s “Welcome Virality” header itself is an example. This will double or even triple your articles’ read times.

#5. The Pack — Lone-Wolf Writers Don’t Survive

Drop private notes to writers you admire and vibe with — A simple “Hi! I love your ideas. Would love to connect with you. Thanks!” will work. Think of it as texting a pal — be genuine, not fancy. You can also use my cold-DMing template.
Develop relationships with publications— editors have tough jobs (I know since I am one). Make their job easier by thoroughly reading publication guidelines, dropping kind private notes, and implementing their feedback. As rapport develops, they’ll make “exceptions” for you.
Create little masterminds — I’m part of 7 Medium-related groups, 5 of which I started. Reach out to like-minded writers, collate them into groups, and grow together — the synergy is unreal.
Establish and nurture 1-on-1 connections — while most writers you meet become warm acquaintances, some turn into mentors and life-long friends. Stay in touch, hop on calls, and care as you’d for your “real” friends.
Cold-email/Message as much as you can — and as genuinely as you can. Seek nothing, give what you can, and aim to develop a natural bond. Don’t be a fake networker.

Most crucial of all?

(Try to) respond to every comment you get — your readers are your writing career’s life force. Respect, cherish, and serve them.

Bonus — Don’t “Get” Banned/Suspended

Don’t Follow4Follow, Clap4Clap, or spam-respond to get “seen” — you’ll get seen by Medium Staff and shown the door. The best way to get “seen” is to write quality stuff — and leave genuine, insightful responses.
Don’t “repurpose” your older articles — or delete/publish, or edit/republish them. Medium takes duplicate content seriously.
Don’t buy followers or “farm” engagement with fake accounts — again, Medium’s Trust and Safety team will teleport your account into oblivion.
Don’t copy. Period. — be it from your own other articles, others’ articles, or the internet. If you paraphrase something, credit it to the original source. My friend Shivendra Misra lost his 50K account due to unintended plagiarism.
Be careful about your “polarizing” opinions on sensitive topics like racism, LGTBQ+, feminism, #MeToo, and the red pill — best avoid talking about them altogether.

Any attempts to “game” the system might yield short-term gain — but you’ll almost certainly be suspended/banned.

Play the long ethical game — in writing and life.

My Best Writing Advice Distilled Into 25 One-Liners

Unlike the previous section, this isn’t Medium-specific — these tips will help you succeed as a writer on and beyond Medium.

More than tips, these are platform-agnostic writing tenets:

You’re not an “aspiring” writer — you are a writer.
Imitate your writing idols — then innovate.
Focus less on algorithms — and more on improving your craft.
Good writing is as long as necessary and as short as possible.
Write fast. Edit slow — with a 12–24 hours gap in between.
Build relationships — with publications, readers, and writers.
Never start with an empty draft — flesh out ideas beforehand.
To write interesting stuff, lead an interesting life.
Life-changing opportunities/friends are one cold email/DM away.
Jot down every idea you get — trivial or not.
Systemize your writing — or you’ll never write consistently.
Don’t get attached to individual pieces — build a library instead.
Write to grow — grow to write.
Never lie to your readers — they will sniff it out.
Rewrite every headline 5-10 times before finalizing it.
Ideas are everywhere — look at life from a writer’s lens.
Success happens slowly, then suddenly — stay put.
Don’t talk down to your readers — nobody likes arrogance.
Read. Read. Read — articles and books, fiction and non-fiction.
Write more than you read. Think more than you write.
Gun for the top publications — hard to get in, but rewarding.
Steal ideas from other writers — and give them your own spin.
Contradict yourself every few months — that’s growth.
Pursue writing only if you can’t not write — not for money or fame.
Writing is a game of years and decades — not days or months.

Bonus: Don’t write “content” — content is lifeless.

True writing is alive.

My 25 Best Articles so Far — Across 5 Different Topics

Spread across years, views, reading lengths, and article formats, these 25 are a motley mix.

Read these articles from the lens of a writer — dissect the headlines, introduction, conclusion, section headers, featured images, and CTAs.

P.S. I’ve hyperlinked each article to its friend link — so you’ll be able to access it even if you aren’t a paying Medium member.

Fitness

Life Lessons

Self-Improvement

Productivity

Books

Yours Truly Is Waiting for Your Questions

My writing process. What topics to write on? Pitching to publications. Writer’s block. Staying motivated. Boost process. Dealing with rejections. Editing blueprint. Ideation systems. Writing tools I use. Finding your “niche.”

Whatever your questions, fire away!

Light up my notifications bar in explosions of green — see you in the comment section.

Want a comprehensive actionable guide to kill it on Medium? Checkout my friend Jari Roomer’s “The Medium Formula” — it comes with a bonus exclusive 2-hour interview of mine!