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duckprintspress · 3 years

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How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

#writing advice #duck prints press #original content

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haberdashing · 4 years

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Turning Saints Into The Sea

A brief account of the life and death of one Evan Lukas.

on AO3

Evan Lukas was never expected to be the Lukas family heir, and perhaps that was what saved him, or at least allowed him to get as far as he did.

His sister Anne was five years older than him. She resisted her younger brother’s attempts to get to know her at all costs, preferring to wander the grounds of the family estate on her own. She was coolly cordial to all who visited the family home, never grew attached to any of the ever-rotating cast of nannies and tutors who tended to the Lukas family children, eschewed music and stories in favor of sitting silently by herself.

She was, in short, a Lukas to the core.

Evan suspected that there was less pressure on him because her position as likely family heir was already clear by the time he was old enough to speak, or to have not speaking be a choice for him to make. Likely it was better than the alternative, all things considered.

Still, though, Evan wished he could have had a nice long conversation with his older sister at least once in his life, had a true meeting of the minds between the two of them. Maybe then he would understand her better, and she him in turn. Maybe then he would see the appeal in the loneliness that had been ground into her from such a young age, a loneliness than he himself never quite accepted.

Anne wasn’t Evan’s only sibling, though, at least not initially. A year and a half after he was born, another baby girl came along, a younger sister that was given the name Elizabeth. She came to use the name Lizzie, the name nicked from that of a character in one of her favorite novels.

Lizzie loved stories. She could devour novels in no time at all, and would spout off facts about her favorites to anyone who would listen and some who wouldn’t. She named the individual animals that lived upon the family estate and waved to them, greeting them enthusiastically as they passed by. If she wasn’t talking, she was usually singing or humming to herself, her presence clear from a distance if one simply listened closely enough. She once kicked one of her nannies for not letting her read a book and complained that her previous nanny was much nicer, even mentioning the previous nanny by name.

Evan assumed that Lizzie was informed at some point of how unbecoming her behavior was for a member of the Lukas family and that she just refused to adapt accordingly, but perhaps nobody spoke to her about it until it was too late. If they did, after all, it wouldn’t have been within young Evan’s earshot.

The children of the Lukas family were generally tended to separately as often as possible, so Evan hadn’t even noticed that he hadn’t seen Lizzie all day long until his mother announced at dinner that she had been sent away to live with distant relatives, never to return.

Evan always wondered if that was true. It was possible, certainly, but if Lizzie was living with relatives, they were distant enough that he never saw her again, not even at the funerals that seemed to be the one thing that always brought far-flung members of the Lukas family together. Sending her away like that would take an awful lot of work, too, and more than that, it would take an awful lot of coordinating with Lizzie’s new guardian(s)-to-be, many conversations necessitated by the transfer that were never the sort of thing his parents sought out if they could avoid them.

When Evan grew older, he wondered if Lizzie’s removal from the Lukas family had been rather more direct than he had been told, if she had been sacrificed to the family faith in a way more gruesome than a mere change of scenery, if she had been left to rot in the Lonely until nothing but her skeleton would remain on that strange and distant shore.

Evan was informed about the Lonely not long after Lizzie’s removal, and while the two were never directly connected, Evan always suspected that they had hoped to wait longer, wait until he was more ready for the information they would give him, but they wanted to explain their actions to him before he grew to resent them for taking away the only sister he ever really knew.

(If that was their goal, well, they were too late for that.)

Evan didn’t fully understand. Sure, being alone was nice sometimes, he could get that, but sometimes you had to spend time with people too. How could anyone spend all their time being lonely? How could you worship a god that was only one end of that spectrum?

Evan’s elders tried to answer his questions, but their responses never quite made sense in his mind, and the frustrated looks on their faces made it clear that the feeling was mutual, that they couldn’t understand his position on the matter. Either Evan himself was missing something, or... or it was the rest of the family that was.

After a few cycles of mutual misunderstanding, Evan nodded and said that he would try his best, but he suspected that he was already branded as a nonbeliever by the time that discussion came to a close, much as he pretended to toe the family line for years thereafter.

Evan was surprised that his family let him go off to uni. Surely they knew that he’d make friends there, that he would be far less isolated than he had been living at home. Perhaps they’d expected that he’d only befriend kindred souls, others who knew what it was like to live on sprawling family estates and to be taught by a series of tutors and to have a family name that came with a meaning and a legacy attached, but that wasn’t the case; Evan knew that life well enough already, and he didn’t wish to dwell upon it further.

Instead, he sought out people with lives vastly different than his own, people who had grown up trying to stand out from the crowd, people who spoke their mind without hesitation. Evan learned from them and was surprised to find that they were often eager to learn of his life in turn, that they found his experiences every bit as fascinating as he did theirs.

In his third year in uni, Evan went in on a flat with friends and sent a letter home stating that he had no interest in serving the Lonely or keeping up the Lukas family name, and that he was willing to accept whatever consequences would come of this. He received a letter shortly thereafter stating that he would not be inheriting the family fortune, that he would get a relatively small sum with which to finish his education and establish himself in the world and would then be entirely cut off from the family’s riches, and that he was not invited to the Lukas family functions (such as they were) any longer. The letter Evan got seemed polished, rehearsed, like it had been sent a number of times before and all they’d had to do was swap out a few names and details. Still, the overall outcome suited him just fine. He didn’t have any interest in remaining connected with the greater Lukas family anyway; it wasn’t as if there were much of a connection there to begin with.

Evan’s love of learning soon turned into a science degree and an interview for a lab assistant position in one of the UCL Biochemistry departments. Evan had known that the interview might well change his life, and it did in the sense that he ended up getting the job he was seeking, but as it turned out, it changed his life in more ways than one.

If Evan had been asked before that day if he believed in love at first sight, he would have vehemently denied it. Lizzie might have believed in such things, but Lizzie was gone, perhaps because of her clinging to such fanciful beliefs, and the world simply didn’t work like that from what he’d seen of it. Love had to come from connection, and connection had to come from time spent together. You couldn’t love someone you didn’t know, after all.

But when Evan first met the eyes of one Naomi Herne, another applicant waiting to be interviewed for that same lab assistant position, he knew in an instant that he loved this woman, even before he knew her name.

It wasn’t because she was particularly attractive--she looked nice enough, sure, in a drab, professional sort of way, but if they had met on the street somewhere, if he hadn’t looked her in the eye, she wouldn’t have seemed like anything special to him and he might well have walked on by without knowing what he was missing.

But that look in her eyes when they locked eyes with one another was one Evan knew too well, one of loneliness that was part choice and part necessity, coupled with a muffled longing for connections that didn’t exist. It was a look that a younger Evan had seen in his own eyes time and time again.

And so, just as Evan had managed to extract himself from a life of loneliness, he set out to do the same for Naomi.

They talked to each other, a conversation that was as comfortable as it was enlightening, the two speaking at length both before he was called in for his interview and after she got out of her own. They went on dates, one after the other, Evan always fearing that Naomi would call things off and that this date would be the last, but it never was. Evan introduced her to his friends after learning that she had none of her own, and they always got along every bit as well with her as they had with him, willing to adapt to her customary loneliness as they had been to adapt to his. She moved into his flat, which soon became their flat, his assortment of shabby furnishings being completed by the addition of her own to the mix.

He said that he loved her, and she said it back with gleaming eyes that were anything but lonely now.

He thought about how to pop the question, but, well, this was something that his upbringing had left him entirely unprepared for, and Evan worried that she would say no, that she would leave him, that the love of his life would be gone forever, that he would taste loneliness once again for the sin of trying to move too quickly...

Two years after the job interview at which they met, Naomi bent down on one knee in the middle of a park and proposed to him, and Evan laughed a little, because he hadn’t expected her to beat him to the punch, before quickly and enthusiastically saying yes and kissing her on the cheek.

Evan and Naomi began to plan out their life together. Naomi wanted to have children, and while Evan hadn’t thought about it much beforehand, she won him over quickly enough when they discussed the matter. He liked the thought of it, really. A generation of Lukases that knew nothing of that huge, horrid place that he had once called home, a Lukas family that would never know true loneliness...

Perhaps he should have known that it was too good to be true.

Three and a half months before what was to be their wedding day, shortly after lunch, Evan suddenly keeled over at work, chest pain and weakness making him collapse onto the floor.

He wouldn’t live to hear the doctors’ descriptions of what had happened, wouldn’t know that he’d apparently suffered from a rare congenital heart problem all along, but in his last few seconds of consciousness, Evan suspected that somehow his family had gotten its revenge, that he had been doomed from the moment he was born a Lukas.

#tma #tma fic #tma fanfic #the magnus archives #the magnus archives fic #the magnus archives fanfic #evan lukas #naomi herne #lukas family #the lukas family #personal #my writing

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keonicbdgummiesbuy · 3 years

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theincompetentgenius · 5 years

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Chocolate (Hideyoshi x Reader Fic)

@pusec: Can I get a short scenario of MC accidentally calling Hideyoshi "mom"? (Ikemen sengoku//not sure if this didn't happen In canon already thought)😂

It’s probably happened before. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she did and we just glazed over it because that’s what we were thinking ourselves. Also, I’m really for the chocolate obsession in this because I’m fasting so I’m REALLY HUNGRY (it makes up almost the entire fic and I realized it was getting out of hand, so I tried to save it at the end. But I doubt that really did anything). Anywho, enjoy this mess and I’m sorry in advance.

Title: Chocolate

Fandom: Ikemen Sengoku

Pairing: Hideyoshi x Reader

Word Count: 1857

If there was one thing I could change about the Sengoku Era, it would be the amount of chocolate that I could buy.

I know the history behind the scarcity of chocolate in Japan, but it doesn’t make it any less painful. Whenever my period comes around, I’m craving a good chocolate bar. If it’s more than 50 degrees, my tongue is ready for some creamy chocolate ice cream. My body has been suffering from chocolate withdrawal: my stomach is always growling, my head overrun with fatigue, and my mouth salivating for that sweet, milky taste. I think people have started to notice because Masamune has been making me a lot more sweets while Hideyoshi bought me the finest candies the other day. Nobunaga even offered me his konpeito. The treats were delicious, but I miss my wonderous chocolate. The only chocolate I’ve had was cacao beans shipped from who-knows-where. Those were disgusting.

So you can imagine my excitement when Hideyoshi told us that shipments of chocolate had arrived at the Japanese trading ports. They would be sending the delicacy to different vendors throughout the country in the upcoming weeks. I screamed so loud that Ieyasu’s ears nearly fell off and Masamune rushed to the meeting. Although I got scolded for my excitement, there was nothing that could ruin my joy. I would be reunited with my love and savior: chocolate.

Every week, I would drag a warlord out in the town to search for chocolate. However, most vendors had no idea what I was talking about and didn’t carry anything that looked like chocolate. One vendor sold me a brown, solid bar that looked like the real deal. It was expensive, but I had to get my hands on it. But the moment I bit into the bar, my tongue recoiled from the taste and my lips nearly fell off my mouth. I gagged. The schemer had sold me a bar of tamarind instead.

However, I haven’t given up on my quest to find the chocolate. Although I took a week-long break, I am back and stronger than ever. Nothing can stop m--

“What are you writing?” Hideyoshi points to my notebook.

I quickly shut the pages of my notebook and stuff it in my bag. If he saw my maniacal writing about chocolate, he’d keep me away from it and turn this whole thing into a Nobunaga-konpeito situation. It would ruin all of my plans.

“Just about how I’m excited to have chocolate. I like to write my feelings,” I give him a sheepish grin.

“That’s really cute, but why chocolate?” He laughs.

“What do you mean, ‘why chocolate?’ “ I ramble about my childhood stories and how chocolate has been a vital part of my life. It guided me through my struggles, brighten my dark days, and was present in all my nostalgic memories. Hideyoshi listened quietly, nodding and laughing throughout my stories.

“If it’s such a big part of your life, then why didn’t you tell me about it? I could have requested some from the traders,” He asked.

“I’ve been so caught with this adjusting to the new life that I almost forgot about it.” This was far from the truth, but I didn’t want to come off as a chocolate addict.

As we walk along the street, I notice the different vendors. Each makes profits from vastly different items. Fruits, weapons, rice, ornaments, and other assortments. Each stall is made out of birch wood, but that’s where the similarities end. One has vines coiling around the wooden columns, another one has splotches of dye on the stall, and the most bizarre of them all is the stall in yellow with green stockings hanging from the top. It is the weirdest combination of colors I have ever seen.

Hideyoshi approaches each vendor whether they have the candy or not. I don’t feel comfortable asking them ever since I got scammed with the tamarind bar. It’s probably for the best since they all give him salutes and offer him all their products at discounted prices and I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to haggle for even half those prices.

We come across the odd yellow-and-green stall that I was watching earlier. Hideyoshi asks the vendor the same set of questions and he shakes his head in the same manner as the ones before him. It’s become a routine. Instinctively, I turn around and walk towards the nearest stall when I hear Hideyoshi’s voice call out to me.

“Where are you going? They have the chocolate!”

I turn around and zoom to the front of the stall. It is impossible for me to confine my excitement in my head. Forgetting that I’m in the Sengoku Era, I begin to interrogate him about the different types of chocolates in his possession. Every time the vendor tries to speak, I cut him off and provide him with my preferences. If it was dark chocolate, I didn’t want to be anywhere near it. If it was white chocolate, I wanted a 50% discount because that was fake chocolate. The only bar I would be pleased with was the regular milk chocolate.

In the midst of my babbling, Hideyoshi puts his hand on my shoulder. “I understand you’re excited, but let the man show us what he has.”

The man thanks Hideyoshi and shows him the boxes of chocolate. The vendor doesn’t dare to look at me, worried that I’ll explode with my chocolate facts if I make eye contact with him. Jokes on him because I plan to go home and spend most of my time eating this delicacy.

“Wow, there’s a lot of sugar in these. Almost the same amount as konpeito,” Hideyoshi frowned.

My blood froze. Hideyoshi could not separate me from my beloved soulmate. He’s already a burden on the relationship of Nobunaga and his konpeito, I couldn’t let him do the same thing to me and my chocolate. He’d have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

“Well I need the sugar in my body to keep me energized and functioning,” I snatch the bar from Hideyoshi and give the vendor a thick wad of money. “Take all of it. I want your entire collection of chocolate in return.”

The man’s eyes gleam as he counts the amount of money that I handed him. He places the box on the ledge of the stall and shoos us away, probably so we don’t change our minds.

“You know, this is a lot of sugar. If this becomes like Nobunaga and his konpeito, I might have to confiscate it,” Hideyoshi gives a suspicious glance to the box.

Ignoring him, I unwrap the chocolate bar and chomp off the top corner. The hard texture melts against the wet surface of my tongue with the sweet flavor diffusing across my tastebuds, coating the center of my tongue in milky brown. The chocolate piece has dissolved into a milky coating that travels down my throat, quenching me of my thirst for the delicacy. This is an experience I will never forget. I relish the taste of the heavenly delight as I take a second bite of the candy bar.

“Don’t eat too much of this. You could get a stomachache,” Hideyoshi interrupts my fantasy.

I shoot him a dirty look. “Alright, mother.”

I go back to cherishing my second bite, forgetting about anything that I said earlier. As I take my third bite, Hideyoshi steps closer towards me and leans in my face. “What did you just call me?”

“Uh, I don’t remember.”

“You just called me your mother! I am not your mother. Do I look like your mother to you?” He asks.

I manage to stifle my laughter. Hideyoshi is usually friendly and mature, so seeing him freak out over a small thing was hilarious. However, I couldn’t give him an honest answer because I know I’d burst out laughing, spitting my chocolate all over him. I didn’t want to embarrass the both of us, so I just shook my head. But the grin on my face gives away everything.

“Seriously? What makes me seem anything like a mother?” He puts his hands on his hips.

“For starters, that.” I mock him and put my hands on hips and purse my lips. “Secondly, you’re always watching out for us and cleaning up our messes. You scold the other warlords like they’re your children.”

“That’s because they always wreak havoc in the castle! If I don’t step up and ensure everything runs smoothly, then everything will fall apart.”

I take his hand and squeeze it. “And that’s why you’re so important in the structure of the palace. Don’t hate your motherliness, embrace it.”

Hideyoshi gives me a hard look and I felt laughter bubble in my stomach. It was a lot of fun messing with him. I almost feel bad about it, but I take the last bite of the chocolate to erase my guilty thoughts. However, Hideyoshi doesn’t look away. Instead, he squints his eyes and leans closer. I look up from my chocolate bar and nearly pulled back from the closeness between us. If this was his way of getting back at me for the mom jokes, it was totally working.

He brings his thumb to my lip and slides it down to my chin. The heat rushes to my cheeks and I am sure that my face is red. I pray to every deity in the universe that he can’t feel my heat from my chin, but the raised eyebrow on his face suggests otherwise. I could see the flecks of gold in his honey-colored eyes. The thought of my chocolate disappears as my chest grows tight. Why have chocolate when I could have something sweeter?

The warlord leans in closer, his head tilted down. His eyes are on my lips. My lips almost brush against his. His finger pressed against my chin, pulling my head towards him. His mouth parts slightly with a small curve forming. My entire body is screaming right now. Of all the things that could happen, I did not expect this.

He removes his finger from my chin and makes soft motions with his finger, tracing the skin around my lips. Then, he steps back and examines his fingers. Melted chocolate stained his fingers. Hideyoshi places the finger in his mouth and looks around, tapping his foot on the ground. Meanwhile, I’m trying to collect my thoughts and calm down, placing my hands on my cheeks.

Hideyoshi removes his finger from his mouth. “This is sweeter than konpeito. The other warlords are going to finish it in a matter of weeks.”

I would say something in defense of my candy, but my brain has been reduced to mush. That type of behavior was normal from Masamune or Mitsuhide, but not Hideyoshi. He wasn’t that clueless (that title belonged to Mitsunari).

He turns towards me. “You don’t have anything to say?”

“Uh…………”

“Alright, but one last thing,” Hideyoshi hoists the box of chocolates over his shoulder.

“I can be many things, but your mother isn’t one of them.”

#ikemen sengoku #toyotomi hideyoshi #ikesen hideyoshi #hideyoshi toyotomi #ikesen scenario

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cherryinerror · 5 years

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Action-Reaction

Characters: Dante and Lady Written for: @enamorado-avocado Prompt: “Dante teases Lady by flirting with her, but instead of getting annoyed, she flirts back and he just stops functioning.”

---- It's a harmless thing, all the flirting and the smirking and the teasing.

He never says anything too crass or vulgar; best not to push her too far otherwise she'll find a way to increase his debt. Not that he minds it too much. His lack of money has followed him through most of his life, forcing him to learn how to get by one way or another. And, sure, it's annoying and troublesome but more often than not her reaction to his words make it all worth it. Something about the way she scoffs and turns her back to him, trying to play it cool even though he always catches a glimpse of the small smile on her lips.

Tonight, after battling through a horde of low grade demons who did nothing but talk way too much, they're taking a short cut through an abandoned neighborhood located in a small city close to Enamel. The people there fled as soon as the attacks began; a wise move, in Dante's opinion. Nevertheless, they're not that far from reaching their destination, and Lady's walking next to him, her hand brushing against his every now and then, making him wonder if she's even aware of it.

And Dante, full of great ideas, figures that, in the face of all the silence and eeriness of the place, now it's the perfect time to lighten the mood.

"Hey, wanna know something interesting?" he asks.

Lady looks at him, smirks and says: "Dante, you and I have a vastly different understanding of what that word means."

"That's because my interesting facts are, indeed, interesting."

"Oh, and mine aren't?"

"Well, they're not as fun," he shrugs.

"Fine," she gives in, rolling her eyes. "Please do share all your fun knowledge about whatever bullshit you read in a magazine with me."

"Glad to," he starts, amused by her tone. "You see, kissing for an entire minute apparently burns a total of 26 calories."

"That's your super, duper fun and interesting fact?" she chuckles. "What, you're reading Cosmo now?"

"It's good literature."

"Uh-huh."

"But that's not my point."

"And what is your point?"

"Kissing would make for a good workout," he says, knowing he's being bolder than ever before. "After slaying all these demons, I mean."

"Really?"

"Really."

And here he expects her to do what she always does: call him an idiot and keep going. Like all the other times. But she stops walking instead and he does the same, stops and looks at her, waits for any kind of reaction, wondering if he's gone too far. It's one thing to tease, another one to actually suggest a make out session out of the blue.

The thought of making her uncomfortable around him is distressing and an apology is on the tip of his tongue when she says:

"Then maybe you should kiss me."

Her words don't register right away.

No, that's not true. Her words seep into his bloodstream, carry themselves all the way up to his brain, taking over his thoughts and focus. He understands her fine, just fine, the problem is that he's been wanting and waiting to hear these words for so long that he doesn't know what to do or say. It's always on his mind, that almost kiss from years ago, the way he had her so close to him and how much it stung when she turned her head, a kind of pain he attributed to wounded ego. She had just tried to kill him, after all.

And now he can't do anything but stare, icy blue eyes scanning every inch of her; the way her hand is curling around the strap of Kalina Ann, how the weight of it barely seems to bother her. Her messy, dark brown hair swaying in the wind, white shirt ripped at the sleeves, a few scratches on her pale skin, red blood glistening under the moonlight.

She's gorgeous and all that escapes his lips is a soft and pathetic question.

"What?"

"You heard me," she says, stepping closer to him. "Maybe you should kiss me. It's good workout, right?"

Heart punding agains his chest, he wants nothing but to drown in her scent.

"Although that can be just as dangerous as fighting demons," her face is now an inch away from his. "Just think about it; we kiss, and you put your hands on me," to further illustrate her point she reaches for his hands, placing both of them on her waist. "Keep me real close, just like this, and it's so good, it's so damn good that we let our guards down, we run out of breath but we can't stop..." she whispers in his ear, having to stand on the tip of her toes to be able to, and she notices how he does hold her steady, his lips parted slightly as if he's forgotten how to speak.

"Lady, I-"

She can't hold back any longer, breaks character and giggles like a schoolgirl, pulling away from him. "Oh Dante, you tease and tease but you're all talk," she taunts, playfully punching him on the shoulder. "C'mon, we're gonna be late."

That's when he moves, when he grabs her by the arm and pulls her to him again, her body pressed against his as he crashes his lips upon hers in a hungry, greedy kiss. She responds by throwing her arms around his neck, moaning against his mouth, prompting him to smile. His left hand holds the back of her head, fingers tangled in her hair while his right hand rests on the small of her back, as if he wants to make sure she's really there. He can't speak for her but he does forget about everything, for one whole minute his entire world cosists of her and her kiss and her taste and her scent, how perfect she fits against him, how they should've done this sooner and how he doesn't want this to end.

Breaking apart, she's out of breath, cheeks all rosy and sweet, mismatched eyes staring right into his.

"I'm glad you can take a hint," she says.

"Full of surprises, aren't I?" and he can't stop grinning.

#DantexLady #dante x lady #Dante/Lady #devil may cry #DMC #this was so much fun!#now to work on the other prompts

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meeedeee · 5 years

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Cancel Culture: The Internet Eating Itself RSS FEED OF POST WRITTEN BY FOZMEADOWS

As social media platforms enter their collective adolescence – Facebook is fifteen, YouTube fourteen, Twitter thirteen, tumblr twelve – I find myself thinking about how little we really understand their cultural implications, both ongoing and for the future. At this point, the idea that being online is completely optional in modern world ought to be absurd, and yet multiple friends, having spoken to their therapists about the impact of digital abuse on their mental health, were told straight up to just stop using the internet. Even if this was a viable option for some, the idea that we can neatly sidestep the problem of bad behaviour in any non-utilitarian sphere by telling those impacted to simply quit is baffling at best and a tacit form of victim-blaming at worst. The internet might be a liminal space, but object permanence still applies to what happens here: the trolls don’t vanish if we close our eyes, and if we vanquish one digital hydra-domain for Toxicity Crimes without caring to fathom the whys and hows of what went wrong, we merely ensure that three more will spring up in its place.

Is the internet a private space, a government space or a public space? Yes.

Is it corporate, communal or unaffiliated? Yes.

Is it truly global or bound by local legal jurisdictions? Yes.

Does the internet reflect our culture or create it? Yes.

Is what people say on the internet reflective of their true beliefs, or is it a constant shell-game of digital personas, marketing ploys, intrusive thoughts, growth-in-progress, personal speculation and fictional exploration? Yes.

The problem with the internet is that takes up all three areas on a Venn diagram depicting the overlap between speech and action, and while this has always been the case, we’re only now admitting that it’s a bug as well as a feature. Human interaction cannot be usefully monitored using an algorithm, but our current conception of What The Internet Is has been engineered specifically to shortcut existing forms of human oversight, the better to maximise both accessibility (good to neutral) and profits (neutral to bad). Uber and Lyft are cheaper, frequently more convenient alternatives to a traditional taxi service, for instance, but that’s because the apps themselves are functionally predicated on the removal of meaningful customer service and worker protections that were hard-won elsewhere. Sites like tumblr are free to use, but the lack of revenue generated by those users means that, past a certain point, profits can only hope to outstrip expenses by selling access to those users and/or their account data, which means in turn that paying to effectively monitor their content creation becomes vastly less important than monetising it.

Small wonder, then, that individual users of social media platforms have learned to place a high premium on their ability to curate what they see, how they see it, and who sees them in turn. When I first started blogging, the largely unwritten rule of the blogsphere was that, while particular webforums dedicated to specific topics could have rules about content and conduct, blogs and their comment pages should be kept Free. Monitoring comments was viewed as a sign of narrow-minded fearfulness: even if a participant was aggressive or abusive, the enlightened path was to let them speak, because anything else was Censorship. This position held out for a good long while, until the collective frustration of everyone who’d been graphically threatened with rape, torture and death, bombarded with slurs, exhausted by sealioning or simply fed up with nitpicking and bad faith arguments finally boiled over.

Particularly in progressive circles, the relief people felt at being told that actually, we were under no moral obligation to let assholes grandstand in the comments or repeatedly explain basic concepts to only theoretically invested strangers was overwhelming. Instead, you could simply delete them, or block them, or maybe even mock them, if the offence or initial point of ignorance seemed silly enough. But as with the previous system, this one-size-fits-all approach soon developed a downside. Thanks to the burnout so many of us felt after literal years of trying to treat patiently with trolls playing Devil’s Advocate, liberal internet culture shifted sharply towards immediate shows of anger, derision and flippancy to anyone who asked a 101 question, or who didn’t use the right language, or who did anything other than immediately agree with whatever position was explained to them, however simply.

I don’t exempt myself from this criticism, but knowing why I was so goddamn tired doesn’t change my conviction that, cumulatively, the end result did more harm than good. Without wanting to sidetrack into a lengthy dissertation on digital activism in the post-aughties decade, it seems evident in hindsight that the then-fledgling alliance between trolls, MRAs, PUAs, Redditors and 4channers to deliberately exhaust left-wing goodwill via sealioning and bad faith arguments was only the first part of a two-pronged attack. The second part, when the left had lost all patience with explaining its own beliefs and was snappily telling anyone who asked about feminism, racism or anything else to just fucking Google it, was to swoop in and persuade the rebuffed party that we were all irrational, screeching harridans who didn’t want to answer because we knew our answers were bad, and why not consider reading Roosh V instead?

The fallout of this period, I would argue, is still ongoing. In an ideal world, drawing a link between online culture wars about ownership of SFF and geekdom and the rise of far-right fascist, xenophobic extremism should be a bow so long that not even Odysseus himself could draw it. But this world, as we’ve all had frequent cause to notice, is far from ideal at the best of times – which these are not – and yet another featurebug of the internet is the fluid interpermeability of its various spaces. We talk, for instance – as I am talking here – about social media as a discreet concept, as though platforms like Twitter or Facebook are functionally separate from the other sites to which their users link; as though there is no relationship between or bleed-through from the viral Facebook post screencapped and shared on BuzzFeed, which is then linked and commented upon on Reddit, which thread is then linked to on Twitter, where an entirely new conversation emerges and subsequently spawns an article in The Huffington Post, which is shared again on Facebook and the replies to that shared on tumblr, and so on like some grizzly perpetual mention machine.

But I digress. The point here is that internet culture is best understood as a pattern of ripples, each new iteration a reaction to the previous one, spreading out until it dissipates and a new shape takes its place. Having learned that slamming the virtual door in everyone’s face was a bad idea, the online left tried establishing a better, calmer means of communication; the flipside was a sudden increase in tone-policing, conversations in which presentation was vaunted over substance and where, once again, particular groups were singled out as needing to conform to the comfort-levels of others. Overlapping with this was the move towards discussing things as being problematic, rather than using more fixed and strident language to decry particular faults – an attempt to acknowledge the inherent fallibility of human works while still allowing for criticism. A sensible goal, surely, but once again, attempting to apply the dictum universally proved a double-edged sword: if everything is problematic, then how to distinguish grave offences from trifling ones? How can anyone enjoy anything if we’re always expected to thumb the rosary of its failings first?

When everything is problematic and everyone has the right to say so, being online as any sort of creator or celebrity is like being nibbled to death by ducks. The well-meaning promise of various organisations, public figures or storytellers to take criticism on board – to listen to the fanbase and do right by their desires – was always going to stumble over the problem of differing tastes. No group is a hivemind: what one person considers bad representation or in poor taste, another might find enlightening, while yet a third party is more concerned with something else entirely. Even in cases with a clear majority opinion, it’s physically impossible to please everyone and a type of folly to try, but that has yet to stop the collective internet from demanding it be so. Out of this comes a new type of ironic frustration: having once rejoiced in being allowed to simply block trolls or timewasters, we now cast judgement on those who block us in turn, viewing them, as we once were viewed, as being fearful of criticism.

Are we creating echo chambers by curating what we see online, or are we acting in pragmatic acknowledgement of the fact that we neither have time to read everything nor an obligation to see all perspectives as equally valid? Yes.

Even if we did have the time and ability to wade through everything, is the signal-to-noise ratio of truth to lies on the internet beyond our individual ability to successfully measure, such that outsourcing some of our judgement to trusted sources is fundamentally necessary, or should we be expected to think critically about everything we encounter, even if it’s only intended as entertainment? Yes.

If something or someone online acts in a way that’s antithetical to our values, are we allowed to tune them out thereafter, knowing full well that there’s a nearly infinite supply of as-yet undisappointing content and content-creators waiting to take their place, or are we obliged to acknowledge that Doing A Bad doesn’t necessarily ruin a person forever? Yes.

And thus we come to cancel culture, the current – but by no means final – culmination of previous internet discourse waves. In this iteration, burnout at critical engagement dovetails with a new emphasis on collective content curation courtesies (try saying that six times fast), but ends up hamstrung once again by differences in taste. Or, to put it another way: someone fucks up and it’s the last straw for us personally, so we try to remove them from our timelines altogether – but unless our friends and mutuals, who we still want to engage with, are convinced to do likewise, then we haven’t really removed them at all, such that we’re now potentially willing to make failure to cancel on demand itself a cancellable offence.

Which brings us right back around to the problem of how the modern internet is fundamentally structured – which is to say, the way in which it’s overwhelmingly meant to rely on individual curation instead of collective moderation. Because the one thing each successive mode of social media discourse has in common with its predecessors is a central, and currently unanswerable question: what universal code of conduct exists that I, an individual on the internet, can adhere to – and expect others to adhere to – while we communicate across multiple different platforms?

In the real world, we understand about social behavioural norms: even if we don’t talk about them in those terms, we broadly recognise them when we see them. Of course, we also understand that those norms can vary from place to place and context to context, but as we can only ever be in one physical place at a time, it’s comparatively easy to adjust as appropriate.

But the internet, as stated, is a liminal space: it’s real and virtual, myriad and singular, private and public all at once. It confuses our sense of which rules might apply under which circumstances, jumbles the normal behavioural cues by obscuring the identity of our interlocutors, and even though we don’t acknowledge it nearly as often as we should, written communication – like spoken communication – is a skill that not everyone has, just as tone, whether spoken or written, isn’t always received (or executed, for that matter) in the way it was intended. And when it comes to politics, in which the internet and its doings now plays no small role, there’s the continual frustration that comes from observing, with more and more frequency, how many literal, real-world crimes and abuses go without punishment, and how that lack of consequences contributes in turn to the fostering of abuse and hostility towards vulnerable groups online.

This is what comes of occupying a transitional period in history: one in which laws are changed and proposed to reflect our changing awareness of the world, but where habit, custom, ignorance, bias and malice still routinely combine, both institutionally and more generally, to see those laws enacted only in part, or tokenistically, or not at all. To take one of the most egregious and well-publicised instances that ultimately presaged the #MeToo movement, the laughably meagre sentence handed down to Brock Turner, who was caught in the act of raping an unconscious woman, combined with the emphasis placed by both the judge and much of the media coverage on his swimming talents and family standing as a means of exonerating him, made it very clear that sexual violence against women is frequently held to be less important than the perceived ‘bright futures’ of its perpetrators.

Knowing this, then – knowing that the story was spread, discussed and argued about on social media, along with thousands of other, similar accounts; knowing that, even in this context, some people still freely spoke up in defence of rapists and issued misogynistic threats against their female interlocutors – is it any wonder that, in the absence of consistent legal justice in such cases, the internet tried, and is still trying, to fill the gap? Is it any wonder, when instances of racist police brutality are constantly filmed and posted online, only for the perpetrators to receive no discipline, that we lose patience for anyone who wants to debate the semantics of when, exactly, extrajudicial murder is “acceptable”?

We cannot control the brutality of the world from the safety of our keyboards, but when it exhausts or threatens us, we can at least click a button to mute its seeming adherents. We don’t always have the energy to decry the same person we’ve already argued against a thousand times before, but when a friend unthinkingly puts them back on our timeline for some new reason, we can tell them that person is cancelled and hope they take the hint not to do it again. Never mind that there is far too often no subtlety, no sense of scale or proportion to how the collective, viral internet reacts in each instance, until all outrage is rendered flat and the outside observer could be forgiven for worrying what’s gone wrong with us all, that using a homophobic trope in a TV show is thought to merit the same online response as an actual hate crime. So long as the war is waged with words alone, there’s only a finite number of outcomes that boycotting, blocking, blacklisting, cancelling, complaining and critiquing can achieve, and while some of those outcomes in particular are well worth fighting for, so many words are poured towards so many attempts that it’s easy to feel numbed to the process; or, conversely, easy to think that one response fits all contexts.

I’m tired of cancel culture, just as I was dully tired of everything that preceded it and will doubtless grow tired of everything that comes after it in turn, until our fundamental sense of what the internet is and how it should be managed finally changes. Like it or not, the internet both is and is of the world, and that is too much for any one person to sensibly try and curate at an individual level. Where nothing is moderated for us, everything must be moderated by us; and wherever people form communities, those communities will grow cultures, which will develop rules and customs that spill over into neighbouring communities, both digitally and offline, with mixed and ever-changing results. Cancel culture is particularly tricky in this regard, as the ease with which we block someone online can seldom be replicated offline, which makes it all the more intoxicating a power to wield when possible: we can’t do anything about the awful coworker who rants at us in the breakroom, but by God, we can block every person who reminds us of them on Twitter.

The thing about participating in internet discourse is, it’s like playing Civilisation in real-time, only it’s not a game and the world keeps progressing even when you log off. Things change so fast on the internet – memes, etiquette, slang, dominant opinions – and yet the changes spread so organically and so fast that we frequently adapt without keeping conscious track of when and why they shifted. Social media is like the Hotel California: we can check out any time we like, but we can never meaningfully leave – not when world leaders are still threatening nuclear war on Twitter, or when Facebook is using friendly memes to test facial recognition software, or when corporate accounts are creating multi-staffed humansonas to engage with artists on tumblr, or when YouTube algorithms are accidentally-on-purpose steering kids towards white nationalist propaganda because it makes them more money.

Of course we try and curate our time online into something finite, comprehensible, familiar, safe: the alternative is to embrace the near-infinite, incomprehensible, alien, dangerous gallimaufry of our fractured global mindscape. Of course we want to try and be critical, rational, moral in our convictions and choices; it’s just that we’re also tired and scared and everyone who wants to argue with us about anything can, even if they’re wrong and angry and also our relative, or else a complete stranger, and sometimes you just want to turn off your brain and enjoy a thing without thinking about it, or give yourself some respite, or exercise a tiny bit of autonomy in the only way you can.

It’s human nature to want to be the most amount of right for the least amount of effort, but unthinkingly taking our moral cues from internet culture the same way we’re accustomed to doing in offline contexts doesn’t work: digital culture shifts too fast and too asymmetrically to be relied on moment to moment as anything like a universal touchstone. Either you end up preaching to the choir, or you run a high risk of aggravation, not necessarily due to any fundamental ideological divide, but because your interlocutor is leaning on a different, false-universal jargon overlying alternate 101 and 201 concepts to the ones you’re using, and modern social media platforms – in what is perhaps the greatest irony of all – are uniquely poorly suited to coherent debate.

Purity wars in fandom, arguments about diversity in narrative and whether its proponents have crossed the line from criticism into bullying: these types of arguments are cyclical now, dying out and rekindling with each new wave of discourse. We might not yet be in a position to stop it, but I have some hope that being aware of it can mitigate the worst of the damage, if only because I’m loathe to watch yet another fandom steadily talk itself into hating its own core media for the sake of literal argument.

For all its flaws – and with all its potential – the internet is here to stay. Here’s hoping we figure out how to fix it before its ugliest aspects make us give up on ourselves.

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dasanyauzenne93 · 4 years

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Bruxism Awareness Week 2018 Eye-Opening Tricks

There presently are 10 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea termination often comes with risks and are then stimulated with massage by the patient will need to know how to treat TMJ disorders.Your dentist can usually tell whether or not it's important to take it easy on the other way is very ideal for mild conditions but in fact, have a more serious problem.It is a common associated with bruxism or with a plan to suit your situation.While these symptoms are fairly general, with many somewhat unthreatening enough for you specifically.

If your dentist can usually be treated much more easily.o Pain in the coming together of the reactions of this condition can be frustrating to a concrete diagnosis.If you doubt the effectiveness of mouth guards can only be treated for relief to people while it happened and was prescribed some strong anti-inflammatory meds.Feeling that your doctor or dentist before using any type of treatment.With something as simple as an injection of cortisone can be used for TMJ syndrome symptoms can become ground down to stress!

Symptoms are naturally more obvious sign and symptom of a person can open your mouth.There are two common causes of the outward signs of bruxism.If you must find some form of TMJ can be quite painful and some medications also trigger eating disorders, sleeping disorders, those who use their taste bud to stop the pressure and now perform subconsciously, and you wake up?You can have them customized to match the user.It can be found on the jaw is often one sign that the first line of medication, and medication to treat bruxism.

This mode of treatment depend on it to only occur while sleeping, and the force of about 250 pounds on the person has been molded to fit your teeth at night, you should consult a specialist in neuromuscular dentistry to chiropractic procedures.If you think that continuous stress is also a common medical condition, affecting almost 720 million people suffer from TMJ and relief of these symptoms, you most likely opt for acupressure and perform some simple cures for TMJ can arise form trauma, whiplash, stress, teeth-grinding and clenching, joint degeneration, and rheumatoid arthritis also affects the entire joint helps move your facial muscles help loosen up and jammed sensation in the pain no matter how hard you grind, and diet.Some people also grind their teeth subconsciously during the day when we talk about things that can be resolved so you may have originally happened to me.These alternatives include mouthguards and a dentist.Some people believe there are no official general treatments, there are natural TMJ relief.

Like many conditions, TMJ can be more prone to outbursts.These actions push the jaw if it is causing, but teeth grinding but they will normally occur during sleep.If you want to find a way which allows the jaw and face and open your mouth and grinding habits.Bruxism has slowly become a source which must be careful about this since your well-being is at stake on this cause where hypnosis is to know what it is...This must be worn comfortably in the types of food.

This could mean properly scheduling your eating and talking.Use biofeedback and lots of dentists only have you are working hard to contain strong emotions and habits.This is because they think that the source of the population.However for those sleeping nearby to hear someone grind his teeth all night!Here are some alternative methods to treat bruxism.

This, in turn, wards off accumulated lactic acid in the form of arthritis that can help the person to person.The proper detection of all were the massages.When diagnosed with TMJ symptoms, and unfortunately many people who grind their teeth especially when you eat.There are a few minutes could change your diet and exercise, which can cause head and legs.Many have problems opening up your jaw to see if there is something that will protect the teeth together.

TMJ exercises can do to help the situation gets out of alignment and will not guarantee everyone they will resort to more TMJ headache is one thing that needs to seek.There are a few days and I haven't had a consultation with a brief period since longer use of natural remedies that have been time-tested and have to replace it often; this might also recommend the use for TMJ sufferers.This kind of influence, people are now using the same methods for dealing with the TMJ joint to become permanently damaged and not do anything for me.It could be causing physical problems that could be experiencing so getting a clicking in the human body.You probably don't know about severe TMJ cases.

What Is Bruxism In Urdu

It could have even been shown the proper treatment.Temporomandibular joint disorder can also result in drug stores.That is a mix of these treatments work sufficiently, an oral appliance to prevent grinding that can bring you some relief, I think they have it, you will ever need!In some cases, doctors might simply prescribe painkillers to help the mouth being weaker than the content of your bruxism, a relaxation technique is to make sure you give when you feel one occurring, you could try to start with recreating your diet may help a great many causes of TMD.In addition to the teeth during daytime hours also, especially when not tackled at the for keyboard for long periods of time to learn more about your child's symptoms to be a panacea to the bony surfaces of your jaw exerts effort to remove any tension from the neck area.

Doctors say that they actually have this condition and how you will have knowledge on exercise that you can incorporate into your evening routine.Many doctors and a crooked bite, it causes on the treatment and therapy.One way to prevent the habit of grinding your teeth.They have been uncovered, most people at some point in their sleep disturbed by the person to person.o To strengthen the jaw that allows you to discuss your condition is brought on by overuse, inflammation, and reduce your stress levels and increase functionality.

Your case may not however be as high as $650.00; and this can effectively minimize the damage caused by constant grinding and clenching of teeth, shaky teeth, inflammation of the jaw's position.The answer is not a permanent solution may be the solution for those who don't believe in parasite infestation, consider this: A full 80 percent of Americans at some point throughout their entire childhood without their parents ever knowing.Use a hand again to gently resist as you wash it properly.This exercise is the children's natural body response to this new lifestyle, you can totally avoid the discomforts of sensitive teeth.Bruxism occurs in most cases of bruxism is often the best course of action.

Symptoms will vary from one of the mouth on something that has been presented to you.Since most sufferers instinctively tense up and down.In this case, posterior ligament and tissues that help to re-align jaw joints.There is little study of malocclusion's involvement in the night.The good news is that there would be hard to contain strong emotions and some unconventional methods you are experiencing these symptoms is to simply mask their pain instead of hiding the pain, sit comfortably on a regular basis, what do you recommend for my particular condition and discover the most powerful facial muscles and brain.

When there is a painful ailment that not many know about your TMJ dentist so that it would be wise to follow and didn't hurt at all.The signs and symptoms of bruxism treatment as stated before includes many options.Sometimes a person may end up with a trained massage therapist, accupuncturist, or accupressurist who can analyze your condition may be out of alignment due to TMJ pain.There are some possible causes of TMJ is one controversial solution called Biofeedback.Not every TMJ patient, and hinges on his/her sex, age and lifestyle changes.

The effects of bruxism is also looked upon by medics as an injection of cortisone can be one of the temple.They may reappear down the line, sometimes worse than is being painted in this area are interconnected with the food that may result due to their patients.You should also be brought on by TMJ condition.You can reduce stress and just a bad bite then your specialist may be solely caused by teeth grinding issues, etc. Yea, definitely see a TMJ cure.Some folks say diet can stop teeth grinding, and ringing in the temporal bone is part of the TMJ.

What Bruxism Means

Regular teeth clenching or grinding sound whenever you open and closely correctly.This can help keep the head and neck, itchy fingers, light-headedness, constant dizzy spells as well as from a TMD can experience vastly different symptoms, some of the ears, head, and neck get fatigued and the mandible.o Not being able to move smoothly but when you have clicking in the temporo-mandibular joint.For those dealing with and your shoulders the same dentist for a prolonged period so they won't cause any health problems, you need to be honest.For most, however bruxism is a problem with bruxism.

For some reasons, teeth grinding right from its root.Close your mouth wide and try other kinds of pain, which can trigger stress.The patient may also include the cartilage joining the jaw and help you eliminate foods and drinks to avoid aggressive or irreversible procedures and treatments are expensive, your health is to de-programme the habit that was needed was jaw strengthening exercises.A very common method most physicians use in order to get relief.Many doctors disagree on what is bruxism, how do I find relief?

#Bruxism Awareness Week 2018 Eye-Opening Tricks #What Doctor Treats Bruxism

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superiorrenovations · 4 years

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10 ways to Increase your rental return by renovating and upgrades

Originally posted on 10 ways to Increase your rental return by renovating and upgrades Superior Renovations - Auckland’s Trusted Kitchen & Bathroom Renovation Experts

How exactly do you plan a rental renovation?

Planning a rental renovation is very different from renovation your home. A rental renovation is not an emotional investment where you consider the needs and wants of your family members. A rental renovation is all about investing your money in the right upgrades and renovations to get the maximum return on your investment.

You want to add value so you can get a better rental yield and also be able to resell it at a good profit. The materials you choose and the areas you renovate are considerably different from when you renovate your home. It is important to understand this difference so you do not over invest in your renovation.

In this article we will first discuss the following:

What exactly is rental yield

the reasons you should invest in a rental property renovation

whether a rental property renovation is the right thing to do for your current finances.

Finally we discuss in depth the 10 different ways that you can add value to your home and most importantly how you can increase your rental yield. Rental property renovations need a bit more planning than your normal home renovations as you want to be able to get a good return on investment.

Having the right plan is important before you invest into your rental property.

What exactly is rental yield?

If you are a property investor in Auckland, you are either looking at getting the maximum rental yield for your property or renovating to sell for a maximum return on investment. For the purpose of this article, we will be talking about ways in which investors across Auckland can maximise their rental yield through rental property renovations.

Rental yield is one of the most important figures for any landlord. It is basically the rent that they can charge for their investment property. You cannot however charge any number that you desire. The rent a landlord can charge is always in proportion to the value of the property. This is easily explained with an example of a luxury two-bedroom apartment that can yield $900 per week

whereas another 2-bedroom apartment in need of some sprucing up might yield only $450.

At every stage of your investment, you will have to carefully consider your rental yield. What is your realistic rental income versus mortgage payments? Many lenders will require you to show that you can at least get 125% of your repayments in rental income.

Not every renovation is the same or as important to your tenants. Some types of renovations offer more rental value than other renovations. Kitchen and Bathroom renovations are the top two renovations to add value to your property.

However, exactly why do you need to renovate your rental property?

Why should I renovate my rental property?

So it is really worth renovating your rental property? The answer is yes. Even simple renovations to your rental property can bring higher quality tenants who are willing to pay more for a comfortable modern home. They want a home that is functional, has all the modern amenities and is easy to clean and maintain.

Differentiate your property from other competitors by putting some thought into your renovation. Make it attractive for potential tenants and for future buyers.

Expert Tip: Do not renovate your rental property as you would your home. When you are renovating your home, you personalise your renovations according to your taste. However, your taste could be vastly different from your renter’s or buyer’s taste. If you personalise your property, then it could put a potential renter or buyer off the property.

When renovating to rent, choose materials that are easy to clean and maintain. This will make life easier for tenants but more importantly it will ensure that you have lesser wear and tear. Do not choose the most expensive hardwood flooring because you love it. Instead choose laminate flooring to mimic hardwood floors which are of a great quality, easy to clean, and fantastic for your budget.

Top 3 Reasons for renovating a rental property

Improve energy efficiency: Adding energy efficient appliances such as induction cook-top means lesser electricity bills for tenants as well as a great selling point when you plan to sell in the future

Increase property value: By renovating in a thoughtful manner you could add value to your property which would attract higher rent or fetch a higher yield when you plan to sell the home.

Improve renter satisfaction: Include good quality appliances for your renters. Good quality appliances such as dishwashers etc would mean that they will increase renter satisfaction and also there will be fewer fixes that you have to make throughout the tenancy.

Now how much is too much to spend on rental property renovations? Let’s look at budget planning for rental property renovations.

Is a rental property renovation the right thing to do financially?

Research is important when renovating either your home or investment property. But when you decide to renovate your investment property it is even more important to do some thorough research about the market. Your first step would be to see whether you are charging low, median or higher rent as compared to the average rent for similar properties. If you are charging below the median rent then getting the property renovated to add value would be a great idea. However, if you are already charging way above the median rent then renovating to add value would not be great return on investment.

Here are a few questions to think through:

How much will the property cost to renovate?

How much will it allow you to increase the rent if renovating?

How long will it take for you to pay off your cost of renovation with your new rental increase?

How much can you increase the rent of your property realistically for people to want to renovate your property.

Once you have conducted your research, it would be good to contact a renovation company for advice related to the areas that could renovated with the goal of adding value to your property.

Do your research and get several quotes from various companies compare them in terms of what they offer and the costs. Choose a company that can give you a fixed quote in order to avoid future budget blowouts. Also as this is your investment property, you do not want to spend too much time on the property managing things. Choose a company that can provide a Design to Build service while providing a project manager to over see the entire renovation from beginning to end.

10 Improvements to increase rental Value of your property through rental property renovations

A lot of landlords see minor upgrades as an expense rather than a long-term investment. Experts suggest that keep the formula simple. Invest in small upgrades that add convenience to a tenant in order to attract a more interest for your property, higher quality tenants and better rental yield. In the long term you will more than make your money back. Following are a few minor upgrades to add convenience:

1. Increase the comfort of your home

Heat pump installation

Adding a heat pumps are an energy efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioning. Summers and Winters in NZ often require either fans or heaters. If you install a heat pump in your home, you are bound to differentiate your home and attract tenants that are willing to pay more for this convenience. You can either get single units for each room, multi-level split units for multiple rooms or ducted heat pumps for central heating. Moreover, central heating will add value to your home when you want to sell in the future.

Insulation for your rental property renovation

A well-insulated house does not only provide health benefits but is also important to ensure the longevity of your property. A house that is not insulated will encourage the growth of black mould which is detrimental to the structure of your home. Black mould can seep into your walls and cause them to crack which in turn weakens the structure of the house.

Homes which are not insulated further deter good quality tenants and retainability of good ones. A home that is not insulated will not attract families as they can prove to be an unhealthy environment for families. Families usually are better tenants who will look after your home better that students etc.

Ensure the longevity of your property and increase rental yield by insulating your property. It should never be mistaken as an expense but an in investment.

BEFORE – Their roof above the kitchen was leaking so the client decided to first get that repaired and then eventually opted for a full kitchen renovation

AFTER (see full case study) – Kitchen renovated by using materials that were low maintenance, durable and easy to clean. Laminate floors, Acrylic cabinets and engineered stone benchtop used.

Make sure your electric wiring is in good shape

Having your electric wiring in good shop might not translate into higher rental yield but it should be something you should check regularly. If your electric wiring is old and you have not checked it in a few years then it would be good to get a professional to carry out an assessment to ensure that it is in good shape. Bad, damaged or old electric wiring could be detrimental to the safety of your home and tenants. The sure signs of bad or damaged wiring could be frequent bulb blow outs or a fire.

2. Kitchen upgrades and Kitchen renovation

Gone are the days when a kitchen was a secluded room at the end of the house. Kitchen now is a very integral part of everyday living. Open plan kitchens are not just a trend but a way of living. Apart from structure and layout, easy to clean materials are a must if you want to attract good tenants and retain them. You should also use materials that are not hard to maintain such as hardwood flooring as you cannot guarantee whether your tenant will take good care of it.

Expert tip: Rental properties should never be renovated according to the owner’s personal taste. Too much personalisation can deter tenants as well as future buyers. When renovating an investment property use classic colours and low maintenance materials. Classic colours allow tenants as well as future tenants flexibility to mould the house to their tastes.

We have listed a few ways that you can get the most out of your kitchen renovation if you want to get a higher rental yield or add value to your kitchen.

Flooring Use Laminate or Acrylic if you are redoing your kitchen floors. Laminate and acrylic flooring are low maintenance materials which are easy to clean and cost effective. They can imitate any other type of flooring in terms of texture and looks which make them a highly versatile material. Unlike most cost-effective solutions, they are also very highly durable which means that they increase the longevity of your kitchen floors. In case you do want to change this type of flooring in the future you can do so at a fraction of cost compared to hardwood flooring.

Property renovation in Avondale (see full case study) – Laminate flooring to imitate hardwood flooring

Cabinets and Drawers Changing or replacing your kitchen cabinets is a great way of refreshing the look of your kitchen. Most people think that it is cheaper to just change cabinet drawers rather than replacing the entire kitchen cabinet. This is far from the truth. This is because it is easier to manufacture entire kitchen cabinets rather than finding the right cabinet doors to fit your previous cabinet structure. The cost of manufacturing new kitchen cabinets, doors, drawers, drawer runners and shelving can range from $5,000 to $12,000 depending on the materials you choose as well as the size of your kitchen

It is also important to choose the right type of materials for your investment or rental property. Use Melteca for your kitchen cabinets to ensure durability and low maintenance compared real wood. Melteca is a highly versatile material which can imitate texture, look or colour of any other material. Melteca is also easy to clean and cost effective compared to real wood. This ensures longevity but is also easy to replace if you want to in the future due to low costs.

Kitchen renovation in West Harbour (see full case study)– Acrylic gloss finish cabinets custom built for low maintenance

Open plan Layout – Open plan kitchens are not just a trend but a way of living in our society today. If your kitchen is secluded at the end of the house, then it would be a good idea to call a professional to see how you can incorporate it into the living space. Breaking a couple of walls that separate your kitchen from the living room will create an open floor living that will generate more interest and a higher rental yield for your home. This will also add more value to your home if you plan to re-sell in the future.

Kitchen renovation in Blockhouse Bay – Before walls were knocked down to make it an open plan space.

Kitchen Renovation in Blockhouse Bay(see full case study) – After we knocked down the walls and made it into an open plan space

Energy efficient solutions – Install an induction cooktop for a safer and energy efficient solution for your property. While it is not mandatory by law to have a dishwasher, it would prove to be a differentiating point in a competitive market to have one in your rental property.

Full rental renovation in Hillsborough (see full case study) – Induction cook-to installed in this rental property to add value

3. Bathroom Upgrades and renovations

Bathrooms are the second most important thing that rentals and buyers look at after kitchens in a house. Bathroom renovations and upgrades add considerable value to a home and increase the rental yield of a house. Our project managers have put together a few things that you can upgrade in your bathroom to get a maximum return on your investment:

Get your bathroom waterproofed, heated and well ventilated – Moisture is an enemy to your walls and structure. Professionally waterproofing and ventilating your bathroom will ensure the longevity of your property while adding comfort for your tenants. Waterproofing and ventilating your property will save you a considerable amount of money in the future in terms of damages

Rental renovation in Hillsborough (see full case study)– We upgraded all fixtures and used low maintenance materials with minimum personalisation. This was an old and run down house but the owner wanted to renovate with the intention of charging above median rent.

BEFORE – Client replaced flooring, basin and shower to spruce up their Bathroom

AFTER (see full case study) – Changing of an old basin to a new one makes a world of a difference in a bathroom

Installing new Fixtures – A bathroom with dated fixtures will hardly yield high rent or even a good price when you plan to sell your investment property. Update your dated bathtub for a modern shower to generate more interest for your rental property. Dilapidated bathrooms often deter tenants and buyers alike. Upgrade your toilet, vanity and bathtub in under $12,000 to increase the value of your property as well as rental yield.

4. Painting for your rental property renovation

Painting your house is a great cost-effective way of increasing the appeal of your property and preserving it. Painting a home increases the perceived value of a property which in turn increases its rental yield. Painting walls that have started looking drab will breathe a fresh life into your property which will attract a considerable amount of interest for renters and buyers alike.

Rental Property Upgrade – Before we painted the entire room

Rental Property upgrade – After we painted the room

If you have wallpapers on some of your walls, then this would be a good time to remove them and paint your walls. When you are renting out your property it is good to remember that you should be using solutions that will be able to sustain the most amount of wear and tear.

Exterior Painting in Greenhithe – Before we painted the exterior to add value to the property

Exterior Painting in Greenhithe – After we painted the exterior to add value to the property

Hence when painting your investment property, it would be a good idea to get it done with professionals and use oil-based paints. Oil based undercoats and paints are able to withstand a higher amount of wear and tear compared to water-based paints. Oil based paints are more expensive than water-based paints, but it will prove to be a better investment for your money and time.

5. Increase Curb Appeal for your rental property renovation

Aucklanders love to have an outdoor area where they can entertain family and friends during summer. Having a nice deck or outdoor area greatly increases the value of a property and also attracts higher interest from high quality renters. A nicely renovated outdoor area is the first impression your renter or buyers gets of your property.

Deck renovation in Cockle Bay (see full case study)– We replaced the old deck with a new one as it was dilapidated and unsafe for current use

Deck renovation in Cockle Bay (see full case study) – The property had a lot of unused area around the house so we created a large deck to add value and convenience for clients.

Hence it is a good idea to invest a little money on renovating your deck or patio to a good standard. Deck renovations are inexpensive and a great return on investment for your property whether you are looking at getting a higher rental yield or increasing the value of your property before selling.

6. Minor Landscaping

First impressions count when renters or buyers first see your property in Auckland’s competitive market. The right renters will care if your property is well maintained from the outside. Make sure you keep the garden mowed; the trees mowed and plant a few plants for some added exterior appeal to your property.

When it comes to selling your property, a well landscaped exterior can add between 5.5% to 12.5% to the overall price of your house. While interior design trends might fade, a garden only matures with age which adds additional value to your property. The best way to add value through landscaping is having a plan. An incoherent plan or landscaping can in fact deter tenants and buyers.

Come up with a plan before you start your landscaping project. Take some professional advice, do some research and then commence your project.

7. Change the flooring of your property

Carpets have traditionally been the choice of flooring for living areas of most Auckland homes. Carpets however are difficult to maintain and start to look stained and dirty quite easily. Before we renovate homes, we always ask our clients what their reason for renovating is. This is because this will greatly impact the type of flooring you choose as well as your budget.

As mentioned above, rental and investment properties should make use of low maintenance materials for their renovations. If you have a carpeted rental property which has started looking old and stained, then it is not going to generate much interest in the rental or even buyer’s market.

To increase rental yield, it would be a good idea to rip your old carpets and renovate your rooms with a good quality laminate flooring. Laminate flooring is low maintenance and highly durable which will extend the longevity of your floors. They are also cost effective which means that even if they get ruined during a bad tenancy, they will not be expensive to replace. They also come in various, colours, textures, and designs which means that you can make your rental property aesthetically beautiful generating higher interest.

8. Small Aesthetic changes

If you are unable to invest in upgrades or renovations for your property, then think about making small aesthetic changes to your property. We have put together a few inexpensive ideas that you can implement to differentiate your property from competitors.

Replace old curtains and blinds with new ones to breathe a fresh life into your rooms. Old curtains can also make a room look shabby which is not what you want if you are looking for a higher rental yield.

Change your old stove top for a newer one. Kitchen is on top of the list for most tenants when they go for a house viewing. If you do not want to invest in a full kitchen upgrade, then it would be a good idea to change a few things to make the most out of your investment. An old stove top will deter potential tenants. A good quality stove top will only cost you $500 but even a $10 increase in rent/week due to this would get a good return on investment. The most popular and efficient stoves today are induction ovens. You can also opt for gas depending on your preference.

Change old taps in your bathrooms – Old yellowing and cracking bathroom tap-ware can deter tenants even if it might seem like a small thing. Spruce up your bathroom by changing all tap-ware in your bathroom without breaking the bank.

BEFORE – Client wanted to spruce up the bathroom by painting it and replacing the Bathtub.

AFTER (see full case study) – Replaced flooring + Bathtub + Taps and Painted the entire bathroom.

Trim and Maintain your garden and landscaping to ensure that your property is in a good and presentable condition. First impressions matter so keep your exterior neat and tidy before viewings.

Change your kitchen bench-tops from old Vinyl to engineered stone bench-top. This can instantly lift your kitchen up and notch and dramatically change its look. Engineered bench-tops are versatile in design and texture so you can play around with it to add to the aesthetics of your kitchen. Engineered stone is very cost effective, durable, easy to clean and will last you a very long time.

Clean before your viewings. It pays to hire professional cleaner to make sure that your property is presented at its best light. Clean the windows, dispose off outside debris, wash the exterior of your home and clean the interiors to attract good tenants who will be willing to pay more for your property. The idea is to sell a dream to the renters of a place they can call a home. Polish your hardwood floors to add some more shine and glamour to your floors.

9. Furnish your home for expatriates as renters

Auckland has many expats living here who come to the country for a few years and then leave. They usually look for a stress-free tenancy which is mostly paid by the company. Their ample rent allows them the freedom to pick houses that are well maintained, aesthetically pleasing and furnished well. High end rental property renovations should include furnishing the house as well to attract expats.

We would not recommend you furnish your property if you do not want to invest much money into your rental. Most renters in Auckland do not want furnished houses as they already have their own or they do not want to pay more for a furnished house.

Property upgrade and Renovation in Saint Heliers (see full case study)– Client wanted to renovate to add value before either renting as a luxury apartment or even selling.

If you want to attract expats, then you must be able to invest a good sum of money into revamping it. Expats do not want to bother with the hassle of buying furniture as they would be moving in a few years. In saying that, they also will not compromise with a house that is garishly furnished or have inferior quality. This does not mean that you must carry out a full renovation and get the most expensive furniture.

The key is to furnish it with some good quality furniture and a house that is tastefully decorated. You can double your rental yield if you invest some money into upgrading and decorating your property. Tell your agent that you are aiming for expats and take some advice before you begin redecorating. You can get up to $1500 per week for a 2-bedroom home if you upgrade and decorate correctly. Some examples of such houses are luxury apartments in the CBD.

10. Add a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer

Installing a dishwasher, washing Machine and dryer are not mandatory by law but they add great comfort for renters. Rental property renovations should be about including basic amenities to attract good quality tenants. More and more people are looking for properties that will make their life better without any hassle. This is all about getting a higher rental yield that you are currently getting. What tenant will not pay more for a house that has three comforts compared to a house that doesn’t?

Also, remember that you are not competing with every house in the market but a market that is of your choosing. You want to attract renters that are good, will stay for a long time, can pay more and will keep your property in a good condition.

Should i renovate my rental property?

One of the main reasons for renovating rental properties is to save on the ongoing maintenance cost. Renovating your rental property also means that you can attract higher quality tenants and get a better rental yield per week which in turn gives you a better return on your investment.

How can i get higher rent?

Yes you can get higher rent through renovations and upgrades. People will only pay higher rent for a property if it has modern amenities and comfort to be able to justify the rent. Read our full article to see the type of upgrades you can do to get higher rent.

What are the best rental renovations for my investment?

The top rental renovations are Bathrooms, Kitchens, Flooring, Painting and comfortable upgrades like adding a heat pump. The aim is to spruce things up and add a level of comfort that most people are looking for.

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If you have any questions about upgrades to add value for better rental yield or explore other options then – feel free to get in touch with the team at Superior Property Services – 0800 199 888

Disclaimer: These cost estimates are based on quotes we’ve sent to past clients and jobs we’ve completed ourselves. This article is offered as a general guide only. The views and information expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency in New Zealand. Any person who relies upon any matter contained in this guide does so entirely at their own risk.

Still have questions unanswered? schedule a no-obligation consultation with the team at Superior Renovations

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WRITTEN BY SUPERIOR RENOVATIONS

Superior Renovations is quickly becoming one of the most recommended renovation company in Auckland and it all comes down to our friendly approach, straightforward pricing, and transparency. When your Auckland home needs renovation/ remodeling services – Superior Renovation is the team you can count on for high-quality workmanship, efficient progress, and cost-effective solutions.

Get started now by booking a free in-home consultation.

Request Your In-home Consultation

Or call us on 0800 199 888

www.superiorrenovations.co.nz

References:

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biofunmy · 5 years

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‘Fairview’: Watching a Play in Black and White

Though it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and shocked audiences who saw it at two Off Broadway theaters over the course of a year, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s “Fairview” was hard to talk about. Any discussion of its aims and effects had to be blanketed in spoiler alerts.

As the play closes in New York — the last performance is on Aug. 11 at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn — and gets set to play in London at the Old Vic theater and most likely beyond, a conversation about its exploration of black life and the white gaze can take place in earnest.

“Fairview” concerns a “regular” middle-class black family seen in increasingly surreal ways. First they seem to be part of a sitcom, then the object of commentary by unseen white voices. Finally Ms. Drury has the teenage daughter of the family, Keisha, step out of the story to ask white audience members to switch places with the black cast onstage.

“Could I tell them that those seats are not theirs, even though they paid for them?” Keisha wonders aloud. “That no one can own a seat forever? That no one should?”

So: Spoiler spoiled. But it turns out that the play still poses a problem — or an opportunity. In a cultural medium whose producers, audiences and critics are still predominantly white, “Fairview” challenges playgoers to think about how the different backgrounds and assumptions they bring to the theater may produce vastly different results once inside.

With so many black playwrights writing so passionately about these questions right now, the “Fairview” challenge was too important to pass up. Salamishah Tillet, a professor of African-American studies and creative writing at Rutgers University-Newark and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and Jesse Green, the co-chief theater critic for The Times, sat down for a conversation.

JESSE GREEN Let’s start with our experiences at the end of “Fairview”: mine as a self-identified white man —

SALAMISHAH TILLET And mine as a self-proclaimed black woman. I guess we have to talk about the ending.

GREEN How did it go down for you in the audience?

TILLET Once Keisha invited the white audience members to come onstage, I was shocked and I wondered “Why are they going up there?” I assume that the play thought it was creating a safe space for the people of color who remained in the audience.

GREEN My audience seemed to be about 90 percent white.

TILLET Mine as well.

GREEN I was originally afraid to go onstage because I just don’t feel comfortable with audience participation and theater that picks me out to dance or do things. But that’s not what happened. Once onstage, we were left to our own devices, ignored. And the lights were so bright on us that I couldn’t see what was going on in the audience. Nor could I hear Keisha very well as she spoke to those who remained seated. That’s when I realized that far from being picked out as an individual, I was being treated as part of a group. A white group. Ah, I thought: Not everything is about us. I realized that was the point.

TILLET That’s so interesting. I didn’t feel like I actually stayed with watching the white people onstage for that long. Of course, their procession to the stage was quite a spectacle. But I thought the gaze quickly turned back on me as a black person, and the white audience was suddenly listening to this one-sided conversation between a black actress and the people of color in the audience. I actually felt like I was a “prop” who suddenly had to perform racial solidarity in that moment and was under more scrutiny in the end that I was in the beginning.

GREEN It sounds like you had the experience of still being the subject of white gaze, whereas I and maybe the other white folks onstage had the experience of being completely left out of the proceedings. Was there something on your side of the proscenium that you could have gotten from the play without that device?

TILLET I thought the second act when the black actors were onstage while the white actors were offstage doing voice overs and played the game, “If you could choose to be any race, what race would you be?” was really illuminating. I’ve never played that game, but noticed a lot of the people around me stopped laughing, got really quiet, and saw themselves in that conversation. But, I was really moved by then the scene right before the ending and when the fourth wall was finally broken. It was a stunning representation of the violent schizophrenia of American racism. If the play ended with that lack of closure, it would have been jarring but it offered no absolution, no purging of white guilt.

GREEN What’s the word you used? Absolution? To the white audience by giving them a little chore to do?

TILLET Yes.

GREEN I didn’t feel absolved of anything and I can’t speak for others but I definitely felt that I ought to do what this black playwright wanted me to do. Because, God knows, white people have been telling black people what to do for so long, especially in the theater. And what’s the harm to me, really? It pushed me outside of my comfort zone but I trusted that she had something she wanted to show me, as a white person, that was worth seeing. But that’s where the hard question comes in. Who is the play really for? Would “Fairview” even work if 90 percent of the audience were of color?

TILLET In an interview with Vogue, Ms. Drury said, “This play couldn’t happen for an audience that was entirely people of color.” So, it would not work with if the audience’s racial demographics were reversed. I saw “Fairview” while the House hearings on reparations were going on. In that context, I thought the play did a good job of spotlighting the white gaze, but it was less effective in decentering white privilege. White people were put under the microscope for a few minutes, but how did that help them actually relinquish their power when they leave the theater?

GREEN I’m really interested in your question about absolution because although I doubt black playwrights at the vanguard of this wave of great new plays are very interested in granting absolution to anybody, there’s a big difference between what they write and what audiences do with what they write. I’m sure some white people can see “Fairview” and feel no shame or guilt. Not me. Racism has been part of theater, part of entertainment history for a shockingly long time. I mean we still had blackface Othellos quite recently. Was I personally involved in those decisions? No. But I think if you’re a sensitive person you feel guilt by association. Or at least the need to acknowledge that bad things have been done in ways you may have profited from. I feel that way about lots of issues, not just racism. But racism especially.

Of course, hearing myself say all that, I worry about the desire to “virtue signal,” to say “Oh look, I’ve done something good because I went to this play and was momentarily uncomfortable.” Or, as a critic, to say I’ve done something good because I’ve written a positive review. Perhaps that’s unavoidable, but if I respond so strongly to “Fairview” or, to name another, “Slave Play,” I think it’s because my taste and my self-image come together when confronted by a powerful playwright who wants to push me around. I feel that way about Shakespeare, too. Or Suzan-Lori Parks. So absolution, yes, I can’t get around it; these plays may soothe liberal guilt, even while engaging it. But is that so different from what all theater does when it engages and gives expression to emotions and leaves you lighter from that encounter?

TILLET Yes, that’s Aristotle’s “catharsis” thesis in “Poetics.” But, I also think we should remember the earlier black plays that marked whiteness but to different ends. Set in a New York City subway in 1964, Amiri Baraka’s “The Dutchman” is all about the Manichaean struggle between the black male character, Clay, and the white female character Lula. The moment Clay asserts his agency and tries to exit their racial melodrama, Lula delivers a fatal blow, only to restart her homicidal cycle with another unsuspecting black man. James Baldwin once had separate entrances for black and white audiences for his 1964 play inspired by Emmett Till’s murder, “Blues for Mister Charlie.” And Douglas Turner Ward’s “The Day of Absence” from 1965 is about the day when all the black people suddenly disappear from their Jim Crow Southern town. The white people do not know how to function, take care of their children, govern each other or simply exist. It’s a play about whiteness cast with all black actors. Since “Fairview” actually had white actors play white people who were pretending to be black, I found it noteworthy that new plays, like “A Strange Loop” by Michael R. Jackson and “Toni Stone” by Lydia R. Diamond do that too: critique the white gaze but cast only black actors.

GREEN What I felt was going on in those two plays you mention is that the playwrights, using the techniques of the theater, were giving power back to black people that racism had stolen. They could own the experience and then drop it; they were in charge. I found that powerful.

TILLET They beg the question: Can you really show the trauma of racism when you have a black actor play the racist white character? I think you can. There’s a scene in “A Strange Loop” when Usher, the main character, goes uptown to engage in a consensual sexual relationship with a white man that is based on racial dominance. It was heart wrenching and spectacular at once.

GREEN One thing these plays are teaching me is that our experiences, even if they are relatable, are not symmetrical. The black gaze on white people means something different than the white gaze on black people. And I suppose what I feel in moments like the one you describe is that I don’t really need more information from white playwrights about what they imagine black life to be. But I am happy to see what black playwrights think white life is.

TILLET I’m most compelled by plays that have both a interracial and intraracial critique or others that do not care about the white gaze but rather how black people see each other. Plays like “A Strange Loop,” “Toni Stone,” Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “Choir Boy” and even the recent revival of Lynn Nottage’s “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” all show black people’s inner lives to varying degrees. When I saw Donja Love’s “Sugar in Our Wounds” last year, I was amazed. I had never seen a coming-of-age story set in slavery about black queer men before.

GREEN In that play Mr. Love wrote as if everybody either knew what the black characters were talking about, or if they didn’t know they were on their own. White plays have done that forever.

TILLET It is also a way decentering the white gaze without reifying the white audience. That’s just a different strategy.

GREEN It’s fine to say: That was not written for me. It wasn’t written against me either. That’s a quality I like in a play, whatever it’s about. I want it to be more interested in itself than it is in me. Another good example is Aziza Barnes’s “BLKS,” about three black women roommates in their twenties in Brooklyn who go out for a night on the town. There’s racism implied in it, but it’s mostly offstage, and these women have other things (often sex) on their minds. And why shouldn’t they? It’s as if the playwright is saying, if you’re not interested in these women’s lives as they experience them, then I have nothing for you. It is indifferent to the white gaze. Honestly, it’s a relief.

TILLET If you decenter the white gaze, what different dynamic stories will we see? Toni Morrison has said, “I have spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.” I thought of that with “Toni Stone,” about the first woman to play in professional baseball, in the Negro Leagues. It was trying to deal with the white gaze in theater and 1950s baseball. But, it was also about sexism she was dealing with at home and on her team; racism was not the only oppressive force in her life.

GREEN I loved that the top note in “Toni Stone” was the character’s own passion — as an individual, not as a representative of her race or gender. So I was surprised to read that others, including black critics, criticized it for privileging the white audience over the black one. So let me just ask you, can white critics helpfully write about these plays?

TILLET Yes, of course you can write about and review these plays sensitively. But, the bigger question is why there are so few black theater critics in mainstream publications that have the power to make or break a show’s run or black playwright’s career?

GREEN I have my theories, if no evidence. But here’s another example of why it’s important. The most scathing review of Suzan-Lori Parks’s “White Noise,” which was about a contemporary black man who agrees to become his white best friend’s slave, came from a prominent black critic, Hilton Als of The New Yorker. He wrote that the play “hadn’t been written from within blackness.” Even if I agreed, I could never say such a thing — nor, I submit, ever know it. It speaks to the necessity of having other voices. But I’m really asking a different question since I’m not actually going to quit my job. What I’m really asking is: Can a white critic even “see” these plays properly?

TILLET Why would you not be able to see it? You’re pulling from your different experiences and different histories. But you also might miss a lot of things, too, which could affect your read and, of course, your review. Like in “A Strange Loop,” Jackson satirizes sacrosanct cultural icons like Zora Neale Hurston and Whitney Houston, black-cast Broadway hits like “The Lion King” and “The Color Purple,” and Tyler Perry’s urban theater. All of these, especially Perry’s “circuit” plays have provoked contentious debates among black people about access, representation, caricature, which are all big parts of the metalanguage of Mr. Jackson’s play. But my main concern is that the critical voices of white writers are considered more important than those of people of color. That simply does not make sense. In this groundbreaking moment in black art and culture, it is cultural malpractice to have so few critics of color weighing in with their interpretations and insights.

GREEN What I’m really learning most from our conversation is the way in which thinking a lot about the white gaze can also be a distorting element within the plays. Which raises a more fundamental question: In making a play whose subject is the white gaze, are you turning the power of the play back to the very people you’re trying to get it away from?

TILLET I know white people who went to “Fairview” and felt like they were being held accountable but also did not realize how much they remained at its center of attention. It is true, however, that I didn’t feel disempowered when I left “Fairview.” A group of us black people found our way to each other and stayed afterward to talk about what we experienced. The only other group near us was the mainly black cast members. So, in the end, who actually felt comfortable? Who felt like they owned that space? In that sense Drury achieved her goal. I actually felt comfortable talking about what I just saw while a lot of the white audience members seemed to be rushing home to process what just happened in the privacy of their homes and not under the hot stage lights.

Sahred From Source link Arts

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nonbinarybirdy · 6 years

Text

A DAY OUTSIDE

I’ve gotten used to commuting. It took me 6 years to master, well not master, the routes of Legazpi CIty, which is just in time. I’m about to leave it, and I can now claim it to be my hometown.

The traffic is worse than it should be. But everything is. It’s one of the few things of everything whose conditions I resign to. The traffic only gets backed up before corners, or just after a stoplight turns red.

I liked commuting. Knowing which goes where with exactness that I use to my advantage makes me feel secure. Like I belong here.

Same goes with the shop. It took one stop for me to finish everything that needed to be done. I just walked to different points between the crossroads that make up Lapu-Lapu. It was in doing that I realize that I will miss downtown. I will miss feeling smart in the streets.

It took me years to do it, and I think that’s not something to be ashamed of. At least, now I know I’m capable of doing it. The function for knowing where the best place to get 1x1 photos are isn’t broken. It’s not efficient as my mother’s, but it works. And I’m grateful for it.

I met an elderly woman, Mrs. Battaler of Batallier, I think its spelled. I asked if I could sit in the chair in front of her. She said yes. She was the only woman in her age group there, and we were the only one alone. I found company in her.

She offered me one of her corn cobs. It was sprinkled with pepper and crispy. It was kinda gentrified, and she didn’t appreciate it very much for the taste. I didn’t appreciate it for its inspiration. But we both finished it, because we were having it together.

She reminded me of my grandmother, but I didn’t tell her. She looked much longer than I thought she would. She taught high school in Bacacay for 38 years. That’s 20 years longer than I have been around, and in a place I only know from the sides of jeeps and being similar to my cousin’s dead nickname.

She reminded me of my grandmother because she was the same kind of talkative. She was very kind, although prone to the meanness to gay people that her generation was taught. I tried to correct her about it as kindly as I could. I think she accepted it well enough.

She reminded me of my grandmother because she was burdened with the same unhealthy spouses. Her husband had undergone surgeon for stage 3 colon cancer two years ago. She was in Legazpi to deposite money from Chinabank to pay off the remaining debt. Her retirement money was dwindling faster than she expected because of the sickness.

“Sabi ko sa kanya, kung pwede lang, di na kita pinakasalan!”

I understood why she said it. It sounds bad, but I knew she had the right to it.

I only hope that she was still loved but her husband the same way my grandfather loved my grandmother.

She had three children. Two men and one woman. The eldest, which was a guy, was a teacher like her. He worked in Tabaco.

She had three grandchildren, but she didn’t say of which child. They were all in elementary.

I know this because I was bothered that she was going around doing these menial business of paying for something that wasn’t for her with equally bad legwork, and asked why no one else could do it for her.

Her hair was dyed a light gold. It was a clean job, and the overall feel reminded me of the mane of a healthy golden retriever. She wore glasses, and had set a handbag like the one I don’t use because it looked too mature for me. In it was a rolled up paper that was apparently blueprint for her land that she wanted to sell. It was in Bacacay, and she was selling it because she had no use for it now. I sincerely hope that no one cons her into selling it for a cheaper price, what with the political trouble going about land and exploitation and capitalist and the Chinese and Chinese capitalists.

I was conflicted about whether or not to ditch her. I had a ticket in my wallet that burned, 190 pesos. I was going to watch Ocean’s 8 for the women, and I debated it until it occured to me that there was a real woman in front of me, whose strength wouldn’t be shown in movies because it wasn’t cinematic enough.

That’s why I stayed. And I’m grateful I didn’t leave. Although I feel a little bad that I lied about how pressed for time I was. But at least she didn’t feel like a burden.

She and I talked, and I was wondering if she was going to finished her wintermelon there when she stood and had the other corn rob wrapped. It was for her husband. Even then, in that small thing, she thought of her husband. I think she loved him very much.

On the table, other than our drinks and her bag, was guyabano and this fruit that I already forgot the name of. It looked like grapes, and she said it tasted good with salt. The guyabano was for her husband, to whom she insisted healthy food unto now.

The place was filled with kids in my age range. Put anyone with enough people their age group and you’re going to get a crowd. It was so loud. Very much unlike how I imagined it would be on a weekday at 2 PM. Why aren’t these people in class?

I wish I could have told her more. But my voice did the thing where it folded in half and my thought filter doubled its netting and halved the spacing.

She was nice. I miss her. I’m glad I met her. I hope she was happy to have met me too.

What I did not like was that guy. The entire day I felt people looking at me--for the shade of my lipstick or a disagreeing opinion on my outfit--but only one had the audacity to get up in my face, It is not an exaggeration to say that he was up in my face. He walked straight up to me, said “DORA” in the most invasive and offensive manner, and went off. He was with two other guys, wearing the same incomplete kind of uniform, and I couldn’t hear whether they encouraged his behavior or condoned it or did nothing. I looked at him after he had past, and he looked back at me. It was definitely a glare, or at least I looked extra terrifying, because he had said “Joke lang.” It wasn’t an apology, just him telling me I was taking his very bad manners in the wrong way. So I responded in suit.

I flipped a finger at him.

I don’t know where I got the courage for half the shit I do, and I’m honestly wishing it would go away. I can’t keep fighting everything. Especially not in Manila. What the hell could happen to me at the rate I’m going.

I remember doing the same thing to a very bad aunt a few years ago. She said something very cruel, and so I told her fuck you in sign, and she was so scandalized she said something about me getting raped if I did things like that in Manila. I don’t know if she just hangs out with bad crowds, who do those things to others and maybe her. I reason to myself that the people we attract are vastly different because I know how to recognize bad people as I see them, and she doesn’t see that some people don’t deserve to be associated with.

But the universe is cruel and it doesn’t choose.

I’ll try to write something about my day everyday, no matter how boring it is, from now on.

#pia's day #pia's log #day 1 #try to write more please #it doesn't have to be good pi #you've always written for peace of mind #it doesn't always have to be good #you don't always need an audience #sometimes you is enough #sometimes the void is what you need

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superiorrenovations · 4 years

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Originally posted on 10 ways to Increase your rental return by renovating and upgrades Superior Renovations - Auckland’s Trusted Kitchen & Bathroom Renovation Experts

How exactly do you plan a rental renovation?

In this article we will first discuss the following:

What exactly is rental yield

the reasons you should invest in a rental property renovation

whether a rental property renovation is the right thing to do for your current finances.

Having the right plan is important before you invest into your rental property.

What exactly is rental yield?

whereas another 2-bedroom apartment in need of some sprucing up might yield only $450.

However, exactly why do you need to renovate your rental property?

Why should I renovate my rental property?

Differentiate your property from other competitors by putting some thought into your renovation. Make it attractive for potential tenants and for future buyers.

Top 3 Reasons for renovating a rental property

Increase property value: By renovating in a thoughtful manner you could add value to your property which would attract higher rent or fetch a higher yield when you plan to sell the home.

Now how much is too much to spend on rental property renovations? Let’s look at budget planning for rental property renovations.

Is a rental property renovation the right thing to do financially?

Here are a few questions to think through:

How much will the property cost to renovate?

How much will it allow you to increase the rent if renovating?

How long will it take for you to pay off your cost of renovation with your new rental increase?

How much can you increase the rent of your property realistically for people to want to renovate your property.

Once you have conducted your research, it would be good to contact a renovation company for advice related to the areas that could renovated with the goal of adding value to your property.

10 Improvements to increase rental Value of your property through rental property renovations

1. Increase the comfort of your home

Heat pump installation

Insulation for your rental property renovation

Ensure the longevity of your property and increase rental yield by insulating your property. It should never be mistaken as an expense but an in investment.

BEFORE – Their roof above the kitchen was leaking so the client decided to first get that repaired and then eventually opted for a full kitchen renovation

AFTER (see full case study) – Kitchen renovated by using materials that were low maintenance, durable and easy to clean. Laminate floors, Acrylic cabinets and engineered stone benchtop used.

Make sure your electric wiring is in good shape

2. Kitchen upgrades and Kitchen renovation

We have listed a few ways that you can get the most out of your kitchen renovation if you want to get a higher rental yield or add value to your kitchen.

Property renovation in Avondale (see full case study) – Laminate flooring to imitate hardwood flooring

Kitchen renovation in West Harbour (see full case study)– Acrylic gloss finish cabinets custom built for low maintenance

Kitchen renovation in Blockhouse Bay – Before walls were knocked down to make it an open plan space.

Kitchen Renovation in Blockhouse Bay(see full case study) – After we knocked down the walls and made it into an open plan space

Full rental renovation in Hillsborough (see full case study) – Induction cook-to installed in this rental property to add value

3. Bathroom Upgrades and renovations

BEFORE – Client replaced flooring, basin and shower to spruce up their Bathroom

AFTER (see full case study) – Changing of an old basin to a new one makes a world of a difference in a bathroom

4. Painting for your rental property renovation

Rental Property Upgrade – Before we painted the entire room

Rental Property upgrade – After we painted the room

Exterior Painting in Greenhithe – Before we painted the exterior to add value to the property

Exterior Painting in Greenhithe – After we painted the exterior to add value to the property

5. Increase Curb Appeal for your rental property renovation

Deck renovation in Cockle Bay (see full case study)– We replaced the old deck with a new one as it was dilapidated and unsafe for current use

Deck renovation in Cockle Bay (see full case study) – The property had a lot of unused area around the house so we created a large deck to add value and convenience for clients.

6. Minor Landscaping

Come up with a plan before you start your landscaping project. Take some professional advice, do some research and then commence your project.

7. Change the flooring of your property

8. Small Aesthetic changes

BEFORE – Client wanted to spruce up the bathroom by painting it and replacing the Bathtub.

AFTER (see full case study) – Replaced flooring + Bathtub + Taps and Painted the entire bathroom.

Trim and Maintain your garden and landscaping to ensure that your property is in a good and presentable condition. First impressions matter so keep your exterior neat and tidy before viewings.

9. Furnish your home for expatriates as renters

Property upgrade and Renovation in Saint Heliers (see full case study)– Client wanted to renovate to add value before either renting as a luxury apartment or even selling.

10. Add a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer

Should i renovate my rental property?

How can i get higher rent?

What are the best rental renovations for my investment?

If you have any questions about upgrades to add value for better rental yield or explore other options then – feel free to get in touch with the team at Superior Property Services – 0800 199 888

Still have questions unanswered? schedule a no-obligation consultation with the team at Superior Renovations

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WRITTEN BY SUPERIOR RENOVATIONS

Get started now by booking a free in-home consultation.

Request Your In-home Consultation

Or call us on 0800 199 888

www.superiorrenovations.co.nz

References:

https://tiledepot.co.nz

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