Writing’s Just Half the Job

An Overlooked but Crucial Aspect to Writing Good Articles

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

I find that most of the time the articles posted on Medium that deal with the subject of writing advice focus mainly on the importance of having a disciplined and consistent writing schedule while missing out on another less obvious but equally important aspect.

Now don’t get me wrong, writing and posting consistently is the most frequent recommendation because, well, it really is one of the main and most straightforward ways to grow your profile and make progress as a writer. However, I think that reading frequently is just as crucial: not only does it help you write objectively better texts, but it also helps you see what people are interested in reading, including topics, styles, authors, genres, etc. This is why while reading an article, you need to ask yourself, what about this is interesting? How is the writer telling the story? What’s working and what’s not?

So next time you log in on Medium and are scrolling through your feed remember: Reading before writing isn’t just a waste of time and it doesn’t have to be mindless, it’s part of your work and it might just be the key to writing a better article.