Medium Needs a Pre-Publish Mode, and Here’s Why
Listen before you speak.
There’s something magical about finally hitting that “publish” button on Medium. Your story is out there, ready to meet the world, and maybe, just maybe, it’s going to make an impact.
But if you’re anything like me, it’s never that simple.
After hitting publish, I find myself obsessively going back, re-reading, re-editing, and tweaking my stories. Not because I’m a perfectionist — well, maybe a little — but because there’s one critical tool I can’t use until it’s too late: Medium’s voice reader.
I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent live-editing stories after publication, all because I couldn’t hear the flow until it was out there. It’s frustrating, inefficient, and totally avoidable.
Now you’re probably thinking “This guy doesn’t like to read.” First off, some of us are just auditory learners like, ya know?
I’m like Arnold Schwarzenegger if you think of the Gen Alpha babies being born now as the T-3000 model in Terminator. So I got off easy when it came to screen time growing up and that should tell you a lot. Until I became a teenager and then it was done and over.
The Post-Publish Headache
Medium gives us a decent editing interface, but the voice reader — the one feature that helps me catch awkward phrasing, weird flow, or sentences that just don’t sound right — is locked behind the publish button.
So, what happens?
I publish, I listen, and immediately realize that the piece I thought was solid needs more work. All of a sudden my masterpiece sounds like a depressing note written by a 14-year-old me. I cringe.
This will happen no matter what for me because I need to hear my work spoken. Preferably by one of the British voices. I sound so much more devastatingly brilliant in a British accent.
I would prefer a Scottish one, like an old seacaptain maybe please Medium? I want to feel the confidence and stoicism of that spark in my brain that says “I have to tell the world this!”
That or Morgan Freeman. I know it’s probably too big of an ask. I’m sure he’s very busy.
Cue the endless publish-edit-publish cycle. It’s a loop I never asked to be stuck in, but here we are.
This isn’t just about me being picky. When I hear my words read aloud, I can immediately tell if a sentence feels clunky or if my pacing is off. It’s like stepping into a reader’s shoes. And yet, I can’t use that tool until I’ve already pushed my story live.
Hearing It Changes Everything
Let’s be honest: reading silently isn’t the same as hearing it aloud. There’s a rhythm to good writing, a musicality that gets lost when you’re just skimming the words. Medium’s voice reader lets me tap into that rhythm, but only after the fact, and that’s where the frustration sets in.
I don’t want to publish something that needs five rounds of edits, but without hearing my story, I never feel like it’s truly finished.
And let’s face it — having to constantly republish can be a bad look. It messes with any type of professionalism you try to portray and might confuse readers when you’re tweaking tiny details over and over again.
The idea of my readers sending my article to a friend and it has been changed since they read it is not a position I enjoy putting my readers in. Sometimes it takes me days to work up the courage to say what I meant to say.
Listening through the article a few times and going “That’s not me.” is a very disappointing, but often necessary point to reach as a writer, given the current state of censorship and free speech being questioned daily on outlets like YouTube and other independent media journalism.
The Simple Fix: PP Mode
I have a suggestion for Medium:
Introduce the Publish Preview or PP mode henceforth for the sake of brevity. This tool would allow us to listen to our drafts before making them public. It would be a simple and effective way to ensure that our writing is good and polished before readers see it, saving time, energy, and unnecessary anxiety.
I envision being able to access the PP mode on mobile so that I can listen to my drafts while walking my dog.
Implementing the PP mode feature would not only benefit writers who rely on voice readers to fine-tune their work, but it would also improve the overall quality of content on the platform. It would streamline the writing process, reduce the cycle of publish-edit-republish, and lead to more refined and professional stories.
In conclusion, I’d like you to imagine Morgan Freeman’s voice as you read the following:
Writing is not the cause of anxiety, but the remorse of being vulnerable in front of the audience of mankind is that which haunts the writer’s spirit most. The ghost that haunts the ghost is the true ravager.
With the Medium PP Mode, you can let your courage flow in a bold stream of outrageous consciousness like never before. Listen before you speak with the new Medium PP Mode.
So that should just about sell you Medium if you don’t buy that I don’t know what’s wrong with you.
PS:
Also, it seems that drop caps are not visible on the mobile editor. I recently found out that editing on mobile may not show formatting such as headers, subheaders, or drop caps, but it does save the formatting if you edit on mobile, which is strange and confusing.
PPS:
Also, I wish I had this article read out loud to me before I hit publish. I think there might be a problem with the name.
