Medium: Image is Everything
By: Stevie Adler
Tags: Medium Tips, Writing, Writing Advice, Medium, Writing Tips

Medium: Image is Everything

Each story needs a stunning image and a good title

The first sentence or two of any story needs to interest the reader so much that they want to read more. They want to find out what happens next. They need to be hooked.

But, the reader needs to set their eyes on that first sentence, in the first place. Why would they do that? Why would they pick your story over the many others they could choose, or do any of the other thousand and one distractions of modern day living?

The title and the image presenting your story needs to persuade them.

Both image and title are imploring read me, read me, READ ME.

All the other stories presented are saying NO READ ME.

The next time you are presented with a stack of stories and you choose one, try to work out why you chose that particular one and aspire to the title-image winning combination.

Title Well

Before the image comes the title of your piece. What makes for a good title? It has to sum up the gist of the story, but it also has to be interesting. It has to be eye catching.It has to demand attention.

How?

Sweat that Title: create 10 titles and choose the best. Think of it as a writing exercise. A most important writing exercise, because if a reader doesn’t think the title is interesting he won’t read the first sentence and therefore won’t read the story.

Image Selection

After creating that killer title go on the hunt for a image that pairs well with the title. It has to complement the title, and the title should sum up the story. You are looking for a title-image pair.

Where to look for images?

These are the three libraries I use:

To find others search in your favourite search engine and bookmark, you will use them a lot. There are plenty of others. The key phrases to look for are “Free for commercial use” and “No attribution required.” Though you can attribute if you wish.

There is also Wikimedia Commons which can be freely reused but some items need to be attributed, see the meta-data (data about data) that describes each item. There are diagrams and photos that aren't available elsewhere, but it does take time working out if an attribution is required and the exact format required.

Own Photos / Drawings

You can also use any photo or drawing you created yourself. Even then it is wise to attribute the owner (you).

An added complication that personal photos have is that permission will need to be obtained from anyone appearing in photos, if they can be identified. So it’s probably best to avoid these.

Image is Everything on Medium

The first sentence of a story needs to be interesting enough to want to read the rest of the story.

The Title sometimes listed amongst many other story titles needs to stand out and entice a reader to want to Read Me.

But, here on Medium before someone reads a title there are a competing bunch of images so, to have any chance of being read,

THE IMAGE NEEDS TO BE EYE-CATCHING

It should go without saying there needs to be an image.

The way I find images that are eye-catching to pair with a story is to view as many as I can. Usually one will catch your eye.