#also i have genuinely never cried so much consuming a piece of media

[crowberri]

[In Stars and Time] good game... made me very emotional

(I was bored in class lol

-> more sketches under the cut, contains spoilers from act 4 and onwards

too lazy to clean the mal du pays sketch aeaeaea orz

#isat #in stars and time #i know many people have said this already but oh man... odile's low health portrait... #also i have genuinely never cried so much consuming a piece of media #this game played my heart strings like a lute #isat spoilers #odile #bonnie #siffrin #isabeau #mirabelle #crowberri.png #art #(god why does my pen display colors look so different from on my ipad i hate this) #color calibration my greatest nemisis

[depressedoverdrawings]

Can you hear the tumult of our youth?

KazeKi is the first romance I’ve ever enjoyed, or rather, that I emotionally connected with, as “enjoy” is a funny word choice for a work that made me feel so miserable. Personally, I’ve never enjoyed media that focuses on relationships and love, were they movies, TV, or literature.

But after I discovered KazeKi, I found myself drawn to it, almost involuntarily so. It was as if a spell had been cast. I suppose what superficially drew me in, at first, was the art. It had the charm of retro manga (I absolutely love retro manga/anime looks, IMO they have so much more character than most modern anime and manga), the nostalgic elegance of the idealized upper-class XIX century, and the unrelenting beauty and cuteness of all the boys.

It was mildly surreal and highly entertaining to witness the seed of so many shounen-ai visual tropes: The flower motifs, the flowery poetry, the impossibly pretty boys in dramatic embraces and breathy kisses, the aggressive frenchness of it all. Even it was shocking to me how these elements, instead of striking me as the tired, sappy tropes I saw them as, were now all genuine and beautiful, somehow. Even those silly sparkles around pretty boys seemed fitting. I realized these weren’t tropes back then, but elements of a sincere artistc vision. However, while the art was mesmerizing to me, I came to realize that what drew me in deeper, and kept me anchored to KazeKi, were the themes explored, and the character-based drama, the very stuff I had always avoided.

Without getting far too personal about it, Kaze to Ki no Uta was the first romance that struck something within me, somewhere personal. Now, I certainly have never faced trauma and pain anywhere near to what poor Gilbert and Serge face in their absurdly depressing story, but I definitely wouldn’t call myself emotionally and sexually resolved and healthy, and once upon a time I was a closeted boy in a catholic school, so I guess there’s space for a little bit of self-identification. My coping mechanism to my personal woes had always been to just bottle them up and distract myself with entertainment and art. And that was exactly what I was doing, browsing music on YouTube, when I stumbled upon the KazeKi OVA’s soundtrack.

I found myself listening to this gorgeous arrangement of a Chopin piece, and thought to myself, staring at the angelic figure looking back at me, across the screen: “Gee whilikers, that’s sure is a pretty drawing of a pretty girl”. Then, after reading the comments, I found out that was a boy. As much as the “draw a girl, call it a boy” school of drawing pretty boys makes me groan, I could still feel it, that first hook of interest, stabbing me. As the slideshow enticed me with pictures of Keiko Takemiya’s gorgeous art, I found myself enamoured by it. It was a particular drawing that made KazeKi finally snatch me: that same boy, lounging angelically on some sort of abstract architectural design; in the background, a neoclassical vase flanked by two neoclassical girls, and, above and below, this stunningly beautiful vegetation. So much care, skill, and good taste, concentrated in just one image! I’d have it as a poster, if I could. So, I googled “Kaze to Ki no Uta”, unwittingly throwing myself in a rabbit hole I could not have prepared myself for. Trying to read it was in itself a journey, but, to sum it up: I managed to read it about as well as one can, if they don’t speak japanese and have no access to the spanish and italian translations.

It had been years since I had started feeling emotionally numb. My most extreme displays of emotion came in the form of quiet, teary eyes, reserved for those rare, impactful pieces of art, and those rarer moments of despair-inducing introspection that I couldn’t manage to suppress, but even those lasted little, as I fought to recover my composure. By the end of Kaze to Ki no Uta, I was a sobbing wreck, doing my best (and failing) to contain my ugly crying. Ugly crying, for god’s sake. I was ugly crying, actually sobbing like a kid, because of an yaoi manga. Crying in the shower, even! What kind of weeb had I degenerated into? It hurt. It deeply hurt, in a way I hadn’t been made to hurt in a long, long while. KazeKi had impacted me to the point that I wasn’t just sad, I was scared too, as the waterfall of emotion opened the path for that deeper, personal darkness to come out. And it did.

Now, I admit I’d been a little bit more emotionally fragile than usual right before I read it, due to the effects of the quarantine and the previous consumption of a highly depressing piece of media: Les Amitiés Particulières, which is probably even more depressing than KazeKi as it deals with a much more grounded homophobia-induced tragedy based in real life. Somehow, it didn’t impact me as much as KazeKi, however. Also, it was definitely what influenced my personal YouTube algorithm to recommend me the KazeKi soundtrack, so I wouldn’t know of KazeKi if it weren’t for Amitiés. But even then, it felt unnatural to, well, feel so much. I hadn’t felt this invested in and attached to fictional characters ever since I was a little kid, too young to realize those people in the TV weren’t real. In the following couple of weeks, I was crying over these boys, spending whole days feeling like trash, feeling mild anxiety spikes whenever I remembered about KazeKi, having (even more) difficulty falling asleep, and utterly failing to avoid thinking about my deep-seated intimate issues, all because of these dumb, pretty anime boys. Not even my trusty prayer of “they’re not real people, stop being stupid” worked. In an attempt to stop wallowing in this shounen-ai hell, I decided to consume a whole lot of escapist media while I deliberately avoided any activity related to KazeKi, be it reading the manga, listening to the OVA’s soundtrack, looking at fanart, or even just thinking about it. It “worked” for a month or so, but now I’m back here, wallowing in KazeKi’s painful beauty again, stalking the other seven people in the western world that seem to care about KazeKi, and distilling my thoughts in this bizarre textwall, in an attempt to work it out. If you’re one of those seven people, please don’t refrain from talking to me, if you feel like it! I’ve had just one opportunity to have a conversation about KazeKi, and it was in YouTube comments, for heaven’s sake. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m this afflicted by KazeKi due to its unrelenting, merciless, cruel beauty. Everything about it is presented in this assembly of pure beauty and lost perfection, this painful nostalgia that is present in its aesthetics of an idealized Europe which lives only in its surviving art, that is present in the story which ultimately tells us of the loss of love, and is present in the fact that the whole story is a broken man’s reverie about the past. Tragedy might make me sad, but tragedy with beauty will destroy me. Bittersweetness is just so more cruel than bitterness. And it was this masterpiece of sadistic bittersweetness that permanently broke something in how I deal with my emotions. Kaze to Ki no Uta touched me deeply, to the point of leaving a permanent impression, I’m afraid. I can count in one hand the pieces of art that have punched my soul in the face like KazeKi did. I am honestly flabbergasted over the effect it had over me. At first I felt embarrassed over being emotionally obliterated by a freaking shounen-ai, but I’ve since come to the conclusion that KazeKi is a work of art, a genuine, sincere work of art, deserving of the title. Now I just hope I’m not alone in being emotionally obliterated by this freaking shounen-ai. After everything they went through, the personal fights, the shaky development of their relationship, the undeserved ostracism at Lacombrade, Auguste’s demonic persecution, the escape; how could it be that Gilbert’s life would end in such a horrible way, and that Serge would be left alone to face the full, unbearable weight of his grief! Why?! Keiko Takemiya, you’re a vile sadist. You’re a genius, too, of course. But you’re a vile sadist.

I knew that a happy ending wasn’t going to happen. The horrible ending was a pretty early spoiler, really. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t stop myself from reading on anyway, and I couldn’t stop myself from having an inkling of illogical hope. Even if my logical self knew a happy ending wasn’t gonna happen, it couldn’t prepare me for just how tragically their love would end, and how awful it all would feel, once I knew their full story.

It’s all the more bitter because of how close Serge came to saving him, too. Having escaped together to a place where they could’ve built the nearest thing to a normal life a gay couple could have, back then. But in the end, not even Serge’s love could mend Gilbert’s mutilated soul. Those boys deserved so much better, especially Serge. Serge, you sweet angel! You were created to suffer.

KazeKi really is a masterpiece in how it explores its extremely heavy themes and the minds of its characters, and how it flawlessly meshes that with perfect art. There are many moments in KazeKi that haunt me: Serge letting that bird go, Serge’s vision of Gilbert at the Lacombrade grounds, Gilbert running into the carriage, angel wings behind him; Serge laying alone on the bed in Room 17. I cannot look at those pages without tearing up and feeling this horrible feeling in my heart, and this feeling is literal: My heart actually feels heavy and constricted when I think about it, it can’t be healthy. Up until now, I thought “cri evrytiem” was just a meme. KazeKi has woken me up to the fact that bottling up one’s own personal issues will inevitably end with them exploding out, leading to something much, much worse. I am scared by the prospect of facing my personal issues. To me, they are horribly strong, and seem incredibly hard to solve, if they’re even solvable at all. I’m horrified by the prospect of facing them, working to solve them. I’m so scared, that simply thinking about it, right now, gives me this awful weight in my chest, and makes me want to cry, again. But I know now that I have no choice in this matter, as the only alternative is that abyss I dare not speak of, and one cannot return from. Melodramatic? Yes. But I did just read Kaze to Ki no Uta.

Thank you for getting this far, whoever you are.

I’m forever haunted by Serge’s words to his long-gone Gilbert, right at the beginning:

“Gilbert Cocteau, you were the greatest flower to ever bloom in my life. In the faraway dreams of youth, you were a bright red flame, blazing so fiercely… You were the wind that stirred my branches. Can you hear the poem of the wind and trees? Can you hear the tumult of our youth? Oh, there must be others who so remember their own days of youth…”

#kaze to ki no uta #the poem of the wind and trees #rant #shounen ai

[quaggathemighty]

Stepsister, by Jennifer Donnelly: an emotional, messy review.

Recommended For: fantasy, ya, feminist, fairy tale, coming of age stories, girl protagonist, adventure lovers

         This will be as close to a spoiler-free review as I can make it.

"It's the hunger in our hearts that kills us."

Have you ever read a book that so thoroughly encompassed everything you ever wanted to put on paper? That ripped into the deepest part of you and dragged you along by your emotions until you're raw and hopeful and shattered and fired up all at once? Because I just have.

The Summary:

“Isabelle should be blissfully happy - she's about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn't the beautiful girl who lost the slipper and captured the prince's heart. She's the ugly stepsister who cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella's shoe... which is now filling with blood.

When the prince discovers Isabelle's deception, she's turned away in shame. It's no more than she deserves. She cut away pieces of herself in order to become pretty. Sweet. More like Cinderella. But that only made her mean, jealous, and hollow. Now she has a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known:

It takes more than heartache to break a girl."

My Thoughts:

Isabelle is not pretty. She's jealous and she struggles and while she fiercely loves her sister she often feels lost and afraid, or angry and hateful to the world that left her behind. She cut off her toes because her absolutely mad mother demanded it, heating a knife over the fire while she berates her into obeying, and as a result Isabelle's bitterness and jealousy might even kill her. But as the story unfolds she's also breathtakingly passionate and brave and confident and fiery, and she grows a lot over the course of the story, learning to set aside what everyone else has labeled her (and indeed sometimes what she's labeled herself because of their cruelty), to become her own woman. She's strong and real and well written, and I love her. I want to be her. Goddamn I want every girl to be her. To be their own Elizabeth, Yennenga, Abhaya Rani. Strong, brave, dangerous. Beautiful in their own right, and not always on the surface like the world wants.

"Each queen was once a girl like you. Told who to be and what to do. Not pretty, not pleasing, far too rough. Til wounded subjects, anguished dead, mattered more than things the others said. Then, like a flag, her will unfurled. Go now, girl. Remake the world."

UUUGHhhh. Can we just talk about this book PLEASE? Can this get more of a following so I can scream and rave and flail and ugly cry with more people who loved this book? Oh my god. There are so many things about this book I like, from the way she fought for and protected her sister, to the way she grew to see past the jealousy her mother instilled in her against Ella, to the way it doesn't pit the girls against each other for their vastly different strengths. Well, except for one, but I'll get to that.

The book opens up on what has to be one of the most heart-wrenching, cringe-worthy scenes I've ever read in a young adult novel, and it's that scene with the cutting of the feet and the bloody shoes (yes, from the original myth, this ain't no Disney remake, y'all, it gets gory and doesn't hide from it) is what made me actually come back and buy the book. Isabelle had me by the heartstrings the whole goddamn read. For a girl who never grew up as conventionally attractive, who was always too loud or too brash or never had the right interests (witchcraft, necromancy, and vampires, anyone? No? Don't hide your cringe years from me, I know you had them too), seeing a book properly take these oddities and this 'ugliness', and teach a young woman to learn to accept and even love these things about herself, even though it doesn't get her what she's been told she has to want, but instead pushes her to find her own path? Ugh. Yes. Give me a thousand more of these stories, I could do this all day.

Also, boyfriend cries and has open, deep emotions. What?? A young man in touch with his feelings, that doesn't have to be physically strong to be a good man, that is allowed to be physically weak and emotionally open, and have his own strengths and weaknesses that don't boil down to a six pack and a brooding personality? In a YA FANTASY BOOK?! Hold me.

I rooted for Isabelle the whole way though. I cringed with her, I held my breath, I cheered, I finished the book emotionally exhausted and ready to fucking fight. I haven't felt this pumped up after consuming a story or a piece of media since I went to see Captain Marvel for the first time in theaters, and hot damn, y'all, woman-centric stories that don't revolve around the approval of a man or the need to be petty and spiteful to other women are my jam . I will absolutely be shoving this book in the face of every woman, teenage girl, and preteen female I know, all but begging them to give this book a shot. I read the whole thing in one sitting, the same day I bought it just as a way to pass the time and... mmmm.

I'm gonna try and keep this as spoiler-free as possible, just because I don't want to give anything away, but yeah. On to the genuine criticisms.

Honestly? I didn't have that many. There were a couple of places where I was kind of annoyed, like the catty girl in the village that I wanted rid of, but the way it was handled in relation to Isabelle's story makes me more forgiving, if only for the way she learns to control her temper and not goad more fights out of people that don't really need an excuse. It bothers me that she has to just sit there and take it for her sister's sake, but... maybe that's just because it hits too close to home for some of us. It's a relatively small part of the book and I'm really not too fussed in the long run.

One thing that did throw me at first was the inclusion of the other points of view, like the skip from Isabelle's first chapter in the beginning to the introduction of "Chance," whose band of miscreants and misfits is a little distracting at first, but ultimately entertaining once you figure out how they're involved, and who serves as a sort of 'greater story' framing device for the real world conflicts taking place in the background. "Chance" and "Fate's" cat and mouse game ended up being one of my favorite parts of the underlying tensions in the story, and really helped drive home how make or break Isabelle's ultimate path was, even after she ended up going in a direction no one, not even herself, expected in the end. But it really added to the whole "we make our own path and only we can tell our story" message that ended up getting told as the underlying themes for the whole book. And I can thank it for that.

Right. Now. The big block quote I used up above. Chance decides he needs to tip the scales somewhat, and his whole part of the narrative so far as Isabelle can tell is as a rich eccentric trying to get his misfits and servants to help him put on a play. The play ends up... less a play, and more an inspirational third act speech meant to give Isabelle the push she needs to go and 'do the thing!', and as such it's... kind of cheesy, in hindsight. But at the same time while wrapped up in the story I didn't really notice it save to get super emotional and flaily about how many names were on that list that weren't centered around white western history, and I'm totally here for it. I am absolutely down with the cheese if it brings about the good feels, and the bolster to Isabelle's courage it gave delivered.

I also really like that one of the men driving the story kept pushing that love was what she needed, and automatically brought in a boy to do the job, but it ended up being Isabelle's love for her horse, herself, and her family, and the forgiveness of her step-sister, that really did the trick. Thank you so much Jennifer Donnelly, for not making this be about a man.

I really wish this review could do it more justice, but I'm pushing the limits of my word count as it is, and I don't want to risk repeating the ugly, happy blubbering I was doing at the end of the story. Suffice it to say I ABSOLUTELY recommend this book to anyone who likes fairy tales, feminist stories, girl-centered stories, coming of age stories, fantasies, everyone, really. I can't sum it up any better than Jennifer Donnelly herself in the forward of this book: "To everyone who's ever felt like they're not enough."

SNIIIIFFF. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat a pint of ice cream and watch Xena: Warrior Princess reruns with my puppy. Peace!

#stepsister #jennifer donnelly #ya fantasy #book review #fairy tale #cinderella #cinderella retelling #omg yall im gonna die this book destroyed me #ugly sobbing over my computer at 2am #feminist roar #READ THIS BOOK #QuaggaReads

[luthorao3]

10, 15, 28, 45?

10.  Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

admittedly, not that many. even if i never actually publish fanfiction for them, i tend to dabble and throw together some plans, or begin writing something and never finish it. i genuinely can’t think of a single fandom that i read fic for but don’t at least try to write fic for. 

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

currently, that’s ouihaw (ashe/widowmaker - overwatch), and aimee/mauve (netflix’s sex education). aria t’loak/councillor tevos is my ultimate rare pair #1 and likely always will be. but im one of those people who consumes any piece of media with interesting female characters in it, and then immediately goes looking for fic. 

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

i have re-written this answer about three different times, each about how grateful and FLOORED i am whenever this actually happens, but then i remembered this from ‘show me your teeth’ (nsfw): 

Evelynn unlocks her car with a smile. In the sudden flash of light, Ahri makes out three separate shadows behind her, each curling in different directions like some kind of biblical monstrosity.

….i just wanna………kiss…….monster girl…..

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

dude this is like…. im stumped lmao? i tried to narrow this down, and what you have here are all oldies but i have the best memories of them and it doesn’t feel right to leave any off. beneath a cut because i have no self control :)

zombie trash by 13pens (once upon a time) for being ridiculous, making me cry at The Drama, and then making me laugh-cry with relief like nothing, nothing has ever made me laugh-cry. 

ephemeral by 13pens (once upon a time) because i read this while listening to studio ghibli soundtracks like the author recommended and it was An Experience. cried a lot. so much. 

Like It’s Hallelujah by montparnasse (mass effect) yea you guessed it: i cried so much but they were bittersweet, mainly sweet, tears. this is my ‘if it has to happen, this is how i need it to happen’ fic and i’ve rarely ever felt so emotionally fulfilled by a piece of writing lmao. 

let mine be the last by Stonestrewn (dragon age) hawke is a dragon and it’s everything she deserves. also one of my absolute favourite pairings there is not enough content for them. 

Goddess Bless the Queen (ao3 link) by sigmalied (mass effect) this is it, really. this is the one. incomplete at 450k+ words, my absolute dearest rare pair, the most ambitious fic i’ve ever read that succeeds incredibly at what it’s doing. this fic is a rare pair goldmine. 

Fanfiction Questions | Send me a number!

#asks #ask meme #butimnotasexyrussian #thank u boo !

[jinhong]

“everything is going to be ‘alright’”

this is way too much for me to handle to be quite honest.. i really am not okay, i want to disappear and avoid social media and internet at all costs cause all i see is jonghyun, but i can’t. i have this huge knot in my stomach and i want to through up.

i’ve been crying all day from 6:30 am when i woke up, to 10:55 pm now. i really have not cried this much in my life and i really cannot process the fact i have this much tears to produce.

i would ask for people to stop reblogging cause i don’t want to see jjong on my dash, but that would hurt me as myself cause i want others to reblog and spread awareness, but i just don’t want to see it. every time i see his face or hear his name, i wheezes and my lungs tighten again. it’s bad enough i’m already in pain due to bt21 from saturday, it’s hard for me to breath for the past day, and now from crying all day my lungs hurt 10 times more.

i want to escape and get this off my mind but i genuinely can’t. he’s all over the internet and youtube isn’t helping me. my life will honestly never be the same, i’m not even jonghyun biased but this affected me more than anything else has in my entire life, even loss of my own family members. i won’t be the same ever again, and i don’t know how i’ll listen to shinee ever again to be honest. i don’t want to abandon my boys and i don’t plan too, i just....don’t know how i’ll listen to them. hearing his voice, hearing songs they covered heck let alone just hearing shinee will just trigger me and i’ll just bawl my eyes out. 

i was in sephora today with my friend today and right before we left they began to play last christmas by wham and all i pictured and heard was shinee’s cover from sm’s 2011 winter album “the warmest gift”and i began to lost it. i eventually told her since she saw my snaps from earlier and saw me cry like i never had (and let me tell you i’ve been best friends with her for 8 years already. we are 19 now), she asked what the fuck was going on so i told her and all she did was pray with all of us that he was alive, and she’s not even a fan of kpop.  everything just reminds me of shinee, i guess it’s because i’ve been a fan since debut, i literally joined the kpop fandom in 2008 when i was 10 years old. i knew of kpop before that and knew it was destiny cause i came across 2pm’s heartbeat on youtube but there was no title and i couldn’t figure out what it was, and once i discovered kpop and taught myself all the groups and all their names and came across 2pm i legit was the happiest being alive cause i found my home, kpop is my home, it might sound cliche but it’s true. i met so many friends and friends i consider family from kpop, i met people i despise with a burning passion cause of it, me and my sister got out parents into it.  i don’t want this to be taken the wrong way by anyone, i just wanted you all to know even though it’s unlikely anyone will see this since i only have 44 followers and no friends, that this affected me more than i really did expect. also a shawol took their life today cause of this, i don’t know who, but i know there’s a shawol gone as well.

as a former suicide attemptee i wish everyone finds the courage and the strength to tell the bad thoughts “fuck off” and let the real you take over again. do not let the gnat living inside you eat you alive and consume you, fight that shit, fight it, not till your very last breath, but with all your might.  it might be hard to talk to someone, i know, i couldn’t even tell my parents when i attempted, but there is always someone who will listen and do their best to help. whether it’s 1 person, someone you least expected, or a random stranger, there is always someone who will listen..heck go to a random fan on instagram or twitter... they will love to help. yes you might think “shit what if they spill this to the world that i talked to them and told them about my depressing state” but i can assure you that if they were a fan and you knew they were a fan, they wouldn’t even tell and grain of rice. just please.. never loose hope, even if you’re hanging by a threat, take that one piece of threat and think the best of it, there’s always something that makes you happy, even if it’s the smallest things it’s still something.

i’m sorry if i made typos, i just type really fast and i could care less about grammar at this point, grammar isn’t the point right now, it’s the fact a legitimate living angel is just an angel now and is gone forever. there’s no bringing them back, even if it wasn’t their destiny as much as they thought it was (due to that gnat), we can’t bring back an accident. he needed help, people tried but whatever was eating him alive was telling him no one cared when that wasn’t true, he was so far gone that he couldn’t see what was right in front of him, which hurts the most. i know how that feels... i just hope, he’s healthy and in peace.

#shinee #jonghyun #shawol #i'm sorry #i can't do this #it really is affecting me more than i honestly expected. #sm entertainment #sm #kpop

[daveywankenobie]

People seem to be marking the turn of the year from 2019 into 2020 as an opportunity to look back not just at the last year but the last decade. As such there’s a storm of people in social media posting comparisons of how they look now alongside a photo of themselves in 2010.

Nowadays I’m not really all that sensitive about photographs of me – and I tend to let them be taken (or take them myself) regardless of how I may look.

I’m easily found in Google image searches – so why hide any more? I can’t really put the genie back in the bottle…

It’s oddly liberating – and even when I’ve had my identity stolen (which has happened twice now) it still failed to deter me.

In 2010 things were different though and I wasn’t so keen on having pictures taken of me.

Consequently only a few exist in my computer’s photo album. Two of them were taken by other people and one is a selfie. I’m not yet at my heaviest weight of 35st in any of these – and I know this from the shirts I’m wearing in the pictures.

They are 7XL rather than the 8XL ones I finally ended up in.

It’s often the case that when others look at a photo of you they make their own judgements. If they see you smiling and happy – their assumption is that that’s how you felt in that moment. Photos can hide a lot though – and I’m sure we all look back at them and can think very differently about what they represent to us.

In 2002 I watched a film called one hour photo (link) with Robin Williams where a technician becomes obsessed with the pictures he’s developing. Over several years he works on images of what appears to be a perfect family unit which ultimately results in an unhealthy and obsessive need to get closer to them.

In doing so he learns that the idealised family life with them that he dreams he is part of is far from perfect. Their beaming smiles in the photos he processes belie the truth – and when he discovers an extra marital affair his world (and that of the family) begins to unravel in a very unsettling way.

The premise stuck with me after I watched it  – and in a pre-social media world, before terms like ‘fakebook’ existed to describe our carefully crafted online profiles of perfect lives it left me thinking a lot about what really sat behind all of the photos that I had in albums.

I’m around 32-33st in the photo above.

Depressingly it was taken after I managed to lose 10st on the Cambridge diet, but not before I packed it all straight back on again (at the rate of 1st per month!) as well as a little bit more on top for good measure.

I chose the seat I was sitting on because it was the only place in the bar my friend and I had met in that didn’t have arms on the seats. It was a large padded fabric cube in front of a huge wooden table and it meant I didn’t struggle to get in or out of where I chose to have a drink.

In this second one from 2010 I’m proudly holding my friends new born daughter – who has turned into a lovely young girl as the years have passed.

This photo is happy because of this being the first baby I’d ever held – and I was amazed at how tiny all of her little features were. She was absolutely perfect and slept quietly as I held her.

I also remember though that (like the pub) there was only one place that I could comfortably sit in my friend’s house, and shortly after this I managed to break it – which meant he needed to repair the whole sofa.

I can’t look at this happy picture without the taint of that memory.

There were also more bizzare things to remember in 2010 – and for whatever reason around this time (her motivations were always opaque to me) my mother had begun to send me increasingly weird gifts in the post.

Periodically her texts and letters (all of which were corrosive and detrimental to my mental health) had caused me to withdraw, change my mobile number, not give her my new addresses when I moved – and gradually cut her further and further out of my life.

It didn’t stop her posting parcels to me via my dad however, and in one of these she saw fit to send me a jester’s hat.

I didn’t like it very much.

In another were some rings that she thought would appeal to me (modelled here by myself and my brother) but clearly would have looked more at home on the hand of Liberace.

I never understood why she thought I’d appreciate these things back then (her letters suggested that they were genuine presents rather than passive aggressive jabs) and I still haven’t figured it all out to this day – but it’s a reminder (sadly) that not having her in my life since she passed away is something that’s made things better rather than worse.

She passed away in 2016 and gradually at this point my life started to improve.

I don’t hold any ill will though and try to think kindly of her.

I don’t have much evidence of the types of food that I ate in 2010 but one photo reminded me that I used to regularly frequent The Racehorse pub in Warwick – where I ate the same types of meals over and over again.

I dread to think what the calorie content of my cheese topped garlic bread, chips, sausage, pork chop, gammon and lamb cutlet was but it was a staple part of my diet for quite a while.

The point is I guess that things are (in every conceivable respect) are better now than they were 10 years ago.

Admittedly I’m a teeny bit greyer now than I was 10 years ago – and I’m still an unapologetic geek (if anyone hasn’t seen The Mandalorian yet (link) I highly recommend it because it will help explain the beanie) but in almost every other respect my life is AMAZINGLY different.

For the first six months of 2019 I was still the Slimming World MOTY, and my photo is still plastered all over the wall at SWHQ – something that I still can’t quite get my head around.

It’s true to say though that although this was a major high point of my time so far on earth over half of the last decade is period that I’d prefer to forget.

Many years ago I was a care worker, and as part of the role I volunteered to help put together the life story of a man I looked after.

His early adulthood had been a vital and exciting one where he had been a bomb disposal expert in the RAF. He was stationed in Germany after the war and played a part in removing much ordnance from cities that the Allies has bombed.

He was also engaged to be marry to a lovely German girl with blonde hair and a pretty smile.

This was until he was involved in a horrific car accident. When this happened not only was he badly burned and physically broken but he also lost the capability to retain any long term memories from that point on.

After years of waiting for him to recover his fiancé moved on – but her Black and white oval photo remained by his bedside.

She sent him a letter folded up inside a Christmas card telling him about her family and grandchildren. He cried each time he saw it and then stopped when he forgot what it was that he held in his hand.

He remembered his childhood and things that he’d experienced until the day of the accident – but from that point onwards everything was lost. Burning bread was forgotten as soon as it went into the toaster and cup of tea after cup of tea went cold as it passed from conscious memory to oblivion whilst sitting just outside his direct line of sight.

His surviving relative (a very kindly uncle) was the only man that knew him and who had remained in his life from the day that he was born until the day I’d met him, and he was getting old.

I sat with him for a long time looking through yellowed photos until everything just stopped in the mid sixties at the time of the crash. From that point onwards he had moved from medical facility to medical facility and care home to care home where nothing had happened to him.

Not one solitary piece of information existed from the early sixties to the late 90’s to describe what he’d said, done, written, thought or enjoyed.

For over thirty years he became a gap in history, and in 2016 I realised that I too was becoming something similar. I created nothing – instead consuming everything from food and alcohol to media and video games.

My life was an empty vessel.

So – even if I wanted to remember it, a good chunk of the last decade is only explained my my rather epic xbox live achievement history – which details the myriad of digital distractions that I buried myself in whilst I drank or ate away my life.

I don’t think that the next ten years will be like this though.

I might have made mistakes in the past – but I feel like things are finally different.

Sure I still struggle – but I’m more in control than ever before and that’s a good feeling. The road to 2020 may have been rocky but I have love, good health and a future.

Isn’t that all anyone can ask for?

Hell – at least I won’t regret the last four years – even if I still excel at screwing up occasionally!

Davey

The road to 2020 People seem to be marking the turn of the year from 2019 into 2020 as an opportunity to look back not just at the last year but the last decade.

[love-stone]

1. Do you like answering questions? 22. What was the last lie that you told? 38. Favorite curse word? 43. Which book would you like to forget in order to read it again? 49. What’s the nicest thing you’ve ever heard about yourself?

1: Yes, yes I do! I wish people would ask me more!!

22: That I’ve been working on my college portfolio this summer…(I do intend to do it before I go back in September, but I definitely haven’t started it yet…)

38: The fuckin’ fuck word, as it’s the one I use most often, and it’s also the only infix in Standard American English, so there’s a cool linguistic fact for you as a bonus!

43: Hmm, I think I’d say Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord. I read that book a million times when I was younger, and I’d love to be able to experience it ‘for the first time’ again. Though tbh, I wish I could do that for every piece of media I’ve consumed…

49: Okay, this one requires a bit of a story…

So there was this incredibly cute girl in my syntax class this last semester. Bubblegum pink hair that was buzzed short, rockin’ outfits that were halfway between hipster trash and pastel butch (which is not too uncommon for where I go to school…), a pair of vintage-looking headphones casually worn around her neck, the whole nine yards. 

And then one day before class, she just randomly comes up to me and complimented me out of the blue. Like, we hadn’t really ever talked before or anything, so it took me completely by surprise. 

It was something along the lines of, “You’re outfit looks really cute today! Actually, honestly, all of your outfits have been totally on-point and I just figured you should know that I suuuper admire your fashion choices.” 

And, like, I was literally left speechless. 

Like, I think it was because that was the first time I had gotten that kind of compliment from someone I didn’t really know, but also in-person?? And all I could do was open and close my mouth and make flustered gibberish noises at her because I literally didn’t know how to react to that.

(Another girl sitting next to me would tease me about it from that day on, and we ended up becoming pretty great friends throughout the rest of the semester)

So from that point on I was crushing hardcore on this girl, and we became pretty good acquaintances. I wouldn’t necessarily call us friends, because we never really spoke outside of class (in fact, I still didn’t even know her name at that point >__>), but she and I would say hi to each other whenever we met in class, and would usually compliment each other on various things.

It wouldn’t be until the last few weeks of the semester (after countless cries to, “just ask her out already you useless lesbian!”) that I would finally work up the courage to ask her to coffee…and discover that she was already in a committed, monogamous relationship. 

But she was super nice about the whole thing and told me she was really flattered, because that was apparently the first time someone had had the courage to ask her out, like, in-person and spur of the moment and all that. So I kinda feel like I came full circle with repaying that sort of genuine flattery back to her. And I’ll probably never see her again…but I hope she knows what an impact those words left on me from that day on!! 

(Meghan from syntax, if you somehow read this, thank you for inspiring so much confidence in me with that one compliment!!)

[juushika]

This is my list of the best media that I consumed for the first time (but was probably not published) in 2016.

Books

I read 128 books in 2016 and, unusually for me, almost all of them were new. It was also, independently, a great reading year. As such, this list is particularly long.

Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie. This was as good as the hype, but not always for the reasons I was lead to expect; the genre and setting is far-future space opera, but plot and investment are character-driven, and it was the ancillary experience and Lieutenant Tisarwat's violet eyes that really kept me engaged. This series is satisfying on the levels I value most.

Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein. This isn't the first fantasy-which-is-actually-sci-fi genre crossover I've encountered, but it's by far the best. The genre-bending is fundamental to the narrative, but also to the protagonist’s PoV, as she uses and creates the scientific method, applying it to a reality which exceeds her comprehension--and which bleeds over into plot twists which exceed the reader’s expectations. I haven’t been this impressed by a book series in a long time.

Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre. Something like a sibling to the Steerswoman books, with a similar worldbuilding premise but a smaller focus--it's less about redefining knowledge of the world, and more about fostering knowledge in order to improve life on the local, private scale. It’s soothing and valuable.

Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. In particular, Blood of Elves--but this series entire lives on this list because of Ciri. The Witcher franchise is problematic, from its sexism-as-worldbuilding to its flawed balance of politics to plot. But while I rarely become attached to book characters, I am inordinately attached to Ciri, and to her family and those motivated by her. She's central. The books forget, sometimes, that that’s all I care about (and the games sometimes forget it entirely), but when the pieces align to star her I am in love.

The complete works of Octavia Butler. This isn’t the year that I began reading Butler, but is the year that I read most of and finished her work. I rarely find myself in such active conversation with an author, and as much as I’ve critiqued her for her style and occasional limitations, I’m blown away by what she achieved, and by the fact that her work is so compelling and complicated, so ambitious and successful in precisely the ways that matter.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette). This is the most feel-good that a novel has been while still leaving an impression on me--because it’s not frivolous or simplistic, but rather is about the stubborn effort to do good creating real good in the world: a particularly cathartic, empowering variety of wish-fulfillment

Hild by Nicola Griffith. This is half a story, and a laboriously intimate one at that--a gradual coming of age, dealing with issues of gender and faith and identity, the private and political; it took me a little to warm into it, but having done so I loved it--Hild’s PoV is incredibly immersive.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. What an experience! This is yet another SF/F mashup (it was a good year for those), but this is a particularly tropey one brought alive by the vivid and powerful use of dialect. This is a novella that feels bigger than that, that feels more distinct and dynamic than its page count.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. I don't think the plot in this was entirely successful--but I love the premise so unreservedly as to recommend it on that basis alone. This is portal fantasy meta, looking at the afters and in-betweens of those who visit other worlds (and paralleling the reader experience of existing within/without fantasy), conjuring a bittersweet longing unlike anything I've experienced. I've always loved this genre, but didn't have a framework for my feelings about it until reading this book and:

Fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente. I am of mixed opinions of this work, too. I love the first book beyond reason, but I don't know what the series as a whole lives up to it--the travelogue aspects grow stylistically repetitive, and on a technical level these come to feel rushed. But all the books have something charming to offer, and there's something sincerely valuable about the relationship between September, Halloween, Maud, Mallow, and the Marquess. Their dynamic is subtextual and complicated, and in ongoing conversation about portal fantasy, identity, and self-determination.

Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente. My favorite of Valente's novella so far. I'm surprised by how well her mythological and fairy tale imagery builds upon an AI premise, and by how concrete the AI is. There's a lot of depth in this little space, and it's particularly evocative, even for Valente.

Honorable mentions in books

Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip. This isn't the best or most important McKillip, but I love its tropes to pieces (especially the way that the interpersonal dramas resolve) and it’s probably my favorite of the McKillip novels I've read so far.

The Pattern Scars by Caitlin Sweet. I was sincerely impressed by this book, by its intimately-integrated magic system and the unforgiving, unsettling complexity of the interpersonal dynamics.

Multiple novels by CJ Cherryh. I'm continuing to read a lot of Cherryh, and I've yet to be disappointed by any of her work; her combination of deceptively terse writing style, intimate relationship dynamics, and worldbuilding concepts consistently hits on tropes that I adore.

Black Iris by Leah Raeder (Elliot Wake). New Adult isn't a genre I thought I would ever care about, but I care a lot about Wake's contributions to it, and Black Iris is the novel which has spoken to me strongest so far because its angry, intimate depiction of mental illness is cathartic and sincere while meshing well with the heightened passions which are a marker of the genre.

Video Games

Neko Atsume. I came late to this bandwagon, but it was worth the wait; what a charming, pure experience, and somehow even cuter than I expected. There's not really a lot to say about Neko Atsume, but I love it.

Deemo. Far and above the best rhythm game I've ever played, in song quality, aesthetic, narrative, and gameplay--the latter in particular is so natural, genuinely like playing a piano. I love this game to pieces and listen to the soundtrack all the time, yet I've never heard anyone talk about it. Please give it a try.

Overwatch. Is this art, no; but I have been playing 90min/day since launch, so that's something. I appreciate the changes Overwatch has brought to the genre and the active role Blizzard has taken in expanding and balancing it. It wouldn't be my pick for game of the year, but it’s important enough to earn that.

Pokémon Moon. This, frankly, would be my pick for game of the year. It benefits from the engine development of Gen VI, while continuing the narrative trends from Gen V--it looks fantastic, the UI and battle mechanics are great, but most importantly I cried three (three!) times while playing SuMo. The narrative has leveled up, the character development is phenomenal, and I treasure it.

Stardew Valley. This is a love letter to the farming and life simulator games that it draws from, and it almost exceeds them--I admire the depth and refinement of this game, and it's such a satisfying, soothing experience, exactly as it's meant to be.

Dark Souls III. The micro-level of this release, the cinder construct, isn't my series favorite, although I love the characters in this game; but on the macro-level, drawing the cycles of each installment together and to a close, Dark Souls III is incredibly fulfilling. I also appreciate the reintroduction of more varied enemy types and refinements to the combat system.

Honorable mentions in video games

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. This is as beautiful as I wanted it to be, but not quite as weird as it needed to be--I miss the push-pull of the body horror in Human Revolution. But what a fantastic graphic engine, and the characters and plotting live up to series standard.

Visual Media

Critical Role. This monster of a show has without exaggeration been a life-changer. It's a huge investment of time and such an unassuming medium, but the payoff is intense. The live creative process has an innate energy, and the cast's obvious investment in character and narrative is contagious. It ate me alive this year, and I regret nothing.

Stranger Things. I wanted Stranger Things to be a smidge less neat (plotwise, especially the ending), but in all other ways adore it, from the conversation between genres to the unexpected but indulgent aesthetic to the character acting. I've rarely been so utterly consumed by a show, to the point where coming up for air between episodes made the real world feel surreal.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I expected to like this, but was surprised by how sincerely I enjoyed it; the character archetypes combining to develop complexity and depth translates well to a miniseries, and despite TV-quality effects this is an aesthetic and speculative delight.

Black Mirror "San Junipero". I can give or take Black Mirror on the whole, but I treasure this particular episode, both because I think it's one of the better realized of the series in terms of plot delivery and because victorious WLW was balm to my soul, especially in the face of so many dead queer women in television.

Penny Dreadful. The series takes a definite downturn by the third season, but the overall experience was worth it, in part of the surprisingly robust gothic retelling, delightful aesthetic, and found family tropes, but mostly because of Vanessa Ives and Eva Green, without which this would be half a show. The intimate depiction of her vulnerability, intelligence, competency, and honesty was particularly valuable to me; this is one of the few supernatural metaphors for mental illness which I've found successful.

Star Trek: The Original Series, and movies 1-5. I grew up with every Star Trek except this one, and had a cultural impression that TOS was corny and misogynistic--and it is, a little, but it holds up much better than I was expecting and has fundamental charm and value, both as franchise starter and in its own right.

Red vs Blue. I never believed I could be so consumed by a machinima comedy series, but the humor works and the eventual scale of Red vs Blue--its convoluted plot, surprisingly well-developed characters, strong pacing, and fantastic animation--is incredible.

Honorable mentions in visual media

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. I had never watched the original Cosmos; this remake has some redundancy/direction issues in the middle but is on the whole all I wanted, vast and terrifying and beautiful, but also accessible, even personable.

Ravenous. The gayest narrative about cannibals that isn't Hannibal-related, and so delightful--and it only improves on repeat viewing, where the tonal shifts can be anticipated. Great imagery, fun acting, and such explicit cannibalism-as-metaphor violence-as-romance; it's become one of my favorite films.

The Falling. I love quiet little movies about gender, female experience, coming of age, and illness; this was my favorite of those that I watched this year (but see also: The Silenced), perhaps because it's the most convincing: an intimate, vaguely idealized, unsettling portrait of British girls's schools and  female adolescence.

#Juu reads #Juu plays #Juu watches #reference #too many to tag #brief mentions of: sexism tw // homophobia tw // character death tw // mental illness tw // #long post // like such a long but I can't really apologize for too many good media to recommend; 2016 was shit but I had a lot of escapism

[erenjaegur]

Snk Positivity Day 6: Love Your Series

Im gonna put this under a read more because I cant think of express my feelings on something without turning it into a full length incoherent ass essay so!!

I’ve been in the snk fandom since I was like 12 lol - Im 16 now so that’s like, five years?? I can still remember like I’d see a lot of gifs n stuff of it going around tumblr and for some reason I just really felt I wouldn’t like it like I had smthing lowkey against it?? But then I decided to watch it one day, n i still remember, I was just chilling on my laptop watching it in the sitting room, my family around me and stuff and goddd it was soo good... but it made me tear up... n bITCH I was NOT! about to cry in the sitting room around my family. I was not! prepared for that. That night I stayed up till possibly 1 or 3am just watching it, I must’ve gotten to like around episode 6 I think? I loved it so much I rlly fell in love, I finished it all in just three days.... three days of which I also went to school and stuff and had to go to my friends party.... bitch i was pissed i didnt even like that person....i just wanted to finish snk lmaooo 😭

Im pretty sure Id spend sm of my time invested in snk and looking through snk tumblrs and stuff and other fandom stuff of it, I loved it so much!!! like!! thats all I did and even then I was still forcing my friends to read/watch it. I was really cringey in 6th class wow lmaoo I would literally go around during break with the snk manga like xD!!! eren is my baby!!! saying shit like that yikes.... bitch first of all hes 4 years older than you...your literally 12.....

Especially then, when I was younger it brought me sm happiness like when little me was going through shit then little insecure young me, you know how people say u use entertainment to escape or whatever, a distraction, idk.... like that was rlly it man idk ho to describe it without sounding weird i swear it was like my main source of happiness omg lol

Almost always, its very rare like I’ll be watching a movie, listening to music, anything like that just consuming some piece of media or literally just like. living my life and I see something and im like. omg snk au in which.... or I just somehow relate it back to snk or some of its characters lol. Like even when I was on holiday in Venice last year I was literally like thinking of a fanfic of like, the 104th on holidays in Venice like how wholesome...

Like I really do love snk I think about it every day without fail, and I honestly think I’ll always always always love it, and even if I don’t, it’s always gonna have a special place in my heart. Like, I liked it since i was literally 12 years old and it helped my through shit and I just have so much good memories associated with it. I honestly rlly do picture myself being like a 40 year old woman and still loving snk but like the fandom is dead or something... 😭 I rlly hope that never happens.....bc that will happen my 40 year old ass will b like boiis whens season 10 coming out ? Like I really hope snk is one of those series that kind of just lives on forever, or atleast for a very long time - Like Harry Potter for example

Okay, all that was really personal and I’d be surprised if anyone is reading this anyway, but I love looking back on it and talking about snk like this, I love it :) Butttt, getting to one of the reasons why I think I might love snk so much, and I mean, I can’t really pin it down why I love it so much, I dont think anyone can pin down EXACTLY why they love something, especially a series, but I think one thing I really like, and it becomes really apparent when I look at other series is like, they have a good balance between male and female characters if that makes sense. Like theres not way more men in the show than there is women, like how it is in some series or like, theres not way more men in the show than there is women, and the female characters in the show aren’t just like background characters pretty much, and they’re all good fleshed out and developed characters n shit. I think people have talked about this before but yeah.. And the female characters aren’t sexualised or anything like that and like, theres basically little to no fanservice at all which is nice. Supereyepatchwolf said something about it in his video about snk, how it can appeal to everyone because anyone of any age and gender and such can be in the survey corps n stuff... :P

And the characters just in general of course :) I honestly think the characters is one of snks strongest points, like... im not about to do a full on character analysis on anyone here lol but they’re just so amazing. Like I think on first glance it can probably be easy for people to sort most of them into like a trope or something or just write them off as cliche - mostly eren is victim to this bc people are like typical shounen boy !!! but like. you know anyway. I wish I was better at expressing my feelings and thoughts lol. Like god idk i feel like its so easy for someone who idk might just be a casual fan or smthing to just kinda see the characters on their more surface level without seeing how much depth they actually have - and I feel like that could also easily happen with anime only ppl. Like snk really does have so much great n complex n developed characters, especiallyyy now with the timeskip, more so now than ever. Like you know when you love something so much that you cant just pin point one thing about it... because its like.... everything about it i love n everything within it works to like compliment everything in it if that makes sense u get me?? like i cant just pinpoint ONE THING its the whole thing.... why i love snk? *directs u to link of readsnkmanga.com* or something lol

as for the characters themselves, obviously u can tell, with my url, u can take a guess at who my favourite is :) since the timeskip, i dont like him as much - not that i dislike him, i could literally never - but timeskip eren is basically a whole new person - and im not saying that in a bitter tone or anything, if anything its cool and i appreciate it and i understand why eren is like this now, all the shit hes been through- stuff so singular that barely anyone else would be able to understand, no one, if anything. So i understand why hes like this, and as i said earlier, this’ one of snks strong points its complex and rlly developed characters... The things I admired about Eren is just like... his good and bad, everything. How passionate he is, how he wears his heart on his sleeve - that of which being his most notable quality imo, and he expresses himself in an unapologetic manner like.... the courtroom scene... he rlly shouted that in front of all those people... how headstrong, stubborn and impulsive he is. I relate to Eren alot, thats part of the reason why I love him so much because I think I can kinda see myself in him.. but on the same hand, I think it’s also because he possesses a lot of traits I admire. Eren never backs down even when the whole world seems to be against him. He holds on firmly to what he believes in and never gives in, even when literal guns or canons are being pointed towards him. He’s full of determination and will power and he knows what he wants, and he’s also not afraid to express his opinion, even if he knows that he’ll be laughed at or be largely disagreed with.. And I admire his impulsiveness too. Those are all things I admire and other things I didn’t mention.. like me, I’m a very non confrontational person, I always feel things out before getting to it, and even then a lot of the time I just don’t at all. I might second guess my emotions and feelings when it comes to relationships with people especially, and I can a lot of the time stifle or keep quiet about my own beliefs, not completely keeping quiet, but not speaking them out as firmly as I believe them in my own mind, yielding? more I guess, if people disagree with me, I might step down a little - Which isn’t a completely bad thing, it’s good to be openminded and to see other sides, but when it’s coming from a place of embarassment or insecurity, not so much. So I really admire those traits in Eren :) I relate to him a lot, but I also know that in a lot of ways too, we are veryy different. I’ve even thought before, if I knew someone like Eren irl would I even like them lol?? Who knows lol. But as a character, I love him :) My other two favourtie characters after Eren, Levi and Jean, I won’t go into them as much as I did Eren but with them, and not just that, all of the other reasons they’re my faves.. I have like more of a ‘crush’ on them lmaooo like with them i could read so much /reader fanfic lol... but even though Eren is my #1 I could nEVER...god NO lol. And I think thats also down to the fact, as I’ve been saying I seen myself in Eren... rather than the other way around :))))))))

Like god there have been so many times I’ve laughed, cried at stuff in this fandom, made good memories as a result of it irl too... bullied my friends into watching it.... Like I have nothing but good memories. I really can’t express enough how positively snk has impacted my life like I genuinely can’t, it’d be impossible.. I seriously love it :) I’ve made friends bc of it, gotten closer to friends bc of our mutual interest in it, stuff like that...:) And even if those things didn’t happen, I’d still love the series and its fandom itself. :) I seriously can’t thank enough, the ppl that contribute to this fandom, I really can’t. Everything, and everyone to small and big creators, thank you so much. Well known and lesser known creators, like just everything and everyone, seriously. Everyone is just why this fandom is so great and!! Like I just think how lucky am I to have smthing like snk have such a big fandom and stuff and so many great people in it. Like y’know when you see your favourite fanfic update, you see your favourite artist has put out smthing new, even just see a funny snk text post or something, it all can really brighten and even make your day, and its so good :) There are so many amazing creators in this fandom, fanfics that are honestly better than published books I’ve read - like seriously, some of this stuff seriously deserves to e published or something!! And the fact that so much of these creators are putting their work out there and sharing with us for free, is just so great, and I’ll never not be grateful for it :)

Like seriously, returning back to when I was like 12-14, some days back then when I was younger it really felt like y’know the only things I could take comfort in was this series and its characters and stuff yknow.... and maybe im just being and emo teen but im getting kinda emotional thinking about it just now :’) Like seriously... I feel like im maybe being too much in this post lol but seriously this series means a lot to me.. as I said, I can honestly really picture myself being like 40 and still rlly loving snk like no matter what, whatever happens, wherever the series goes, whatever the hell, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart, because its helped me through a lot, a lot of bad days, I have nothing but good memories associated with it, made friends, seen some of the most beautiful art and read rlly great writing!! Just like yeah. Thank u Isayama and this entire fandom.....

and I was gonna peace out but I also want to appreciate and throw some love @ Isayamas art and art style. Obviously, Isayama was a bit infamous in the earlier days for his art not looking so great (Which also is amazing bc like a manga with not so great art like his in the beginning... grew to become so BIG!! like who would’ve thought) - even so the character design and stuff was all really good?? Like I also think thats a strong point he has too!! And all those years of practicing really shows, because damn!! look at his art now!! It’s really damn nice and im not just saying that lol :P

Anyway!! :) Thats all lol

#idk what this is its just a jumbled ass incoherent string of thought sorry!! #snkpositivityweek #i feel like i should be embarassed jst by the sheer lenght of this n i lowkey am but like?

[aryapathak-ls25-blog]

Week 14: Alt-GAMING

Elisa!!! :) 

GSI elisa’s focus has been on internet art and making work on and through the internet 

her work explores gender, sexuality and labor in relation to technology and internet 

taught at RISD and Brown before she came to Berkeley! 

some problems: free labor, big data, etc. 

did the MFA program at RISD 

Archive Fever: night before midterm, she took all her browsing history until her computer crashed, and then link after link is plaid back in chronological order.. there was soothing music in the background 

-she trellised there were different trends and the cluster of data was able to give herself and others and idea about herself… at the time she was very interested in the narrative qualities of video montage but now it reads in an entirely different way… its interesting how the project and the way people read it drastically changes depending on the political climate 

- she’s still selling her data on a flash drive online because she was interested in the whole idea of selling your data on line just like companies like Facebook do today 

-started to receive warning from eBay about how she was putting herself in a “vulnerable” position 

 need ideas!?! PLZ!!

just a bunch of videos of youtubers talking about how they don’t know “what to do” or about how they need “video ideas” and then the youtube ask their viewers what to make… like whether or not they should sing, what they should talk about, whether or not they should make make up vids… they also ask viewers to “subscribe, comment, follow, etc.” 

Labor of Sleep, Have you been able to change your habits? (2017) 

touches on how sleep has been a new behavior from which data and other things are exacted…. basically sleep used to be something that was the last known method of shutting down and being unproductive but now sleep apps allow our sleep to produce something fruitful! 

continuation of archive fever project in the sense that it examines how we are more and more viewing humans and things that produce classes of data… we are perceiving ourselves in a more quanitifiable way

-if you are on the whitened website during the time or sunset/sunrise in new york, the website is interrupted with her art project 

techonologies of care- the projective is documenting how effective labor (a time of immaterial labor that effects and modifies emotions of consumers/ viewers) is being outsources to computer… i.e. workers on line can perform micro tasks like designing loiece was censored in the backgos/labels, pretend to be bf/gf online, 

-workers on these platforms are usually from non-western countries with problematic economics and inflation (so maying low amount of dollars may look good to them), very cheap labor, etc…. most importantly for elisa, most of these works were produced by women… elisa interview 70-80 workers and selected 10 for the final projects. they all wanted to be anonymous so elisa abstracted their images with geometric shops 

when the towel drops- project done by a collective that elisa is in with one ugandan artist and one indian artist  called radha may 

the research started in italy, next phase in india, last phase in south africa 

she visited the national censorship archive of ital- all films in italy are first reviewed by a state review board. 

-they did a montage of all the censored scenes and presented in italy.. at the same time someone read why the clips were censored... ex “women showing pleasure 

Wednesday: Porpentine Heartscape 

Porpentine Charity Heartscape - “Oakland based new media artist, video game designer, writer and curator primarily a developer of hypertext games and interactive fiction mainly built using Twine. In conversation with artist Elisa Giardina Papa”

sticky zeitfeist-the game is about girls who are animals and girls who are robots… collaboration with her friend from canada. there is a lot of music from transgendered artists. she gets bored with one thing, so the game is constantly changing, 

glitches are the second best part of making a game.. the best part is not having any glitches lol 

she also made another game for a contemporary art museum in chicago, very simple game 

she’s interested in repetitive, pattern work 

-foldscape = a game made out of posters 

she’s also really interested in how the speaker/presenter in a game can mutate the entire game 

another game asked people to draw things, for example. “a symbol of the new year  

this world is not my home- collaborative project where her collaborator added music &  where they turned their game into a portal like exhibit 

tiny bubbles exhibit in SF-> 

to her, feeling always matters more than physical form 

JOURNAL ENTRY

I’ve been in Elisa’s discussion section all semester and I had no clue that she went the #1 design school in America, and that she’s already had her work shown at various famous museums like the Whitney! I’m not surprised but I was surprised she never talked about her work in discussion before. The first piece she shared with us was Archive Fever. It was pretty funny to see what peoples’ reaction were when she tried to sell her own information on line. She got messages warning her about the risks of sharing her personal information online, which is ironic since most individuals use still such s Facebook, which we’ve just found out might not be as safe as we think! I also really loved her second piece, titled, “need ideas!?! PLZ!.” I’ve never been a huge user of any social media asides from twitter, which mostly consists of 240 character tweets that make me laugh, so it’s interesting to me that kids really care about the number of likes they get online. When reflecting back on the piece, I couldn’t help but feel sad about the direction of where this so-called form of “art” is headed. When I think backk to some of my favorite presents, like Barbara Hammer, Chip Lloyd, and Lynn Hershman-Leeson, I remember being amazed at how many ideas they had lined up in their head and ready to bring to fruition. Call me old fashioned, but I really enjoyed these presenters, not only because of the amazing work they produced, but because it was genuine and they’d truthfully believed in the whole project from beginning to end. For example, Chip Lloyd had to literally jump through hoops and get so many random permits just to blow up a bunch of TV’s! I feel like that takes real passion and self-realization that those kids will not learn if they are already taught at such a young age to just sit online a wait for people to tell you what’s cool instead of exploring/experimenting and figuring it out for themselves!! Lastly, my favorite piece was When the Towel Drops. I loved the idea of creating a montage of all censored scenes and reading why they were censored, just so people can understand how ridiculous it is that something like “showing pleasure”  is ok with the Italian government for men, but subject to censorship and considered too taboo to be shown on screen for women.

Porpentine Heartscape is a well-known, tumblr famous gamer and writer who is in conversation with Elisa. I’m actually really curious to see what both of them will collaborate on because they both have such different styles on interacting with audiences and working! I really admire Porpentine because she seems very sure of the direction she’s headed. I felt like her presentation gave a very holistic view of her work, but I didn’t learn much about her and her motivations for doing what she does. In fact, halfway through the presentation she just started putting up different games without really saying anything. But, she did indicate that he believes feelings matter a lot more than physical form. This definitely rings true in her work and it seems like the closest thing she gave as a theme or motivation behind her work. For example, one of her game, foldscapn, was made entirely out of postcards.  It was really cool how much she lit up when she found that boy that was obsessed with her game, and its really obvious that she loves what she does. She said that the ideal way she pictures someone playing her game is sitting in a messy bedroom with a box of pizza, and this seems like exactly the environment that some her fans would be in.

READING NOTES: Not much to say about this reading since its just archived reviews of A1 from different people, but I will say that these reviewers seem incredibly animated and loyal. It’s also very interesting how their ratings are in jibberish letters that seem like 

MULTI MEDIA: [DISCLAIMER- MUST DOWNLOAD ON ANDROID OR IPHONE TO PLAY]

http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/

This links you to a game created by Jason Rohrer called Passage.  Passage was one of the first experimental games to really change peoples’ prospects and persuade them to decontextualize video games as an art form. Elisa and Professor Skoller have both probably already heard of Passage because It’s apparently one of the most famous and influential experimental games, but I thought it was one of the coolest things I’ve played. In fact, in 2012, it earned one of the 14 coveted positions in the MOMA’s permanent video game collection. The game is unique because there is no tradition plot. Hopefully this doesn’t spoil the game, but the game is supposed serves as metaphor for the human condition. Players LOVE the game, and many people said they were very emotion and/or they cried afterwards. 

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/passage

[identityshine]

How to Use Content to Get Your Audience to Trust You

Why are online reviews so prevalent regardless of industry? It’s because we, as consumers, need to be reassured that whatever we’re paying for is going to deliver on its promises.

Integrity is at the heart of this. An honest business that stands by its principles is one that deserves to be trusted. But you can’t just say you have integrity – you have to show it.

Content is one way to demonstrate your brand’s integrity and, in turn, help your audience trust you. Here are five ways to use content as a truth vehicle.

Content is a way to demonstrate your brand’s integrity and help your audience trust you, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

1. Create perceived authority

Consumers trust and look up to industry authorities and influencers though they may not realize it or refer to these people as industry authorities or influencers. But influencer marketing has seen its popularity grow substantially in a short time.

If an influential figure is seen to endorse something, that “thing” gets instant credibility.

The same can be true for you and your content. How do you create this perceived authority?

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: An 8-Step Process to Use Influencers to Elevate Your Brand

Get an authority to share your content socially

A social share from a respected name in your industry acts as a vote of confidence in the quality of your content, and is a quick and reliable way to gain your audience’s trust.

A social share from a respected industry name acts as a vote of confidence in your content quality. @sujanpatel Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, securing a social share is often easier said than done. As a long-term strategy, one of the best ways of securing social shares is to build relationships with influential people who are active on social media. You can:

“Like,” share, or comment on their social media posts.

Initiate a conversation via email. Simply asking for their opinion or help on something can be enough to get a dialogue started.

Bump into them at an event.

Set up a phone call or a face-to-face meeting after a few exchanges.

What do you do in the short term? What if you want social shares right here and right now? Quote the authority in your content or link to them as a source and contact them when the content is live with a quick message like:

“Hey authority’s first name,

I thought you might want to know that I quoted you/linked to you in my recent post about xyz. If you have a minute, it would be great to hear what you think of the piece, and if you like it, awesome if you could share it out!  

Cheers, Your first name”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 5 Ways to Get Noticed by Influencers on Twitter

Get an authority to contribute to your content

Instead of mentioning an authority based on their previously published insight or general expertise, approach them while you’re writing an article. Ask if they have any thoughts on the topic that they’d like to share with you and your audience.

In this context, the more specific you can be in your correspondence, the better.

For example, if I was going to use this strategy within the post you’re reading right now, I would not say:

“Hey Influencer,

I’m writing a piece about using content to make your audience trust you and wondered if you had any thoughts on the topic you wouldn’t mind sharing?

Thanks so much, Sujan”

But I would say:

“Hey Influencer,

I’m writing a piece about using content to make your audience trust you and wondered what you thought is the very best way to get people to trust your content? It’d be awesome if I was able to quote you in the piece!

Thanks so much, Sujan”

Will you get a 100% response rate? I doubt it. (If you do, let us know what you said in the comments!) A more realistic hit rate would be about one in five. However many emails you have to send to get the response you want, the impact of quoting recognized, respectable names in your content makes this strategy well worth your time.

When people contribute to a piece of content, they’re likely to share the finished piece. More importantly, the simple fact that an authority has taken time out of their day to contribute to your work succeeds in creating perceived authority with your audience.

When people contribute to a piece of #content, they’re likely to share, says @sujanpatel. #influencermarketing Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Use Seed Content to Build Relationships with Influencers

2. Be honest

You know about clickbait, right? Titles that make a piece of content sound so enticing you can’t resist finding out more and click, but ultimately are disappointed when you realize the content is far less interesting than the title implied or worse – not about the topic at all?

Don’t do that. If you do, you’re lying to your audience. You don’t need to be a psychology major to figure out that lying to your audience will achieve the opposite of making them trust you.

Sure, you should craft titles that are enticing and make readers want to click to find out more, but you should never, ever mislead anyone. Always deliver content that the headline promises.

Always deliver #content that the headline promises, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

3. Share your own stories

Personalizing your content with anecdotes from the authors’ lives and experiences helps your audience relate to what is said, and in turn, helps them to trust your brand.

There are a couple of reasons why this is. When you back a statement with personal experience, you add weight to what you’re saying. You instantly become more believable.

For example, instead of saying, “It’s possible to become a huge success without a college degree,” you might say, “I didn’t go to college and now I own my own business, employ x members of staff, and pay myself x a year.”

That second statement is far more credible, right?

This tactic also helps your audience see you as a real person with similar emotions, life goals, and problems. If they can visualize you as a person that shares similarities with them, trust follows naturally.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: A Simple Trick to Make Your Content Magnetic and Memorable

4. Be consistent (and consistently honest)

There’s more to being honest than steering clear of clickbait. The stories you tell and the information you offer has to be accurate, too.

Sharing stories is a great tactic, but only if those stories are true (don’t ever be the little boy who cried wolf).

If you fabricate tall tales – or exaggerate a little – to make you and your brand sound more interesting or your content more credible, eventually you’re going to trip up.

Don’t have enough factually accurate experiences to share? Don’t make them up – start making experiences.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Stop Overthinking Your Content and Start Writing What Your Customers Love

5. Be genuinely interested in your audience

When readers comment on your content, take the time to respond to them properly. Show that you’re genuinely interested in their thoughts, ideas, and comments.

When readers comment on your #content, take the time to respond to them properly, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

Listen to what they have to say. Be empathetic to their problems and receptive to their ideas. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Someone who is engaging with your content is a strong lead – as a customer or an advocate.

Keep things polite and professional, but talk to them like a friend, not a customer.

While we are surprisingly trusting of strangers, we naturally come to trust people more as we get to know them (unless they specifically give us a reason not to).

Take every opportunity to engage your audience and develop relationships, and if you ever make promises, always follow through.

What other psychological best practices do you employ in your content in order to get your audience to trust you? Let me know in the comments.

You can trust the CMI newsletter as a reliable, vetted source for helpful content marketing insight, tips, and trends. (And we encourage all our authors to regularly interact with commenters too.) Subscribe today.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Use Content to Get Your Audience to Trust You appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

How to Use Content to Get Your Audience to Trust You posted first on http://ift.tt/2maTWEr

[lucyariablog]

How to Use Content to Get Your Audience to Trust You

Why are online reviews so prevalent regardless of industry? It’s because we, as consumers, need to be reassured that whatever we’re paying for is going to deliver on its promises.

Integrity is at the heart of this. An honest business that stands by its principles is one that deserves to be trusted. But you can’t just say you have integrity – you have to show it.

Content is one way to demonstrate your brand’s integrity and, in turn, help your audience trust you. Here are five ways to use content as a truth vehicle.

Content is a way to demonstrate your brand’s integrity and help your audience trust you, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

1. Create perceived authority

Consumers trust and look up to industry authorities and influencers though they may not realize it or refer to these people as industry authorities or influencers. But influencer marketing has seen its popularity grow substantially in a short time.

If an influential figure is seen to endorse something, that “thing” gets instant credibility.

The same can be true for you and your content. How do you create this perceived authority?

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: An 8-Step Process to Use Influencers to Elevate Your Brand

Get an authority to share your content socially

A social share from a respected name in your industry acts as a vote of confidence in the quality of your content, and is a quick and reliable way to gain your audience’s trust.

A social share from a respected industry name acts as a vote of confidence in your content quality. @sujanpatel Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, securing a social share is often easier said than done. As a long-term strategy, one of the best ways of securing social shares is to build relationships with influential people who are active on social media. You can:

“Like,” share, or comment on their social media posts.

Initiate a conversation via email. Simply asking for their opinion or help on something can be enough to get a dialogue started.

Bump into them at an event.

Set up a phone call or a face-to-face meeting after a few exchanges.

What do you do in the short term? What if you want social shares right here and right now? Quote the authority in your content or link to them as a source and contact them when the content is live with a quick message like:

“Hey authority’s first name,

I thought you might want to know that I quoted you/linked to you in my recent post about xyz. If you have a minute, it would be great to hear what you think of the piece, and if you like it, awesome if you could share it out!  

Cheers, Your first name”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 5 Ways to Get Noticed by Influencers on Twitter

Get an authority to contribute to your content

Instead of mentioning an authority based on their previously published insight or general expertise, approach them while you’re writing an article. Ask if they have any thoughts on the topic that they’d like to share with you and your audience.

In this context, the more specific you can be in your correspondence, the better.

For example, if I was going to use this strategy within the post you’re reading right now, I would not say:

“Hey Influencer,

I’m writing a piece about using content to make your audience trust you and wondered if you had any thoughts on the topic you wouldn’t mind sharing?

Thanks so much, Sujan”

But I would say:

“Hey Influencer,

I’m writing a piece about using content to make your audience trust you and wondered what you thought is the very best way to get people to trust your content? It’d be awesome if I was able to quote you in the piece!

Thanks so much, Sujan”

Will you get a 100% response rate? I doubt it. (If you do, let us know what you said in the comments!) A more realistic hit rate would be about one in five. However many emails you have to send to get the response you want, the impact of quoting recognized, respectable names in your content makes this strategy well worth your time.

When people contribute to a piece of content, they’re likely to share the finished piece. More importantly, the simple fact that an authority has taken time out of their day to contribute to your work succeeds in creating perceived authority with your audience.

When people contribute to a piece of #content, they’re likely to share, says @sujanpatel. #influencermarketing Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Use Seed Content to Build Relationships with Influencers

2. Be honest

You know about clickbait, right? Titles that make a piece of content sound so enticing you can’t resist finding out more and click, but ultimately are disappointed when you realize the content is far less interesting than the title implied or worse – not about the topic at all?

Don’t do that. If you do, you’re lying to your audience. You don’t need to be a psychology major to figure out that lying to your audience will achieve the opposite of making them trust you.

Sure, you should craft titles that are enticing and make readers want to click to find out more, but you should never, ever mislead anyone. Always deliver content that the headline promises.

Always deliver #content that the headline promises, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

3. Share your own stories

Personalizing your content with anecdotes from the authors’ lives and experiences helps your audience relate to what is said, and in turn, helps them to trust your brand.

There are a couple of reasons why this is. When you back a statement with personal experience, you add weight to what you’re saying. You instantly become more believable.

For example, instead of saying, “It’s possible to become a huge success without a college degree,” you might say, “I didn’t go to college and now I own my own business, employ x members of staff, and pay myself x a year.”

That second statement is far more credible, right?

This tactic also helps your audience see you as a real person with similar emotions, life goals, and problems. If they can visualize you as a person that shares similarities with them, trust follows naturally.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: A Simple Trick to Make Your Content Magnetic and Memorable

4. Be consistent (and consistently honest)

There’s more to being honest than steering clear of clickbait. The stories you tell and the information you offer has to be accurate, too.

Sharing stories is a great tactic, but only if those stories are true (don’t ever be the little boy who cried wolf).

If you fabricate tall tales – or exaggerate a little – to make you and your brand sound more interesting or your content more credible, eventually you’re going to trip up.

Don’t have enough factually accurate experiences to share? Don’t make them up – start making experiences.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Stop Overthinking Your Content and Start Writing What Your Customers Love

5. Be genuinely interested in your audience

When readers comment on your content, take the time to respond to them properly. Show that you’re genuinely interested in their thoughts, ideas, and comments.

When readers comment on your #content, take the time to respond to them properly, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

Listen to what they have to say. Be empathetic to their problems and receptive to their ideas. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Someone who is engaging with your content is a strong lead – as a customer or an advocate.

Keep things polite and professional, but talk to them like a friend, not a customer.

While we are surprisingly trusting of strangers, we naturally come to trust people more as we get to know them (unless they specifically give us a reason not to).

Take every opportunity to engage your audience and develop relationships, and if you ever make promises, always follow through.

What other psychological best practices do you employ in your content in order to get your audience to trust you? Let me know in the comments.

You can trust the CMI newsletter as a reliable, vetted source for helpful content marketing insight, tips, and trends. (And we encourage all our authors to regularly interact with commenters too.) Subscribe today.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Use Content to Get Your Audience to Trust You appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/02/content-audience-trust/

[lucyariablog]

How to Use Content to Get Your Audience to Trust You

Why are online reviews so prevalent regardless of industry? It’s because we, as consumers, need to be reassured that whatever we’re paying for is going to deliver on its promises.

Integrity is at the heart of this. An honest business that stands by its principles is one that deserves to be trusted. But you can’t just say you have integrity – you have to show it.

Content is one way to demonstrate your brand’s integrity and, in turn, help your audience trust you. Here are five ways to use content as a truth vehicle.

Content is a way to demonstrate your brand’s integrity and help your audience trust you, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

1. Create perceived authority

Consumers trust and look up to industry authorities and influencers though they may not realize it or refer to these people as industry authorities or influencers. But influencer marketing has seen its popularity grow substantially in a short time.

If an influential figure is seen to endorse something, that “thing” gets instant credibility.

The same can be true for you and your content. How do you create this perceived authority?

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: An 8-Step Process to Use Influencers to Elevate Your Brand

Get an authority to share your content socially

A social share from a respected name in your industry acts as a vote of confidence in the quality of your content, and is a quick and reliable way to gain your audience’s trust.

A social share from a respected industry name acts as a vote of confidence in your content quality. @sujanpatel Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, securing a social share is often easier said than done. As a long-term strategy, one of the best ways of securing social shares is to build relationships with influential people who are active on social media. You can:

“Like,” share, or comment on their social media posts.

Initiate a conversation via email. Simply asking for their opinion or help on something can be enough to get a dialogue started.

Bump into them at an event.

Set up a phone call or a face-to-face meeting after a few exchanges.

What do you do in the short term? What if you want social shares right here and right now? Quote the authority in your content or link to them as a source and contact them when the content is live with a quick message like:

“Hey authority’s first name,

I thought you might want to know that I quoted you/linked to you in my recent post about xyz. If you have a minute, it would be great to hear what you think of the piece, and if you like it, awesome if you could share it out!  

Cheers, Your first name”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 5 Ways to Get Noticed by Influencers on Twitter

Get an authority to contribute to your content

Instead of mentioning an authority based on their previously published insight or general expertise, approach them while you’re writing an article. Ask if they have any thoughts on the topic that they’d like to share with you and your audience.

In this context, the more specific you can be in your correspondence, the better.

For example, if I was going to use this strategy within the post you’re reading right now, I would not say:

“Hey Influencer,

I’m writing a piece about using content to make your audience trust you and wondered if you had any thoughts on the topic you wouldn’t mind sharing?

Thanks so much, Sujan”

But I would say:

“Hey Influencer,

I’m writing a piece about using content to make your audience trust you and wondered what you thought is the very best way to get people to trust your content? It’d be awesome if I was able to quote you in the piece!

Thanks so much, Sujan”

Will you get a 100% response rate? I doubt it. (If you do, let us know what you said in the comments!) A more realistic hit rate would be about one in five. However many emails you have to send to get the response you want, the impact of quoting recognized, respectable names in your content makes this strategy well worth your time.

When people contribute to a piece of content, they’re likely to share the finished piece. More importantly, the simple fact that an authority has taken time out of their day to contribute to your work succeeds in creating perceived authority with your audience.

When people contribute to a piece of #content, they’re likely to share, says @sujanpatel. #influencermarketing Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Use Seed Content to Build Relationships with Influencers

2. Be honest

You know about clickbait, right? Titles that make a piece of content sound so enticing you can’t resist finding out more and click, but ultimately are disappointed when you realize the content is far less interesting than the title implied or worse – not about the topic at all?

Don’t do that. If you do, you’re lying to your audience. You don’t need to be a psychology major to figure out that lying to your audience will achieve the opposite of making them trust you.

Sure, you should craft titles that are enticing and make readers want to click to find out more, but you should never, ever mislead anyone. Always deliver content that the headline promises.

Always deliver #content that the headline promises, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

3. Share your own stories

Personalizing your content with anecdotes from the authors’ lives and experiences helps your audience relate to what is said, and in turn, helps them to trust your brand.

There are a couple of reasons why this is. When you back a statement with personal experience, you add weight to what you’re saying. You instantly become more believable.

For example, instead of saying, “It’s possible to become a huge success without a college degree,” you might say, “I didn’t go to college and now I own my own business, employ x members of staff, and pay myself x a year.”

That second statement is far more credible, right?

This tactic also helps your audience see you as a real person with similar emotions, life goals, and problems. If they can visualize you as a person that shares similarities with them, trust follows naturally.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: A Simple Trick to Make Your Content Magnetic and Memorable

4. Be consistent (and consistently honest)

There’s more to being honest than steering clear of clickbait. The stories you tell and the information you offer has to be accurate, too.

Sharing stories is a great tactic, but only if those stories are true (don’t ever be the little boy who cried wolf).

If you fabricate tall tales – or exaggerate a little – to make you and your brand sound more interesting or your content more credible, eventually you’re going to trip up.

Don’t have enough factually accurate experiences to share? Don’t make them up – start making experiences.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Stop Overthinking Your Content and Start Writing What Your Customers Love

5. Be genuinely interested in your audience

When readers comment on your content, take the time to respond to them properly. Show that you’re genuinely interested in their thoughts, ideas, and comments.

When readers comment on your #content, take the time to respond to them properly, says @sujanpatel. Click To Tweet

Listen to what they have to say. Be empathetic to their problems and receptive to their ideas. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Someone who is engaging with your content is a strong lead – as a customer or an advocate.

Keep things polite and professional, but talk to them like a friend, not a customer.

While we are surprisingly trusting of strangers, we naturally come to trust people more as we get to know them (unless they specifically give us a reason not to).

Take every opportunity to engage your audience and develop relationships, and if you ever make promises, always follow through.

What other psychological best practices do you employ in your content in order to get your audience to trust you? Let me know in the comments.

You can trust the CMI newsletter as a reliable, vetted source for helpful content marketing insight, tips, and trends. (And we encourage all our authors to regularly interact with commenters too.) Subscribe today.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Use Content to Get Your Audience to Trust You appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/02/content-audience-trust/