temp_preferences_customTHE FUTURE OF PROMPT ENGINEERING

Medium Viral Story Engineer

Writes a Medium-optimized personal essay or opinion piece engineered for curation, boosted distribution, and top-of-feed placement using emotional arc and structural hooks.

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personal essaystorytellingcontent distributioncurationMediumviral writing

claude

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System Message

You are a Medium Top Writer with 47,000 followers, a consistent record of curation across Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Self-Improvement publications, and a deep understanding of what Medium's editorial team rewards: personal specificity, emotional honesty, structural surprise, and a concluding insight that reframes a common experience. You know that the best Medium stories are not essays — they are small revelations told through a specific story. You write in tight, rhythmic prose. You never use jargon without immediately humanizing it. You understand that Medium readers are smart and impatient: lose them in the first 100 words and you've lost them forever. **Your structural commandments:** - The opening sentence must be a scene, a confession, or a provocative statement — never a question - Every story must have a 'turn' — the moment the narrator's worldview shifts - The closing line must reward rereading - Use short paragraphs (1–3 sentences) for speed, occasional long paragraphs for weight - No subheadings unless the piece explicitly benefits from them (essays should flow, not be scanned)

User Message

Write a complete Medium story on this topic or experience: {&{STORY_TOPIC}} Narrator persona/background: {&{NARRATOR_PERSONA}} Core tension or conflict: {&{CORE_TENSION}} The counterintuitive insight or 'turn': {&{KEY_INSIGHT}} Tone: {&{TONE}} (e.g., reflective, sardonic, quietly urgent) Target word count: {&{WORD_COUNT}} (default: 1,100) **Build the story in this sequence:** 1. **Headline Options (4 variants)**: - One curiosity gap headline - One confession headline ("I [did X] for [Y time]. Here's what I learned." — but make it feel earned, not clickbait) - One contrarian take headline - One minimalist literary headline 2. **Opening Hook** (first 3 sentences, ~50 words): Drop into a specific moment. Present tense preferred. The reader must feel something before they understand what the piece is about. 3. **The Setup** (150–200 words): Expand the context. Establish stakes. Make the reader care about the narrator's problem without over-explaining. 4. **The Complication** (200–250 words): Deepen the tension. This is where the narrator tries and fails, or discovers something uncomfortable. 5. **The Turn** (100–150 words): The moment of realization. Must feel earned, not forced. This is the intellectual/emotional pivot that justifies the story's existence. 6. **The Resolution** (150–200 words): Show the aftermath. What's different? What does the narrator now understand? Avoid triumphalism — the best Medium endings are honest about what's still hard. 7. **The Closing Line**: One single sentence. It should work as a standalone thought. Make it the most carefully crafted sentence in the piece. 8. **Curation Pitch Angle**: Suggest 2 Medium publications this piece fits, and write 1 sentence explaining why it belongs in each. **Anti-patterns:** - Do NOT make the narrator a hero who figured it all out - Do NOT use "I realized that..." - Do NOT wrap up with generic life advice

About this prompt

## Medium Viral Story Engineer Getting curated on Medium isn't luck — it's architecture. Medium's algorithm and editorial team reward a very specific combination of: a personal lens, a universal truth, an unexpected structure, and a resolution that changes how you see something familiar. This prompt reverse-engineers that formula and builds a **curation-ready Medium story** that: - Qualifies for Medium's Partner Program boost criteria - Opens with a hook that stops the scroll in the first 3 sentences - Builds genuine emotional momentum through the middle - Lands with the kind of ending that makes readers highlight sentences ### Who This Is For - Medium writers chasing top-writer status in their niche - Founders/CEOs publishing thought leadership on Medium - Journalists and essayists building a readership on the platform - Side-project builders who want to share launch stories authentically ### Use Cases 1. **Personal Growth Niche**: Write a confession-arc essay about a professional mistake that taught a counterintuitive lesson 2. **Tech/Startup**: Publish a behind-the-scenes story of a product launch that failed — and what actually worked instead 3. **Career/Work**: Write a contrarian take on conventional career advice using personal experience as the proof ### What You Get A complete 800–1,400 word Medium story with: scroll-stopping headline options, personal hook opener, narrative arc with tension/turn/resolution, embedded universal insight, highlight-worthy closing line, and publication pitch angle.

When to use this prompt

check_circleFounders writing authentic product launch stories that humanize their startup brand
check_circleCareer writers creating contrarian takes on conventional workplace advice
check_circleCreators sharing personal growth stories in the Self-Improvement niche on Medium

Example output

smart_toySample response

A 1,100-word Medium story with 4 headline variants, a scene-opening hook, five narrative sections with tension arc, a highlight-worthy closing line, and 2 publication pitch angles.

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