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divinekangaroo · 6 months

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Thanks @palmviolet for tagging me!

How many works do you have on AO3? 154

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 900k

3. What fandoms do you write for? Peaky Blinders, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy VII, Dragon Age II, The Professionals.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Interesting and not straightforward question: I've been writing since 2007 and only rebooted my fics to AO3 in 2023. I backdated them to time of writing rather than posting live into the current update stream. I was vaguely curious to see what *actually* attracts readers through the AO3 search engine. So, my current top five are all Peaky Blinders Tommy/Lizzie fics, and given my small followers list, everyone following me will probably already have read them!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do, and it’s my vain (both senses of the term) struggle with how to do it appropriately. I am conscious of how comments, particularly on an AO3 "archival" fic, can weight a reader's further interpretation/engagement of or with fic by that author, and that I'll never put so much time into comments as I do into fic.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The fics I thought of picking for these two pretty much overlapped. Perhaps this shows just how I approach happiness – it’s moments, it’s never an ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Only old Dragon Age fics. Interesting period of time where any fic author that didn't unequivocally support the moral rightness of one particular character's opinions was targeted. Like: ok to write torture/rape fics of this character, but only if it was clear the author thought this character was morally right. Such a destructive troll.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I'll write sex, mostly as part of a larger arc rather than standalone smut; often it is a partial scenario rather than linear start-to-end event written in a rhythm to support a coherent wanking rise-to-climax read. I'm pleased if people find it pushes their buttons, but I'm also not bothered if it doesn't. I do approach smut as one of many possible lenses or frames for a character, however, so smut that detaches from character confuses me.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Sometimes but they have to feel really right. I think I tend more to fusion or pastiche (I think those are the terms?) rather than crossover: I take a particular character concept/theme and port them into a particular environmental context which is not possible in the canon to see what happens. The only one I still have up is a FFXII/Dragonriders of Pern fic (incomplete) which was going to be all about the horrible knowledge of socially accepted and endorsed ritualised rape and forced feminisation of a character.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I'm not that popular to notice.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have a memory of one in FFXII but can't recall.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! Taught me a lot, including the kind of writer I am - difficult to collaborate as my push to complete within a motivational urge period will always be greater than a long-haul effort, and I struggle to be available for other people. I’m either good at the front end ideas-generation, or a micro detail ‘write this particular thing/scene and fill it with goodness’, and not very good at the middle bit – the long slot of planning and plotting and aiming for consistency etc. I am so grateful fandom exists to support non-traditional prose formats which let me play with writing and thinking and engagement without needing to produce to book-style production standards.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship? I usually fixate on a character, and pairings allow means to explore that character rather than being an end game.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Oh they all carry this potential. *cries* The issue for me is loss of motivational drive/thinking; because I rarely have good structural notes etc if I lose my immediate thread of 'thinking of everything all at once' I find it hard to pick up again later. I also stop some fics because I realise how ambitious the scope really is, and I feel like I can’t do them justice.

16. What are your writing strengths? Speed-sketcher? Completionist? Tests multiple ideas rapidly and freely and never worries about something 'being wrong' because there's always another fic to try? Intuitive gut level hits on characterisation here and there?

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Editing, pacing, I can't sustain long fic, I frequently move characters around like paper dolls for the sake of the cool and forget they need their own internal motivation.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I prefer the kind of cant-based/dialect-based approach which splices non-English terms fluidly into English dialogue, mostly because as a child of many migrants this has been my world experience. I do suck at writing this, hence my frequent use of cop-outs to say 'language shift here, meanwhile still writing in English'. But when it’s done well it hits so many of my sweet spots.

19. First fandom you wrote for? FFVII.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Anything in my Personal Favourites list: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3728710. (I'm still too close to Peaky Blinders to pick a fav, it'll take about five years of distance!)

#my writing

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wordsnstuff · 3 years

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Guide to Writing Dark Fantasy

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

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What Is “Dark” Fantasy?

Dark Fantasy subscribes to the tropes and conventions of fantasy, while mixing in elements of the horror, thriller, and sometimes dystopia. Loosely, the magical elements of fantasy take a gloomier, more frightening turn. Dark fantasy is not simply “fantasy, but make it sexy or gory”. (I’m talking to those who cite Game of Thrones as an example of the genre.)

Yes, a lot of authors choose to incorporate heavier subject matter into dark fantasy stories, but things like rape and copious amounts of gore and death are not genre-defining. Darkness exists in every adult story, even if it’s only in symbolism, but the darkness in this sub-genre specifically persists throughout each scene and coats every element. This includes character development, plot development, world building, etc.

Death Still Has to Mean Something

Something you have to understand about dark fantasy is that death can be a tool, but the nature of the genre shouldn’t make it any less impactful. When a side character or an extra gets killed, it should affect the reader emotionally, even if death is very common. If the death isn’t going to surprise them, it should unease or upset the reader. Death should never serve the purpose of filling space.

Incorporate The Horrific

A lot of dark fantasy authors and writers have trouble or fail to incorporate the dark elements in a rounded, even manner. A lot of authors go for the “show the reader something undoubtedly tragic or traumatizing and the tone will endure” or the “if I sporadically kill characters for no apparent reason throughout the plot, the reader will stay disturbed and none will be the wiser”.

The Villain Is The Key

The antagonist must be complex and compelling, and you have to use them well. Dark fantasy is a genre which depends on a fantastic villain or antagonist. It’s wise to create an antagonist whom the reader can understand, but who is severely misguided or obviously facing their own demons. Stories with a standard “I’m evil because my mommy didn’t love me” or “The world has been unkind to me so let there be fire” villain is outdated and, at this point, you have all the opportunity in the world to do better.

If there’s one place where you should invest your creativity, make it the antagonist.

The Darkness Is In Everything

Incorporating horrific things into fantasy is what makes this genre, true, but it has to be a consistent effort and an author must play the long-game. The darkness has to penetrate your word choice, the way you deliver new information in the text, the way you build up to important events, etc. The horror shouldn’t just spurt out every couple of chapters. You want to create a dark atmosphere, and an atmosphere must stretch beyond one or two scenes here and there.

Flawed vs. Unlikeable

This is a major downfall of a lot of dark fantasy works. It’s difficult to create a character whose flaws are so integral to the storytelling without making them unlikeable, but if you don’t toe this line carefully, your readers will put the story down. Yes, the character must be flawed and complex, and there are no heroes in the situation, but if there’s nobody to have hope for, then the reader will abandon the story. Nobody wants to sit and watch something that is sad and frustrating for the sake of depressing themselves. Well, some do, but not enough to convince someone there’s a market for your story.

Common Struggles

~ How do you craft a dark fantasy ending?... Not all pessimistic stories have to have a pessimistic ending. You can give your characters a positive outcome (or even just somewhat positive) without sacrificing the work you’ve done to maintain the genre’s tone and message. Most dark fantasy is about topics that are larger than the story itself, such as equality (in many aspects), existence, freedom vs. security, society vs. individuality, etc. Dark fantasy tends to branch off from the typical fantasy in terms of messaging because incorporating darker aspects of reality forces the reader to face harsher truths. Make your ending about what you want the reader to walk away with, and you should have no problem figuring out how to do it.

~ How do you warn readers of possible triggers in non-fanfiction works?... Simply put, market your story honestly. Disclose any especially dark elements, and when advertising on platforms such as social media, perhaps provide an official disclaimer. The manner in which you warn readers of possible triggers is up to your own and whatever marketing team you have’s discretion.

~ How do you research dark topics while writing?... With purpose, caution, and practicality. I see a lot of posts that cover very tiny details that may go into fantasy, and while I encourage research of all kinds for every genre, I think fantasy is one where writers can get so caught up in getting every minute detail researched and recorded that they get burned out with their own ideas before they even put pen to paper. Research what you missed, then find holes as you write, and then do the rest of the research for the second draft once you’re finished with the first. Avoid burnout that comes with extensive research beforehand.

~ How do common fantasy tropes interact with darker aspects of the sub-genre?... There’s a lot of ways you can mix typical fantasy with typical horror/thriller and come out with dark fantasy. The main fantasy characteristics that persist in dark fantasy are setting and the way magic systems are executed in the story. Secondly, I see a lot of similarities in general world building. Where it deviates, I think, is in character development, plot structure, plot development, and messaging. The smaller events tend to be more mature, the character arcs turn more raw, the characters themselves are more flawed, and the plot develops in a much less linear fashion. The messages are heavier because the content is heavier.

Other Resources

Resources For Fantasy/Mythology Writers

20 Mistakes To Avoid in Fantasy

Guide to Writing Fantasy

Guide to Story Researching

Commentary on Social Issues In Writing

On Writing About Sensitive Topics

Resources For Writing Royalty

Dark Quotes & Prompts

Angst Prompts

31 Days of Character Development : May 2018 Writing Challenge

Suspenseful Prompts

Sad Prompts

31 Days of World Building : August 2018 Writing Challenge

31 Days of Plot Development : January 2019 Writing Challenge

31 Days of Horror : October 2019 Writing Challenge

Resources For Creating Characters

Giving Your Protagonists Negative Traits

Writing Good Villains

Showing Vulnerability Without Death

Giving Characters Flaws

Creating Villains

Flipping Character Traits On Their Head

“Male characters are more relatable”

Tips on Character Motivations

Tips on Character Consistency

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

Plot Structures

Describing Setting

Resources For Worldbuilding

Guide To Political World Building

Creating Diverse Otherworld Characters

Tips on Creating Magic Systems

Tips on Introducing Political Backstory

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : High Middle Ages & Renaissance

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1600s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1700s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1800s

Tips on Writing Fight Scenes

Tips on Writing Chase Scenes

How To Make The Journey Interesting

Tips For Horror Writers

Tips on Writing Pyschological Thrillers

10 Mistakes to Avoid in Horror

–

Masterlist | WIP Blog

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.

Shoutout to my $15+ patrons, Jade Ashley and Douglas S.!

#writing #writeblr #fantasy #dark fantasy #fantasy writing #writing advice #writing help #writing tips #writing resources #resources for writers #writing reference #guide to writing

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waka-chan-out · 3 years

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hello! i was just wondering how you started out your page, like any tips? I love your work so much 😤✋💕

well, first of all thank you very much! i’m surprised and flattered that you would ask me!

in all honesty, i don’t know how i got here. i feel like i blacked out at 300 followers and now i’m at 1.2k. but i can try to offer some tips! i know i looked at some tip posts when i was first starting and didn’t follow most of them, so i’ll let you know what’s been useful to me. obviously remember this is what worked for me and it may not apply to everybody. i acquired this audience completely by accident, so those that are actively working to build a page might give you different tips.

((keep in mind this all applies to fanfic blogs because that’s all i have experience in.))

things to do:

first of all, and this is pretty obvious: tag everything you think applies. it seems excessive in the moment but it’s the only reason anyone ever saw my stuff lmao. like for any specific character in my posts will have a whole slew of tags (and this is for my nsfw posts) like:

ushijima smut ushijima x reader ushiwaka smut ushiwaka x reader haikyuu smut haikyuu x reader hq smut hq x reader

going along with that, oh my god, come up with a tagging system. even if you don’t think you need to tag something, you probably do. so many headcanons of mine are lost to time simply because i never tagged them and now i have over 600 posts. i’m never finding that shit again. tag it.

make a masterlist. it helps you and your followers stay sane and organized. i made mine because someone requested it, so that was cool. but if you make one early it’ll make your life easier.

find one uniform way to structure your posts. i know everyone feels differently about this, but it really does make life so much easier. i’ve been doing my “post timeskip, obviously, content warnings, etc” thing since my very first post, and it just makes me feel more organized and consistent. everyone’s posts will look different, so just look at what your favorite blogs do and mush all that together. you’ll find what you like eventually.

be clear what kind of audience you want. this can change and evolve, but try to start off with some idea of what you want. don’t want minors on your page? write minors dni EVERYWHERE and keep up with blocking pages. a rules list helps with this, but of course people like to just not check those, so be firm when your rules are bent or broken.

post a variety of content. it’s so much easier to rack up notes on a headcanon or thirst post then it is anything else, especially the type of fics i write where it has a lot of banter and build up before anything else.

it pays off to have a gimmick! i acquired the most followers from my 300 follower event and that’s been so nice.

this isn’t necessarily a “blog” tip, but oh my god, learn how to structure writing. i cannot tell you how off putting it is to try to read fics when paragraph breaks are used awkwardly or there are two people speaking in one paragraph. you don’t have to be a perfect writer to write fanfiction, but please at least learn the rules of writing. if you need help, ask. google things. i’m an english major that wants to write and edit for a living and i still look shit up all the time.

write what you like. you’ll find an audience. you don’t have to cater to anyone else’s tastes or preferences. one of my first few posts was a request, and that was only after i had posted one or two things. people will find you, and it will be people that also like what you like. don’t make yourself uncomfortable just to cater to someone else’s preferences.

be patient. you won’t get followers overnight. some blogs grow quickly and others don’t. that’s just how it is. also don’t be too demanding with your followers. don’t get pouty when people don’t interact, don’t be demanding about requests. just realize that you’re a person and so are they. they aren’t obligated to read just like you aren’t obligated to write. relax and realize it’s just a blog. you’ll be fine.

edit: I ALMOST FORGOT !! be inclusive. holy shit. so many people will read your writing and though you shouldn’t write anything you’re uncomfortable with, it’s so easy to be inclusive. there are tips all over the place, but all you need to do is focus on the personality of the reader rather than their appearance. easy. i’m lucky enough to have a pretty diverse audience and it makes me so happy i could cry. i love knowing that people feel safe and included here.

what i haven’t found necessary:

making a tag list. i only made one recently, and even then i only have nine people on it. it’s not that necessary, unless you have a series that people want to see.

having a theme. seriously, don’t stress. even now i barely have a theme. it’s never been hard on me.

plugging your blog?? i don’t know if people actually do this but i saw a suggestion about it and it confused me to no end. i’ve never found that necessary, though it is nice having mutuals that reblog your stuff. still not totally necessary though. my only mutual was @tanzaniiite for the longest time and that’s literally just because i saw her follow me, saw that she was a writer, stalked her posts, and decided i wanted to follow her back. she was my 34th follower (yes i counted) and she’s still here. very much appreciated.

doing collabs. i didn’t even consider doing one until recently. they’re really not necessary.

self reblogs. another one that i think might help but isn’t necessary. i didn’t start doing these until i had acquired a larger audience. figure out what works for you, but i’ve unfollowed more than one blog just because of the sheer amount of self reblogs they do. i understand that they’re proud of their work and want it out there, but i just think there’s no way reblogging a new post every hour is necessary. obviously if you want to reblog your own content you can. but having a masterlist had made that unnecessary for me. one of my first posts had like 100 notes after it was first posted, and now it’s up to 600 when it hasn’t been on people’s pages in months. people will find your work if they want to find it.

obviously all of this is just my opinion and you should take it with a grain of salt. i started this blog randomly to post one tsukishima fic i had written for someone that i was told was good enough to post. i haven’t changed my writing structure or process since then, and i still have no god damn clue how tumblr works. it’s a lot less intimidating than it seems. i know it’s a different experience for everyone, but it’s an overwhelmingly loving community that is kind to new writers. i was lucky enough to grow fast and receive a lot of kindness, but that’s also because i put a crazy amount of effort into being kind back and posting consistently (and no one needs to be going at the pace i set towards the beginning of this blog. holy shit i was posting like every other day for a while.)

if you do decide to commit to trying to build an audience, let me know and i’d love to follow you! and if you’ll be writing (which i hope so because most of these tips are for fanfic blogs lmao) i’m always here to help with structure, beta reading, editing, etc. that’s literally what i want to do as a career so it’s never a burden on me. either way, good luck! it’s frustrating sometimes but if you have solid ideas and basic writing abilities you’ll be fine!

again, thank you so much and i’m so flattered you asked me 💞 i hope you have a lovely day darling.

#meg’s messages 📫#meg’s thoughts #⏰..meg

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goodshipsherlollipop · 3 years

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Self-interview (but not really) Part 2

Thanks again @sherlollyappreciationweek

Comp1mom

Q: What made you decide to create a “Christian” version of Sherlock? According to the BBC version, he is a self-avowed atheist.

A: When I look at Sherlock’s true nature, I see such potential for him as a Christian. He exhibits so many characteristics that we, as Christians, try to show - forgiveness of wrongs done to him (note how he doesn’t fight back when John assaults him); sacrificial love (his willingness to die for others, as in TRF); the desire for true justice, the way Moriarty says he’s “on the side of the angels”. At least for me, I was intrigued by the idea of converting him to Christianity, to give him a true purpose for his life that has eternal consequences.

Q: Do you think that portraying Sherlock as a Christian is important? Why or why not?

A: I am always hopeful that people will read and see the validity in my reasoning for him becoming a Christian, given how often he has escaped death. Quite often, in stories, Molly puts the question to him - Why are you still here? Why have you escaped death so many times? That should be enough to make anyone reevaluate their life’s purpose.

Q: Molly Hooper is the one who proselytizes him, right? Why do you use Molly? Why not John, who must be a believer in Christ in some way or he would have had a problem with christening Rosie?

A: For me, it HAD to be Molly. Her character and the way she behaves in the show is consistent with the behaviour of a Christian. She loves Sherlock unconditionally; she sees beyond the detective persona to the real man beneath. She needs to be the catalyst for Sherlock to be open to the idea of Christianity, because he loves and trusts her. John, although he certainly believes in God and has some Christian (or Catholic in my story canon) background, does not live a life that is consistent with Christianity and its ideals. He has multiple sexual partners. Although I think he is an ethical man, I don’t believe he has the kind of sexual morality that is typical of committed Christians. Identifying yourself as a Christian because you were raised in a Christian home and went to church, does not make you one if you display behaviour that is contrary to what the Bible teaches. Either you’re committed to what you believe and try to follow what the Bible teaches, or you are not really committed to your faith, (not that Christians are perfect - far from it, but we do try to follow what the Bible teaches, and we feel guilt when we fail). There’s a difference between being a Jesus fan and a Jesus follower.

Q: What evidence does Molly use to convince Sherlock of a Higher Power?

A: In various stories, Molly points out the beauty and balance of creation, that it does not make sense for that balance to have occurred spontaneously. She also points out the complexity of the human body and how it is built with all its systems designed to work in harmony. Personally, I believe these two facts are huge considerations, and that it takes far less of a leap in logic to believe something created this beauty, rather than it happening spontaneously. Molly also points out the fact that Sherlock has been spared from death so many times and asks him to question why that is so, whether there is a higher purpose to his life because of that.

Q: How do you maintain Sherlock’s acerbic wit and still have him believe that Jesus Christ is more than a swear, is a deity, the Deity?

A: I try to show that Sherlock is not the ��perfect” Christian. He has many years of conditioning in one type of behaviour, and that is something that is going to come out from time to time. I don’t find it as difficult to write him as someone who does not use the name of Jesus Christ in a profane way, because he doesn't talk that way in the show (unlike John). Personally, I am also not comfortable in writing (or reading) stories that use the name of Jesus Christ as an expletive.

Q: What does belief in Jesus Christ do for his detective work? Or does it influence his detective work?

A: Oh, I definitely think his faith adds an element of compassion to Sherlock’s detective work. He is no longer answerable only to himself, but he is trying to behave in a way that displays his faith and pleases God. That means thinking before he speaks, caring about the people involved in the case, rather than just the case itself. His motives, to glorify God in his work, are his priority.

Q: Is there any evidence in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing that Sherlock Holmes believes in Something Higher than himself?

A: I absolutely believe ACD’s Sherlock believed in God, which is one of the reasons I felt it believable to change BBC Sherlock’s atheistic stance. ACD’s Sherlock mentions Providence, as evidenced in this quote from The Naval Treaty.

“Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”

Also, in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, when Sherlock lets a dying killer go, he says, “You are yourself aware that you will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the Assizes.” This implies God will judge the man after he dies.

Penelope Chestnut

Q: How long have you written Sherlolly stories? What made you start writing?

A: A dear friend of mine recommended watching Sherlock, and my husband and I binge watched it in the summer of 2017. After the final episode, I was so sad that the Sherlock and Molly dynamic was not resolved, I was moved to write a happy ending for them. My daughters have been involved in fanfiction for years, so I knew people did this kind of thing. My intention was to write a one-shot happy ending for them, just for my own satisfaction. After I wrote it, though, I found I didn't want to let the characters go. I had fallen in love with their story, and I wanted to keep writing for them. 60 chapters later, I decided to start publishing my story, A Journey to Love, Faith and Marriage. This was just over 3 years ago, on November 7th 2017, when I joined fanfiction.net. I later joined ao3 as well and was publishing on both sites for quite some time. I've had a better response though on fanfiction.net, so have pretty much limited myself to that site over the past year and a half. I continue to make revisions and correct errors on my fanfiction.net stories, while I don’t really do anything on ao3. I have been likened to a writing machine on a couple occasions. To date, on fanfiction.net, I have published over 1.9m words. Putting that in perspective, in three years I've published the equivalent of more than 7 volumes of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the longest book in her series), or close to two and a half volumes of the Holy Bible.

Q: Do you have a certain routine you follow when you write?

A: I don’t have a set daily routine, but I do set myself a goal to complete a certain amount of work per week. This has changed over time. Currently, I set myself the goal to write at least one chapter of a story each week, to keep myself in line with my publishing schedule of one chapter per week. If I am writing an installment for my COVID-19 series that is published in addition to my regular publishing schedule, I still try to write that in addition to my usual chapter writing for the week. So, at times I write more in a week than other times. I am also working on revising one of my AU’s into a Christian historical romance I hope to publish professionally next year.

Q: What is it like being a Christian author?

A: It brings me joy to spread a Christian message through my work, but, like anyone else, at times I do suffer self-doubt. I've questioned in the past whether my limited audience makes worthwhile the enormous effort I put into writing these stories. It can definitely be discouraging to get very little return on your work, and I have a bad habit of comparing myself to more “popular” writers in the fandom. I am, however, getting better at recognizing my own self-worth, having confidence that the lack of readers is not a reflection on my ability and talent as a writer, but more a reflection on the general lack of interest from the majority of Sherlolly fans in reading stories with Christian themes and the values that go along with it (particularly sexual purity outside marriage). Just as I don’t care to read stories of characters with a colourful sexual history because I don’t agree with that kind of behaviour due to my Christian beliefs, I imagine those without similar beliefs are probably not interested in reading about sexual purity or abstinence before marriage, as it is not something they can relate to. Thankfully, I am blessed to have a small but vocal support group who really give me the impetus to keep writing these Christian stories.

Q: Are there any devices you use in your writing as a legally blind author?

A: As I mentioned earlier, I absolutely would be lost without my iPad. Actually, it is the larger sized iPad Pro. I would also be lost without programs that give me the ability to resize the font so I can read it! Thank God for technology!

If you made it to the end of this two-part interview, I hope you enjoyed getting to know my writing journey better. God bless!

#sherlollyappreciationweek #sherlollyselfinterview20 #interview20

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lizzybeth1986 · 5 years

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What are your overall thoughts on Madeleine as a character including what transpired between her and Hana? I've felt iffy about her, but I'm not sure how to phrase that. I think you can better articulate and explain than I could 😅

Not to boast…but you’ve come to the right person (besides @callmetippytumbles who has made excellent points time and again about how the writing centers Madeleine in ways that they should have been centering Hana). I have written A LOT about that issue especially. Here are some of my meta on that if you’re interested:

Brushed Under the Carpet: Madeleine as an Alternate LI (this was written after TRR Book 3 Chapter 9, where they were subtly hinting at making them a ship).

QT on Book 3 Chapter 16 (Tbh thankfully the bit I was predicting here - Madeleine getting the coming out story that should have been Hana’s - wound up not happening, though part of it could have been from them having to scrap the entire idea after the backlash).

How Do You Fix Hana’s Characterization in TRR? (this essay listed a whole set of changes both to help strengthen Hana’s storyline and to give her the attention and validation she deserved but didn’t get in the actual story)

This replay to an ask posted after 3 of the 4 writers on the team claimed Hana was the kind of person they would marry.

A lot of this illustrates my problems with Madeleine on a level of characterization (and Tippy covers the aspects that deal not with Hana, but with Madeleine's half-baked redemption arc and how the narrative tries really hard to convince us that she does her job well, even when she isn’t doing it properly).

With regards to Madeleine herself, I feel like they started out fully intending that the reader hate her and view her as a rival, before turning the tables and establishing her as “innocent” of the conspiracy (though still extremely unlikeable). In narrative structure, the bachelorette chapter had a lot of striking similarities to the Lythikos chapter where you found out about Olivia’s painful childhood before she mocked Drake about his missing sister. I feel like the aim was to make us see Madeleine in a different light, while still remembering why we dislike her.

Somewhere along the line (with Hana’s chocolate scene) they went too far, and Madeleine went from unlikeable to completely repulsive. After that, the team attempted to completely backtrack, by cramming in a sympathy arc for her and after the “hazing process” excuse, what she did to Hana especially was never addressed again. Suddenly she was the patriot who would sacrifice her life and happiness for Cordonia, a figure to be admired and pitied. A woman who was immensely talented and did her job well [even when she actually didn’t]). Most of her characterization, really, consists of retconning.

But I have no interest in Madeleine, or her characterization. I just don’t. No, what I’m going to touch upon today is narrative treatment.

–

Rival figures are important in a story. They’re a foil to the main character: sometimes they exist simply to make the MC look better (ew), sometimes they’re there to show the MC what the larger society in their world is like, and what challenges they may face, and sometimes they’re an unexpected ally after the MC figures out the problem goes way deeper than the rivalry with them. So if you have a rival who behaves badly, treats the people around her badly? That in itself is not really a bad thing.

It makes me hurt for the characters at the receiving end, but as long as long as the narrative validates their experience on its own initiative, and allows them space, I will be fine. If I’m shown bullying and abuse in a narrative towards a character, I’m going to want to see the person hurting from this:

1. have support. Immense support

2. have a friend circle that will protect them and put them first

3. have opportunities to talk about what this is doing to them

4. have opportunities to push back against the bully

Personally the bully’s journey or whatever is of no importance to me. I simply don’t care. As much as possible I would not care about what grand monumental realizations they get behind the scenes, or what their rotten-egg-smelling guilt looks like. What matters to me is the person bullied. I need to see them win. I need to see them thrive. I need to see them receive support and validation.

One example I can give in terms of that being done well, is Penelope. Penelope is treated like a servant by Madeleine, called names, forever reminded she is good-for-nothing and useless and can’t do anything right. The bullying is constant and puts an already anxiety-ridden Penelope under additional pressure, to the point that when we meet her at Portavira in Book 3 she is VERY reluctant to return to court, and panics when certain things remind her of Madeleine’s behaviour. You have to coddle and cajole her with promises that Madeleine would never be able to do anything to her, and that she can bring her Emotional Support Animals with her to court. If we choose not to address her concerns, our friends will do it on our behalf. Drake Trauma-Minimizing Walker himself, is shown reassuring her the moment they meet in Portavira:

So it is very possible, even if the rival/bitchy character is expected to not feel remorse, and still retains a huge portion of her bitchiness, that we can still get a satisfying arc where the person in pain has support and care, and can thrive.

In Penelope’s case, perhaps the only downside may be that, while the narrative is clear about Madeleine’s bullying and its impact on Penelope, it still keeps Madeleine comfortably away from this narrative so she doesn’t even have to engage with it. She herself doesn’t exactly face consequences. The truth doesn’t even touch her.

But we don’t feel the pinch of this, so much with Penelope… precisely because PENELOPE is validated, given support and is given the space to completely refuse to even go with them if the MC doesn’t make great efforts to support and be nice to her (this, even though she has herself harmed us). She is allowed to get upset if we even question her on not following the dress code of our bachelorette, because it reminds her of Madeleine’s. She is even “rewarded” with a guy, no matter which playthrough.

And not every character is going to be a Penelope who will require that level of coddling from other people. So it’s not always about the MC and others needing to constantly protect and reassure such people. Sometimes it’s just simply about whether said character is allowed to push back against the bully. Hana gets a small measure of this when she’s allowed (but only on one occasion, that too a 30 diamond scene that wasn’t even coded properly later) to tell Olivia exactly what she thinks of her (and Olivia is allowed to say shit about her even after that, without Hana ever being allowed the same space again).

Now the thing with Hana (with regards to Madeleine) is…that they could have easily given her space to push back. Easily given the MC opportunities to protect her. Easily ensured that Hana didn’t have to engage with Madeleine if she didn’t want to. Have her whack friends fucking remember what she was put through at least!!!

Let’s go through how that could have been done one by one:

Pushing Back: One of the most bizarre choices the TRR team made was the give the scene about Liam telling Hana he would get her back to court (ergo, that Hana returned through Liam’s help, not Madeleine as the latter kept claiming) to Drake! He gets to narrate this story to the MC, but Hana herself is never allowed to acknowledge the fact or even talk about it. If she were, she would have at least (at the very least!!!) been given chances to hint at Madeleine twisting the truth, implied as much to Madeleine or to the MC, pushed back in her own unique way. The narrative not only pushes the truth of her return in DRAKE’S scene…it also never gives HER the opportunity to do anything actively against Madeleine’s very obvious twisting of the truth. Just so that Madeleine would continue to have way more power over Hana throughout. The bullying occurs much before the incident in Italy, but Hana herself is expected to stay silent.

Support: Now it’s not as if Penelope gets to push back on her own to Madeleine during this time either (except for a few comments here and there). But Penelope does get plenty of support and eventually protection. Does this apply to Hana as well?

Technically, you could view the fondue party scene that took place after the “chocolate allergy” incident as “support” - but at best it’s very weak “support”, and at its worst it really just a scene revolves around all the other characters (especially around gaining Olivia’s friendship), with a hurt, frightened Hana hovering in the background of the scene.

The MC has the option (option!!) to “call Madeleine out” on the events of the previous night when they’re in Paris, but it mostly results in Madeleine pretending it was a test of some sort (which the MC never bothers to contradict even though she knows better). The best case scenario is, well, that…and the worst case scenario is that Hana never really finds out even that, up until the end.

Speaking Out and Validation: Not only does the narrative not address the bullying after it has happened (until the very end of the series), it uses Hana - the woman who was harmed - to minimize its impact as well. On the one occasion you actually do get to talk to her about the night of Madeleine’s bachelorette party, they make Hana say (if you state that you don’t remember anything from that night), that "the tequila brought out Kiara's mean side, and Madeleine's fun side". Madeleine’s “fun side”, presumably, involves her laughing over targeting, torturing and breaking the vulnerable women in her court I suppose. (also, way to do Kiara dirty while forgetting what Madeleine did, PB!)

Further ahead, the MC and her friends promptly forget about this - Hana is expected to help the MC extract important information from her without even bothering to find out if she is comfortable or not, for instance. The forgetfulness gets to the point where, in the epilogue, (when Madeleine repeats to Hana what she’d told the MC back then) the MC acts like it is the first time she is hearing about Madeleine’s intentions to break Hana.

So forget about getting validation, for a large chunk of the narrative Hana wasn’t even allowed to view her own experience with bullying as painful. And if anything, her friend circle didn’t mind putting her needs and comfort last when it suited them.

The biggest problem about the storyline that involves Hana and Madeleine is the question of who should be getting more space and development, and who actually does. The time and energy spent on Hana navigating a court like this which such threats over her head…is spent instead on literally everything else. The time that could have been spent working on Hana’s background and childhood history…was spent to build Madeleine’s redemption arc instead (ironically, Adelaide starts feeding us with that sympathy arc in Shanghai, Hana’s home).

Effort was spent on extolling Madeleine efficiency and great work, even though there was very little of it to be seen. Effort was spent on making Madeleine look patriotic and not power-hungry, in making it clear to us that her father’s rejections left an impact on her. Even the story involving her attraction to Hana revolved more around HER, not around the woman she hurt. Was the same effort put into exploring Hana’s own struggle in court? In how she feels when people hurt her? In whether she is comfortable doing certain things? I think we all know the answer to that.

The key to why I hate Madeleine’s story so much isn’t that she’s a horrible person. You can be a horrible person and still have a compelling story. You can be a horrible person, and unapologetic about it, but still have the narrative validate what the people you had harmed went through.

It’s that the narrative and team knows and acknowledges her toxic behaviour, but only for a character that they like. They conveniently decided to cherry pick who would be comforted and given reassurance, and who would be forced to praise her bully for her ‘patriotism’. I should have been spending way less time on Madeleine’s redemption and coddling Penelope, and more time on making Hana feel safe in a largely alien place where she has no one but us - and where she is staying only for our protection. My problem is that they didn’t consider Hana’s pain important enough to even address, much less validate.

#anti the royal romance #hana lee #anti madeleine #ask me #anonymous #did i just take an ask about madeleine and talk about very little but hana instead? yes. yes i did #hana deserved better. hana DESERVES better #and don't even get me started on validation penelope gets that kiara doesn't #that's a topic for another post but i will stay mad about it #long post #bullying tw #courtly ladies anon

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serenlyss · 5 years

Text

Growing Up

Rating: G Pairing: Background terumob Summary: Shigeo decides to branch out a little. Crossposted to AO3: Growing Up

Here's my second stab at @bisexualwinry‘s fluff prompts!

On an unrelated note, I've been looking for fellow mp100 writers here with the potential of creating a writer's discord! Specifically I've been looking in the mp100 fandom since that's the one I'm most active in rn but it's open to all fandom writers. I haven't created it yet bc I haven't seen enough interest but I feel like it could be a really fun place for writers to get together, find beta readers, workshop ideas, etc! If you're interested, hmu here on tumblr or my discord (LyssaGirl1998). You can send me an ask or an im, whatever you prefer!

“Master Reigen,” Shigeo says one day from his spot on the couch in Reigen’s office, “I think I’d like to learn to play piano.”

Reigen looks up from where he’s tapping away at his keyboard. It’s still odd to hear Shigeo call him that, after he’d admitted to being a fraud, but despite his insistence that he doesn’t need to anymore, he still does anyway. Shigeo reclines against the couch, one leg lifted so that his ankle rested atop his opposite knee. He has a book open in his lap, which he’s been quietly reading up until now.

“Piano?” The voice of Reigen’s unwanted and self-imposed secretary butts into the conversation before Reigen can reply. Tome leans forward in her seat, the seat that used to be Shigeo’s, before he’d stopped coming around as frequently. “What would you want to learn something like that for?”

Shigeo shrugs with a small smile, slipping a bookmark between the pages of his novel and setting it aside for now. The smiles are less rare now, more generously offered and less stifled and withheld. “It was thinking that it could be fun to learn how to play an instrument,” he explains. “I don’t have a lot of hobbies, after all.”

Reigen’s more than a little surprised that piano is the thing that Shigeo has decided to pursue. He’s never seemed like much of the musical type, aside from whatever music he liked to listen to in his free time, and he’d only ever taken interest in a few random activities, like exercising. But he’s in his third year of middle school now, and he’d finally started letting go of the tight hold he’d kept on his emotions for all those years, so it’s only natural for him to want to explore those hidden and repressed sides of himself now. Besides, Reigen finds the idea of careful Shigeo sitting at a piano quite easy to imagine, once he puts his mind to it. “Hmm, I think it would suit you,” he comments. “Why piano, though? Any particular reason?”

“Well, Teru knows how to play, and he’s even offered to teach me a few times,” Shigeo replies, his smile turning a bit more shy and fond with the mention of his boyfriend. “He’s really talented, and I bet he’s a good teacher.”

At her desk, Tome makes choking noises and pretends to be sick.

Reigen ignores her entirely. “I think it’s a good idea,” he says. Shigeo deserves encouragement and support, and if he wants to try something new, Reigen firmly believes that he should.

Shigeo, at least, seems pleased with the answer, nodding with a confidence Reigen still isn’t quite used to seeing before returning quietly to his book. Reigen lets himself stare a moment longer, noting that Shigeo’s gotten taller. It won’t be long before he shoots over Reigen’s head and starts rivaling Serizawa.

He huffs out a breath that ends up sounding annoyed, turning back to his work. These stupid kids, they really do grow up way too fast.

---

Teru and Shigeo meet after their club activities often to study and, occasionally, to have a brief piano lesson. Teru can’t fit a keyboard in his little apartment, so he comes to Salt Mid instead, and the two of them take up residence in one of the school’s open practice rooms in the music wing.

Shigeo’s fingers are inexperienced and uncertain, and he’s quick to doubt the soft way he presses the keys, so different from Teru’s quick and confident playing. He’s stubbornly dedicated to learning, though, and his ear is incredibly sharp. He picks out his mistakes quickly after he makes them, fingers jerking into the correct positions with little need for Teru to correct them for him. Teru’s quick to praise him for his progress and gentle when he points out his missteps, and they quickly fall into a routine in their lessons of sitting on the bench together, close enough to brush shoulders, Teru leaning over to mess with the music while Shigeo does scales and arpeggios and sight reads the kind of music meant for three-year-olds and pretends not to notice how the proximity makes his chest warm comfortably.

---

Ritsu hears Shigeo practice, sometimes, when their mother goes to run errands, their father isn’t quite home from work yet, and it’s just the two of them in the house. Usually it’s when Ritsu is up in his room, working on his homework. He’ll catch the faint, distant sound of piano melodies as Shigeo plays whatever comes to mind: random little tunes that Teru’s taught him, old folk songs and nursery rhymes, and occasionally something of his own creation.

The tunes start out rough and shaky, large breaks between bits of the music Shigeo hasn’t quite committed to memory yet. Ritsu wonders how he can see so little progress and yet still not find himself frustrated. He shakes his head and goes back to his homework, drowning out the quiet plinks of the piano beneath him with headphones and his own music.

---

Shigeo graduates middle school.

Reigen gets invited to come sit with his family for the ceremony, and Teru does as well. They find a seat off to the side, easy to spot but not too overbearing. The ceremony is widely unnecessary, in Reigen’s opinion, and drags on for far longer than he believes it should, but that doesn’t stop the rush of unprecedented pride he feels when he hears the principal call Shigeo’s name.

He watches, speechless, as the boy he’s known for the last five years of his life crosses the stage, and hides the fact that he’s on the verge of tears by pretending he’s sleepy and rubbing his eyes. Ritsu shoots him a look that says he sees right through Reigen’s bullshitting, but not even Shigeo’s snarky younger brother can steal his good mood away from him when he eagerly goes to congratulate his student after the ceremony has concluded.

Shigeo’s parents shell out to buy him a nice graduation gift: an electronic keyboard of his own, one that he can easily put up in his bedroom and take with him when he eventually goes off to college. It’s full-sized, with the nice weighted keys that feel like a real piano’s, but compact enough that he doesn’t need to worry about how much space it takes up. Reigen pitches in to help pay for the accessories as his own congratulations, and it’s beyond satisfying to see the way Shigeo’s eyes light up at the sight of the crisp, new black-and-white instrument already set up and waiting for him when they all go back to the Kageyama house to celebrate.

---

Shigeo keeps practicing. He gets better every time Ritsu hears him, his pacing more consistent, repertoire more confident. It makes him happy that Shigeo has found something he likes, that he’s willing to practice and get better at. He hopes he sticks with it.

---

Shigeo grows older, taller. His daily exercises with the Body Improvement Club show in the lean muscles he hides beneath the sleeves of the better-fitting high school uniform. His shoulders broaden and his face loses its childishness in favor of more mature, angular features, but it retains its softness in the laugh lines around his eyes and the toothy smile he no longer hesitates to show.

Larger hands and longer fingers make playing the piano that much easier, after the initial adjustment he has to make to account for his newfound clumsiness. He runs into things constantly now, banging his feet on chairs and tables that he swears are too far away to be problematic and hitting his head on low-hanging objects and shelves he used to be able to walk right under. He forgets sometimes that he can reach the high shelves now, the ones even Reigen can’t get to unless he uses the little step stool by the pantry.

He joins a music club at his new high school and uses it as his designated practice time, putting his hours into the well-worn pianos in the music room while the other club members hone their own talents all around him. It’s been months since he first touched a piano, and he’s grown confident and deft in the way he moves his fingers over the keys. He can sight read now, at least certain things. He plays whatever he feels like playing, not confined to classes or grades or any sort of classical training. He picks out song with tunes he thinks sound pretty or interesting and then he recreates them, with or without music, content to play on a whim instead of by necessity.

He never becomes so good at the piano that he’s asked to perform outside of occasional pieces he plays for his friends or classmates at his music club. He learns a few duets, with Teru or with friends who play other instruments, but he doesn’t perform in front of large crowds or even attempt to.He’s perfectly content to play for himself, and only himself.

---

Shigeo loves playing the piano. When he feels stressed, it’s an easy way for him to relieve some dormant energy and express those feelings in a productive way. He plays happy things when he’s feeling sad, somber things when he’s feeling contemplative, whatever comes to mind in the moment. He plays easy things and complex things, whatever sounds pleasing to the ear, and challenges himself by picking up pieces that he thinks may be a bit beyond his skill level. He surprises himself by putting in the time and effort into making what seemed impossible his new glass ceiling, and shatters it with every day he pushes himself out of his comfort zone.

Sometimes he plays out loud, for anyone to hear, and other times he plugs in a pair of headphones and plays just for himself. He plays as a break between homework assignments, putting his brain to work in a completely different way, plays when he’s feeling bored and has nothing else to do.

Sometimes he doesn’t play at all, too wrapped up in the business of his schedule as he balances occasional work for Reigen with hanging out with Teru and his brother and all of their friends. He never goes too long without playing, though, his attention inevitably going back to the keyboard set up by the window in his room, where he can glance outside at the neighbors walking their dogs down the street while his fingers drum against the plastic keys. It’s peaceful, and takes his mind off his other concerns.

---

When he finally leaves his parents’ house, he takes the keyboard with him.

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #mp100 fluff bomb #terumob #kageyama shigeo #hanazawa teruki #kageyama ritsu #arataka reigen #fanfiction #mp100 fanfic #serendipitousfics

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ckingsbridge · 5 years

Note

Hi, Cordelia, this might be a bad question, so I want to apologize beforehand - sorry. How do you write your characters without making them into Mary Sues/Gary Stus? They’re pretty much all beautiful, likeable or like-ably dislikeable, have backstories of varying tragicness, excel at what they do, and overcome plot points like badasses. But they still feel like people; I still love reading their stories. Sorry I know intention doesn’t make an offensive question unoffensive. This was a bad idea..

I don’t think the question is offensive at all! Being told that your characters feel like real people is one of the best compliments an author can receive, IMO. And I actually think this question makes a lot of sense, because if you pare it down to the basics, it’s asking how a character can be “heroic” without crossing the dreaded line into being a Mary Sue/Gary Stu.

It occurs to me that not everyone reading this may be familiar with the terms Mary Sue/Gary Stu - if you Google them, you’ll find a ton of essays and things, but this one is particularly good.

It’s totally possible to have your protagonists be larger-than-life BAMFs without veering into MS/GS territory. Here’s a quick contrast between heroic characters and MS/GS characters:

Heroes excel at a few things, into which they’ve visibly invested serious time and effort, are average at most things, and suck pretty badly at a handful of things. A MS/GS is good at everything, inexplicably and without effort.

Heroes have plausible relationships with the people around them. More importantly, their behavior in the story affects those relationships in ways that make sense. One of the defining characteristics of a MS/GS is that everybody adores them, regardless of how they actually treat people. Nothing the MS/GS does to another character ever causes that character to see them in a negative light.

Heroes have major flaws that logically stem from the false internal beliefs created by painful events in their pasts. Their behavior is always consistent with these flaws, even when it causes them to make grave mistakes that directly impact them in a negative way. If a MS/GS has any flaws at all, they’re just window dressing, and never cause any negative consequences. Sometimes those “flaws” are actually advantages in a flimsy disguise.

Related to the previous point, heroes make mistakes - and larger-than-life characters make larger-than-life mistakes. When heroic characters fuck up, they fuck up royally. Their mistakes cause significant problems that require genuine effort to fix. A MS/GS either never makes mistakes, or their mistakes are immediately solved without any effort, struggle, or negative impact.

Heroes earn their rewards. They engage in real struggles and solve problems in ways that are authentic to their characterization and the situation. They fail, often terribly, but then they get back up and try again. When they finally achieve their goals, there's a satisfying sense of them having earned it. Because a MS/GS never suffers or puts actual effort into anything, their success feels false and undeserved, and is therefore unsatisfying to the reader.

Some writers are afraid to make their protagonists too awesome for fear of ending up with a MS/GS. But protagonists should be awesome; in certain genres, such as thriller, fantasy, etc., they should be truly heroic as well. That’s part of what makes stories so much fun to read.

The key is that characters need to genuinely earn their awesomeness and their heroic stature through their actions - just like real people do.

#asks #writing advice #Anonymous

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m58 · 3 years

Text

A review of Peter Dent’s ‘Yarn’

Copy No-One

Peter Dent Yarn (Leafe 2021), citation p36; as nettles and ivy permit (Kaleidikon 2020) edition of 50

An alternative rendering of the title might be to copy only oneself, although as Dent elaborated ‘Copy no-one was my mantra until I’d tasted the best of what is and discovered ‘provenance’’ (p36). Dent that is is highly original but his inspiration neither is entirely without precedence. He has been writing inventive poetry for a long time now, since Proxima Centauri (1972) from Agenda, very often in short run limited editions. Dent has thus far resisted any compelling impetus to compile a Selected. Actually the copying motif is no doubt highly pertinent now given the essential status of appropriation among the avant-garde Conceptualists. Dent was also editor and publisher of Interim Press from 1975 to ’87.

It is worth recalling again that I first came across Dent’s writing in the Stride/Shearsman anthology A State of Independence (1998) for the spare and stirring sequence ‘Naming Nothing’, which I still regard highly, and is probably a good place to start for making sense of this poetry. Another highpoint is likely a trilogy of books from Shearsman;- Handmade Equations (2005), Tripping Daylight (2012), and A Wind-Up Collider (2019), by way of retrospect.

Working in favour of this writing is its originality and lack of pretension; it comes without inordinate claims and has a way of affecting or settling into the mind. That said I’d say Peter Dent clearly enjoys writing and is unequivocal about playing the authorial part. Like a number of others he is not averse on occasion to ephemeral private publication, though these works are generally in short runs, as we find for instance with as nettles and ivy permit.

I suspect then there is a sense in which Dent’s writing is not imposing; no grand claims; no reaching out or pushing for authority. And of course this is a little deceptive, like an underdog peculiarly fit for rigours of comparison.

We are here however certainly encountering a late phase in Peter Dent’s (b.1938) poetic trail. I don’t doubt one really has not, if anything else, the energy for it. That said, for mature work I’d say it is very accomplished, the mind in so many ways as perceptual and delineatory, discriminatory as ever.

Yarn naturally takes on both meanings of the word, but this is a collection of some 61 prose poetry pieces rather than any larger narrative. The self deprecatory note is apparent right off from the first poem, ‘At Least One Yarn’s Died the Death’. The homemade white yarn glove on the cover is also short of a couple of fingers. This piece does actually have a self-contained argument winding its way through;- ‘The school closed long ago’, ‘the 20th Century’s lost its way here’, recuperative action may be required but ‘it will mean more than walking the dog’ in that ‘Students are now topographically challenged’ where ‘Playgrounds fly only branded kites’. (p7) It’s a bit of a melancholy observation, Dent himself was a school teacher, but it can hardly be denied the acute and penetrating perception of these linked up observances. There seems to be some sort of recognition that students lack the capability of mobility that once promised and motivated challenges of moving higher or on.

This sense of perhaps opportunities curbed or lost continues in the second poem, ‘A Yarn Found Wanting’ which begins ‘The carnival was only too obviously over’ (p.8). Although this rather elegiac note seems to approach a kind of resolving cast in the third ‘One Yarn to Another’,- ‘I don’t mind what you do: being words only you can always listen to their song.’ (end p.9) There is a muted social commentary here that is perhaps for others to more fully if not prosaically work out.

‘Yarn with Black and Maroon’ that closes the collection returns to this quality of perceptiveness. It consists of three ‘deliberations’, which it is tempting to ascribe as students’ guides. These are,- ‘My shadow makes to light everything I owe’ (somewhat paraphrasing); ‘A road of the circumstances of my understanding’; and ‘Sometimes necessary to close down words too manic to fit’. This verges on a highly truncated ars poetica, while also nothing so obviously grand.

That first deliberation discusses a bringing to light but also a no doubt ethical question of what is ‘owed’. And this plainly also reverts back to the writing, as, say, ‘what is owed in writing’. This suggests to me the way so many of us are caught up as a ‘community’, albeit a highly dispersed one, of writers. We very likely often take on writing not for the obvious lure of fame, fortune and bestselling, but out of an effort of communication with and between those who matter to us, a certain quality of care, attention, craft and the workmanlike.

Dent’s gripping and multi-varied renderings of language are highlighted at many instances through the book. There is for instance a very charming observation on page 49,- ‘Only love and art have the faintest who I am’ which is succinct as well as unexpected. Another memorable rendering occurs just before this,-

‘half out the door I’m seeking alliance with simply what at any given time and in any place actually IS.’ (p.45)

‘Yarn Warp’ (p.21) has some highly adventurous phrasing to encounter,-

‘I’m a latch-key liberal independent and a pro-future sky- diver with an early-onset appetite for even slower slow- cooking. I’m a multi-bit fact-fake deviant after my tea.’ (end p.21)

which is refreshing and provocative, for instance in matching ‘fact’ to ‘fake’ and contrasting ‘early-onset’ with ‘slowing’ down, not to mention concluding with questions of when to take tea.

nettles and ivy is also dispositionally quite complex. Ways of apprising this, say, might be the artwork and title, neither could be called ‘easy’ or ‘pitched to sell’, say. This intimates perhaps that much of which it speaks pertains to the inner life, including its complexities; but if probed it does yield.

I could pick out a few among numerous distinctive phrasings;-

‘If only I hadn’t put myself at the centre of the mystery; if candy floss hadn’t tempted – and you not around to see.’ (‘Frailties’)

And the conclusion of ‘Palm Trees and Sandy Assignments’;-

‘She thinks irresolutely about me. I

can account for just about everything that doesn’t matter. I can’t what does. Her whisper. Barely a breath of air.’ (‘Palm Trees’, end)

Then the penultimate ‘Imagine You Don’t’;-

‘She can wear her clothes out; I like her as much as she is as she isn’t. I always stump up the necessary.’ (‘Imagine You Don’t’, end)

There is also the ‘last rehearsal’ and ‘waving goodbye’ of the final poem, ‘Ill-Informed Choices’, which I suspect many readers may pick up on. Personal pronouns don’t appear too frequently; the ‘Red Book of Refractions’ has much of the male third person.

So the pamphlet I would say is highly articulate and nuanced. There is a thread which I might describe as an awareness of seeking out or recognising in an insightful way matters of truth and deception. In all then, acutely thoughtful and unexpected. My impression is that this will hold up well to rereading; plenty going on there, as with Yarn.

Dent I can only conclude has a pretty decent grasp of philosophy and of ethics. As we find for instance in ‘Unspecified Yarns of the Moment’ he maintains that there is not the inclination to ‘put my mind between warring parties’ (p.62). And nearer the conclusion in this prose poem we arrive at ‘Thinking a letter will put things straight or fix a wise-woman’s potion is curious? If only there were different words and happier meanings.’ There are limits to what words can do. There is naturally what might be termed an interface between action and behaviour and the use of language. An accurate and incisive use of speech is no guarantor of happy episodes or endings.

Poetry can be showy or adept without necessarily offering up much in the way of novel insight or understanding. At the end of the day we are surely returned to how literature and words connect with our behaviour, thoughts and perceptions. Language might be conceded as something of a means to an end. But of course we are embroiled in it and lengthy passages of time can go by in which the use of words is not seen as particularly critical. I suspect Dent’s writing probes or at times irritates with these pertinent connections. There is and has been the effort to move forward with the language, to enjoy and explore its capacities. Albeit that these are very late entries into the game these two publications have a remarkable solidity and a kind of essentialism, whereof the expressiveness is very adequate, guided and appropriate to intent. Whence at last to reside,- ‘This is after all a road and being on it keeps me free’ (p67). Dent keeps this curt and suggestive rather than fully spelling it out, though others have well worked the road motif, as if we were not always gathered into that process of getting from A to B.

Clark Allison

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amoristt · 7 years

Text

Sunday Keepsakes | Nathan x Reader

disclaimer: i know nathan is not a good person. i am not putting a blanket over his actions in this fic. i, the writer, understand he’s not an innocent character and has made many terrible choices. im just answering people’s requests, please dont put me under the fire for it.

thank you.

Anonymous asked: Hi could you write a fluffy NSFW nathan x reader but they're married?

i loved writing this sooo much... i tried to age him mentally as much as i could, hopefully its not too ooc! enjoy <3

reblogs + tags and replies will make my entire day as i put a lot of effort into this!

story continues beneath the read more. let me know if you can’t access it!

Warning: language

Rain was the soft sound you’d woken up to. It pattered against the windows that were still covered by pulled down curtains, and when you rolled over you found the other side of the bed empty. You groaned disappointedly and brought yourself to sit up. Tired and hazy from your slumber, the blankets wrapped around your waist as you tried to crawl off the mattress, and you barely registered clumsily picking them off the floor before venturing out the door.

The hallway floors were cold against your feet even in early spring, and you shivered thanks to the exposure of only being dressed in a baggy t shirt.

“Nathan?” You yawned, fingers running along the wall as you peeked quietly into your child’s room. It was empty save for the the crib, and you smiled at the silence. Your baby was still sleeping soundly, and you realized this had been the first night in weeks that you’d had a full night's sleep.

You called out for your husband again and shifted your fingers through your hair, then you turned into the living room and leaned against the wall at the sight before you.

Nathan was wrapped up in looking into a binder, his hair a mess, his clothes loose and unfitted. Short flashbacks ran through you, dating all the way back to when you’d first him. He looked like he did now, sitting while leaning forward, staring into a binder almost secretively. However unlike when you’d first met him, when you cleared your throat he didn’t yell at you to go away. Upon seeing you watching him, Nathan instead set the binder on his legs and leaned back.

“It’s about time.”

You smiled, pushing off the wall and finding your way next to him on the couch after urging him to scooch over. Like you’d done countless times before you leaned and placed a kiss on his lips, one that he returned happily. All was well.

“Morning.” You replied softly. The binder on his lap gained your attention and when you looked at the photos you felt your heart flutter. It was the family album you and him had put together throughout the years, stock full of a mixed variety of photos.

Some were aesthetically pleasing, ones that he had taken of you in front of the sky or sitting among flowers. His style had drastically changed throughout his years, going from monochrome and haunting to something more focused on a bright side of life. In some way it felt witnessing a caterpillar, afraid and young, morphing into a butterfly.

Other photos were professional shots of important dates in you and Nathan’s history, and your eyes lingered over a particular one. “Remember that?” you asked fondly, placing an index finger on the thin plastic cover. He took one look at the image and sighed into a smile. It wasn’t a great photo so to say, the angle was mostly wrong and if you were being honest it made you look like a goblin, but the memory is what mattered.

Your 5 year anniversary. It was a serene celebration, one where you got to pick the location. You chose the area where you and him would often sneak to when you skipped class- an empty field beside a long river that ran into the wide ocean. A blanket was set out, a basket in the middle and drinking glasses on either side. The date was incredibly well put together compared to the other casual ones you had, but the both of you enjoyed it. Your friend snapped a quick candid photo before parting ways and leaving you and Nathan, and the photo consisted of you two looking up in confusion. You looked ugly, unsuspecting, but comfortable.

It was nostalgic seeing the both of you so young. It hadn’t been too long since that anniversary but you both did look different now. Nathan’s hair had grown darker, he stopped slicking it back and instead would usually just let it do whatever it wanted. Your hair ended up growing out much longer than it had when you were young, and thanks to the sun had lightened a few hues. That field was the site of a canoeing business now. The river had a ‘do not swim’ sign nailed to a post.

Nathan turned the page and stopped to tilt his head at one of the photos, then he laughed.

“Bailey.” He mumbled. You followed his line of sight and then you too, let out a breath of laughter.

This picture was one that you had taken. It was a gorgeous day at the beach, the sky golden with the late afternoon, and Nathan was knee deep in the waters while you were out sitting on the sand. He was older, 23. In front of him was a white and brown pitbull, a thick stick in it’s mouth that Nathan was trying to retrieve.

Bailey was an amazing dog. She was sweet and well trained, and she never once showed a fang to you or your husband. Before Bailey, Nathan swore up and down he could never get a dog because they were too messy, too much work, but when you were volunteering for a shelter trying to gain some more college credits he’d seen her. She was curled up in the corner of her cage with a caution sticker, but she was nothing but kind. Nathan adopted her that day and you had no complaints.

She was the perfect companion, but she was old when you’d adopted her. It took Nathan a while to get over her, as did it for you, but looking back at the image made you feel happy in a melancholy kind of way.

Before a lump could form in your throat you flipped the page again.

“Oh,” you grinned, pointing at a photo of him standing in front of Cedar Point’s gates. “Remember this?”

Nathan rolled his eyes and groaned, placing a hand on his forehead. “How could I not? You dragged me on every single coaster.”

You gently nudged at his shoulder. “Don’t act like you didn’t have fun.”

He glared at you, unamused. “I threw up like 3 fucking times.”

“Yeah, afterwards.” You flipped the page again, then almost did once more before he stopped you.

“Wait,” His features softened at one particular photo that was larger than the rest. You leaned your head to the side, a fresh and content smile forming on your lips. Your wedding day.

“It was nice seeing you in a suit and tie.” You remarked teasingly, but softly. Lovingly. “Even if you didn’t tie it yourself.”

“You can’t tie a tie either.” Nathan’s eyes never left the image, tracing over every edge and pixel. It was an amazing photo, one of your best.

Though the official picture with you standing beside each other was a favorite, it didn’t compare to the candid one Victoria had captured. You and Nathan dancing together, a loving grin adorned on both of your faces. The dress was white and pooled over the floor like a waterfall, the color a crisp contrast to Nathan’s black, fitted tux. Of course you’d seen Nathan smile before, you’d seem almost every expression there was to know, but on that night when you looked up at him you were taken aback by how peaceful, how happy he was. There was nothing weighing him down.

“I almost tripped walking up the aisle.” you breathed, wanting to cover your face at the embarrassing memory. He laughed beside you, flipping the page.

“I would have lost my shit.”

“I think everyone would have.”

There were a few more images here and there of your friends and family- Nathan’s father void of all of them. The day you left Blackwell was the best of your life, and you knew your husband felt the same way. Although you two were obviously not married at that point you both knew that you would be soulmates, and so you two disappeared together. Adults and fully capable of making it, you and him settled down in ome urban area you didn’t even know existed. It was peaceful, the neighbors were friendly. It was just what the two of you needed.

At first you were afraid that he wouldn’t do well in the new environment. He’d been working on his anger and outbursts for quite some time but this was a drastic change in lifestyle- what if he couldn’t handle it? However, Nathan certainly did surprise you.

Much like you, a kinder and less dramatic city was what he needed. He no longer felt like he was the freak of a town, and something about knowing he could have a fresh start made him want to be better than before. He waved to neighbors, he thanked the mailman.

He had his moments of weakness but you were there to help him, and before you knew it he was truly turning into the man he always wanted, and could have, been. When you were younger you’d never have imagined settling down with him. You’d never even had imaged him being willing to settle down.

Without the overshadow of his father and the pressure of working beneath him he started searching for new options, and eventually settled down for being a designer and part-time wedding photographer. For a time before that he tried to take a place in building but it ended up not working out, as he discovered that he was a horrendous builder.

But, luckily, he had directions for assembling a crib.

Your baby was unplanned but it was a blessing, and you were taken aback by how mature Nathan was during the whole ordeal. When you told him the news he was oddly silent for a time, and you were terrified that this wasn’t what he wanted. You and him had never really discussed children- you always assumed thanks to his father he wouldn’t want to raise a child, but then he told you he was happy. He told you this was good for the both of you. He told you that you’d make great parents.

Nathan, behind this, was afraid however. You could see it in his eyes as the months went on. He was nervous that he would end up like his father, cold, uncaring, and distant. Try as you might to push those thoughts out of his head he still had his doubts but that was to be expected- you had them too, but they were gone on the night ___ was born.

She was so tiny in your arms, and she was so beautiful. Nathan held her so gently and a smile broke over his features, and it lit you up. Now, here she was, nearly a year old and you two were doing great. Some days were harder than others but you were content.

You and him had a house together, away from Arcadia Bay, away from his father and away from his reputation. Of course Victoria was still around here and there- and she was a story just as much as he was. She still had so much fire in her but her edges weren’t nearly as sharp as they were when you’d first met. She was kinder now, and she had a loving husband with a baby of her own on the way. Nathan also still had ties with his mother and sister, though they only showed up for the greater holidays. His sister was kind, she loved you. His mother was sweet too but you could see something behind her eyes, and you wondered if she thought you stole Nathan from his family.

You flip the page, looking at more memories, and Nathan goes rather silent in thought for a few long seconds but they aren’t tense. The rain never let up even after pouring down all night and evening, but it calms you in some sort of way. Leaning your head on Nathan’s shoulder, you smile when he lets out a deep breath.

“Did you ever think we’d end up here?” You asked without looking up at him.

“Fuck no,” He answered with a sharp laugh. “I didn’t think I’d make it to 22.”

“Are you glad you did?” This time you do move to look up at him, reaching to flatten down some of his hair. He doesn’t move under your touch like he used to years ago.

Nathan’s eyes soften down at you, and you remember how much leaving Arcadia Bay has affected him. It had been a slow and gradual process, and it had been anything but easy, but he’d come so far from the angry, bitter, teenage boy who lived like it was him against the world. He wasn’t nearly as angry anymore. He had his moments where the child he once was would part through, but he’d learned to catch him, take a moment to remember how he was different now. He was better now. He smoked but he wasn’t much of a drinker anymore, and he’d kicked drugs years ago. It was an incredible feat, and you and him both knew it.

Part of you expected him to say something sarcastic, but he leaned down and placed a brief kiss on your lips. “You know I am.”

You smiled, looking back down at the photos. There were just so many, some artistic, some candid, and some horrendous that didn’t compliment your face at all. But you kept them, remembered every single moment and every single story each one held. When you were a small child you imaged an easy life, one where you and your soulmate would click the moment you laid eyes upon each other. It would be smooth sailing and everyone would envy your relationship, wonder why they couldn’t find someone who loved you as much as your ‘prince charming’ did. But Nathan was not a prince charming. When you’d met him he was insufferable, and you were scared of him. Little did you know that he would end up being the person you’d devote yourself to, the person you’d give everything to. You never once stopped to think you could be the one he changes for.

Thunder sounded from outside but it was distant, echoing. Nathan leaned back against the cushion of the couch and you followed him, setting the binder on the coffee table and lifting your feet up so you could cuddle against his side. He faced up at the ceiling and closed his eyes.

“What do you want for breakfast?” He asked flatly, voice tired. You shrugged. “If you don’t pick something I’m gonna skip it all together.”

“Fine, fine, waffles.” You giggled, shutting your eyes. Breakfast sounded appealing but neither of you make an effort to get up, Nathan’s arm snaking around your body and resting at your hip. You could’ve fallen asleep right there if you wanted, but it was already 11 am, you should be getting up and getting ready for the day. Another roll of thunder sounded and you yawned, reluctantly pulling away from his comfortable hold and patting his chest. “Alright, time to start the day.”

Nathan groaned and grabbed a throw pillow from the end of the couch, wrapping his arms around it and shoving his face into the plushness.

You grabbed at the edges of it and half-assedly tried to pry it from him. “Come on Nathan we gotta’ start doing things.”

“Why can’t we start our shit at noon.”

“Because you hate being rushed, and I know if I let you you’ll sit here the whole day.”

“I don’t have anything to do today.”

“Yet,” you pulled it from his arms and sighed at his mildly annoyed expression. “You always find things to do on sundays.”

Reaching out in front of him, Nathan interlocked his fingers and stretched, yawning and then rolling his neck. He stopped to linger for a moment, staring down at the photo album still open on the table, before he reached down and then folded it shut. You stood and he did so as well, tucking the binder under his arm and yawning again. The collar of his t shirt, much too big for his form, bared his shoulders almost artistically.

He followed you into the kitchen, only stopping for a minute to put the album back into the hallway closet. As you opened the cupboards to start retrieving the items you needed Nathan felt no shame in coming up behind you, moving your hair from your neck and kissing along the newly exposed skin. You shivered in delight and grinned, tiling your head to the side and giving him more room which he took complete advantage of.

“I thought you wanted breakfast.” You remarked, eyes slipping shut. He wrapped his arms around you and hummed against your skin.

“By all means, go ahead.” He nipped at your skin and you could feel his lips curl when you jumped at his teeth.

Once again you reluctantly broke away from his hold but this time you were joined right back with him, turning around and wrapping your arms around his neck. He took the invite gladly, one hand resting on the countertop to trap you in front of him and the other keeping it’s place at your hip.

“Very funny,” you breathed, pulling him in for a kiss. He started getting antsy against you, fingers starting to slide under your shirt and you by no means wanted him to stop. You leaned your head back when he paused the kiss to run his lips along your jawline, then down your neck. The counter was hard against the small of your back but it barely registered to you, too caught up in running your fingers through his already messy hair.

“This isn’t very productive.” Nathan joked against your skin, and you laughed.

“You started this,” You tugged at his hair and bit your lip when his hand lifted up the hem of your shirt. “You wanted breakfast, now you want this. Can’t you make up your mind.”

Though you teased him, goosebumps still ran along your skin as he brushed the pads of his fingers along your stomach and abdomen. You cursed softly, eyes unfixed but staring at the ceiling as he felt you. He finally hooked his fingers beneath the wireline of your bra when suddenly a sound rang through the previously silent house.

Down the hall, door on the left. A baby was crying in it’s room.

You sighed in defeat, eyes slipping shut. “Damn it.”

Nathan’s fingers pulled away from you as the baby continued to wail a few rooms down, and you both knew your session had come to an end.

“Do you want to get it or?”

“You stay here,” He breathed, rubbing at his cheeks. He was no longer half lidded, fully aware of his surroundings and definitely awake. “I got it.”

He shuffled away from you with his head hung low, and you giggled at the sight. Defeated by an infant. When you turned, resting your hand atop the cold counter, you looked over the items you'd previously taken out. One by one you put together everything you needed, starting the waffle maker as you hummed to yourself.

Outside it still rained, and occasionally thunder grumbled miles away. It was a serene sunday morning, but the sounds of nature wasn’t what made you grin from ear to ear. It was the sound of Nathan in the baby’s room, voice soft as he cooed good morning at your now pacified child.

#nathan prescott #nathan prescott x reader #life is strange #lis #imagine #scenario #fic #imaginefictionals

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ronaldmrashid · 5 years

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To Get Ahead, Choose Production Over Talent Every Single Time

There will undoubtedly be tremendous turbulence in our lives that will test our faith. But controlling what we can control is a vital part of growth and happiness.

My favorite thing to control is work ethic. Because I realized early on I neither had the mental or physical talent to surpass my peers, the only way to get ahead was to study more after school and train harder on the tennis courts.

Unless you have a severe disability, it doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, Asian or Native American, gay or straight; we all have the ability to control our work ethic.

We can fail due to superior competition or unforeseen exogenous variables, but we must not fail because we didn’t try our best.

Things We Can Control To Get Ahead

Besides work ethic, there are plenty of other things we can control to give ourselves a higher chance of success. Here are some:

Attitude. You must develop a positive mindset. If you do not believe in yourself, nobody will believe in you. The world is already an incredibly competitive place. You must attack each challenge with a can-do attitude. Just be aware of reality if things aren’t going as you planned after years of trying.

Respectfulness. It’s important to show the proper respect and courtesy to those who are older, wiser, and/more successful than you. It’s the kid who says, “thank you coach,” after each practice that makes me want to spend more time developing his skills. It’s the job candidate that writes a handwritten letter, thanking the interviewer for their time that increases her chance of getting the job.

Preparedness. There are many ways to attack a problem. It’s up to us to devise different strategies to achieve our goals. Each of us also needs to plan for multiple variable outcomes in order to be as prepared as possible. Those who say “you think too much,” or “you plan too much” are lazy losers. Do not fail to plan.

Self-Control. We know that kids who demonstrate self-control tend to do better in school. Adults who are able to demonstrate self-control are fitter, richer, and happier because they’re better able to regulate their diet, save more aggressively for the future, and not be as easily triggered by other people’s opinions.

Resilience. Success is a numbers game. Those who give up will never succeed. But those who learn from their mistakes and keep on trying have an infinitely higher chance of achieving their goals. Remember, if the direction is correct, sooner or later you will get there.

A Personal Example Of Progress

About five years ago, I enlisted my father to start regularly editing my posts. I thought it would be a good idea to give him more purpose in his own retirement while also developing a stronger relationship with his son.

I also paid him for a couple years as a 1099 contractor before he decided to close his international consulting business he was doing for fun.

He has a Master’s degree in foreign policy and was a career U.S. diplomat who wrote official reports for decades. Given his experience, he is an excellent editor and I’m lucky to have him.

Despite his editing help, it’s sometimes tough to get your work cut up so thoroughly after trying so hard. I’ve got to imagine creatives are more sensitive to criticism than non creatives because we regularly put ourselves out there.

For each 1,000 words I submit, my father will find at least 50 errors, which I always find amusing. When I’ve asked my wife to edit the same post, she’ll often only find 5-10 mistakes max. And most of the time, when I dare publish a post that was only edited by me, nobody really seems to mind.

One time after editing a post, he mentioned, “I’m concerned I’m still finding so many of the same errors after all these years.”

That was tough to hear because it showed I wasn’t improving as a writer, despite all my efforts. But instead of giving up, I decided to study his edits more carefully rather than taking a perfunctory look and copying and pasting his edits as I did in the past.

Admittedly, I do not edit my posts thoroughly before submission. If I submitted an error-free article, I would take away his purpose.

Despite my lack of writing progress, I told myself to keep on going, no matter what because production outweighs talent every single day of the week.

I plan on fulfilling my promise of publishing 3X a week for 10 years.

Seeing The Objective Data

Then one day, my father told me he should send me a report on how I’m doing accordingly to Grammarly, a writing software he started using 40 weeks ago to help edit my work.

I was afraid to see my grammar score due to all his historical edits. I also think in a way he wanted to show me my grammar score to prove how bad my grammar really was!

So I told him, “Dad, you’ve got to take into account production frequency along with grammar quality. My mission is to publish three times a week. I could surely improve my grammar score if I spent a month working on each post. But I’ve got too many ideas to share and a promise to keep.“

Despite my defense, I told him to send me the report anyway. I could handle the truth!

He was probably rubbing his hands with glee that he could finally use objective data to prove how poor of a writer I really was.

Phew! In my mind, I thought I would get a 30% – 50% on my Mastery (grammar) score by the way my dad was discussing my work. But instead, I got a 78% for the past 40 weeks of writing. Not great, but not bad, especially compared to expectations.

But the number I’m most proud of is the 99% Productivity score because it is purely what I can control. I know that no matter how hard I try, I’ll never have a perfect Mastery score. Further, there are tens of thousands more words that haven’t gone through the Grammarly software in this time period.

There is no coincidence that I’m 99% more productive than all Grammarly users while Financial Samurai is 99% larger than all other websites.

The correlation with effort and reward is strong in my world, which is why anybody who believes in themselves should consider doing something entrepreneurial.

When it comes to work, entrepreneurship, athletic training, and more, showing up and producing is much more important than pontificating.

Talent And Perfection Are Overrated

People who are too afraid of being criticized never bother to try. Instead, they’ll just hate on others to make themselves feel better for their inaction.

One of the strangest things I’ve observed is the inability of amazing editors to write amazing content. If you’ve got the writing tools, surely it’s much easier to write great prose.

The same oddity goes for journalists who aren’t willing to start their own websites to own their own content, especially as the journalism industry hollows out. If you have the research, writing, and reporting skills, there’s no reason why you can’t create your own profitable website.

Meanwhile, people who wait for perfection take an unnecessarily long time to press publish or ship a product.

It is foolish to wait for perfection when there is no perfect consumer. Tastes are always changing and you can never please everyone all the time. By the time you think your product is perfect, your consumers may have already moved on.

Are you really going to let people like me with only a public school education, a poor grasp of the English language, and minimal talent gain all the spoils?

Are you going to allow your colleague to get promoted over you because he consistently gets to work 30 minutes before everyone else?

Are you really going to allow a smaller and weaker opponent beat you because she trained her mind to be fearless in battle?

Of course not!

Just imagine what you could do if you had some talent and coupled it with a tremendous work ethic. You would destroy the competition!

Over the long run, production is always more important than talent. And if talent is what you want, don’t worry. Over time, talent will come. Let’s rock!

Be The Top 1% In Something, Anything For A Better Life

How To Create Next Level Wealth: When A Million Just Won’t Cut It

The Importance Of Forecasting Your Misery For A Better Life

Readers, are you waiting for perfection before shipping? Why do people waste their superior talents? Why do we give up when we can just keep on going? Why does criticism and ridicule stop you from trying to do something you really want to do?

The post To Get Ahead, Choose Production Over Talent Every Single Time appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/to-get-ahead-choose-production-over-talent-every-single-time/

#Financial Samurai

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evansclinchy · 7 years

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A supposedly fun thing I'll probably do forever

One of my favorite pieces of writing I've ever come across - perhaps my very favorite - was a lengthy essay that the late, great David Foster Wallace wrote a long time ago about tennis. Well, he wrote many. To be more specific, this one was entitled "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness"; it was originally commissioned by Esquire in 1995, later republished in his essay collection, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" in 1997 and popped up again on Esquire's website shortly after Wallace's death in 2008. In 2016, it found its way into another anthology, "String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis," released in May.

It's odd that I hold this particular piece of writing so dear, as I've never really been into tennis, at least not as anything more than a casual fan. And if you ask most readers, his piece on Michael Joyce isn't even considered his good tennis piece; Wallace the tennis writer is much better known for his "Roger Federer as Religious Experience," which ran in The New York Times Magazine in 2006. That was a once-in-a-generation writing talent at the peak of his powers chronicling a once-in-a-generation tennis talent at the peak of his, and there's nothing quite like witnessing greatness and greatness converge. That's what gets me about "Tennis Player Michael Joyce," though. It's not about greatness at all. Michael Joyce retired with a career record of 46–67 and only once advanced past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament. Wallace didn't write about him to profile someone great; rather, he was exploring what it's like to be good-but-not-quite-elite at something. He was probing into that weird gray area between futility and immortality, and I've always been fascinated by what he found. To me, the most profound line in the piece has nothing to do with tennis, at least not specifically. It's more of a general musing. "You are invited to try to imagine what it would be like to be among the hundred best in the world at something," Wallace writes. "At anything. I have tried to imagine; it's hard."

In the summer of 1995, Michael Joyce was the 79th-best tennis player in the world. Wallace dedicated 9,800-some-odd words, not including his trademark bevy of footnotes, to exploring the essence of his 79th-ness. He focuses on one match in particular - played early in the qualifying rounds of the '95 Canadian Open between Joyce and a college kid named Dan Brakus, whom Wallace describes as "a very good tennis player." Brakus is good but overmatched. He can serve 118 miles per hour; Joyce, meanwhile, can return that serve and then stay two steps ahead of Brakus the rest of the way, perfectly reading the geometry of each shot and outmaneuvering him point after point. "It's like watching an extremely large and powerful predator," Wallace writes, "get torn to pieces by an even larger and more powerful predator."

Joyce, meanwhile, is just as overmatched if not far more so when he takes on a real world-class player - like, say, Andre Agassi. It becomes apparent after a while that Joyce is a bit obsessed with the superiority of Agassi, who was in the midst of a 30-week run as the world's No. 1 player at the time. The word "Agassi" shows up 46 times in Wallace's profile, remarkable given that the profile isn't of him. Joyce spends his entire life pursuing greatness at tennis, yet he remains keenly aware the whole time that there's someone else on another level entirely, a level that he'll never reach. "Every once in a while," Wallace writes, "Joyce will look over at his coach next to me in the player-guest section of the grandstand and grin and say something like, 'Agassi'd have killed me on that shot.'" You get the sense that everything Joyce does is calibrated against this impossible standard. It's unreasonable and maybe borderline insane to compare yourself to the world's No. 1 at anything when you're No. 79, but Joyce seems unable to help himself. Among the Dan Brakuses of the world, Joyce is a god, but he always seems to have one eye on the bigger names above him. He's hopelessly stuck in the middle, and he's devoted every fiber of his being to reaching that middle.

So.

I play Scrabble. This is something I've put a great deal of my time and energy into for the last decade; my 10-year anniversary is coming up in May. It's something I've gotten pretty good at, all things considered. Of the 161,293 entries in Collins Scrabble Words between two and nine letters long, I've learned damn close to all of them (though plenty fall through the cracks in my brain, often at inopportune times), and strategically, I've developed a pretty good sense of what I'm doing (though lapses happen, and they can be quite ugly). I try to be self-aware about my aptitude and skill for the game and to stay honest about my abilities without being arrogant or - arguably worse - falsely modest. Right now, I'm ranked as the 36th-best player on Earth. This feels right to me. I'm confident I can beat most everyone outside of the top 40 consistently; I'm also mindful of how thoroughly outclassed I still am by many of those above me. Like Michael Joyce, I'm stuck in the middle.

Over the last eight months, give or take, I've come to realize how frustrating it can be when you're stuck in that good-but-not-quite-elite zone in Scrabble. To wit, I've had a string of good-but-not-quite-elite finishes at big events, dating back to mid-2016. At the national championship, I ranked second with two rounds to play, needing just one win to hold onto that spot for good; I went 0-2 and slipped to fourth. At the world championship, eight players cracked the playoffs, and I was competing in the eighth-place game in the final round; I lost and fell all the way to 16th. At a pair of mid-major tournaments in December, I went to sleep on the final night in first place; both times, I woke up the next morning and was beaten back down to second. At another pair in March, I suffered blowout losses in the late rounds that knocked me out of contention. Outcomes like this hurt, but they're also par for the course in my position. When you're almost the best player but not quite, you're sure to have plenty of results that reflect that.

These results are painful in and of themselves, but they're made even more so by all the effort it takes to achieve them. Being good-but-not-quite-elite is hard. You have to be born with a certain degree of aptitude to reach that level, sure, but a whole lot more than 36 people on Earth have that aptitude. The other pieces of that puzzle are a lot of hard work, a lot of mental energy and, frankly, a quite deliberate rejiggering of one's priorities in life. It's hard (impossible?) to reach the almost-top level of Scrabble without diverting a good deal of time and focus away from other things that are probably far more worthwhile. All of this just to be 36th, reaping all of the sort-of-glory-but-not-really-glory that comes with that.

Wallace writes at length about this same problem manifesting in Michael Joyce - and more broadly, in everyone who plays tennis at the same level. He argues that in a way, the problem is all of our collective faults for creating this culture - one in which we praise players for their successes while largely ignoring the process that makes them possible.

"Americans revere athletic excellence, competitive success, and it's more than lip service we pay; we vote with our wallets. We'll pay large sums to watch a truly great athlete; we'll reward him with celebrity and adulation and will even go so far as to buy products and services he endorses. But it's better for us not to know the kinds of sacrifices the professional-grade athlete has made to get so very good at one particular thing. Oh, we'll invoke lush clichés about the lonely heroism of Olympic athletes, the pain and analgesia of football, the early rising and hours of practice and restricted diets, the preflight celibacy, et cetera. But the actual facts of the sacrifices repel us when we see them: basketball geniuses who cannot read, sprinters who dope themselves, defensive tackles who shoot up with bovine hormones until they collapse or explode."

To equate my own struggle with those of any of the athletes Wallace alludes to above would be foolish. Obviously. I'm no hero, and luckily I can read decently well and need no performance-enhancing drugs. But on a smaller, less dramatic scale, I understand the rhetoric there and can relate to it. I think a lot about my sacrifices. I think about what I could have done with all the hours I've spent studying dictionaries and analyzing games. I ponder the choices I may have made differently if I'd prioritized "real life" more and focused less on preparing for the next tournament. There were job opportunities I didn't bother to pursue because I wanted more time to study (and more freedom to travel to tournaments). There were, to be candid, romantic relationships I allowed to stagnate because I wasn't as focused on them as I could have been.

I don't have any regrets, per se. My life's decisions are what they are, and they've made me who I am. I like myself, mostly. But this stuff is still interesting to think about.

It resonates with me when Wallace goes into depth about the impact of the sacrifices the Michael Joyces of the world make - specifically, how they tend to narrow the individual's worldview and dull his personality. He references the "vapid and primitive" quotes that athletes give in postgame interviews as a symptom of this - sporting people speak in dull clichés, he argues, not because they're stupid, but because they've channeled their intelligence into one very specific thing. This makes them great at that thing, but at what cost? That's the question. Wallace describes this life choice as "consent to live in a world that, like a child's world, is very small." I find it hard to dispute this.

I submit that in Scrabble, this world is even smaller. At least on the tennis court, you're playing a game that has some sort of connective tissue with the outside world. Millions of people have played tennis at least semi-avidly and developed an understanding for its complexity. Millions have also watched Federer on TV and seen the awesomeness of his abilities. They know he's on another level because they've seen it firsthand. They've watched him work his magic and thought to themselves, "Wow, I could never do that." Scrabble is different because so few people in this world can (or, should I say, choose to) grasp or contextualize what it means to achieve expertdom. The work that goes in behind the scenes - the countless hours of studying and analyzing - is anonymous and thankless and understood by painfully few. There aren't many people who know the drudgery of reinforcing for the 87th time that the word in AEGIMNSV is VEGANISM, or poring over the results of 2-ply simulations and reasoning out why this play is better than that one. And why should they? It takes a lot of discipline to keep learning words and a lot of self-flagellation to continually question your strategic thinking and challenge yourself to improve. Sometimes, this journey is exhilarating; other times, it's just lonely.

It's not that nobody understands the highs and lows you go through - but those who do, you're trying to kick their asses. That's the paradox here. There aren't many people out there who can fully, empathetically understand what it takes to win at Scrabble, and there aren't many who genuinely feel 100 percent happy for you when you win. The number of people who fit in both categories at once is mighty close to zero. So who are you playing for? Who, if anyone, are you trying to impress?

When describing the scene of a Canadian Open qualifying match, played between the world's 79th-best player and someone else below that level, Wallace writes that "The applause of a tiny crowd is so small and sad and tattered-sounding that it'd almost be better if people didn't clap at all." This sentence is depressing but wonderfully written, and it feels applicable across the board. It might be the Qualies in Montreal or Table 4 at the Nationals - the logic works just the same.

The difference is that the guy in the Qualies is playing for a chance to graduate from the Qualies and be something more. Wallace makes a point of the fact that even some of the all-time great tennis players began their careers in those sad, seemingly inconsequential play-in matches - even Pete Sampras, before he became Pete Sampras, had to compete at the Qualies level at first. There's a sense of satisfaction, I imagine, that tennis players feel when they make that climb from good to transcendent. But in Scrabble, what is there to transcend? Even if you're Nigel Richards - and last I checked, only one person alive is he - what are you fighting for? To prove to a small cadre of people who have mastered something that you've mastered it even better?

Plenty of people have given compelling reasons why they play. They play because they love the game and they love the people in it. The enjoyable gameplay and enduring friendships keep them coming back. That's all well and good, but it's not what I'm asking. There's why you play, and there's why you compete. They're two entirely different questions. That might seem to some like a small distinction, but it's one that's changed my life.

There's no shortage of past top players who have walked away because they've hit a wall and lost the desire to continue competing. One famously wrote in the early 1990s that he was quitting because "there's little satisfaction in beating someone whom one should beat regularly." More recently, one expert penned that "There are virtually no extrinsic motivators in Scrabble" while walking away; another quipped that "It's a law of diminishing returns," putting in more and more time to make less and less progress up the ladder. All of these are valid complaints, and compelling reasons to give the game up.

Me, I acknowledge all of the above statements to be true - and yet for some perverse reason, I use them to justify why I'm still here. A shrink would have a field day with this. Even though the games start to blur together and the results often feel proforma, I keep playing. Even though there's very little to keep motivating me - and almost certainly not enough to justify the amount of time I put in - I keep working at it. Why? I'm really not sure. At the risk of begging the question, playing Scrabble is what I do because it's what I do. I've come this far over the last 10 years, and turning back just doesn't feel right. I've already irreparably warped my life to center it around this dumb game; I might as well make the most of this bizarre situation.

At the end of his long essay, after a brief interlude to reflect on watching a few of tennis' bigger names like Jim Courier and Michael Chang and Mats Wilander, Wallace returns to his discussion of Michael Joyce. His closing paragraph describes Joyce as "a complete man, though in a grotesquely limited way." He asserts that "already, at twenty-two, it's too late for anything else; he's invested too much, is in too deep. I think he's both lucky and unlucky. He will say he is happy and mean it. Wish him well."

Those last three words - "wish him well" - have always haunted me a bit. It's unclear whether they're meant as a statement of Wallace's personal sentiment (as in, "I wish him well") or an imperative to the reader ("You should wish him well"). Wallace weaves back and forth between the personal narrative and the persuasive argument, and I've never been sure of what note he closes on here. But no matter. The point is that when you devote seemingly your whole life to a given pursuit, be it tennis or Scrabble or whatever else, it has a strange way of making your life feel both complete and incomplete. It's immensely gratifying yet intensely painful. At this point, I think that's the feeling I'm stuck with. Wish me well, if you care to. I'm not sure what difference it will make. I plan to continue on, until I inevitably someday collapse or explode. Or, you know, maybe something a bit less apocalyptic. We'll see.

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ncmagroup · 4 years

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“How do I get more clients?”

It’s the question every consultant asks.

Why?

Because clients are the lifeblood of any consulting business.

Without clients, you can’t keep the lights on.

Without clients, you can’t make payroll.

Without clients, you can’t grow.

So how do you get more clients? There’s certainly no silver bullet. I wish I could write a blog post and say do “X” and you’ll have clients knocking down your door today, and for years to come. Instead, getting new clients takes time, energy, and lots of effort.

To get a steady pipeline of clients, you have to invest time in building relationships, networking, and marketing your consultancy. In this post, I’ve covered 33 strategies you can use to get new clients. You may be familiar with some of these at a glance but read through because I’ve included helpful advice, resources, and tools for each.

1. Ask for referrals, don’t wait for them

Okay, okay, I know…referrals are the most obvious and well-known way to get new clients. However, too many consultants just wait for referrals to fall in their lap. After all, happy clients should spread your name, right? Most clients will, but sometimes clients are busy and won’t go out of their way. Instead of waiting, open your email and find 2 happy clients, who haven’t sent you referrals yet. You are going to email them right now asking for a referral. Seriously…do this. Below is the email copy I used which worked really well. I opened by checking up on the client and then asking for a direct referral. Don’t beat around the bush or leave it open-ended, and always keep it short:

Hi [Name],

How is [Company] doing? I enjoyed working with you on that project and would love to hear how it’s going.

On a side note, I’m looking for new clients to work with. Can you connect me to any people or companies in your network that could use my services right now?

-John Smith

2. Partner with agencies

Partnering with an agency is a great way to bring in new clients. I’ve used this exact strategy and built a partnership with an agency that sends me at least 1 new client per month. I also make sure the agency is larger than my consultancy, so I’m not competing. I found agencies usually pass on work because:

The budget is too low

They have no interest in the project

They don’t have availability

They don’t have the required skills or expertise

Normally when an agency turns down a prospective client, they’ll refer the client to a new company in their network. That’s where you come in. I reached out to a dozen or so web agencies with a personalized email offering to partner or take on any work they pass up.

I received responses from about half and set up phone calls with each to discuss further. I would usually email the person in charge of business development since they were focused on building relationships with outside vendors.

3. Browse job boards

This is really another no-brainer, and chances are you already use job boards. If you don’t, bookmark all of these below and check them daily for new projects. This is probably one of the easiest ways to get new clients.

These boards include logo design, web design, development, marketing, copywriting and miscellaneous jobs. Positions cover remote, full-time, part-time, contract and more, so there’s plenty of options. Did I miss one? Post in the comments and let me know.

Authentic Jobs

Dribbble

Behance

Juiiicy

Folyo

Reddit For Hire

Smashing Jobs

Krop

We Work Remotely

GrowthHackers

Inbound

Stack Overflow

GitHub

AngelList

Layervault

YC Jobs

Elegant.ly

Product Hunt

Tuts+

Indeed (try keyword + your location (or) remote (or) contract (or) freelance, etc.

If you don’t want to check these boards daily, you can subscribe to a service like Workshop (design and development only) or Working Nomads (remote only). They’ll email you the best leads from job boards daily (note that only some boards are included).

4. Follow up with lost clients

When I say “lost clients”, I’m referring to clients you may have spoken with or sent a proposal to in the past but didn’t win the business. Go through your email and find clients you lost 2+ months ago. Send them a follow-up email asking how their project is coming along, and if there is anything you can do for them. This tactic is about being helpful and showing you care about the client. This can lead to a small project or even spark a new conversation about hiring you if they are unhappy with their previous selection. If not, you’re still putting yourself on their radar and might see some referrals coming your way.

5. Follow up with your network

Browse through old email conversations with colleagues, connections, and people you’ve spoken within the past, who could be a fit for your consultancy. Follow up with each, asking what they’ve been up to and how you can help. Asking how you can help the person, whether its giving feedback, advice, tips or doing a small task, can be rewarding, and it helps you build up relationships with the right people. Remember, if you go out of your way to help someone for free, they’ll likely return the favor and help you. I followed up with an entrepreneur I met a few years back, who had recently founded a company. He asked for my feedback on his product and any advice I had. I hopped on a call with him to discuss, and he later hired my consultancy for some internal design and UX work.

6. Run an ad campaign

Facebook ads and Google Adwords are great ways to advertise your consultancy to prospective clients. Both platforms let you set a small daily budget for those that are cash-strapped or want to test the waters. I found Facebook ads easier to use than Google Adwords, which definitely has a steep learning curve if you’re new. PPC University is an amazing resource to learn about running effective campaigns or check out Kudu, a service that will manage and run campaigns for you.

For visitors who come to your website and leave, you can use retargeting services like Adroll or Perfect Audience. These platforms allow you to track who visits your site, and lets you later serve ads to them via Facebook, Twitter, and other online marketing channels. You can also try buying display ads from BuySellAds. However, there may be a higher minimum budget, depending on the sites and creatives you select.

7. Start blogging

Blogging is an amazing way to build relationships and become an expert consultant. My first blog post ever has gotten over 15,000 visitors, 50+ comments, hundreds of newsletter subscriptions, and has introduced me to some amazing people.

Start by blogging about topics that tie into your services, and will appeal to prospective clients. Peep Laja writes a blog about conversion optimization, which is filled with articles that help companies increase their conversion rates, and make more money. By posting quality content, Peep is viewed as an expert on conversion optimization, which helps him build an audience and generates new business for his consultancy.

The big question that comes up with blogging, is how to drive traffic to your posts. After publishing an article, I like to post it to GrowthHackers, Inbound, Reddit (find a subreddit for your blog niche), Hacker News, and my twitter feed. You should also email each company or person you mention in the post, with a note that you’ve mentioned them. I also reach out to my network and send a link to people who I think might find my post interesting.

This is usually enough to get the ball rolling and to get some traffic to the post. Blogging takes a lot of time, especially since you need to do it consistently, for better results. Scripted is a great content writing service you can use to outsource your blog post writing.

8. Write an eBook

Write an eBook that can help solve a business challenge or create value for your prospective client. Marketer?

Write an eBook on how to decrease shopping cart abandonment. Writer?

Write about how compelling copy can help a business make more money. Designer?

Write about how user onboarding is key to getting customers to use, and later pay for your product.

Write the eBook and give it away for free or sell it on your website.

If you give it away for free, be sure to capture emails in exchange for the book, that way you can build a list of prospective clients to market to.

9. Guest blog

Find blogs that your prospective clients read and ask to guest post on them. You should write about a topic that fits within the blog, but also something that readers will get tons of value out of.

Guest blogging is great because you can share your expertise and grow your brand by tapping into someone else’s audience. Alltop is a good place to find popular blogs in your industry. Peter Sandeen has also compiled a large list of blogs you can get a guest post on.

10. Generate leads

Generating leads consists of finding prospective clients that could benefit from your services, and coming up with a plan to reach them. In my previous post, I detailed the process I used to generate leads for a cold email campaign, which is something you can replicate right now.

There are also services that can do the lead generation and sales process for you, like LeadGenius, Hiplead, and GetProspects (shout-out to Scott, who happens to be a reader of the blog!)

11. Use Twitter search

Twitter search is a powerful way to find real-time tweets from people and companies looking to hire or that need help. You can find these tweets by using certain keywords and phrases like below:

Hiring a [your keyword here]

Looking to hire a [your keyword here]

Looking for a [your keyword here]

#hiring #yourkeywordhere

Be creative. Try different search phrases and you’ll discover some great potential clients and projects. You can use Warble to automate your searches and have them delivered to your inbox each day.

12. Network online and offline

Instead of sitting behind the computer all week, plan to go to a meetup or a conference, where your prospective clients may be mingling. If you go to conferences and meetups where all your competitors are, you’ll have a hard time finding people that need your services. Online networking is important as well. Complete a LinkedIn profile with up-to-date information and work samples. Import your contacts and connect with as many people in your network as possible. Share your blog posts, website and other interesting content directly to your LinkedIn news feed. Just like going to meetups or conferences that your prospective clients attend, join LinkedIn groups where they post. There are groups for every industry on LinkedIn, so this is an excellent way to get in front of prospective clients. Answer questions, offer help, post useful content and you’ll not only grow your connections, but you might also land a new gig.

13. Be on demand

Share your expertise and skills on marketplaces like Clarity, Liveninja or Google Helpouts. These sites have a lot of people to choose from, so consider giving away a few free sessions, to build up your profile. My colleague, Khuram Malik, built up his profile by giving away free calls to people in his network, which resulted in great reviews and referral business.

14. Create a course

Create a course on Udemy to tap into a large audience of students and prospective clients. Tapha Ngum wrote a course on Building and Selling a Niche Website From Scratch, which has thousands of students. Tapha made money from selling his course, and from people who reached out to hire him directly.

15. Productize your services

Productized consulting is a powerful way to create recurring revenue and get new clients. With productized consulting, you bundle your consulting services into a “package” that the client can purchase for a monthly fee. Best of all, you’re creating predictable, recurring revenue. If you offer services like design, marketing, development, writing and so on, consider selling your offerings as a package that clients can purchase.

Here are some examples of productized consulting to get you started: Have another great example? Post in the comments and let me know.

WPCurve

Impress

Bench

Correlation

Linowski

Draft Revise

Kudu

16. Capture leads

You might already have a contact form on your website, but this is normally used by people who are ready to hire you or say hello. Most of the time, a potential client will browse your website, then leave – without ever contacting you. In order to establish trust and build up a relationship with visitors, you can try to capture their email by giving something away.

Give visitors an eBook (as mentioned above), a whitepaper, a free 30-minute consultation or even a step-by-step guide to increasing their conversion rates, in exchange for their email. You can later turn these leads into paying clients through a drip-email campaign or by contacting them to find out more about their company. I recommend SumoMe, which easy to use and great for capturing leads.

17. Write a playbook

A playbook is a great way to attract new clients, as it provides detail on your process, how you work and how you can help the client. The team over at thoughtbot has the best playbook I’ve seen to date. It covers their processes from design, development, sales, hiring, operations and more.

It gives prospective clients an inside look at how projects get done at thoughtbot. My consultancy has a playbook and you can also check out playbooks by Zurb and The Phuse. A playbook is a powerful marketing tool, as well as a good “closer” to win new business.

18. Start coworking

If you work from home, consider coworking at least once a week. Coworking spaces are great for meeting like-minded individuals and becoming part of your local community. You’ll build up strong relationships and be a go-to consultant for people at the coworking space.

Most spaces also host events, meetings, and conferences, which are great platforms for connecting with people and spreading your brand. Find coworking spaces by Googling “coworking + your zip code”, browsing the Coworking directory or by searching on the map at DeskSurfing.

19. Always offer advice and help

A long-term strategy to bring in new clients is to help people who are connected to your prospective clients. Offer ideas, intros, feedback, thoughts or help them in any way possible with their business challenges.

This is a bit different than following up with your network, mentioned earlier, because of its an ongoing process. You might not close a client or get referrals immediately with this strategy, but its a proven tactic to build relationships and win new business over time. A friend of mine, Brandon Pindulic, uses this strategy to build relationships and get new clients. He helps out anyone who gets in touch, whether its giving advice, feedback or helping with some marketing stuff. Though he says this strategy is pretty taxing and can take up a lot of time, he’s landed big clients and received referral business just for helping.

20. Send a handwritten letter

If you’re looking to land a new client and really want to get their attention, try sending a handwritten letter. Find the person at the company that is most likely to hire you. Write and send a letter that focuses on solving their problems, and also include an easy way to reach you.

This strategy is also great to use when following up with acquaintances, prospective clients (“hey it was great meeting you…”) or keeping current clients happy. A letter in the mail adds a nice personal touch and shows people you truly care. You can write the letters yourself, or use services like Handiemail or MailLift to have the letters written and sent for you.

21. Piggyback on platforms

What do platforms like Shopify, WordPress, and Drupal have in common? Besides being great content management systems, they are home to millions of customers who rely on these platforms to run their blog, website or store.

“Piggyback” on these platforms (and others) by tailoring your services to directly help their customers. For example, market yourself as the go-to design shop for Shopify stores, the Drupal experts or WordPress pros. Piggybacking on platforms is a proven method to tap into a large customer base, where help is almost always needed.

22. Utilize industry networking sites

Almost every industry has networking sites that bring the community together. These sites are an amazing way to grow your brand and land new clients. If you design, make sure you have a profile on Dribbble, Behance, Coroflot and/or Krop. Also, join the discussion on Designer News. If you’re a developer, be active on GitHub, Stack Overflow and Hacker News. If you focus on marketing and writing, dive into the conversations on Growth Hackers, Inbound and Reddit marketing. I personally know several people who receive client inquiries from Dribbble and GrowthHackers, just for uploading work or engaging in the discussions.

23. Answer questions on Quora

Find questions on Quora in your industry, and write thoughtful answers. Fill out your profile and link to your website, so people can learn more about you. Be sure to not just spam your website around Quora. Instead, build up relationships with people and be helpful. Millions of people search for answers on Quora (and most questions are heavily indexed in Google) which brings traffic and visibility to your replies. You can start this strategy by answering 1 question a day, or a few per week. You’ll be amazed at the responses and relationships you’ll build up in the community.

24. Get press

To get press for your consultancy, you have to come up with a unique angle that would be appealing to reporters and their audience. Don’t pitch your services and company, instead act as an expert on a certain topic – increasing productivity, hiring employees, remote working, managing teams, etc. HARO, PitchPigeon and Muck Rack are great resources for pitching the press (you can also go to Product Hunt and search “press” to see tons of other tools available). Coming up with your own story and getting in touch with the right reporters can be difficult. Try contacting local PR firms and offer your services in exchange for some PR work. If you have a budget, you can hire someone with AirPR or use a service like Bite Size PR.

25. Create a presentation

Create a presentation and upload it on SlideShare and Speaker Deck. If you’re a marketing consultant, create a presentation on 10 growth hacks startups can use to get more customers. If you’re a management consultant, create a presentation on how companies can improve their workflow and processes. The possibilities are endless, and creating an engaging presentation will bring in traffic, social shares, and new leads.

26. Write a guide

Similar to the SlideShare tactic above, write a guide on a specific topic that you have expertise in. Guides is a great place to distribute your guides, along with your personal network and on social channels. Creating a guide is a proven way to drive traffic, capture leads and become an authority on a topic.

27. Write a case study

Case studies show prospective clients your results and success with a particular project. A case study usually covers the client, challenges, process, and results of a project or engagement. Ben Gran has written an in-depth post on how to write case studies.

These are some awesome case studies to help you get started:

Big Spaceship – BMW

MojoTech – Groove

Paravel – Microsoft

Zurb – McAfee

Neil Patel – TechCrunch

HubSpot case studies

Amazon case studies

Dozens of marketing growth studies on GrowthHackers

Even more case studies on Inbound

28. Create controversy

Mark at Tiger Tiger told me a story about a local design consultant, named Justin, who took a controversial approach to land a new client.

Justin found a company in his home country of New Zealand, who he thought could benefit from his services. He then bought the crappiest beer in New Zealand and visited the company’s headquarters. He walked into the CEO’s office, placed the beer on his desk, and said, “this beer is like your website…it’s nice on the outside, but tastes like absolute crap.” After a discussion, the CEO agreed, and Justin left with a contract to work on the company’s website.

This is just one example of creating offline controversy, but can certainly be replicated online. Unbounce has written a great post on the science of controversial content. If you’re going to take a similar approach, make sure you don’t cross the line by doing something harmful or illegal.

29. Be extremely personal

If you’re replying to a job ad, or cold emailing, it’s a good idea to be personal to stand out against your competition. I came across a post by Devesh Khanal, on how he landed a paid contract from a CEO in 1 week. Why was Devesh able to get the CEO’s attention and close a contract in just 1 week? He made his email super personal. Devesh recorded a screencast of the CEO’s website and offered steps he could take to increase his conversion rate. The CEO was amazed by the effort Devesh had put into his cold email, as well as his expertise on conversion optimization, so hiring him was an easy decision.

This is one of the best examples of how to be extremely personal to win new clients. Clients are normally bombarded with emails from consultants that contain a bio and website link. Devesh’s approach is personal and captured on video, so it’s easy for the prospective client to understand his ideas. A personal touch like this can be replicated in so many ways, whether it’s doing a redesign of a website, revising marketing copy or coding up a quick prototype. Being personal takes time, but it’s likely to help you stand out and close more clients.

30. Speak at industry conferences

Attending conferences is great, but you should also try speaking at them. Find conferences in your industry and reach out to an organizer about speaking.

Pitch them on topics you’d like to speak about, and back it up with your skills, expertise, experience, website, blog and more. This isn’t going to be for everyone, especially new consultants (or people afraid of public speaking), but it’s a great way to build up your personal brand and forge new relationships with a live audience.

31. Make creative business cards

Business cards can be an effective marketing tool if executed properly. Mark from Tiger Tiger hands out business cards printed on 600 gsm stock letterpressed, which are of high quality and make a great first impression. They cost 3 bucks a pop but have helped him close some serious deals with companies.

When he gives these business cards to prospective clients (or people connected to his clients), they’re immediately impressed with the card quality, which is a reflection of his brand. They end up being shared around the office, at meetups, on social media and more. This post has 30 of the most creative business cards ever, which are guaranteed to spark some creative ideas for your next business card.

32. Have an SEO strategy

Search engine optimization is a great long-term strategy to drive targeted traffic to your company website. You won’t see overnight results with SEO, but with a sound strategy in place, you can drive traffic over time and convert visitors into paying clients.

Here are some great guides to get started with SEO:

The Advanced Guide To SEO

Beginner’s Guide To SEO

Google’s Starter Guide To SEO

33. Partner with non-competing firms

I talked earlier about partnering with agencies. Another strategy is to partner with a non-competing company to offer your services as an extension of their business. Find non-competing companies and pitch your services to them (as mentioned in #2) to form a partnership.

For example, my consultancy partners with a web development company that has no design or creative lead. I handle the creative direction for some of their projects, while they focus on the development. In exchange, I sometimes have projects that need development, so I use them as my development resource. It’s a win-win partnership for both companies.

Your Turn – Choose 3

I’ve covered some great strategies that will help new and veteran consultants land more clients. A lot of you will read this whole post but never take action. I want you to choose 3 strategies from the list and come up with a plan to implement them right away. Don’t make excuses – choose 3, make a plan, set some deadlines, and getting going. Post in the comments the 3 strategies you plan to implement for your consultancy.

Closing

These are my best strategies for getting new clients, but I want to hear from you.

What strategies do you use to land new clients?

What tools and resources are helpful?

Have you used some of these strategies before?

What worked and what didn’t?

Go to our website: www.ncmalliance.com

33 Ways To Get More Clients “How do I get more clients?” It’s the question every consultant asks. Why? Because clients are the lifeblood of any consulting business.

0 notes

lizzybeth1986 · 6 years

Note

Drake took a bullet for the MC. We were all rooting for him during his duel with Neville. I don’t think him being a LI ruined his character in any way or form. I don’t see why they couldn’t do the same with Olivia. Some of her best scenes are hidden behind a diamond wall anyway. Maybe I’m just biased because Hana is too fluffy and one-dimensional to capture my interest. Playing TRR with her wasn’t much fun for me and I was praying for a gay miracle until the very last scene.

I have a feeling this is with reference to my answer on that ask about Olivia becoming an LI.

First off, comparing Drake to Olivia makes zero sense. Drake was built to be an LI, he was put forward to the readers as one, his and Liam’s faces were on the cover way before Hana’s was, his interactions were meant to have romantic undertones from the very beginning. The duel scene with Neville is as much a part of his LI growth as it is a teaser to the eventual climatic duel in Chapter 21. I’m not sure how we can compare that to Olivia at all.

Maxwell would be a more plausible comparison, and even then - as I mentioned in my last ask on Olivia - not entirely an accurate one given that he is also not as intricately woven in the Anton/Liam plot as Olivia is.

Second, Olivia is part of the overall plot in a way Drake hasn’t - and won’t - be. The plot - as it is written - hinges on her being forcibly married to Anton, and her going against him both to defend Liam and to restore the honour of her House and duchy. Drake’s equation with Neville was built two different ways - as a lone man standing against this noble (who represented every other noble who treated him with disdain and condescension), and (coupled with the Drake-MC) as a couple that became nobility from the bottom of the ranks, proving their worth to the very people who ridiculed them. That has very little bearing (besides foreshadowing, and a distraction to the conspiracies really taking place at that Gala) to the main plot of Anton-Liam-Olivia-MC.

Drake started out as an LI whose diamond scenes gave us hints about certain aspects of the story (the bachelor party photos, the background of the Beaumont brothers and his sister, the assassination attempt on Liam), but who always had a storyline independent of the main plot. Olivia’s larger story on the other hand is way too tied up in Liam’s and Cordonia’s. Her story is intricately connected to his, so comparing that to Drake won’t exactly work.

Third, I’m not sure you can say most of Olivia’s best scenes are hidden behind a paywall: she has only 2 that focus on her family history (Book 1 finale and Book 3 with Lucretia at the Gala), plus some good group scene moments.

Her story with Liam? Non-diamond (Book 1 Chapter 7). Her famous dialogue about the Nevrakis family being know “not for being safe, but for crushing our enemies”? Non-diamond (Book 2 Chapter 5). Her constant support for Liam? Non-diamond. (lots of places but especially Book 3 Chapter 2) Her ability to fight like a boss? Non-diamond (Book 3 Chapter 9). Her dedication towards her people? Non-diamond (Book 3 Chapter 12). Lucretia constantly downplaying her achievements? Non-diamond (Ditto). Her pride in her House and her need to prove that it can stand for positive things? Non-diamond (Book 3 Chapter 10). There is so much you can glean from her even if you don’t buy her scenes.

Fourth, I have a big problem with the way the term “one dimensional” is thrown around in this fandom. Honestly, I’m tired of this term now. It’s overused and often the people who use it these days just come to that character with the attitude of not being interested in them in the first place. Nowadays, I see “one dimensional” as shorthand for “I don’t want to admit that I’ve made little/no effort to understand the character, so let me blame the character instead”. I’m sorry if that sounds presumptuous, but this has been my experience every single time I’ve seen this term used for a character. Person A will use “one dimensional” to describe a character, Person B will show proof of why that’s inaccurate, Person A will backtrack and eventually be forced to admit they haven’t actually given that character much thought. I’ve seen this term used on different levels with all the LIs, and it irks me no end because there is enough proof of their depth beyond the tropes they embody.

–

I also need to address your point regarding Hana. I don’t mind that she isn’t your cup of tea - she can be hard to like or relate to for some - but I do have quite a lot to say about it.

Were the writers lazy in their writing for Hana? Of course: there were secondary characters given more attention than she was.

Should there have been another female LI of a different personality type to balance her out? Sure - if I could trust the TRR writers to do justice to their female LIs, and I obviously don’t.

Could Hana have been written better? Certainly. They failed her in multiple ways, right to the end of the series.

Is Hana hard to relate to? Not for me personally, but I do know people who have told me they cannot relate to her or make complete sense of her issues - possibly because their upbringings and relationships with their families are poles apart from Hana’s.

Can she be fluffy? Well, yeah, if you overlook the sad reality of her situation. I mean, this is a woman who started out blaming herself for an engagement her parents pressurized her to make, and her fiancé chose to break. This was someone who was constantly ready to settle for less than what she wanted and was used to not being heard. This is someone who basically didn’t care about the competition for Liam’s hand once the MC came along, and was busy giving her precious time and skills and expertise to the newbie who sometimes doesn’t give her credit even when she does take her help. Someone who was forced to go back home for having the gall to tell her mother “you should let me figure out what I want for myself”, and threatened with disownment more than once. Someone who had to put up with the likes of Neville and Madeleine so she could stay around in Cordonia only to ensure the MC’s safety. Someone who LEFT her parents because she was standing up for her friend/lover, and had to basically start over. Someone who flat-out told her former tormentor that if she wanted Hana’s forgiveness, she’d have to earn it and it wouldn’t be easy. You wanna call her fluffy? Sure, if that’s your definition of fluffy.

But there is no way you can view her as merely one dimensional. Let us remember, for instance, what her finale scene is an echo of. It purposely mirrors the piano scene at Lythikos in Book 1. The Hana of Book 1 was so trapped in her (actually, her parents’) views of family and obedience and honour that she had to fuck up a performance on purpose to get out of being paraded. The Hana of Book 3 firmly says no, but also still can’t completely be heard without sufficient support. Which is growth, but at a pace that is ongoing, and in no way does present-day Hana sound fluffy or easy-to-portray to me. She is still learning, she is still growing, she isn’t entirely comfortable. I’m not sure in what way that journey or character can be seen as one dimensional.

I can understand why the thought of Olivia being a love interest is appealing - and were it not for how tangled in the overall plot she was, I believe she would been a fantastic one - but that doesn’t mean Hana is any less. Her personality may not appeal to everyone but people like her are very much part of the LGBTQ community and a lot of her behaviour is rooted in her culture, upbringing and issues of home and identity.

–

Lastly, I find comparisons of Olivia with Hana - especially when it’s to place Olivia on a pedestal and speak of her as being better than Hana - a little disturbing. Olivia was a character that was given time and effort. She was written with immense care, and the writing for her was consistent from the first chapter to the last. Olivia was at the front and center of her own story.

You know which important love interest didn’t get that level of care, that level of continuity, that level of effort? You know which character was pushed to the sidelines in her own damn story? You know which character’s issues and feelings were constantly brushed aside and ignored - rather than validated - until the very last minute? Hana!

Olivia has always had advantages that Hana will never have, and I think we need to acknowledge that when we’re making such comparisons.

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preserving-ferretbrain · 5 years

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Review: The Blade Itself

by Wardog

Tuesday, 01 April 2008Wardog is really fucking impressed.~

This was another of my Hay-on-Wye One Pound Bargains (the first being, of course,

Locke Lamora

) except it's been gathering dust under my bed for the past six months. What can I say, the cover was a bit lame and the blurb on the back made it sound a bit generic and, let's face it, it was available in bulk via an outlet booksellers on the Welsh Border for less than my breakfast croissant so how good could it be? Well I'm pretty much kicking myself for the delay because the answer is bloody good actually. Bloody bloody good. Possibly the best fantasy I've read for a very very long time.

Into a cocked hat with you, Mr Locke Lamora. This is the Real Deal.

The Blade Itself, which is the first part of a trilogy because fantasy cannot be anything else although it gets points from me by not being a fucking septology, has three main protagonists, and the story unfolds through each of their perspectives. They are: Captain Jezel dan Luthar, a shallow and feckless swordsman in the King's Own, Logen Ninefingers, a battle-weary barbarian and Sand dan Glokta, a crippled and bitter Inquisitor who was horribly tortured during the war. So much so GRRM I know, but here it really really works. The POV switching is deft and absorbing and there's a genuine difference in narration and perception between the three characters - Glokta's sections are dominated by his sarcastic interior monologue and Jezel's actually seem to pout and whinge at you:

He had always assumed that everybody loved him, had never really had cause to doubt he was a fine man, worthy of the highest respect. But Ardee didn't like him, he saw it now, and that made him think. Apart from the jaw, of course, and the money and the clothes, what was there to like?

The stories interweave but only occasionally overlap; however the fleeting opportunities to see a character you've grown familiar with through the eyes of another are fascinating and serve to deepen your understanding of both characters in a quite subtle ways. It's also a world-building winner because knowledge of the world (which seems quite detailed but, thankfully, is never presented in those indigestible chunks so popular with fantasy writers) filters down to you gradually through the different character's responses and preoccupations. When you first see the city the other characters inhabit through the eyes of the barbarian, for example, it's startling and arresting and gives you a whole new insight into something you've pretty much taken for granted throughout the book so far. If Abercrombie's technique can be faulted at all (and I hate myself for even mentioning it), it's that he's presented his three protagonists so effectively that his occasional deviations into other characters (and to be fair, these are rare) seem jarring and I often found myself skimming in order to get back to the people I cared about as quickly as possible.

The secondary cast consist of a finely tuned assortment of the types of people you might expect to find in this kind of book: a man of common birth striving for advancement and recognition in the King's Own, a scheming Arch-Inquisitor, a cantankerous old man who may or may not be (but probably is) the all-powerful First of the Magi, a feral slavegirl, grasping nobles, pretentious officers and corrupt officials. The world they inhabit is dark and gritty (typical low fantasy fare in fact): the book is set in the Union, a sprawling confederacy of disparate countries (presumably an analogue to Europe) united under a, in this case, completely weak and hopeless King and a parliament of hereditary, bickering nobles. The Blade Itself concentrates mainly on establishing its characters and their position within the larger events taking place on the fringes of their awareness: there's clearly going to be A Big War although the details are as hazy to the reader as they are to the characters. Bethod, ruthless Barbarian king cementing power in The North, the Emperor Uthman al-Dosht eyeing up The East.

I think this may be The Blade Itself's only arguable weakness: it's pretty much a 400 page prologue. There is a sense of a gathering storm but there's very little elucidation of the over-arcing plot, which I presume will focus on the Big War through the eyes of the individuals caught up within it. This is not to say the book is devoid of excitement or tension, it's just that if you want to get into the thick of things straight away ... well ... why the hell are you reading fantasy trilogies? It may be a slow build but it it's so damnably well done that it's a pay off all on its own and I found myself so absorbed by the characters that I didn't care it was primarily set up for the books to come.

The other thing to note here is that my crude summary in no way does the book justice. Its generic premise and easily recognisable fantasy world are actually strengths: Abercrombie manipulates the usual fantasy tropes so skilfully that the book is both a delicate riff on the epic fantasy genre itself and an epic fantasy masterpiece in its own right. Its sly playfulness is one of the (many) pleasures of the book:

"How's the book?" asked Jezal. "The Fall of the Master Maker, in three volumes. They say it's one of the great classics ... Full of wise Magi, stern knights with mighty swords and ladies with mightier bosoms. Magic, violence and romance, in equal measure. Utter shit."

To some extent it reminds me of The Lies of Locke Lamora but only because they both seem to share a similar self-referentiality when it comes to the mainstays and expectations of the genre, and a healthy affection for the word fuck. If I was feeling momentous I'd dub it post-modern fantasy. But actually I think Abercrombie is better, particularly because he has a fine ear for dialogue and, although there are plenty of irreverent fast-talkers to be found within, it is at the very least possible to distinguish between them. His characters are complex, complicated and far from sympathetic but nevertheless they feel utterly and convincingly human. Jezal may be a shallow and selfish waste of space but you applaud his occasional moments of heroism. Glokta tortures people for a living and yet still you root for him. And although Logen, the thinking man's barbarian, was initially the least interesting of the three to me, after a while I really came to appreciate Abecrombie's take on this fantasy staple. Logen is a killer exhausted with killing, living in a world that has no other use for him:

He could have bragged and boasted, and listed the actions he'd been in, the Named Men he'd killed. He couldn't say now when the pride had dried up. It had happened slowly. As the wars became bloodier, as the causes became excuses, as the friends went back to the mud, one by one. "I've fought in three campaigns," he began. "In seven pitched ballets. In countless raids and skirmishes and desperate defences, and bloody actions of every kind. I've fought in the middle of the driving snow, the blasting wind, the middle of the night. I've been fighting all my life, one enemy or another, one friend or another. I've known little else. I've seen men killed for a word, for a look, for nothing at all. A woman tried to stab me once for killing her husband, and I threw her down a well. And that's far from the worst of it. Life used to be cheap as dirt to me. Cheaper. I've fought ten single combats, and I won them all, but I fought on the wrong side and for all the wrong reasons. I've been ruthless and brutal, and a coward. I've stabbed men in the back, burned them, drowned them, crushed them with rocks, killed them asleep, unarmed, or running away. I've run away myself more than once. I've pissed myself with fear. I've begged for my life. I've been wounded, often, and badly, and screamed and cried like a baby whose mother took her tit away. I've no doubt the world would be a better place if I'd been killed years ago, but I haven't been and I don't know why."

Logen, if anything and unlikely as it sounds, is (at the moment at least) the moral centre of the book. Although his battle cry is "I'm still alive" his life of violence has led him to a point where mere survival is no longer sufficient and the decisions he makes over the course of the book are based on an emergent, personal moral code. For the battle weary Logen, fighting has become something he will no long do out of necessity or for profit: he is fighting for a cause. Jezel, by contrast, in training for the fencing Contest, fights for glory and even then he only really puts any effort in because he wants to impress a girl. And Glokta, who does terrible things to people over the course of the book and knowingly allows himself to be used as a tool by the ambitious Arch Lector Sult, too physically and emotionally broken to really take any pleasure in survival at all, has no idea what motivates him to do the things he does.

That same question came into his head, over and over, and he still had no answer. Why do I do this? Why?

Glokta is most certainly the most difficult character in the book. Really, he can be thought of as a little more than a villain but the agony of his day to day life is described in such detail, and with such bitter wit, that it's very hard not to feel sympathetic towards him. However, although he's a fantastic character, I cannot help but wonder if his portrayal is entirely successful. The fact of the matter is, he kills and hurts people without remorse or regret and yet it's remarkably easy to forget it as you get drawn into the story. You might say this is yet another strength of the characterisation but I think that if you are going to find yourself responding positively to a character who is a torturer then you have to be able to do so with full knowledge of what that character is capable of doing. You might also say that this is a problem with me as a reader and that I shouldn't need to see constant and gruesome teeth-extraction scenes to remind me that somebody is a Bad Man but I actually suspect it's something to do with the nature of fiction itself (yeah, heaven forefend it was me).

Seriously though, and with all due self-irony, it's easy to forget - especially when it comes to fantasy where getting completely subsumed in the world is an expected part of the reading process (or "fun" if you're feeling generous) - the artificiality of fiction. We do not, however we might wish to pretend otherwise, respond to fictional people and situations as if they were real. We do not grieve for the fictional dead. We don't care about the billions of lives lost on Alderan, we just think it's really damn cool and evil that a whole planet got blown up by Darth Vader. Similarly, the people Glokta tortures have no narrative presence of their own. Therefore, it's hard to care that horrible, horrible things happen to them and it's hard to condemn Glokta for perpetrating the horrible horrible things. The issue here is not about morality it's about narrative: it's not whether or not the reader should be able to forgive Glotka for his unforgivable actions, it's why they should be so easy to forget.

But to bring this back to where it's supposed to be: The Blade Itself is an exceptionally accomplished and, indeed brilliant, debut. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Just one more thing: Fantasy Rape Watch

Women raped: 0

Somebody give the man a big gold star.

A brief aside on the subject of women in The Blade Itself since it's something that seems to be preoccupying us here at Fb: women tend to be peripheral to the novel as a whole. However, given the world, this seems entirely appropriate. The few female characters who do have parts to play are well-written, interesting and can hold their own against the men. None of them get their pale breasts fondled by rough barbarian hands. Win!Themes:

Fantasy Rape Watch

Books

Joe Abercrombie

Sci-fi / Fantasy

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Arthur B

at 23:17 on 2008-03-31

I've fought ten single combats, and I won them all, but I fought on the wrong side and for all the wrong reasons.

And with that, you've sold me on it. I know you said you'd lend it to me, but I'm tempted to just go to the Works and pick it up - ISTR that they have some cheap copies going there - since if you give it to me I'll want to keep it and then we will have to fight.

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Wardog

at 10:37 on 2008-04-02I feel absolutely evangelical about it - I would walk down Iffley Road just to give it to you, I think it's THAT good.

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Arthur B

at 15:19 on 2009-09-22So, I've finally gotten around to reading it a year and a half later and I'm pretty impressed.

I agree that the book is let down by the fact that it's a prologue, but I don't think it's let down that much. It's clearly the setup for Bayaz getting an adventuring party together to go to the edge of the world, but it almost never explicitly focuses on that, and always makes sure there's heaving, groaning piles of other stuff happening at the same time to make up for it like the war in the North and the fencing contest. If Robert Jordan had written this it would be 400 pages exclusively about Bayaz and his companions shopping for travelling gear.

Personally, I don't think the things Glotka does are that forgettable - we get constant little reminders of the lives he's destroyed throughout the book, like the bit where he casually mentions that the man he wrecks right in the opening chapters has "moved up north", and the implications of the responsibility he's given at the end of the book is pretty horrifying. Also, Glotka constantly thinks about his own torture, because his thought processes end up warping everything and making them all about him and the fact that he was tortured, but whilst he's a self-centred prick who can't see beyond his own pain I think at the same time his pains and tribulations are also a nice reminder for the reader about the implications of what Glotka does. That said, I think this is a point where people's interpretations will vary.

Oh, and on "Women raped: 0", I'm not sure that's

completely

true. I think it is pretty clear that in her past Ferro was either raped or in dire peril of being raped, but I think it's allowable because a) it's backstory, backstory inherently less real than stuff that actually happens onstage, and b) she actually acts like someone who has been brutally victimised in her formative years and then spent years as an outlaw running a guerilla campaign against the authorities. Pretty classy work on JA's part.

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Arthur B

at 15:22 on 2009-09-22Oh, there was one thing that got to me though - the world didn't quite hang together in a coherent manner, Abercrombie seemed to want to have the Renaissance-era Holy Roman Empire bordering Viking-era Scandanavia, and there were some puzzling things that came out of that. I'm all for fantasy worlds not sweating it too much when it comes to emulating a particular time period - deliberate anachronism can be pretty fun - but the Northmen don't know about crossbows?

Seriously?

That's the sort of weapon where once it's discovered it gets propagated

fast

because it's too useful not to adopt.

On the flipside, I did like the fact that Logen and Bethod and the other Northmen have no doubt that Bayaz is who he says he is, whilst in the Union they all freak out about it. It implies either that things are wilder and woolier and more magical in the North, or that time actually passes more slowly there; I'd be interested to see which.

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Dan H

at 23:27 on 2009-09-22It's pretty much standard in Fantasy for you to have Renaissance city-states, Vikings, Knights, Egyptians and Samurai rubbing shoulders in the same setting (often along with Victorian street urchins and spacemen).

It's also pretty standard for "civilized" people to be all "no no, the big dark evil is totally not coming" while "simpler" people are like "zomg".

Just once I'd like the civilised people to be right. After all, most things that people Don't Believe In Any More are - y'know - genuinely not real.

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Arthur B

at 00:50 on 2009-09-23

It's also pretty standard for "civilized" people to be all "no no, the big dark evil is totally not coming" while "simpler" people are like "zomg".

Again, a setting feature which made me genuinely wonder whether time passes more slowly the further you get from the central nation in the book. If 500 years have passed in the Union whilst only 15 have passed in the utter North a lot of this stuff makes sense: the Northmen don't know about crossbows because from their point of view they were only invented days ago, the Union have forgotten about magic and the Dark One because to them it's ancient history whereas to those at the periphery it's recent news, and Bayaz can have an influence on the life of the Union spanning generations because all he has to do is step beyond the mountains and time, for him, slows to a crawl.

This is almost certainly not the case but it would be fun to imagine a world where it was true.

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Niall

at 11:25 on 2009-09-23

it would be fun to imagine a world where it was true.

I believe this is the concept underlying Jo Walton's Lifelode. (Also some short stories by Stephen Baxter, eg "PeriAndry's Quest", "Climbing the Blue".)

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Jamie Johnston

at 22:49 on 2009-09-23I vaguely remember being absolutely fascinated by a slightly-outside-my-syllabus lecture (weren't they always the best kind?) about the Rus, a slightly mysterious pagan people from the northern Volga who pop up from time to time in Byzantine texts and who, the lecturer argued quite convincingly, later ambled vaguely westwards and arrived in Scandinavia just in time to become the Vikings. Maybe Abercrombie vaguely remembered a similar lecture.

Studying ancient and medieval history totally ruined the whole fantasy genre for me. I can't read any specimen without getting incredibly frustrated by the many many ways the fantasy world at hand would never under any circumstances work the way the author wants it to. (Not in a 'No, there can't be dragons' way, just in a 'No, if you had domesticated dragons it would completely revolutionize long-distance transport which would internationalize urban élite culture and thus destablize the ruling theocracy, not to mention the implications for agriculture...' way.) It makes me rather sad.

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Arthur B

at 23:12 on 2009-09-23This is the sort of thing which was simply never a problem with pulp fantasy of the Howard/Leiber/Clark Ashton Smith vein - because that genre was dominated by short story, no particular story revealed enough of the world that you could see where the seams were. Leiber's stories, for example, are all set in the environs of Lankhmar, and because you never really get to see the wider context of where Lankhmar fits in with the global political and economic scene none of that stuff matters even slightly and you can just forget about it and have fun.

Brick-sized novels tend to be trickier, especially since the instinct to write a fantasy story longer than 50 pages seems intimately tied to a love of excess worldbuilding. The more detail you provide about the setting, the more you reveal of the economic and political underpinnings, and 99% of the time they're going to turn out to be made of wet cardboard and string (because coming up with a convincing society from scratch is horrifyingly difficult).

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Arthur B

at 01:07 on 2009-09-24(Oh, and I'm pretty sure that the Union isn't based on Byzantium but the Renaissance-era HRE, so Abercrombie almost certainly isn't thinking of the Rus. The Union appears to incorporate at least the southern extremities of not-Scandanavia, for starters, and there's an utter lack of Greek-sounding names.)

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Dan H

at 11:38 on 2009-09-24

'No, if you had domesticated dragons it would completely revolutionize long-distance transport which would internationalize urban élite culture and thus destablize the ruling theocracy, not to mention the implications for agriculture...' way

Ironically, I often find that sort of thing actually balances out quite well.

"But if you could do that, it would totally revolutionise agriculture..."

"... which sort of explains why 90% of your country isn't covered in farmland so - fair enough then."

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Jamie Johnston

at 22:52 on 2009-09-24

This is the sort of thing which was simply never a problem with pulp fantasy of the Howard/Leiber/Clark Ashton Smith vein...

Perhaps I should try mining that vein. Where's a good place to start?

... the Union isn't based on Byzantium but the Renaissance-era HRE...

D'oh, yes, you did say exactly that in the first place and my brain perpetrated an unhelpful act of lumping all post-Roman imitations of the Roman empire together.

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Arthur B

at 22:54 on 2009-09-24

Perhaps I should try mining that vein. Where's a good place to start?

Any of the Fantasy Masterworks reprints of their work is decent (as is Lord Dunsany, if you want something a bit more poetic... and come to think of it, their compilation of Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories is pretty good).

Be aware that Leiber's output is a bit more variable than the others - the earlier Lankhmar stories are generally better than the later ones - and the Masterworks reprints of Lankhmar put the books in their internal chronological order, not the order of publication. So it's worth skipping to the stories with the earlier dates of publication when dipping into those.

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Ash

at 20:49 on 2011-03-15

time passes more slowly the further you get from the central nation in the book

Which raises the question, how does this work exactly? If 20 years inside makes 1 year outside, what happens when you cross on the border? Do you get ripped apart? Can you cross on the border? What about the cycle of day and night? Does one side have extremely long/short days and nights? If not, why not?

I don't know, it seems that it poses more problems than it solves.

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Dan H

at 22:36 on 2011-03-15I don't for a moment think that the Abercrombieverse actually works that way (it seems a pretty out-there way of describing what boils down to a bit of cod-fantasy world-handwaving) but I don't think it would actually be *that* hard to deal with, the same thing happens in the real world on a much smaller scale (time is slower in strong gravitational fields so clocks really do run faster in orbit than near the earth - GPS satellites need to be calibrated to take this into account). As long as there's a relatively smooth gradient, it shouldn't matter when you move from one to the other.

If it's got sharper edges, then you're dealing with something more like fairyland or Narnia - it's basically a metaphor for the way in which things can seem to change radically when we are separated from them for what appears to us to be a short time (this happens to me in real life all the time, you'll meet somebody you haven't seen for a while and they'll turn out to have had a baby or become a vicar while your back was turned).

But it's fairly clear that the world of The Blade Itself does not actually work that way anyway, so the point is rather moot.

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Andy G

at 23:51 on 2011-03-15Just re-read this review. Two things leapt out at me.

Firstly, I must read these books again.

Secondly, it was Grand Moff Tarkin who blew up the whole planet, not Darth Vader!

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Arthur B

at 00:24 on 2011-03-16And Tarkin did it wearing comfy slippers too.

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Wardog

at 09:33 on 2011-03-16Incidentally, I don't think you're allowed to have a 'verse if you name has more than 2 syllables in it. Maybe it should be the Joeverse.

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Ash

at 20:01 on 2011-03-16

The point is rather moot.

Sorry, I just like to overthink things.

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Alasdair Czyrnyj

at 20:21 on 2011-03-16

Sorry, I just like to overthink things.

Fortunately, that's the raison d'être of this website.

#Ferretbrain #Wardog #Joe Abercrombie #The First Law #The Blade Itself

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readersforum · 5 years

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17 Email Newsletter Examples We Love Getting in Our Inboxes

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17 Email Newsletter Examples We Love Getting in Our Inboxes

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So if you’re thinking about creating an email newsletter, read this blog post and think really hard about whether that’s the right move for you in terms of your marketing strategy.

If you’ve decided that you want to start an email newsletter, or you want to revamp one that’s not performing well, keep on reading. We’ve compiled some of our absolute favorite email newsletters to inspire you to make the best email newsletter for your company possible.

Each newsletter on this list is fabulous for different reasons. Some have exceptional design, some have exceptional copy, some have exceptional calls-to-action … but all are exceptional at solving for their subscribers’ needs. Check ’em out.

Best Email Newsletter Examples

NextDraft

REI

Austin Kleon

FandangoNOW

InVision

Community.is

Vox Sentences

Fizzle

TheSkimm

Medium

BrainPickings

Litmus

General Assembly

This.

SaaS Weekly

The Ringer

Hacker Newsletter

1. NextDraft

NextDraft is a daily email written by a man named Dave Pell, which is a curation of the best web content of the day. As Pell describes it, “Each morning I visit about fifty news sites and from that swirling nightmare of information quicksand, I pluck the top ten most fascinating items of the day, which I deliver with a fast, pithy wit that will make your computer device vibrate with delight.”

You can tell he’s a great writer. His copywriting is one of my favorite things about the newsletter. It starts with the subject line, which is usually a play on words or a clever one-liner on the top news of the day. It then extends to the body of the email itself, which is always descriptive, accurate, and clever. Finally, the minimalist design is fantastic.

Not only is content delivery is clear, organized, and digestible, but also the inclusion of social share buttons underneath each story is brilliant. Rather than assuming that the reader is going to make it to a social sharing option at the bottom of the newsletter, Pell provides them with multiple opportunities throughout. Social engagement can play a big role in growing your newsletter, as every share on social opens up a valuable opportunity to attract more subscribers.

For those who’d rather read news like this in a mobile app, the NextDraft app is free in Apple’s app store.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

2. REI

REI, the recreational sports outfitter, is a model of success in several areas of content marketing — and their membership email is no exception.

We included this email newsletter on our list because it does what many ecommerce and consumer product vendors find challenging: promote good products with good content. In the newsletter example below, you’ll see how REI delivers many different types of material to its subscribers, and each type relates to one another. Following the seasonal product offerings at the top of the email, the company offers trainings to help educate readers on its new products and blog posts for even more insight into the outdoor lifestyle.

Did you notice something else about this newsletter? It’s dedicated entirely to runners. Catering your email newsletter to a single audience — even if that audience belongs to an even bigger buyer persona — can help you tell a story in your email that resonates with the recipient from start to finish.

3. Austin Kleon

Not to play favorites, but this newsletter from Austin Kleon is one I really look forward to. First, I love the simplicity. It’s not flashy, nor is it overly promotional. That’s the hallmark of a successful email newsletter: The most effective newsletters aim to educate, not sell.

I also love the overall informal tone he takes, as it makes it feel as though you’re hearing from a friend. If you’re looking to lower the barrier between your company and your audience, consider using language that is friendly and inviting, not buttoned-up and jargony.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

4. FandangoNOW

FandangoNOW is a movie streaming app that allows you to build a library of purchased and rented movies around your interests. And it uses the below email newsletter as part of its customer retention strategy.

The email below offers movie suggestions for the weekend, making it a well-timed newsletter if it lands in your inbox on Friday afternoon. In addition, its design is easy to digest, despite being so graphic-intense. Using numbered icons and consistent “Buy” and “Rent” CTAs in corners of each movie tile, the email compartmentalizes a lot of content while still connecting each movie to the FandangoNOW brand.

5. InVision

InVision’s newsletter is a weekly digest of their best blog content, a roundup of their favorite design links from the week, and a new opportunity to win a free t-shirt.

Not only is their newsletter a great mix of content, but I also love the nice balance between images and text, making it easy to read and mobile-friendly. They make great use of animated GIFs in their emails (which you can see when viewing the whole email here). I also love the clever copy on their call-to-action buttons:

“Cat GIFs on Every Page”

“Set Your Sights”

“Why So Serious?”

In addition to classic CTA buttons, they engage their audience at the bottom of every newsletter with a “You tell us!” text CTA.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

6. Community.is

Community.is is a handcrafted newsletter created for people who “put people at the center of their work.” This unique concept attracts a variety of readers from executives at ad agencies, to community managers at startups, to marketers and creatives of all shapes and sizes.

In an effort to cater to their melting pot of subscribers, Community.is adopted a three-tier format: Short, Mid, and Long. While an executive may only have time to skim the short stuff, a marketer might be looking for a more in-depth read to spark some inspiration for their next campaign. Organizing a newsletter in this way helps ensure that you’re serving the distinct needs of your audience without it being too confusing.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

7. Vox Sentences

Vox Sentences is a nightly email meant to quickly get its readers up to speed on the best stories from the day. The content ranges from the day’s top news to fun stories from all over the web. They do a great job balancing their own content with external sources, and the stories they choose are always really high quality.

You can read Vox’s entire newsletter from start to finish and get a great sense of the stories they’re covering — but you can also click through to any of the linked stories to get a more in-depth approach.

8. Fizzle

Fizzle’s newsletter is aimed at entrepreneurs who want weekly tips on building a business sent directly to their inbox and all in the email itself. Although they have a business blog and a podcast, what makes Fizzle’s newsletter unique is that the email content is independent from those other content assets. In other words, it’s written entirely for their subscribers.

The copywriting style makes the newsletter unique and appealing, too: It’s casual, honest, and written like the author is writing to a friend. The writing gives off the vibe of real, down-to-earth business advice — without the fluffy stuff. At the same time, it’s written with clear headers and sub-headers to break it up, and the important stuff is bolded, making for easy skimming.

9. TheSkimm

If you want to stay up on what’s happening in the world and have some delightful writing delivered to your inbox first thing in the morning, look no further than TheSkimm. It’s a daily roundup of what’s happened in the news in short, punch paragraphs.

The best part? You don’t have to click out of the email to read the news if you don’t want to — although they do link to their sources if you want to read further. And when it comes to more complex news topics (think: Brexit or the Cannes Film Festival), they’ll cover the most recent updates but link to their Skimm Guides, located on their website. These guides provide context for larger topics, and are written in the same style as the emails.

For your own email marketing, TheSkimm is the place to go if you’re looking for writing inspiration or for emails without much visual content.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

10. Medium

Medium is a blog-publishing platform that has been continuously building momentum since its launch in 2012. Publishing on the site has really picked up in the past few years, and nowadays, there are a ton of people publishing posts on the site every day.

Of course, that means there’s a lot of content for the average person to filter through. To help bring great content to the surface, Medium uses email newsletters. And after I open this newsletter every day, I end up going to visit several Medium posts without fail. (Mission accomplished for Medium, right?)

Here’s why: The newsletter feels pretty minimal. Because of the way that Medium uses colors and section dividers, they’re able to give you a ton of content in one email without it feeling overwhelming. Plus, they offer both a daily and a weekly version of the digest, allowing users to opt in for the email frequency they feel most comfortable with.

11. BrainPickings

BrainPickings is one of the most interesting newsletters out there. In fact, the folks who write it call it an “interestingness digest.” Every Sunday morning, subscribers get the past week’s most unmissable articles about creativity, psychology, art, science, design, and philosophy — topics that are really appealing to a wide audience. At its core, it explores what it means to live a good life.

This is one of the longest newsletters I’ve ever read, but what makes it still work well is how high quality and well packaged the content is.

(Bonus: Check out the delightful microcopy in the top right-hand corner.)

[Click here to see the entire email.]

12. Litmus

You’d hope that an email marketing testing company would have great emails … and Litmus definitely does. While the content of the emails is certainly interesting, I’m especially digging the design. The blocks of color help break up the newsletter into sections that are easy to differentiate.

I also like that the text calls-to-action at the end of each post’s description don’t just say something generic, like “Read this post.” Instead, they are matched with specific actions related to the post’s content, like “Get the checklist” and “Discover why you should test.”

[Click here to see the entire email.]

13. General Assembly

There are a lot of creative things you can do with images in your emails, from designing your own custom graphics to creating animated GIFs. General Assembly, an organization that helps expand professionals’ skill sets, likes to employ tactics like these in their newsletter.

From their attractive and minimal layout to their concise copy and helpful information, this is a great example of a newsletter that gives subscribers quick information in an easily scannable format.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

14. This.

This. (yes, the full stop is part of the brand name) is another great newsletter for finding — and sharing — the best and most entertaining content on the web. What makes their newsletter unique is that it isn’t just content curated by one person or one team; it’s content curated by a community of people on the internet.

Members are allowed to share one, single link every day — presumably the best content they find the entire day. The result? “We’ve built something we hope will connect you to the best the web has to offer — all its weirdness and beauty and diversity and ambition,” reads the website.

The newsletter consists of the editor’s picks from all the amazing content their community members have shared. Subscribers also have the option of signing up for a custom newsletter, which includes the editor’s picks and a custom feed from curators they can pick and choose. That’s some pretty cool personalization.

15. SaaS Weekly

This is the ultimate SaaS newsletter, from a guy that kind of knows a thing or two about SaaS. (Hiten Shah is the co-founder of CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics).

While his approach is simple, this roundup is packed with value and organized in a way that makes it easy to discover content around your specific interests. Shah does this by breaking the list of curated posts into different sections — Business, Product, Marketing Growth, Tip of the Week, etc. — which makes it easily scannable.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

16. The Ringer

Remember Grantland, the sports and pop culture blog owned by ESPN that was started by sports journalist Bill Simmons? In October 2015, ESPN announced it would be ending the publication of Grantland. Shortly thereafter, Simmons formed Bill Simmon Media Group and recruited a whole bunch of former Grantland staffers to launch a brand new newsletter in March 2016 called The Ringer.

Although The Ringer is written and run by many former Grantland employees it’s a different project than Grantland was. Where Grantland focused on sports and pop culture, The Ringer branches out into other areas like tech and politics. Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, is among the contributors. I like how focused they are on experimentation: “We want to have fun, take chances, analyze, theorize, obsess, and try not to take ourselves too seriously,” said Editor-in-Chief Sean Fennessey.

Another differentiator? The Ringer’s website was developed in partnership with publishing platform Medium — which means the newsletter reflects that clean, minimal design.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

17. Hacker Newsletter

Many marketers don’t frequent Hacker News, but they should still check out this hand-picked curation of the social network’s top stories of the day.

Why? The newsletter is clean and minimal, but still sends a ton of really great content its subscribers’ way. The way it distills potentially overwhelming information is by bucketing content into sections. The newsletter also looks very similar to the site, so for those who love the site and how it’s laid out, the newsletter feels like a comforting, familiar way to consume content.

[Click here to see the entire email.]

Even though newsletters are one of the most common types of emails to send, they are actually some of the hardest to do right. We hope these examples gave you some quality inspiration so you can create newsletters your subscribers love to get in their inboxes.

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