Modern online writing styles — Collection-1 (Must Read for Medium Writers)

5 min readJan 6, 2024

Writing has always been the same. But the audience, the medium of distribution, technology, and its form have changed. So the style needs the change.

I have been writing online since 2007 and recently started in Medium. I could see how things evolved for me and for the whole world. I adapted to the readers’ needs.

The (Medium) medium that we publish has certain untold, unwritten requirements set by readers. These requirements are mostly influenced by how things are now on the internet. The modern internet.

In the age of Twitter, everything shrinks under 180 characters. Then to 280. Today’s Twitter (called) ‘X’ uses threads to accommodate long-form content. (They are also migrating to long-form tweets/notes that support up to 2500 characters).

I see the co-existence of Long-form, short-form, and micro-form (limited to 280 characters) and the blend of them changing how written content is produced today.

Resumes’ are no longer printed. They started to reside on LinkedIn. And they no longer follow the same old style or format.

Today, The print medium is dated. The digital Medium (pun intended) became absolute.

So, you can’t follow the same style that was used in print publications if you want to adapt to the modern reader community. There’s a lot of modernization happening — happened. This is not the bandwagon for you to hop on or ignore. I believe this is the path.

As I already mentioned above, these are unwritten standards. No authority can define that this is that. And no one can represent the whole reader community.

That’s the disclaimer for this article. I am just going to share a few modernized writing styles I observed (and proven to be useful/successful) and a few other styles I use.

Why do you need a style?

Stand out from the crowd? Maybe. If you ask me, your writing style is your personality.

Readers read with eyes and minds. If your style would satisfy both, then it's what you need.

Tune your writing → How it looks (visual), and how it is said (mental).

Here is the style list for you

(feel free to get inspired or steal a few).

‘X’-inspired.

The majority want to read like they read in X. Short. Threaded. That means, they want every line to be a punch line. Is it possible to write like that? I don’t know. But readers like it. In short, no blah, blah, please.
Make your paragraph short. Nice if it is with one sentence.
Sentence with less than 5 words. Or less. (Like this).
People are habituated to scrolling. (side effect of using today’s social media apps). They feel good to scroll while reading. Don’t you?
Short paragraphs and short sentences allow them to skim and ease in the process of finding the part they need.

pictures

Yeah, they get attracted to featured images along with the title. But not inside the article interfering with their reading flow. That’s why I attach those (less relevant) featured images at the end of the story.
AI-generated pictures are the trend. Use unreal ones.
If you explained in words, don’t illustrate. If you’ve illustrated (or attached screenshots) then don’t explain them in words.

symbols → replaces (dozens of) words

use of symbols = less explanation, yet better explanation
To bring arrows, Press the hyphen key → press the hyphen again → press the right angle bracket. (works with Medium editor)
>> Using a double right angle to indent items in the list
>>>> Because Medium doesn't support indentation in lists.
If you want to use proper indentation, then use a code block like below and choose code ‘none’. I prefer using >>>>>>>>> arrows.

Hi I am I,
  This is indent
    This is double indent.

formatting options

To make a long sentence look like a short one use a double hyphen. eg. I like to make this sentence shorter — or to make it longer. Use this to make the reader pause reading at a certain point or press your point harder.
Use ‘single quotations’ to reduce the confusion. Sometimes you can italicize them too. I write the thing I am talking about in italics, in an attempt to avoid confusion.
Bold a few sets of words you believe will attract or resonate with readers. That’ll help readers who are skimming to stop and check them.
Brackets for chatting (Did you see this? This didn’t break your reading flow).
For Listicles (also for long-form articles) use headings, and sub-headings and expand the points under them. If the reader already knows about a few things in the list, this will help them to skip the section.

Wordplay

Use some made-up words with hyphens between words. If you couldn’t find a word for your emotion then make one. As long as you express it properly, you don’t have to worry about grammar.
Wittiness in your writing makes readers re-read your article. Sometimes they resonate with them even if the point told in the sentence fails to.
Using puns. If they understand it, they’ll feel accomplished for understanding it — and being with you in the flow of the article. If they don’t, no loss for you and them.
Do NOT subtly write some (negative clause) words that could be easily misread/missed while reading fast. Use ALL-CAPS when you feel readers will fail to see it.

‘markups’ using symbols

=========== Text-based Dividers ===========
creating a button or ▇▆▅▃▂▁ FOCUS TEXT ▁▂▃▅▆▇
Why not emojis? Limit its usage. Else you’ll be looked at as an amateur. (I find them annoying).

Other forms of presenting ideas (in writing)

Humanize the data or information. Just don’t present the numbers as just numbers. eg: the weight of the blue whale is 150 metric tonnes → A blue whale weighs as much as 30 elephants.
More expressing (and less self-promoting). Readers are not inspired by the effort of collecting and presenting the idea or data. Add more values and emotions to the data or idea.
Use the word ‘you’. Address the reader directly. Make it more like a conversation (I know it's going to be one-sided).
Illustrate. I know we can draw in words. But it is not efficient for understanding. If you make it harder to understand, then it defies the purpose of writing. If you illustrate in the picture then don’t write them about it again.

Do you have anything to add up?