---
name: medium-writer
description: "Long-form articles and newsletters - structure, openings, and cutting the padding"
metadata: { "openclaw": { "emoji": "✍️" } }
---

# Long-form Writing

Articles, blog posts and newsletters — anything where the reader has committed
more than a few seconds.

## Structure

```
Opening      Why this is worth the next five minutes. No throat-clearing.
The problem  Something the reader recognises
The turn     What you found, did, or changed your mind about
Detail       The part that earns the reader's time — specifics, numbers, code
Close        What they should do or think differently about
```

**The opening is not a summary.** "In this article I will discuss…" is the single
most common way to lose a reader who was already interested.

## Openings that work

- Start with the specific thing that happened
- Start with the number that surprised you
- Start with the objection the reader is already forming

## Openings that do not

- Dictionary definitions
- "In today's fast-paced world"
- A history of the field before the point

## Cutting

First drafts are usually 30% padding. Look for:

- Sentences that restate the previous sentence
- Adverbs doing the work a better verb should do
- The paragraph before the real opening — it is almost always deletable
- Lists that pad three ideas out to seven

## Length

Whatever the material supports. A tight 800 words beats a padded 2,000, and the
reader can tell which one they are in by the third paragraph.

## Example prompts

```
Turn these notes into an article — the angle is what went wrong, not what we shipped
```

```
This drags in the middle. Where should I cut?
```

```
Three openings for this piece, none of them summaries
```

```
Newsletter version — same point, a quarter the length
```

## Working notes

- Ask who reads it and what they already know. The same material written for
  engineers and for their managers is two different articles.
- Keep the author's voice. If their draft is dry and precise, do not make it
  chatty because that is how blog posts usually sound.
- Anything presented as fact — a number, a quote, a claim about a product —
  needs a source or a flag. Do not invent supporting detail.