Now is a crucial time to build support and connection. Over the last few weeks, Medium has been a place to share information and experiences during these challenging times. To help support your writing practice, we held a Medium Writers Q&A hosted by Kawandeep Virdee in conversation with Kate Green Tripp, Megan Morrone, and Michelle Woo, the platform editors of Elemental, OneZero, and Forge. Before the panel, we invited Medium writers to submit questions. You can watch a recording of the event here.

The panel covers questions including:

1. How do you still find motivation to write and work on…

Writers come in many forms.

Shaunta Grimes has been one for a long time. She has a Master’s in writing fiction, is a published author, and runs the Every Day Novelist publication on Medium. Her third novel, The Astonishing Maybe, was published by Penguin Random House in March.

There is also Shannon Ashley, who began writing independently only a year ago, when she quickly went from writing social media posts for companies to publishing popular stories on Medium about the topics that interest her: sex, family, and mental health.

Both women work full time as writers and support their families…

Recently, we interviewed Stephanie Georgopulos and Harris Sockel, editors at Medium who work with independent, self-publishing writers on the platform to help their work reach a wider audience. Steph and Harris spoke about the benefits of publishing on Medium, shared a few of their favorite stories, explained how the metered paywall works, and gave their advice for writers.

In response, many Medium writers (and readers) expressed gratitude and excitement about our efforts to “elevate” independent voices on the platform. Many were inspired to self-publish more stories this year and to — in Georgopulos’ words — “focus on finding their voice.”

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Stephanie Georgopulos and Harris Sockel are editors at Medium who started out using the platform back in 2013, writing and publishing stories that explored the human condition. Now, they work to “elevate” with independent, self-published writers on Medium. Georgopulos and Sockel scour Medium to find great stories they think deserve a wider audience than they may otherwise be getting.

They reach out to the writer and work with them on improving their piece, then distribute it broadly through Medium’s topics, publications, homepage, emails, and social channels.

Medium VP, Editorial Siobhan O’Connor explained the various ways that the editorial team works…

Tags are an important part of the Medium experience. Whether publishing an original piece or replying to another writer, tags are a key way to help new readers discover your work.

To unlock the full potential of tags, one must balance both their art and science.

Use all your tags

Every story has at least five phrases that are excellent descriptors of the writing within. Don’t squander this opportunity to get your work in front of as many people as possible. Remember that people are on Medium because they want to read what people are writing, and people follow tags in order to discover…