#Beginner's guide to lead generation

[techsavvy-agcy]

What is Lead Generation? The Beginner’s Guide to Generating Business Leads in 2025

Lead Generation

Lead generation is critical for the success of B2B enterprises since it allows you to identify your brand, interact with potential clients, and guide them through the purchasing process.

 However, despite its importance, successful lead creation remains one of the most difficult tasks for marketers.

61% of marketers said their top challenge was generating traffic and leads.

We understand why you feel overwhelmed. You must establish a system that generates content, drives traffic, converts prospects, and qualifies them before passing them to your sales team.

You must do so at scale while competing for your buyer's attention in a congested media environment.

However, it does not have to be as daunting as it appears. This comprehensive guide breaks down each stage of establishing a lead generation plan into simple, achievable steps.

Whether you're a complete newbie or an experienced marketer trying to improve your strategy, this guide offers actionable suggestions and simple explanations to help you create more high-quality leads.

 Ready to learn more? Let us begin.

What is a lead?

A lead exhibits interest in your company's products or services but isn't ready to buy yet.

This interest is manifested in the form of an information exchange, such as providing a name and email address in exchange for content.

Do not mistake leads for prospects. There is a distinction. A lead is a potential customer who needs to be qualified before becoming a prospect. (This suggests they're a good fit for your company and might want to do business with you in the future.)

Leads are classified into four types based on their amount of interest:

1. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): These leads expressed interest through marketing activities such as downloading a whitepaper, attending a webinar, or completing a contact form. They are more likely to become clients than general connections.

2. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): The sales team has verified these leads and determined that they are ready for direct sales contact. They often show a stronger desire to buy and frequently match the traits of an ideal consumer.

3. Product Qualified Lead (PQL): These leads have tried a product, usually as a free trial or freemium version. They exhibit behaviors showing a willingness to convert to paying consumers, such as regular use or engagement with premium services.

4. Service Qualified Lead:  These leads demonstrate an interest in a company's services, usually through early consultations or requests for more information.

What is the lead generation process, and how does it work?

Lead generation entails enticing and engaging your target audience so that they are willing to provide you with their information.

This method generates targeted traffic to your website, collects visitor information, and nurtures individuals who match your buyer personas.

This is the first step towards establishing a genuine relationship with a prospective consumer.

Lead generation can typically be divided into two types.

Inbound lead generation

Inbound lead generation draws in potential customers with beneficial content tailored to their needs and interests. It's different from old-school outbound methods, like cold calling, because it uses things like blogs, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), and content marketing to bring people in, keep them interested, and build a relationship of trust.

By tackling the challenges and interests of the target audience, businesses can transform visitors into leads through effective calls-to-action, landing pages, and lead capture forms. This strategy provides a cost-efficient and sustainable method for acquiring qualified leads and nurturing them into devoted customers.

Outbound lead generation

Outbound lead generation is a proactive method in which firms contact potential clients directly. This technique entails identifying prospects and reaching them through various channels, including cold calls, emails, direct mail, and advertising. The idea is to pique these prospects' attention and turn them into leads before guiding them through the sales process.

Outbound lead generation is based on targeted efforts to identify and engage potential clients who are not actively looking for the product or service. Outbound lead generation, while more intrusive, can create leads rapidly and produce instant benefits, making it an important component of a holistic marketing strategy.

Why is lead generation important?

Over 30% of B2B sales require one to three months to close. Lead generation is key to B2B success. Why? The solution can be summarized in two words: sales cycle.

Why does this matter? Capturing a potential customer's information early in the process allows you to influence them. With purchasers confronting more distractions than ever before, you'll need every bit of influence you can get.

You can also classify leads after you have acquired their information. This means you assess which are most likely to generate revenue for your company and devote your time and efforts to converting them.

If you can create a lead generator that produces high-quality business leads and scales, you've discovered the key to creating long-term success for your organization.

The sales lead generation funnel.

At first glance, your potential purchasers may have a somewhat random approach to purchasing. They make purchases on occasion, but not always. However, this could not be further from the truth.

While every customer makes a purchase differently, there is a process that leads up to their decision. Marketers created the lead generation funnel concept to help them visualize and influence the entire process.

B2B enterprises require a lead-generating funnel because, in most circumstances, a purchase takes a long time. According to research, 48% of organizations claim leads require a long sales cycle before acquiring.

48% of companies say leads require a long sales cycle before purchasing.

Your organization need a patient and consistent approach to sales.

Instead of focusing on generating a sale immediately, as may be the case with a B2C company, a B2B marketer must build a long-term sales strategy. This enables them to segment potential clients, nurture them properly, and hand them off to sales teams when they are ready to buy.

Unfortunately, 68% of organizations have not yet identified their funnel.

In this chapter, we will explain what a business lead generation funnel is, how to describe it, and how to create one.

What is a lead generation funnel?

A lead generation funnel depicts a person's path from the moment they provide their information to the moment they make a purchase.

 Defining this is critical because 50% of qualified prospects are not ready to purchase on the first contact.  Your funnel gives a road map to get them there.

 It is depicted as a funnel because, at each level, fewer people match the criteria required to do business with your organisation.

 Only a small percentage of those early leads will convert into clients.Lead generation funnel

Content is essential to your funnel.  But, before we go into what material works and why, let's talk about why it's vital.

Why content is critical for your lead generation funnel

Content is the unifying factor throughout the lead-generating funnel. Whether it's a blog, an eBook, or a case study, your material will be the key to converting your lead into a prospect and a customer.

The key is in segmentation. Use your content to determine where someone is in the buying process, and then supply them with tailored material to lead them to the next stage.

With marketing automation solutions and retargeting, you may provide timely content that addresses your leads' concerns. With each piece of engaging content, your lead will move through your funnel towards purchase.

Let's have a look at the various content categories that can be used at each step.Lead generation

Top of the funnel (TOFU)

A lead generation funnel begins when your audience first sees your website.

The top of your lead-generating funnel should be focused on attracting a wide range of potential clients. The idea is to increase awareness and trust without focusing on your items.

There are several marketing strategies you may use to attract people at this step of the funnel, including:

Blogs

Guides

Social media

Podcasts

Videos

Your first goal should be to provide value to connect with your target audience.

You want the reader to feel comfortable enough to offer you their personal information.

Middle of the funnel (MOFU)

The center of the funnel is when visitors are ready to convert into leads.

While the previous phase of the funnel established a personal connection with the visitor, this is where you apply that trust to develop a business relationship.

To obtain the visitor's personal information, you must provide gated content that addresses a problem or meets a demand.

After gathering their information, you can interact and educate them more, eventually positioning your offering as the solution to their concerns.

Use your market research to identify a significant pain area that your readers may be interested in.

Next, produce content that directly addresses this, such as:

eBooks

White papers

Webinars

Newsletters

Tools

Your chosen material will be determined by your available resources, target audience, and offering.

Bottom of the funnel (BOFU)

When a lead hits the bottom of your lead-generating funnel, it becomes a prospect.  They've been taught about the potential answers to their problems, which should include your product or service.

You are now their go-to resource. It is time to sell.

Bottom-of-funnel material is designed to convert prospects into purchases.  They're almost there; all you need to do now is help them overcome their objections.

You can use the following content kinds at the bottom of the funnel:

Case studies

Comparisons

FAQs

Demos

Reviews

At this point, people know, trust, and like you enough to contemplate doing business with you.  What they need now is confirmation that their purchase selection will be correct.

Each sort of content helps to reduce objections and motivates the prospect to become a customer.

Content is included at every stage of the lead generation funnel. Each stage necessitates a different content strategy: at first, low-touch, instructive content that engages individuals is required, while later phases necessitate high-touch, transactional content that decreases purchase barriers.

Creating your lead-generating funnel is critical to your organization's success. Remember, this is a long-term procedure that will demand patience; the sooner you begin, the better.

Begin by identifying your funnel, which should be tailored to your specific needs, offerings, and industry. Then, understand where your content belongs in each stage of the funnel so you can arrange it effectively.

How to generate leads

Now that you've covered the fundamentals of a lead generation plan, it's time to get into the fun part—generating leads.

To begin with, it may seem frightening. But don't worry; you're not alone.

63% of marketers believe their top issue is getting visitors and leads. Many more claim their lead-generating activities are just marginally effective.

80% of marketers say their lead generation efforts are only slightly or somewhat effective.

It does not have to be that way.

The complete process of lead generation may be summarized into five basic steps:

1. Understand your buyer persona.

2. Create engaging content.

3. Target the correct audience.

4. Capture their information.

5. Qualify your leads.

If all of this sounds unfamiliar or difficult to understand, do not panic. In this chapter, you'll learn how to implement the first two phases, and the next three chapters will go over how to attract, capture, and qualify leads.

Let's get started.

1. Understand your buyer personas

Throughout the lead generation funnel, content is essential for converting visitors into leads and leads into customers. However, content alone cannot persuade consumers to give you their personal information. Your material should address an unmet demand or problem that they have.

If you can address and solve your visitors' concerns through your content, you will have laid the groundwork for a successful lead-generation campaign.

This poses the question of how you detect and handle the issues that your visitors confront.

The solution: use buyer personas.

How to use personas for your lead generation

Personas are a marketing word for idealized versions of your clients.

Personas are created by combining quantitative and qualitative data from existing or potential clients.  That implies you can construct personas based on your existing consumers or clients you want to attract but haven't yet.Buyer persona

The purpose of a buyer persona is to uncover common features among your customers and keep your marketing team focused on their demands.  In practice, you may create personas using two types of data.

Quantitative data can assist you in understanding the hard numbers that make up your clients, such as:

Age

Gender

Job Title

Location

Industry

This data type is available through web analytics (e.g., Google Analytics) and visitor identification software.

Qualitative data, on the other hand, allows you to add depth to your personas by introducing unique parameters such as:

Words people use to explain their problems.

The challenges they confront every day.

They want to enhance their current position.

These responses can make the difference between knowing and understanding your personas. The former is logical, and the latter is emotive. To design usable and actionable personas, you must consider both sides.

Qualitative data can be extracted using surveys and interviews. Most importantly, you may use your existing customer service, business development, and sales channels to better grasp your customers' precise expressions, phrases, and concepts.

Once you've created your buyer personas, you should understand your target audience's main concerns and, more crucially, how your firm can position itself to address them.

How to use personas in your content creation

If there is one difficulty that all marketers confront, it is the absence of personalization in client communications. Consumers are tired of being bombarded with more impersonal communications, thus 81% expect brands to understand and know how to approach them. Unfortunately, 83% of marketers struggle to create personalized content because they do not understand their clients.

Personas help you develop more relatable content for your target customer segments.  You may design more personalized content at each point of your funnel rather than one-size-fits-all.

Here's how to construct personas and utilize them to inform your content creation.

Step #1: Segment your content based on your personas

As mentioned in the last chapter, the content you develop for each step—TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU content—will vary in length, type, and amount of information. However, it should change depending on the information gathered from your personality.  This is how you personalize messages to make them more impactful.

For example, if one of your personas has a limited budget, price worries may be a significant impediment to their progression through your funnel.  They may enjoy your goods or service but believe it is too expensive.

The purpose of your material for this buyer is to emphasize your value and their possible return on investment. They cannot make an informed selection if they do not grasp the context surrounding the pricing.

Step #2: Create content for each stage of the funnel

To help your price-conscious buyer overcome their fears, you must provide them with the appropriate content while making a decision. You must convert them after attracting them with an engaging blog post or capturing their information with an eBook.  This may include writing comparative articles, emphasizing product tiers, or offering an ROI calculator.

Understand what is preventing them from going from one level of the funnel to the next, and then produce relevant content to solve these issues.

Step #3: Deliver the content at the right time

How do you determine when to provide your ROI calculator to a price-conscious buyer? They have visited your pricing page but have not converted. They are ready to buy. Now is the opportunity to resolve their pricing worries.

This phase requires you to know what information your consumer has already viewed to determine where they are on their journey.

Once they've read information that corresponds to one of your funnel stages, it's important to provide content that will help them progress to the next stage.

Step #4: Deliver it on the right channel

You must distribute your content correctly and at the proper time.

Your personas should describe where your buyers go online to consume instructional content, research items, and make purchasing decisions.

For example, your price-conscious buyer may conduct competition research on websites such as G2 or Trust Radius, as well as comparative searches on Google. In this case, paying for ads on search engines or review sites will allow you to drive your buyer to specialized content at this critical point of the purchasing process.

The lead-generating procedure you've seen so far serves as the foundation for your entire work. As a result, you must ensure that it is properly configured.

It's not as difficult as it appears, and you will not do it right the first time. But it isn't the goal. The idea is to create a process. Once you have this, you can adjust, improve, and repeat it numerous times.

Your revenues will increase as your lead-generation process matures.

Lead generation marketing strategies

You understand how to arrange your lead generation funnel, develop buyer profiles, and provide relevant content. Now, use your lead generation technique to reach out to your target demographic.

How do you persuade people to visit your website and generate leads?

It isn't as simple as it appears. Two-thirds of marketers say the most difficult task is driving visitors to generate leads.

Companies are releasing more content than ever before, and ad budgets are expanding year after year, making competition for eyeballs tight.

To achieve outcomes, you must be laser-focused on your goal.

In this chapter, we'll look at three different strategies to attract traffic to your lead-generating funnel.

1. Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of boosting the number and quality of visits that come from organic search results.

Why is SEO vital for lead generation? Because it can assist you attract a large number of visitors to the top of your lead-generating funnel.

Once a piece of content ranks highly for a relevant search query, it will generate consistent traffic. More crucially, the traffic is free.

Numerous things influence your search engine ranking. We will not discuss them here. However, assuming you have the essentials in place, here are three measures you can take to ensure organic search traffic begins to generate significant leads for you.

Step #1: Define a set of keywords

To begin, you'll need to identify a selection of relevant keywords. These keywords correspond to the search terms individuals employ when seeking out content; a higher frequency of searches for a particular query equates to greater potential traffic for your site.

Should you possess a Google Ads account, you can kickstart your keyword research using Google Keyword Planner. Otherwise, consider utilizing a premium tool such as Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush. These platforms integrate Google's data with their unique insights to generate keyword estimations, aiding you in pinpointing effective keywords.

The accompanying illustration displays Ahrefs' analysis of search volume and difficulty for the keyword "SEO strategy."SEO strategy

By taking into account both traffic volume and keyword competitiveness (as measured by the number of links pointing to the top 10 results for a specific phrase), you can get a more balanced picture of how much work is required to rank for a given keyword.

The prior example has a large number of searches and is extremely competitive.  As Ahrefs states above, to rank in the top ten results, you would need backlinks from approximately 99 domains.

When searching for terms, be practical. Strike the ideal balance between high volume, low competitiveness, and relevancy.

Relevancy is highly specific to your firm. Ideally, you want search queries that are relevant to your product or service. Examine your buyer personas and the issues your audience is attempting to solve.

If you can assist in answering a question on these issues, you've made the first step towards offering your solution as an answer to their possible problem.

Step #2: Create content and optimize it

Following your keyword research, you must generate content to rank for those keywords. The content you publish should aid people with enquiries and problems unrelated to your solution. For example, if your product helps users produce leads, we'll create lead generation-related content (such as this guide). When brainstorming prospective content ideas, examine the search engine results for your chosen keywords.  This can assist you in understanding the kind of content that is currently ranking.  Then design something better.

Before you publish a piece of content, you should optimize it.  This list from Moz's on-page ranking factors page provides a more complete picture.

To increase your chances of ranking quickly, try to gain a few internal and external links to your recently published post. This allows search engines to find your page faster and gives it more authority.

Step #3: Offer a lead magnet

After you've begun attracting organic traffic to your content, you can start generating leads.

To convert visitors into leads, you should provide a "lead magnet." This is a gated piece of material, such as an ebook or webinar, that continues to benefit the reader.

The lead magnet should provide depth to the initial piece of material that your visitor ingested.

For example, Pipedrive's post about defining lead prospects includes an eBook as a content upgrade:

For readers, this lead magnet is a natural and helpful next step. Once they've finished the blog and have a grasp on defining their leads, their immediate follow-up question will probably be, "Now, how do I find these leads?" Pipedrive addresses this concern right away.

This method of collecting reader information is very user-friendly and doesn't feel intrusive.

2. LinkedIn advertising as part of a lead generation campaign

LinkedIn is the best-paid site for B2B lead generation, with over a billion users and detailed business data on each of them.

According to a study, 61 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers, with 40 million holding decision-making roles.

As a result, there are some significant benefits to using LinkedIn for lead generation:

You can produce leads who are true decision-makers and have an impact on the buying process.  The detailed user data allows you to easily target your customer profiles.  Campaigns can produce rapid results since you get what you pay for. LinkedIn provides a lead generation ad type, which means users do not have to leave the platform, and landing pages are not required.

To start a LinkedIn ads campaign, you have to define an objective like:

Website visits

Website conversions

Lead generation

Because your goal is to produce leads, you should use the website's visit or lead generation objectives.

The website visits objective allows you to send traffic to a landing page on your website, whereas the lead generation objective allows you to generate prospects from within LinkedIn.

After the campaign objective has been defined, you need to select the targeting, which can include:

Company

Industry

Demographics

Education

Job Experience

Interests

The choice you make will depend on your company's needs. LinkedIn’s depth of data allows you to target your buyer personas precisely.

After the targeting, you need to create an ad, for which you have several options to choose from:

Sponsored content

Sponsored InMail

Text ads

The Sponsored Content ad type is the best fit for driving traffic to content.

A website visits campaign directs visitors to a landing page on your website where they can enter their information to download your content.  Make sure your ad explicitly mentions that the information is gated so that consumers aren't upset when they click your ad and are taken to a download form.

A lead generation campaign will link them to a LinkedIn lead form with their information pre-populated. This decreases the friction involved in gathering lead information.

Before you can publish your ad campaign, you must first decide on a bid and budget. This will determine the quantity of money you will invest and the traffic you may anticipate to attract.

As a rule of thumb, the more money you put into a campaign, the more traffic and leads you can produce.

3. Co-Marketing

The goal of co-marketing is to establish genuine relationships with companies that share your target demographic but aren't direct competitors.

Why? You may use your expertise in content development and audience to generate leads.

Instead of drawing "cold" traffic to a TOFU piece of content (traffic that is unfamiliar with your brand and must be made aware of its existence), you leverage the audience's trust in your partner.

When 84% of buyers start the sales process through a trusted referral, your partner's prior relationship with their target audience is invaluable.

Here's how you get started with co-marketing.

Step #1: Identify potential co-marketing partners

The core concept of co-marketing revolves around collaborating with businesses that are targeting the same audience as you are.

Begin by seeking out companies within your industry—those that serve the same customer base but provide different products or services. Here are a few illustrations to get you started:

If your business sells human resources software tailored for sales managers, you might want to team up with companies that offer sales software.

Should you be selling email marketing tools to traditional retail stores, think about forming alliances with providers of payment processing, accounting, or other marketing software solutions.

For those selling analytics software designed for established financial organizations, such as banks or insurance firms, consider partnerships with financial software providers.

To ensure a strong synergy, make sure to review each company's product range, content strategy, and mission statement for compatibility.

Step #2: Find potential content ideas

After you've listed your partners, you should seek potential collaboration opportunities. Consider which stage of the funnel you are most interested in enhancing.

If you want to attract more quality traffic, consider producing a guest post or a guide. If you want to get more leads, consider producing an eBook. If you want to attract more prospects, consider hosting a webinar together.

Once you've identified a few potential concepts, pitch them to your potential partner. Make it clear what's in it for them.

You should have detailed information about your audience's demographics, internet traffic, email list size, and social following. Your goal is to ensure that they understand the importance of reaching out to your target audience.

Step #3: Promote each other's content

After you and your partner have generated the content piece, it is time to promote it to both of your audiences.

Use all of your owned media channels, and ensure that your partner does as well.  This could involve email marketing, social media, live chat, website content, and blogs.

The goal is for both organizations in the relationship to market the content they make to their engaged audiences.  This is an excellent opportunity to reach a targeted, interested audience through a brand they already trust, which is tough to achieve through other channels, such as paid advertising.

The three tactics stated above are only a few options that can be implemented. What matters is that you use your strengths to meet your company's needs.

Creating a channel strategy takes time. Try to strike a balance between short- and long-term needs. If you accomplish this, you will get quick results, gaining support for your strategy and laying the groundwork for long-term success.

Now that we've addressed this crucial component of your lead-generating plan, let's look at how to capture leads.

Lead generation techniques and examples

No matter how great your content is, if you can't convince them to give you their personal information, you won't get any leads.

With data indicating that the number of individuals leaving forms is continually increasing, it's safe to assume that capturing people's information is becoming increasingly difficult.

So, what is the solution?

Well, the method you use for people's information and the amount of information you request will have a significant impact on your conversion rates.

In this chapter, we'll go over three distinct lead acquisition approaches and discuss which situations they work best in.

1. Email capture forms

Email capture forms are the most common approach to creating leads.

You must be forthright and transparent about what information you are requesting and why.  This candour is essential when requesting personal information, especially when establishing trust.

However, 81% of people have abandoned a form after starting to fill it out. Forms may be frequent, but that doesn't imply people enjoy filling them out.

So, if you want to use them efficiently, you need to be a little imaginative.

Here are five ways to use email forms to increase conversion rates and lead generation.

Connect with the content they are reading.

Relevance is the foundation of an efficient lead capture strategy.  That is, you want to provide relevant content to the piece they are now reading.

For example, in an article about Instagram statistics, Hootsuite provides readers with a checklist outlining the steps one Instagram user did to increase their following by 600,000.

When you click the link, a pop-up form appears, asking for personal information and allowing Hootsuite to acquire a lead without interrupting your reading experience.

Only ask for the information you need

A major issue with lead capture forms is the friction they add to the reader experience. Adding a lead capture form frequently interrupts the reader, causing them to leave your page or site.

The key to an effective lead acquisition strategy is to keep friction as minimal as possible.  By only requesting the necessary information, you make it easier for the user to participate.

For example, blog subscription boxes frequently ask for merely the reader's email address.  This is all you'll need to send a generic blog update.

However, in the middle of the funnel, organisations frequently want more information, such as job title, company size, and name.  This information will be critical when tailoring content or distributing leads to your sales staff.

According to studies, the average lead capture form has five form fields. However, this does not imply that you can or should use that many fields; various studies have shown that using fewer fields leads to higher conversions.

The key is to understand how your future messages should be personalized.  This will direct you to the information you should gather while collecting a lead.

Don’t make your forms look like forms.

To reduce friction and enhance conversion rates, make your lead capture forms appear like a natural part of your content—that is, don't make them look like forms.

Type form's lead capture forms, for example, provide consumers with a more conversational step-by-step procedure rather than asking for information in a single large form.

Use conditional logic

Another technique to improve the effectiveness of your lead capture forms is to utilise conditional logic. Conditional logic allows you to personalise your capture forms based on the user's answers.

With conditional logic, you can ensure that you only ask queries that are relevant to the user.

This reduces the size of your lead capture form, which reduces the friction it can cause.

Use pop-ups wisely

The pop-up is one of the most prevalent lead capture forms accessible.

Sumo discovered that the typical pop-up converts at a rate of 3.09%, which is hard to ignore.

Readers, on the other hand, dislike pop-up ads.  73% of Internet users automatically reject pop-up advertising.

 Despite these obstacles, if used correctly, a pop-up can still be effective.  That involves knowing when to activate one.

 To begin, consider adopting exit intent technology.  This displays a pop-up only when someone attempts to leave your page.  A well-written message here can persuade someone who has just read part of your information.

 The example below from Coschedule recognizes that the visitor is going to leave and offers them an additional piece of relevant content before they depart.

You might also consider triggering your pop-ups based on other action-based behaviour, such as the percentage of the page a user has scrolled or when a button is clicked. The more the user scrolls down your website, the more intent they have demonstrated and, as a result, are likely more susceptible to your message.

Forms are still an excellent way to capture leads; simply remove any evident sources of friction.  If you don't, you won't generate any leads. Keep your forms current, concise, and, if possible, entertaining.

To reduce friction and enhance conversion rates, make your lead capture forms appear like a natural part of your content—that is, don't make them look like forms.

Type form's lead capture forms, for example, provide consumers with a more conversational step-by-step procedure rather than asking for information in a single large form.

2. Site chat

Site chat solutions can help your visitors answer their questions and concerns, reducing friction and drop-out rates in your lead-generating funnel. 42% of people prefer to communicate with businesses using this channel.

Aside from being an excellent customer support tool, site chat is a great approach to acquiring leads in a more conversational format.

Aside from middle-of-funnel lead acquisition, site chat can also be utilised to collect more information from high-intent visitors and route them directly to sales.  HubSpot does an excellent job doing this on its pricing page.

 By asking a few precise automated questions, they can deliver more accurate pricing to the consumer and more detailed information to their sales staff.

Website chat is a versatile tool. It can aid the reader by answering sales-related questions and perhaps generating leads.

Furthermore, they personalize and conversationalist the interaction between the company and the reader, deviating from the norm for most corporate engagements.

3. Website visitor identification

Website visitor identification is a method of recognizing your visitors even if they do not complete one of your lead generation forms.

Visitor identification software identifies organizations that have visited your website and adds employee contact information to the list.

What distinguishes this from other methods of content-driven lead capture? With visitor identification, you can focus on leads with intent.

Filter your leads by website pages visited, for example, and send your sales team a list of firms and contact information for those who visit your price page.

These are high-intent leads who want to purchase your product right away. They only need one last push from your sales team.

With Slack integration and automated emails, you can notify your sales team as soon as a hot lead visits. Does your sales staff exclusively use your CRM? Not an issue. Integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and other platforms allow you to build deals, tasks, and deadlines in your CRM.

If the leads aren't ready to buy yet, add them back to your retargeting efforts to start the nurturing process.

 This is an excellent addition to the usual lead capture methods discussed above.  Instead of merely collecting person-level data from a tiny percentage of your website users, you may collect company-level data from a huge number.

 This allows you to automate your lead creation process while minimising friction for your potential buyer.

The lead capture process entails gathering the most important information from your visitors and using it to drive lead qualifying and guide your sales team's efforts.

 If you don't acquire the most important information from your visitors, you can always add it at the lead nurturing stage or through data enrichment.

 When in doubt, test your site to see which lead collection approach generates the greatest quality leads.

 Now that you know how to capture leads, it's time to learn how to qualify them.

Lead generation ideas checklist

Here's a comprehensive list of effective lead-generation strategies designed to attract high-quality prospects:

1. Create gated content: Provide valuable resources such as eBooks, whitepapers, or studies that users can access by submitting their contact details.

2. Schedule webinars and online events: Webinars are an excellent way to display your talents and engage your audience. Promote these events and collect leads during the registration process.

3. Use email marketing: Create targeted email campaigns that nurture potential customers by providing relevant material and solutions that help them throughout the sales process.

4. Use social media advertising: Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram provide targeted ad options for reaching specific demographics and collecting leads through forms or landing pages.

5. Create an Engaging Quiz or Survey: Develop compelling quizzes or surveys that not only pique consumers' interest but also show their preferences.   This method allows you to acquire valuable insights while generating high-quality leads.

6. Create a Referral Program: By rewarding your most delighted customers, you can inspire them to become brand ambassadors. Word-of-mouth recommendations from satisfied clients are often the best source of high-value leads.

7. Optimize Your Website for Lead Generation: Include lead capture forms, appealing calls-to-action (CTAs), smart pop-ups, or exit-intent offers to increase the effectiveness of your site in obtaining visitor information.

8. Use SEO and Content Marketing: Put SEO tactics into practice to increase natural traffic to your resource pages, case studies, and blog entries. High-quality content that answers the questions of your audience can help you create leads naturally.

9. Offer trials or offers: Offer free demos or trials so that potential customers can experience your product or service for themselves.   Use sign-up forms to obtain information on leads.

10. Organize contests or giveaways: Organize a contest or giveaway that participants can enter by submitting their contact information. Use social media and email marketing to promote it for maximum effect.

11. Collaborate on podcasts or guest blogging: Assemble a team of like-minded businesses or prominent figures in the field to contribute to podcasts or guest blogs. Use this opportunity to promote lead magnets or increase website traffic.

12. Use LinkedIn for outreach: LinkedIn is a great way to find business-to-business contacts. Develop connections with decision-makers, offer relevant material, and speak with prospects directly using InMail.

13. Run Google Ads for specific keywords: High-intent keywords can be targeted using Google Ads. You may create leads from people who are actively looking for answers by sending search traffic to landing pages that are optimized.

14. Put retargeting campaigns into action: To re-engage visitors who did not convert on their initial visit, use retargeting advertisements. This motivates consumers to visit your website again and maintains your brand at the forefront of their minds.

15. Join forces with influential people in the field: Work together with thought leaders or influencers to market your goods or services to their audience, creating leads via their connections.

How to qualify leads

You still have work to do after capturing your leads. Now is the moment to qualify them.

An effective lead generation plan must include lead qualifying. You can find your quality leads here.

It is impossible to overestimate the significance of concentrating your marketing and sales efforts on prospects that are likely to convert.  Inadequate lead qualification before the sales process accounts for 67% of lost transactions.

67% of lost sales result from not properly qualifying leads.

However, 61% of business-to-business marketers forward all leads straight to sales.

To make sure your sales force concentrates on excellent leads, you will discover in this chapter how a basic lead qualification procedure operates.

A 3-step process to qualify your leads

Many of your leads won't be ready to buy or the proper match for your business, even if you put a lot of effort into producing pertinent content and attracting targeted visitors.

You can ascertain whether your leads are qualified to convert and whether they are a good fit for your goods.  This is commonly accomplished by marketers using a technique known as "lead scoring."

Lead scoring is a lead qualification technique that lets you automatically assign a number to your lead according to a predetermined set of standards.

Which leads are most pertinent to your sales team will be determined by the final value.

There are three steps in the full lead qualification process:

Step #1: Define the ideal lead

The goal of the lead qualification procedure is to eliminate leads that aren't relevant and won't become worthwhile clients. To accomplish this, you must determine the characteristics that your most valuable clients share both during their time as clients and in the period before purchase.

These qualities may include:

Online behaviour and demographic information

Details about the company

Each is given a unique set of traits and values that are developed using historical sales data, analytics, and intuition.

Ask your sales staff to inform you what qualities your leads should possess first.  You should see trends in your previous sales that help you understand the qualities you chose.

To find out what your most important customers have in common, look through your CRM. A higher level of intent may be indicated by accessing a pricing page on your website, for example. At the same time, look at your website analytics to see online behaviour before the purchase.

 Once a collection of attributes has been determined, make a matrix and give each one a value; the greater the score, the more valuable the attribute.

How well a firm fits your product or service and how far along they are in their purchasing process will be indicated by the combined score.

Step #2: Collect the information

Once the right lead has been identified, you must begin gathering data to support your qualification procedure.

To get the lead-scoring process started, your lead capture form should request information.  Achieving a satisfactory conversion rate while also gathering as much information as you can from your leads is the ideal goal.  Your visitors are more likely to leave your lead capture process if you ask for more information because it creates more friction.

As you begin gathering information from your leads, combine it with a marketing automation or CRM platform to score them.

That smooth connectivity is made possible by the majority of sophisticated CRM platforms, such as Salesforce and HubSpot. However, if such connectivity is not possible, you can utilize an API or a platform like Zapier to link your CRM with other technologies.

Step #3: Score the leads

Having established your cri It's time to begin rating your leads now that you've established your criteria and gathered your information.

This feature is often integrated into marketing automation systems and CRMs.  All you have to do is set up the rules such that the leads are automatically scored using the standards you established in step one.

After setting this up and gathering data, determine the scoring criteria that lead to purchases for each of your audience segments. After completing this, you may configure alerts to notify your sales staff when leads get close to certain scores.

Don't fall into the trap of assuming that lead production stops as soon as you collect lead information.  It is about quality above quantity.

As you qualify and score your prospects, your sales team will know which ones to pursue and which should be fostered further by the marketing team.

It is a learning process that should be constantly adjusted and enhanced.

The better you get at it, the higher quality leads you'll generate.

12 top tips for successful lead generation

Enhancing and fine-tuning a data-driven lead generation campaign entails using data insights to improve plans and achieve greater results. Let us look at some of the top tips.

1. Define explicit objectives and metrics: Create SMART goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Select KPIs such as conversion rates, cost per lead, lead quality, and ROI.

2. Use analytical tools:  Use Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Marketo to track and analyze campaign results. Gather B2B data from a variety of sources, including CRM, email marketing, and social media, to create a holistic insight.

3. Categorize your audience: Categorize your audience by age, gender, geography, and occupation.  You should also categorize according to behaviour, taking into account previous purchases, online interactions, and degrees of involvement.

4. Tailor the content:  Make sure your material addresses your target audience's specific demands and challenges.  Test various forms, including blogs, videos, and infographics, to see which ones resonate the most with your target audience.

5. Revamp the website and landing pages: Improve navigation, loading speed, and mobile friendliness. Strategically place clear and engaging calls to action throughout your website and landing pages. Streamline forms to reduce friction and boost submission rates.

6. Use Marketing Automation:  Create automatic email sequences that nurture leads based on their behaviour and engagement levels. Use lead scoring to prioritize sales leads, focusing on those who are most likely to convert.

7. Customize campaigns: Use interactive content to personalize emails, landing pages, and website experiences. Customize messaging for different categories or individual leads to increase relevance and engagement.

8. Monitor and optimize paid campaigns: Evaluate and improve PPC bidding methods regularly.  Continuously assess ad performance and optimize for higher click-through and conversion rates. Implement retargeting tactics to re-engage visitors who have expressed interest but have not converted.

9. Assess and understand data: Conduct regular reviews of campaign performance data to detect trends and insights. Use heatmaps to visualize user interactions and areas of interest on your website.

10. Keep the information fresh and new:  Ensure that your material remains relevant and achieves top SEO ranks. Stay on top of industry trends and changes in customer behaviour, and adjust your plans accordingly.

11. Test out several channels and ideas:  Investigate new marketing methods and platforms to increase your audience reach.  Try out new lead-generation strategies such as interactive content, chatbots, and AI-powered personalization.

12. Synchronize the sales and marketing teams:  Encourage regular feedback from sales and marketing to ensure ongoing refinement and alignment.  Make sure that all teams strive for the same sales goals and targets, enabling open communication and collaboration.

[narayan-074246]

Tumble with social media

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to promote products, services, or brands. It involves creating and sharing content to engage audiences, build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate sales. This can include posts, videos, ads, and influencer partnerships on platforms like Tumble, Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok.

For more continue,,,,,,,

[cool-wilson-david]

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[sheeezu]

My shifting guidebook.

This is my last post, as melodramatic as I was in my last post, since both the posts I've made on here and reddit i got busy with responding to dms (for those confused check my first post) so i didn't permashift.

Unfortunately i still couldn't respond to all the messages and questions sent to my inbox and dms, mainly because of the different time zones and general laziness from my side.

I appreciate everyone who asked questions, although i felt it's a bit unfair since the answers to very common problems didn't reach everyone, and i want everyone to shift, i want everyone to shift tonight, so i decided i'll make a post to share all my knowledge, whatever i know, sort of like a parting gift.

And this isn't going to be a beginners guide, mainly for people who need a final push, and most importantly, for emergency shifters.

Onto the questions (: Divided into categories, skip through according to your needs :)

Detachment from CR, attachment to DR:

How can i detach from my CR/attach to my DR?

Generally, detachment can be achieved by numbing your emotions in your CR. But first, I would advise you to refrain from extreme and unhealthy detachment, because you'll end up getting stuck in a endless cycle of messing up your CR and not shifting (because you'd have no control over yourself, which would lead to your subconscious getting grounded in the messed up version of your CR; assuming that unhealthy detachment is daydreaming about your DR all day without any sense of where you are, without a strong mindset, when you eventually snap back you'll think even more vividly of your CR)

But- "unhealthy" attachment can be utilised to your advantage, to shift, in a controlled manner.

Pick a day to shift, let it be a weekend. After dusk, only indulge yourself in your DR. (When you're sure you have free time and you won't be disturbed) for me, I hid under the blanket, with a fully charged phone, I spent a portion of the hours listening to subliminals, and a portion of the time scrolling through pinterest with spotify in the background (things that remind you of your DR)

I recommend listening to detachment from CR and attachment to DR subs, and if you are a permashifter, and it's your deadline, go all out.

This is my advice for detachment from CR during the day, during the method it'll be different.

How can I detach from my CR while I'm shifting? I can't divert my attention away from my CR body/mind.

I'm writing in the pov of my own method.

The only way you can let go of the CR while you're shifting is with a calm mind. If you're overthinking about how you're going to carry out your method, whether you'd wake back in your CR, you'll have trouble reaching a detached state.

To detach, first of all, make yourself comfortable, do not try to force yourself into doing something, or laying in a position which makes you uncomfortable. Next, think of thoughts which pushes your CR to the side, your CR is just another reality, and you're the creator of it, treat it like its any other pebble on the road.

Affs: (again, void reality meaning your CR)

"Void reality? Huh, can't seem to remember what that is..."

"It's so peaceful not being in the void reality, going to fix it when I eventually return from my DR" (I vividly remember saying this, if you're a permashifter, make it so it fits your situation)

"..."

(Not saying anything says a lot, fall numb to your void reality and go onto your DR)

Remember, you're not answerable to your CR, its not your boss or captor, it's actually the opposite.

To attach to your DR during the method, in the middle phase of my method, say identity affs until you feel familiarise with your DR self, think of memories, have a small conversation with your DR loved ones, do a small rewind of your DR life in your mind, so you can ground yourself. I won't be going into much details on how to shift by becoming your DR self, my first post says it all.

How to detach from CR body?

Detaching your thoughts is basically detaching your CR body, the 30 second black out state is basically a window to shifting, because when your CR shuts up for a even just a few seconds it will give you the opportunity to divert your attention to your DR, no matter how fidgety you are.

Problems faced while shifting:

Something always itches me when I try to shift, any advice?

Before you're shifting, take a look at you're environmental factors, why are you feeling itchy in the first place?

If it isn't bugs, dry skin, I recall that during the method some symptoms are just itchiness.

Say affs to block off your senses first of all, until then try to control yourself

Affs:

"I have stopped sensing my void reality (CR)"

"I have stopped hearing, feeling, seeing my void reality"

If the need gets overwhelming and you're just starting your method, make yourself comfortable and move a bit, or just itch it, you can still shift.

I always fall asleep when I try to shift, what should I do?

During the day you're going to shift, and you know you're just tired and lack sleep, take a nap during the day.

If you didn't nap, or just generally feel sleepy still, turn my method into a sleep method, by letting yourself fall asleep while you're actively acting, thinking like your DR self (you'll wake up in your DR the next day)

Sleeping is a good tool for shifting, especially if you're starting to doze off while doing your method, you can achieve other states such as sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming or mind awake body asleep state, so don't get discouraged, if you prefer awake methods, there are some subliminals you can use to stay awake.

I always fear or dread shifting while doing my method and back out at the last minute.

(Copypasted from reddit)

Familiarise yourself with your DR, it's not scary if you know where you're laying, who you are, what's next to you and who's going to be in the room.

If you already start acting like your DR self then in theory fear shouldn't be here (why would you be scared being yourself in an environment which is supposed to be familiar to you?)

It also depends upon the kind of fear

Fear of spirits snatching your soul mid shift - listen to safety and protection subliminals (no, I wasn't personally possessed by demons last minute but it will put your mind at ease)

Fear of the unknown - familiarise yourself with your DR and shifting

Fear of symptoms - don't focus on them

Just know that nothing fearful will exist as long as you don't allow it to exist, you're the creator of your reality.

Trouble focusing while shifting.

Once you're even a tad bit detached from your CR, you would have no trouble focusing, because it's only your CR body's mind which is causing you trouble, the semi-void state in my method (when you don't feel your body that much, you force yourself to not have thoughts) is all you need to do to go onto the next phase of your method, and trust me, it'll feel very easy for you.

Prior to shifting, listen to frequencies, subliminals, basically flood your subconscious with your desired affs (calm mind subs, focus subs, general shifting and void state subliminals) when you're shifting, stare at the blackness and think of it as a milky way, like you're stargazing, I don't know why but your hyperfixation allows you to focus; count to a hundred, visualise your DR memories, youll eventually reach a trance state where you're focused and ready to shift. (if you can't visualise, then think of it in the form of a story)

Misc:

For folks with ADHD:

(Copy pasted from reddit)

I'd recommend try listening to subliminal (especially bundles) when you aren't feeling like doing anything or if you think your messing up.

Also try to keep yourself as comfortable as possible, if you can distract yourself in a way you aren't attached to your CR activities, for example watching movies or shows or youtube video which require minimal effort and attention

And im saying this only if you're utilizing a single day for shifting, or practicing LOA

while doing the method, i'd try to use as less time as possible, and if you feel off, then you can open your eyes and try the method after a small break.

Can I shift to-

Yes, yes, yes. You can shift to anywhere your mind can think up of, it really is that simple. You can shift to the past, shift to prevent a certain event, you can shift to a reality with a confusing concept, you can shift to become a chair.

Did you shift to a animated DR? How was it like?

I shifted to a pokemon DR where I studied pokemons for a living, but I quickly shifted back after 2 days because I got bored.

Personally for me I get creeped out of anything that's eerie or out of the ordinary.

So basically I scripted that it'll feel normal and I wouldn't even question it.

So I didn't, and now that I think about it, everything was proper, people had noses it wad 3D and everything, so just this reality except everyone looked unnaturally good and the world's graphic were different. If the entire world looks the same then nothing feels weird.

Your opinion on clones/time period?

I don't really care about clones or what they are, mainly because I believe in the consciousness theory, and the multiverse theory is a subdivision of consciousness theory, you basically let yourself believe there is a multiverse and for that reason it exists.

So in perceptive of the multiverse theory, your "clone" is just a body, which comes under your command or control.

It can't mess up your CR life, it'll make the same choices as you like you would have made if you were present in your CR.

Personally I had scripted that when I shift back I will wake up the next morning, following the night when I was shifting.

So my "clone" was just sleeping.

Secondly, stop stressing over your clone,

It'll just do what you want it to do, or just live life how you'd normally would

If you script your clone is a superhuman for the time you're in you DR, you'll shift back to a parallel reality of your CR where a superhuman lived your life for a while, but if you want you can just shift to a better CR like I did.

...

Those are all questions that came in my mind, I tried looking back into the chats and inbox to find more commonly asked questions or something I didn't clarify in my first post but most other questions had straight forward or a clear enough answer.

I really wanted to expand this post with more sections and questions, but in my opinion my first and this post combined are a lot of their own, I think I clarified a lot.

It's been a week being on Tumblr, and I loved helping people out, everyone was kind and unique in their own ways, I looked through my followers scripts and blogs and I enjoyed everyone's dedication to shifting, and their DRs (btw, I hadn't expected to get so many follows and notes, I'm genuinely suprised even now)

It had been a lovely experience being on shiftblr, in my opinion it's the best shifting, or just generally the best community on the internet.

As much as I would like to stay and blog regularly on here, I have to go back home, I'm permashifting in (from the time this post went up) 7 hours, and this time I'm not staying, so refrain from asking me questions after that, I won't respond, but this post will still be up.

Farewell, I hope your shifting journey conclude today and each of you live happily in your DR, with your well deserved love, respect and peace.

Goodbye c:

(Within the 7 hours, I may be partially active, if there is any question that is truly different and a genuine struggle for you, inbox me, I'll try my best to answer; I may as well post my DR script in my last few hours, since some people asked, remind me if I forget; also not posting on reddit, ive already annoyed the mods so much by breaking several rules)

[parkjayssi]

✦ PAC : QUE SERA SERA

what do your guides want to tell you?

like & rb are appreciated

do not copy or steal my work

i'm a beginner in tarot so please take everything with a grain of salt

🎃 | pile one!

pile one, it seems the guides have some good news, especially on the financial side considering how i've pulled a suit of pentacles here. this means all your tangible goals have a high chance to manifest itself into your reality. the guides want to let you know that working towards your tangible goals is the best right now. a mix of manifesting and striving to work towards your goal is advised by your guides as they will have blessed you with countless opportunities in the upcoming months. you are advised to stay focused and walk ahead, as whatever you wish for is to be soon in your hands. make sure to not lose focus as it may destroy the very chance you've gotten. as for anyone in relationship, or wanting to be in one, you all will have your wishes fulfilled as there is a high chance of your relationship turning out to be prosperous and secure. either way, anyone attracted to this pile is going to have good days ahead so don't stop manifesting for what you desire.

🎃 | pile two!

pile 2, is there a decision you're struggling with that has led you to question your beliefs? or just how you view the world in general? the guides have told me to deliver this to you : "let go of all the worries, and be born anew". whatever you are worried about is just not worth it. the decision has led you feeling trapped, not knowing what to do and has you standing at the crossroads. the guides tell you to think twice before going forward but to also shed your old self while doing so. the universe is testing your beliefs and ideals, and in doing so is leading you to the path you deserve. whether you want to shed it or not is something that depends on you.

🎃 | pile three!

whatever you are working on pile 3, the guides want to tell you only one thing - that is - to stop being so uptight about it. is there something you're really dead set on? a plan? a trip? whatever it is, you are advised to be flexible and not stick to what you really think is perfect. whatever you plan to do is not going to go exactly how you want and that's life. the guides tell you to embrace those ups and downs and enjoy the journey instead of being uptight on making it perfect. who knows? maybe you would find something worthwhile during this journey that will stick to you for a lifetime.

[topazadine]

Writing Post Masterlist

All my posts about writing - plus some I absolutely loved by other writers.

Masterlists by Other People (all good)

"Writing Tips Masterpost" by @deception-united - Deception-United has an incredibly wealth of resources available, far more comprehensive and detailed than mine. Go check it out!

"WQA Post Master Lists" by @writingquestionsanswered - Another fantastic and wonderfully comprehensive resource that covers damn near everything you need to know about writing. Genuinely one of the best free resources on writing that you could find on the internet.

General Advice for a Happy Writing Life

"The Myth of the Martyr Artist" - An incredibly important post, perhaps my most important one ever, that discusses why mental illness is a burden, not a benefit. I have no idea why this even needs to be said, but it does, apparently.

"Building Self-Esteem as a Writer" - Why you gotta be nice to yourself. You gotta.

"Identifying bad writing advice" - Warning signs that the post you are reading kinda sucks and you should click off.

"Advice to Beginner Writers: The Good, the Bad, and the Unpleasant" - How long it takes to become a good writer, what to focus on when learning, and why fanfic is such a useful tool.

"Mindset Shifts: Fanfiction -> Original Fiction" - What fanfic writers should know about deciding to take on original characters and stories.

"Defeating Protracted Writer's Block" - What to do when you find it impossible to write for days, weeks, or months at a time.

"Five Common Anxieties of Newbie Writers, Demystified" - Explorations of five mindsets that can set younger writers back as they learn their craft, including overcompetitiveness, overdescribing, and fearing they're "too old."

"Good Motivations for Continuing to Write" - Why it is crucial to have a passion for writing beyond fame and fortune.

"Extremely controversial writing opinions that will make you mad (but I'm going to say them anyway)" - Things you really don't want to hear, but need to be said. A bit of tough love, including the insignificance of ideas, the cold hard truth about how non-writers react to your writing, and the essentiality of having a well-rounded life.

"Why Mindfulness Is a Key Practice for Writers" - On the need to slow down and let our brain rest - plus some options that are categorically not sitting there in dead silence (boring).

"Writing When Happy" - Wherein I hijack someone's question to discuss the Myth of the Martyr Artist, why we might self-limit because of it, and how to do the impossible: write when we're happy.

"The Neurodivergent Writer’s Guide to Fun and Productivity" by @bookishdiplodocus - Excellent advice on how enjoying the process and reminding yourself that writing is supposed to be fun can help you stay motivated and productive, even when your brain is not cooperating.

"The Glorification of Self-Deprecation in Art/Writing Spaces" by @nicolkoutoulakiauthor - I've discussed before how crucial it is to have a healthy self-esteem when writing, but Nicol does it even better here. Nicol also includes some excellent reframing tactics so you can stay motivated.

Generalish Writing Advice (multifactorial)

"Signs That You Will Probably Finish Your Writing Project" - An analysis of the mindset that leads to results, and encouragement on how to develop them.

"'How Do I Start Writing?'" (Or; A Psychoanalysis of Newbie Writer Fears) - Inspired by the dozens of Reddit posts that ask this exact same thing, often with useless responses. So why do people ask this? I offer my theory.

"I Can Think of Ideas But Can't Write Them!" - A consideration of the many reasons you might find it difficult to get started on your precious idea-baby.

"How to elevate your writing style with 6 simple hacks" - Information about how to develop a prettier prose style, catch errors, develop good dialogue, and focus on brevity.

"How to improve your writing style : a 5-steps guide" by @writer-logbook - Especially great information on why reading widely is so helpful for your craft!

"Some Writing Advice" by @whispers-whump - Especially great discussion of why you shouldn't write what you mean.

"Practical Writing Advice Part 2" by @so-many-ocs - Does what it says on the tin. Simple, easy-to-follow advice that can break you out of writer's block.

"25 Prose Tips for Writers" by @thewriteadviceforwriters - I absolutely love the emphasis on sound and harmony here. As someone whose entire book series revolves around the magic of poetry, of course I think this is incredibly important advice!

"Pacing and Show Don't Tell" by @mylordshesacactus - Two for one deal! First, learn more about why pacing is important; then, look at some examples of the classic advice "show, don't tell." The post does a great job on breaking down what show don't tell actually means and what is not a violation of this guideline so that newer writers aren't confused.

Writing tools

"How to Build a Sustainable Writing Habit Through SCIENCE (Fuck Off, NaNoWriMo)" - Why NaNoWriMo doesn't actually motivate young writers and how to do better through a spreadsheet (yes, really, a spreadsheet). It also explains the importance of intrinsic motivation!

"'I've Outlined Too Much and Now I Can't Write!' (Or: the Double Outline Method for Overanxious Plotters)" - Some of us tend to go absolutely ham on our outlines, to the point where they're practically their own books. But then we also tend to not actually do the writing attached to said outline. Does this mean outlining is useless? Of course not. My method lets you have your outline and eat it too. (.... Wait.)

"'How Do I Make Myself Start Writing?' (Tips to Get the Damn Thing Done) - In this post, I provide a step-by-step guide to start writing, including a few tools to help improve motivation and concentration.

"How to Write Faster (And, Hopefully, Better Too)" - Eliminating distractions and forcing your brain to write is key to getting more done. Here, I explain how you might be limiting yourself by too much thinking and not enough doing.

Worldbuilding

"Stop Making Everything So Damn Complicated!" - Why fantasy (and scifi) does not need to be dizzyingly intricate to be enjoyable.

"How to Kick Ass at Worldbuilding" - I offer some suggestions on how to create a grounded and interesting world that will not bore your readers, based on real life examples.

"Grounded vs. Airy Fantasy" by @aethersea - Excellent breakdown of different levels of groundedness in fantasy and why it's important to understand your own approach.

"Fantasy Guide to Building a Culture" by @inky-duchess - Thorough and methodical analysis of what can create a compelling fantasy culture, including those things that many fail to think about when writing.

"Writing tip - Research" by @pygmi-cygni - Fantastic assessment of the importance of research, including for fantasy stories. As Pygmi-Cygni said, a lot of people claim that they don't need to do any research for fantasy novels, which isn't true! Any parallels to IRL need to be realistic, or you will lose credibility.

Plotting

"How to Use Chomolungma for Writing Adventure Stories; Or, the Plot Mountain Method" - If you're sick of saving felines who should really figure their own shit out, it's time to head to Plot Mountain. In this post, I offer you an alternative to the formulaic "Save the Cat" and "Hero's Journey" which also incorporates tension, characterization, and forward momentum.

"Avoiding Melodrama In Your Writing" - The most annoying all things: melodrama. My least favorite thing. Do not do it. I will show you how.

"How to Find a Plot When All You Have is Characters and Setting" by @rheas-chaos-motivation - This is a common problem for many writers, when you have cool characters or an intriguing setting. This short post can help you kickstart your ideas for how to create an intriguing plot that has built-in tension.

Description

"Remembering Perspective When Writing Descriptions" - Key factors to think about when describing other characters or settings from your POV.

"Description, Momentum, and Tension; Or, How Not to Bore a Reader" - Why, when, and where to put description so that people don't skip over it. Hopefully.

"Writing Notes: Seasons" - Each season has both benefits and downsides. In this post, we look at the negatives and positive aspects of each so you can decide how a particular season may strengthen your themes - plus some descriptions to help inspire you.

"Writing Advice: Spicy Mundanity" - Wherein I explain how to stop having boring descriptions by packing in characterization.

"How to Write Smut?" by @unfriendlywriter - Wonderful examples of how to write heartstopping smut.

"How to pull off descriptions" by @fictionstudent - Fictionstudent has a ton of great posts, both about film analysis and about the art of writing. I especially liked this one because it discusses how important perspective is for descriptions and the importance of filling in the details as a character would rather than just throwing it all at the reader at one time.

"How to avoid White Room Syndrome" by @writerthreads - Fantastic and focused advice on how to ensure you're offering readers just enough setting to help them envision the world.

Characterization

"Writing Relatable Characters; Or, Using Human Failures to Your Advantage" - Explaining how you can use character flaws and human needs to create a relatable character. Also explains the basic development of a plot, which is about equilibrium.

"How NOT to Write a Character" - Wherein I give you some examples of annoying characters we want to punt off a cliff so you can watch yourself.

"Writing Strong Female Characters" - Why you should give your female characters a secret goal, as well as how to avoid common 'strong female' stereotypes.

"Writing Compelling Trauma in Fiction: Dos and Don'ts" - How to avoid melodrama and create intriguing emotional wounds for characters.

"Quality Assurance Checks for Character Development" - Thought exercises that can help you differentiate characters, prune down unnecessary characters, develop true chemistry between LI and MC, and avoid having too many POVs.

"Developing Character Agency (Or; Cutting the Plot Strings)" - A discussion of character agency and how to ensure your characters are not bound by the narrative.

"Writing Notes: Thought Distortions" by @literaryvein-reblogs - Some psychological concepts you can use in your writing to add depth to characters.

"Questions about your character’s perspective on love and relationships" by @luna-azzurra - Excellent questions that can help you delve into your character's attachment style, what baggage they may bring to a current relationship, and how to create conflict through mentality.

"How to Write a Confession of Love," also by luna-azzurra - Perfect discussion of how to create tension, the utility of setting, not making it perfect, and including the other character's response.

Revisions

"Common Writing Issues that Reduce Readability" - Examples of fixes for four common issues: double describing, long sentences, overexplaining, and head hopping.

"How to Avoid Purple Prose" - A critical part of the revision process is making sure your writing is clear and balanced. In this post, I show a blatant example of purple prose and provide suggestions on how to make a more elegant passage.

"Differential Diagnosis When Your Writing Is Getting Worse" by @ariaste - Fantastic explanation by a professional writer about why you might feel like your writing is getting worse and what to do about it.

"How to Make Your Writing Less Stiff Part 3" by @physalian - Physalian's whole blog has some excellent advice, so definitely give it a look!

"How to Improve Your Writing" - Also by literaryvein-reblogs, this offers some excellent exercises to help with sentence-level issues, such as modifiers, parallelism, and details.

Publishing

"How to promote your book online : a discussion about social media (and few tips)" by writer-logbook - Great tips about how to get more interest in your book. I especially enjoyed the emphasis on patience and consistency. Writer-logbook has some excellent info overall about the nitty-gritty of writing, so I definitely recommend poring through their blog in general. (That's why they're included here twice!)

"A masterclass in how not to market your books, in one singular tweet" - Wherein I help you derive lessons from an abysmal tweet by an author.

"Mistakes I Made When Self-Pubbing My First Book (Part 1: Mindset Edition)" - I talk about how being delulu is not the solulu, that yes marketing is important (even if it is horrible), and how a bit of self-confidence can go a long way.

"Mistakes I Made When Self-Pubbing My First Book (Part 2: Presentation Edition)" - Graphics and covers and blurbs! Learn about them. Do not do what I did.

"Mistakes I Made When Self-Pubbing My First Book (Part 3: Ads and Reviews Edition)" - Why you have to get reviews. You gotta. And you gotta demand them. Shake those reviews out of your readers. You'll thank me later.

Specific Research Advice

"Assassination Methods Through the Decades: A Writer’s Handbook" by @hayatheauthor - A thorough review of different assassination methods, including a section discussing common assassination methods by region!

"How to Write Someone in a Wheelchair" - A group effort! This is a reblog chain discussing body language in manual wheelchairs, the mechanics of power wheelchairs, wheelchair propulsion methods, and a reminder that just because someone is in a wheelchair doesn't mean they can't walk short distances.

"Writing Research Notes: Caves" - Oh caves how I love them. Caves. Let me tell you about them if you want to write about caves. Blessed.

"Writing Research Notes: Horses" - A beginner's guide to horse mindsets, whether horses like working, approaching horses, how to ride, and tips on training.

"Writing Research Notes: Bipolar Disorder" - Written by me, a writer with bipolar disorder! This shares basic facts about bipolar, offers a list of symptoms you can use, and cautions you against spreading misinformation through poor characterization or myths.

"Writing Research Notes: Politics" - I provide a quick overview about governments and international relations, based off my suffering while getting an MA in International Relations.

"Stop Doing This in Injury Fics!" by @pygmi-says-hi - Discusses some common errors when writing whump/angst. The fever part was especially helpful for me!

"Writing US Military Characters" by @lookbluesoup - An explanation of the habits and mentality of US military characters. Many of these were quite helpful for my fantasy military characters, so you can get a lot of mileage out of these for soldiers in other militaries too!

Little Funsies

"What Painting Style Is Your Writing?" - A short exploration of different writing styles to help you better understand your own approach.

I'll be adding onto this as I continue to scroll through my old likes and, of course, as I find more resources.

[call-sign-shark]

Pairing: The Darkling x Heartrender!You || The Darkling x HeartrenderOC!Reader

Summary: A public confrontation during dinner escalates and leads General Kirigan to show his quiet but firm protection of you to everyone. Especially Zoya.

Words: 4K

TW: graphic mention of injury, humiliation, reference to past prostitution, slight alteration of canon events: Zoya was never Kirigan's fav.

Part IV - The Fear Within

Previous || Masterlist || Next

As you walked out of the training room alongside General Kirigan, his shadow-like presence enveloping you entirely, murmurs erupted behind you. They were only whispers and yet sounded as loud as the cacophony of screams and cries that followed the frightening silence after a bomb exploded.

Did you see what she did to Zoya? The way she almost tore her apart?

Broken ribs, one lung reduced to mush, heart badly injured, the healer who took care of the arrogant Squaller couldn’t believe such damages were the result of a Grisha. While Heartrenders had always been the most feared and valuable soldiers of the Second Army, none of them could induce that much damage with one sole flick of the wrist. Let alone a beginner who had only used her abilities a few times. The origins of your power remained a mystery for everyone including Zoya, yet she was at least sure of one thing: hadn't General Kirigan intervened, she would have died today in a painful, gruesome way.

Following the incident, you had quietly followed the Black General through the corridors until he stopped and turned to face you. His dark eyes, darkest as the blackest moonless night, had bore into you, as though searching for something.

“You need to control it,” He had said, his tone still firm but the pace of his voice slower, for he was carefully choosing his next words, “Your power is immense. I can feel it pulsing around you like a chained beast… But it’s dangerous.” He let out a long exhale through his nostrils, “You can’t let anger guide you.”

The weight of guilt you felt in your weaving chest became heavier, settling over you like an anvil, “I didn’t mean to—”

“I know,” Aleksander interrupted, his gaze softening ever so slightly, “But intention doesn’t matter when lives are at stake.” 

You simply nodded, unable to find the words to respond, and watched him disappear upstairs with his black kefta dancing behind him like shadows lingering in his wake.

Weeks passed and life at the Little Palace soon fell into a rhythm for you — a rhythm laced with unrelenting tension and exhaustion. Days were a grueling cycle of harsh training sessions where you pushed your limits under the watchful eyes of Ivan and the disdainful stares of your peers. As for your nights, they weren’t any better. Here in this foreign place, terrifying memories of your past impatiently waited for you to sleep in order to plague your dreams, turning them into nerve-wracking nightmares. And when the nightmares wouldn’t come, it was the shadows that crept into your room at night, seeming to carry Aleksander’s presence with them and to watch you as you rolled over in your bedsheets.

Despite everything, there still were moments where you could breathe again and they were when Fedyor spent time with you. Admittedly, you had found an unlikely friend in him considering how everyone carefully avoided you, but his cheerful disposition, unwavering kindness, and humor gave you a sense of normalcy in a world that constantly reminded you that you didn’t belong here. Nevertheless, Fedyor wasn’t always there, his frequent missions for Kirigan leaving you alone to fend off the cold hostility and wariness of the other Grisha. You couldn’t blame them though, not after almost killing a well-known figure of the Little Palace in front of their eyes.

Kirigan too was rarely present during the day, the last time you truly spoke being your last discussion about the necessity of learning to control your powers. For weeks, your encounters with him were fleeting — just brief moments stolen between his duties as General and your relentless training. Yet, even in his absence Aleksander was always there, making you silently understand that he was watching over you. Not in a way that felt overbearing but in a manner that made you hyper-aware of his presence nearby. 

Sometimes it was a brush of his warm hand against your freezing one as he handed you a training sword. Some others, a shared glance across the room that made your heart miss a beat. Or the way he stood a tiny bit too close when he spoke to you, his voice a velvet promise that made your skin prickle. Each time, his intensity steadied you and unnerved you all the same for you hated how easily he seemed to consume your thoughts for some unknown reasons.

Once, during a passing encounter in the hallways, Kirigan stopped beside you, his void-like and unfathomable gaze sweeping over you as if carving every detail of your face in his memory.

“You’re improving,” He said with an even tone, though his somber pupils gleamed when the Palace’s light hit them at the right angle.

You couldn’t help the shiver that ran through your spine, nor control how your pulse quickened a little under his scrutiny, “Thank you, General.” You replied, your tone neutral despite the inner turmoil he triggered in you. His lips curled into a small, enigmatic smile that disappeared as fast as it had come before he walked away, leaving your heart racing even more.  Why the fuck am I feeling like this whenever he’s around? you thought. 

Since your childhood, you have always considered yourself an anomaly. Like an island detached from the ocean of emotions that seemed to flood the others so effortlessly. You were cold, unfeeling, almost clinical, which had often left you wondering if something fundamental within you was broken. Like, an essential piece of humanity missing. Joy, sadness, empathy — they had always felt more muted than they should have been, like distant echoes you could experiment but never fully grasp.

But not with him.

The weight of him was thrilling each time he entered the room and you hated it. Hated the loss of control, the way your supposedly buried emotions now surged to the surface like a storm breaking through the calm waters. To be honest, you didn’t know what unnerved you more: the way he looked at you as if you were the only person in the room or the way you found yourself wanting to be looked at like that by him. And there was more to it, something deeper. It wasn’t just about his commanding presence nor the unbearable tension when your skin brushed his, but it was a pull. A tug at something unseen within you. As though your souls had already known each other in another life, an unspoken murmur of recognition that both terrified and soothed you. You couldn’t understand this foreign ache of familiarity in his presence. 

The ache of something that called you home.

The dining hall was alive with chatter, filled with a background noise that only served to highlight how utterly alone you were even surrounded by the crowd of Grisha who lived here. Prior to going downstairs for dinner, a gifted tailor named Genya had asked you why you weren’t wearing the red kefta given to the Heartrenders. To this, you had simply replied “Why should I bother? I’m not one of them” and proceeded to leave, closing your grip on the collar of the white and comfortable fur coat you had found in your bedroom’s closet. Quickly sneaking into the dining hall, you walked to the far end of a table and sat there.

With your gaze fixed on your plate, you were trying hard to ignore the whispers all around you. As always, the other Grisha avoided you, their fear palpable and their resentment an unpleasant feeling that washed over you. Fedyor’s absence was particularly striking tonight. How much you would have loved him to be next to you, listening to his stories and laughing at his gossip but here you were, without an ally. 

You were about to bite into your fork when the room fell silent with the kind of quiet that only preceded trouble. Wondering what was happening, you looked up and quickly understood: Zoya had stepped into the dining hall and was approaching you, a cruel smirk playing on her pretty lips.

“Still sitting alone, I see. Fitting for someone like you.”  Her voice was loud enough to draw the attention from the nearby tables. Attention… Everything you didn’t need.

You didn’t respond, keeping your pale eyes firmly on her as she slowly moved her wrist to make the content of the cup she was holding swirl. It was probably wine.

Unfazed by your silence, she leaned closer and continued to taunt you, “You know, for someone so dangerous you’re awfully quiet. And out of place. Like a wolf pretending to be tame.” 

“And you’re awfully chatty for someone who begged for her life a few weeks ago.” Your words felt like sharp shards of ice that pierced through her ego. “Have you finished yet? I’d like to eat without having to bear that stupid voice of yours.” 

But Zoya wasn’t finished. 

“Tell me first... What does it feel like to be the monster even among deadly Grisha?” 

This time, your grip tightened on your fork as Kirigan’s words circled in your mind like a broken record.  You need to control it. You need to control it.

“Struggling to reply? Here, let me help.” Joining words to deeds, the Squaller let out a bitter giggle and, with a theatrical flourish, she lifted the cup she was holding and dumped its contents  —a thick, deep crimson liquid — onto your white outfit. The splash of its cold content against your chest made you freeze instantly. It was the metallic scent that hit you first and made you understand what the liquid was even before you saw the dark crimson stains on your dress and coat: it wasn’t wine. It was pig’s blood.

A chorus of gasps echoed through the room, overhung by Zoya’s and her friends’ laughter that rang hollow in the silence.

“Red suits you far better, Sankta!” She sneered.

Rage suddenly boiled beneath your skin, making your body stiffen and your little hands tremble – not with fear, but with a fury so cold it scorched you alive. And even though the whispers and laughter around you were deafening, resounding like a thunderstorm, you could barely hear them above the buzzing in your ears. For a moment, your vision blurred as you stood up in one violent motion, your chair falling to the ground with a loud thud. Your brutal movement led Zoya to take a step back, anticipating your reaction and potentially violent way to attack her back but nothing came. 

You stood rigid in front of her with blood splattered on your diaphanous skin and white outfit, your chest heaving as your quick, shallow breaths resounded in your skull. The crimson streaks soaked the fabric and created a grim contrast with your pale, delicate figure. Of course, you’d have loved to erase the smug smirk on her lips by pouncing on her and ripping her face with your own sharp nails in an animal-like fit of rage, but your body was petrified. Your eyes burned with uncontrollable anger, unblinking, as your fists clenched at your sides, even more trembling under the weight of the humiliation.

“You—” Your throat went dry before you could say something else, your resentment so deep that it strangled you, choked every word you wanted to utter and every insult you wanted to scream.

“What’s the matter, little Saint?” Zoya tilted her head, beaming.

“Is this how we treat one of your own, now?” 

The shadows in the corners stretched toward the two figures standing, creeping slowly in black smoke curls, and the more they came close, the more it seemed to feed the storm that was building up inside you. As the atmosphere became heavier, silence fell again in the room and hushed all whispers as the Black General appeared, emerging through the thick fog of his darkness. Without wasting time nor condescending to glance at Zoya, Kirigan moved toward you with an unsettling calm, his pace conveying determination and his boots echoing softly against the luxurious stone floor of the dinning hall. The two obsidian of his eyes, sharp and as dark as midnight, locked onto you as if you were the only person in the room worthy of his attention. And despite the silence, the weight of his presence was deafening. 

When he reached you, General Kirigan stopped, standing close enough for you to feel the shadowed intensity as well as his power radiating from him. Not a single word was uttered, not a sound escaped his charming lips. Instead, his hands rose, unhurried and confident, to undo the few closed buttons of your blood-splattered fur coat. The gesture might have been simple, but it carried a startling intimacy as his fingers brushed gently against the edge of your collarbone when he lifted the coat away and let it fall at your feet. The intense feeling of humiliation still crashed against you like brutal rogue waves crashing against the shore, rendering you unable to hold his gaze. As you bowed your head, your fierce nature momentarily flickered at the sight of your ruined dress with its thin white fabric soaked through and clinging to you like a second skin. But even drowning in humiliation, the light touch on your collarbone sent a surge of electricity through your whole body.

In this moment suspended in time, Kirigan’s eyes dropped, lingering on your body for a bit too long. Surprisingly, his expression held no disgust or pity — only something unreadable, almost reverent. Something scorching, making you feel exposed both physically and emotionally to the extent that your breath hitched in your tight throat. As if he had stripped you naked with the sole power of his eyes. 

“Look at me.” The Black general said in a low voice, the very top of his index finger delicately pressing under your chin to force your gaze to meet his, dizzyingly deep and intense.

Blood rushed quicker in your veins in return, every fiber of you reacting to him in an uncontrollable instinct. It was only then that he shrugged off his own black kefta in a fluid movement, but the subtle care with which he unfolded the luxurious garment and wrapped it around your shoulders was anything but cold or impersonal.

 The fabric of the kefta was thick and warm, its weight providing a comforting and protective embrace that immediately calmed both your fury and feeling of shame down. Finally, your petrified body came back to life as you batted your doe lashes as though you had just woken up from a terrible nightmare. It had been the unmistakable scent of him — earthy cedar, spiced amber, and a fragrance darker, undefinable — that had helped you emerge from that feral state of rage. A hypnotizing, reassuring smell that enveloped you like a shield and anchored its owner’s presence in every thread. 

He patted your shoulders, then took one step back just enough to give you more space. “You’ll sit with me,” he said, his voice low, cutting through the tension like a blade, and his tone leaving no room for argument.

You almost opened your lips to speak but restrained yourself to do so for the way he uttered his order had been truly disarming. It wasn’t a question, not even a suggestion. No, it was a statement, one that accepted no debate. And even though the only thing you truly wished at this moment was to run away from this hellish place and lock yourself in your bedroom, you still followed Kirigan when his hand pressed lightly to the small of your back to guide you forward under the glance of every member of the assembly and a gutted Zoya. 

One step after the other. 

The dining hall seemed to fade as he led you across the room, his touch steadying your trembling steps and giving you the strength you lacked to ignore all the pairs of eyes that were riveted on you. Once he reached his table, Aleksander pulled out a chair, the scrape of wood against the floor creaking, and he gestured for you to sit. Hesitation crept into you but the way his dark, shining eyes softened ever so slightly — not in kindness but in reassurance —  encouraged you. Moreover, pushing him and rushing out of the room wasn’t an appropriate option anyway so what else could you do besides sinking into the seat? He took his place beside you as the officers seated at the table exchanged confused looks but knew better than say something for their deference to the General was absolute.

The dinner unfolded, and exquisite plates followed, but the humiliation you had suffered earlier lingered, giving you a bitter taste in your mouth. And there were their eyes, their fucking eyes staring at you in a way so nerve-racking that you wished you could have plucked them out of their sockets with your nails.

It was halfway through the meal that Kirigan’s gaze flicked discreetly toward you, with an expression still unfathomable. One look was all it took for him to sense the unease that seeped through every bit of you. Maybe that was why, hidden beneath the table, his hand sought yours. You froze slightly, surprised at the sensation of his fingers finding you, warm and firm, and lacing yours together without hesitation. 

“Let them stare. They’ll grow bored of it really soon.” 

The gesture was grounding, a silent lullaby for your soul, and relaxed you enough to allow you to exhale a shaky breath.

“I feel like an animal in a bloody zoo.” You whispered, the word ‘zoo’ spat with disgust as it painfully reminded you of the Menagerie. For the umpteenth time, Aleksander seemed to read through your thoughts for his gaze briefly dipped to your wrist, catching the faint outline of a tattoo partially obscured by the sleeve of his kefta you were wearing and that was too large for you. His brow furrowed slightly at this observation, curiosity gleaming in his dark eyes but you turned your arm and hid the mark right away before he could study it further.

“I know the feeling.” Kirigan replied after a few seconds, his voice briefly letting you grasp a tinge of humanity before he turned to stone again and shifted his attention from you to discuss war strategies with Ivan. 

Your shoulders relaxed a little bit and, finally, you started to eat — or rather to carefully pick a few things from your plate just so you wouldn’t have to sleep with an empty stomach. Your two hands remained intertwined during the entire meal, his thumb sometimes brushing lightly against the back of yours in a soothing caress, like an anchor amidst the storm. Admittedly, the intimacy of it sent a jolt through you in a mixture of comfort and confusion that only deepened the inevitable pull you felt toward him. The way his touch quieted the turmoil in you was both thrilling and suffocating, a contradiction that left you shivering… As you always did when he was around. 

It was wrong.

This whole situation made no sense. And still, you tightened your grip around his hand. Needy. Surely.

Tenderly.

The office was dimly lit by the dozen candles flames dancing around, feeble and slow, and casting their long shadows across the walls. 

Zoya was standing stiffly near the doorway, arms behind her back and her posture irreproachable, though her confident demeanor crumbled under Aleksander’s cold, unwavering gaze. Leaning against his desk, the shadows around him curled faintly at his shoulders as a visible manifestation of his restrained anger.

“Close the door,” He ordered without looking at her with a voice calm but edged with steel. Wasting no time, Zoya obeyed. The click of the latch sounded far louder than it should have in the silence of the office. 

Aleksander spoke first while looking directly at her, his pitch-black eyes sharp and accusing. She couldn’t help but notice that he had fetched his kefta back from you once you had reached the door of your bedroom safe and sound “Do you enjoy embarrassing me, Zoya?”

She gritted her teeth. “With all due respect, General, I’ve done no such thing. I merely—”

“You merely threw blood on a member of this court.” Cold fury crackled from his tone. He had given her no chance to justify her behavior for he had already charged her guilty,  “In front of everyone. Did you think that it was acceptable behavior for a soldier under my command?”

Zoya stiffened, “She’s dangerous. A liability. I was making a point—” Her lips tightened into a thin line.

“A point?” Aleksander’s voice had turned into a hiss now , “What point, exactly? That you are envious of someone stronger than you? That you cannot stomach the presence of someone who makes you question your own worth?”

“She doesn’t belong here!” Zoya burst out with trembling words but her tone bore clear hints of both defiance and frustration. “She almost killed me! You’ve brought in a wild animal and expect us to treat her like—”

“Quiet.” His order was like a whip, “You will not speak of her like that again. Do you understand me?”

As Zoya’s fear momentarily eclipsed her anger, she stuttered, “General, I only meant—”

“Do you know what I meant, Zoya?” Against all expectations, the tall darkness’ voice was deceptively soft and still, and yet it cut deeper than any shout, “I meant for you to serve this court with dignity. To protect your fellow Grisha, not humiliate them for sport. Tell me, did you feel powerful when you poured that blood on her? Did you feel strong?”

This time, the fierce Zoya Nazyalenski looked away, “I was protecting us,” she muttered, though her speech lacked conviction. “She’s—”

“She is under my protection,” Aleksander interrupted, “And that should be all you need to know. You will respect her because I demand it. Not because you like her. Not because you understand her. But because you respect me. She’s part of this court and you will treat her accordingly.”

Tears started to prick at Zoya’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. “I’ve served you faithfully for years,”  She lamented, “And you would cast a loyal follower for her?”

Aleksander leaned over his desk to come a tad bit closer to her, his gaze filled with threats that didn’t need to be spoken to be horrifying. “For someone with your talents, Zoya, you can be remarkably shortsighted. This is not about her or you. This is about the unity of Grisha, something you should value more than your petty grievances.”

For the first time in years, the Squaller flinched as though struck by lightning, her confidence shattering in millions of shards like a broken mirror under the General’s unemotional eyes. He straightened and waved off the topic, “You may go. And if I hear of any more incidents, there will be consequences far greater than this conversation.” 

At first, she remained still and hesitated, as if she desperately tried to search for some trace of leniency in his expression but she found none. Just plain disappointment and anger as cold as the deadliest blizzard. For Zoya, pride had always been her armor, but today it cracked, leaving her exposed to a truth she could no longer deny: the General’s favor was a fortress she would never breach. A fortress you had conquered in the span of a few weeks while she had worked on it for years. As the door closed behind her, the sound was not just the end of a conversation—it was the shattering of the illusion that she still stood untouchable.

And even though no one had overheard what they had said, many saw Zoya leaving the General’s office in tears. Quite a paltry price to pay for the humiliation and pain she had bestowed upon you earlier.

Please consider reblogging and commenting if you want the story to continue. It is what motivates writers to write the next chapters...

tags: @lunawants , @emtaz-art, @lightinbug, @kmc1989, @thepassionatereader @mystic-mara @m-riaa @kallista-diune

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Mr. Cube I have a question of utmost importance for you as literally the only Magneto main I know of. HOW... DO YOU PLAY HIM. Do you have any tips. I want to look at him.

So You Want To Be Pretty OK As Magneto In Marvel Rivals

(3 March, 2025) a beginner's guide written by your resident magneto main snapperoni because now i get an excuse to talk about marvel rivals magneto extensively and in gross detail

*this guide will be treating you as though you have never used magneto in your life and will go into extreme depths at explaining his abilities as well as what it means to be a tank player. if you feel confident in understanding his abilities, feel free to skip the abilities section and head straight to the bottom for talk on strategy and tips

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

TLDR ROLE INTRODUCTION ABILITIES Melee/Greatsword Primary Fire/Iron Volley Secondary Fire/Mag Cannon Metallic Curtain Metal + Iron Bulwark [TEAM-UP ABILITY] Metallic Fusion [ULTIMATE] Meteor M [PASSIVE] Magnetic Descent TIPS AND STRATEGIES Iron Volley + Mag Cannon Combo Bubble and Shield Usage Two Tanks Are Better Than One Metallic Fusion How to Use Meteor M CLOSING THOUGHTS

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Too Long, Didn't Read:

Magneto is a poke tank meant to be played at medium-to-close range whose priorities should lie in acting as a living wall for his teammates. preserving his abilities mostly for himself yet sharing them when the situation calls for it.

While his priorities should be defense-based, when it comes to going on the offensive you want him to target strategists and duelists and only engage in tanks if the rest of the team is with you. As far as aiming goes, he's very friendly and isn't hitscan reliant, and you should find yourself picking up his aim style easily with time.

He's not a super flashy character like the rest of the cast, but he's far from useless and, at this moment in time, stands as one of Rival's best tank options alongside Doctor Strange and Hulk, whether you're running two tanks or running solo.

Overall, the two-star difficulty he is awarded is very fitting: available to newcomers to pick up and start playing, however offers a little something extra to those with a better understanding of him; he's generally straight forward as far as tanks go, but picking up a few extra tips and tidbits never hurt anyone. Except your enemies, of course.

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Role Introduction: Vanguard/Tank

As a vanguard unit, Magneto's top priority should be taking the brunt of the team's damage on the front line and should give the team either opportunities to push forward, or shoot behind the cover you provide.

With 650HP (without shields), while he has average health for a vanguard, his defensive kit allows him to be a formidable wall when his abilities are used tactfully and you work in tandem with your support/s. Unlike dive tanks like Venom and Captain America, Magneto is much more stationary, and his kit rewards playing defensively and close to the team.

A common misconception with FPS games is that your top priority is to get the most eliminations as possible and to exclusively hunt for the next kill (unless that is the objective of the specific map you're playing on, then kill away). There are several errors with this philosophy: for starters, you begin to neglect the objective, which can lead to a game loss.

The amount of kills you have won't matter if you stay off point and the other team takes the objective. No matter what anyone says, don't stress about your eliminations so long as you know you're protecting your team, securing the point, and overall providing value to the game (though it is important to be able to land a shot....).

Moreover, playing under this philosophy is a sure-fire way to not only get you killed and remove your time away from the field (which should truly be your game philosophy: die as little as possible), but specifically as a tank you'll bring your teammates down with you as they lose what should be a reliable line of defense. As a tank, you should be opening up opportunities for your teammates to get the eliminations and protecting your strategist/support units.

All of that said, tank is not for the passive player: as tank, you need to be firm about the playing field being yours and making sure the enemy team knows they're going to have a hard time taking it from you. Fitting for Magneto, really.

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Ability Review

Before dissecting Magneto's abilities, I will preface and say I calculated his damage using Doctor Strange (600HP) and Scarlet Witch (250HP) as damage dummies. The numbers I have here may not be accurate, so to circumvent this potential error I'll describe how many shots it takes to use a specific skill in order to eliminate certain enemies.

Melee/Greatsword

Attack speed: ~1 second

Damage Output: 40 (About seven swings to KO a 250HP enemy)

Utilizing Doom Bot remains, Magneto swings with a grandiose blade. The problem with this sword is it's not only one of- if not the- slowest melees in the game as of right now, but it has very little to compensate for its poor speed. Should very rarely be used in place of a well-aimed primary fire.

Primary Fire/Iron Volley

Reload time: ~1 Second

Damage Output:

Direct Damage: 80 (About four shots to KO a 250HP enemy)

Edge Damage: 40 (About seven shots to KO a 250HP enemy)

Fall-Off Damage: 40 (About seven shots to KO a 250HP enemy)

Magneto's Iron Volley asks that you lead/predict your shots. Moreover, his Iron Volley will explode automatically once reaching 25M(eters), whether it hits a target or not. At 25M, your shot will no longer do 80 damage, but will do half instead. As noted before, Magneto's primary fire will explode when it comes into contact with a wall, floor, or enemy. As such, the explosion has a small hitbox- doing just about half of a regular, direct shot. Because of this, you shouldn't be too stressed if you're not the greatest at aiming: Magneto's primary fire makes up for any minor imperfections and is rather generous so long as you're in the general area of your target.

Secondary Fire/Mag-Cannon

Reload Time (Without Bulwark Aid):

One Ring: ~4 Seconds

Two Rings: ~8 Seconds

Full Power: ~12 Seconds

Damage Output:

One Ring: 40 (About seven shots to KO a 250HP enemy)

Two Rings: 80 (About four shots to KO a 250HP enemy)

Three Rings/Full Power: 100 (About three shots to KO a 250HP enemy)

Edge Damage: N/A

Similar to Iron Volley, you will need to lead your shot when firing off a Mag-Cannon. Unlike his primary fire however, Magneto's secondary fire will keep going until it hits a wall or enemy. Moreover, it doesn't suffer any damage fall-off, nor does it offer any edge damage. How many rings you possess show both on Magneto physically, but they can also be tracked by the purple arrows below your crosshair. As a bonus, the Mag-Cannon momentarily stuns and pushes back any targets it hits which can either cancel an enemy's advancement, or open the floor for a follow-up attack.

Metallic Curtain

Recharge Time: 3 Seconds

Replenish-to-Full Time: 10 Seconds

Duration: 1.5 Seconds

Shield HP: N/A

Putting up an impenetrable wall just shy of two seconds allows Magneto and his allies to pull back safely from oncoming damage or provide just enough cover to make an adequate push forward. Not to mention, this indestructible wall scoffs in the face of any ult coming your way. Once the shield has been spent, a white bar will appear on the right side of your crosshair. This bar indicates how long you can hold your shield up the next time you use it before it's fully charged, where then the bar will fade. Finally, you can put your shield down early. While this means you'll have to wait the full three seconds for it to be available again, this means your shield will have more durability the next time you use it.

Metal Bulwark + Iron Bulwark

Recharge Time: 12 seconds

Duration: ~3 Seconds

Shield HP: To be calculated, but it does exist: be cautious of the damage you and your teammates take.

Magneto can spring a magnetic bubble over either himself or an ally. The bubble not only negates any incoming damage and protects allies from Scarlet Witch's Reality Erasure, but once the bubble has popped or faded Magneto will regain some Mag Cannon rings relative to the damage absorbed.

[TEAM-UP ABILITY] Metallic Fusion/Chaos

Recharge Time: 30 seconds

Duration: 10 seconds

Damage Output:

Direct Damage: 100 (About six shots to KO a 600HP enemy)

Edge Damage: N/A

Being his only team-up ability as of writing this post, this father-daughter duo ability allows Magneto to fire at an impressive 100 damage per second as he finally finds use in his otherwise-inadequate greatsword, adding a truly dangerous ability to his typically defensive kit. It's as though every shot taken was a Mag Cannon with a wider hitbox- however this hitbox varies from being vertical or horizontal and thus can be a little unpredictable if you aren't aiming carefully. Is used best at medium-close range, but don't neglect its potential to snipe enemies from across the map.

[ULTIMATE] Meteor M

Duration: 4 Seconds

Magnetic Range:

Lowest to the ground: 30M

Nearest to the skybox: 5M

Damage Output (No Charge):

Edge: 150 (About over half of a 250HP enemy's health bar)

Direct: 300 (About half of a 600HP enemy's health bar)

Damage Threshold Before Explosion: To be calculated, however can be tracked by the counter below the crosshair

Automatically floating into the air, Magneto stays true to his name and acts as a magnet for all incoming projectiles; extracting enemy projectiles to build the power of his metal meteor and granting Magneto the ability to float freely, Magneto's ultimate doubles both as an offensive and defensive ability. You're able to see your magnetic field + blast radius by observing the purple ring on the ground. Remember: you can rise and descend freely so long as your ultimate is up, use this wisely. I affectionately refer to the meteor as "rock", however this ultimate has garnered a reputation for not doing as much as some believe it should. Hopefully this guide helps you in ensuring your meteors make the impact they deserve.

[PASSIVE] Magnetic Descent

Manipulating the magnetic field around him, Magneto decreases his fall speed by 50% when holding the jump button. Nuff said. People have a hard time aiming up in FPS's so if you find yourself with the opportunity to float around a bit (especially using Rocket's jump pack) then by all means terrorize from above as you descend.

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Tips and Strategy

Iron Volley + Mag Cannon Combo

A basic tip, but a valuable one nonetheless. To eliminate an enemy with 250HP- assuming you land all your shots directly- it takes about 3 seconds, four shots. Again, this is assuming you hit all your shots and if the enemy doesn't regenerate any health. Alternatively, utilizing the PRIMARY-SECONDARY-PRIMARY combo allows you to not only stun an opponent with your secondary fire, but it should take nearly half of the time spent then if you only used primary fires, so make sure to use your secondary shots responsibly. Remember that your primary fire has, at max, 25M of utility: afterwards, it won't be able to do much. Fine for picking off low-health enemies while they're fleeing, but don't expect to hit any enemies close to the skybox or far away from you without moving in a little bit first- that's what your secondary fire's for. As Magneto, your targets should be squishy characters like support and DPS. Because of his relatively-slow DPS, Magneto doesn't fair well against other tanks and shouldn't engage in 1v1's if possible (they're not unwinnable, but they could be a great distraction and leave your team vulnerable).

While I'm here, I'm just going to stress to not use your melee. Like. At all. You're much better just using your primary fire. At most you can set it up as Hulk's turning into Bruce if you'd like but that should really be it: your primary fire is much more effective than your sword.

Bubble and Shield Usage

As a tank, you want to act as a wall for your teammates, and this can be done effectively by being more conservative and selfish with your shields: you are the wall. Remember. Draw the enemy's fire towards you by being an irritant. While Magneto is healthy in shields, remember you have natural cover from stage obstacles and structures as well. Magneto can be regarded as a 'poke' tank: a tank who is meant to attack sporadically and in short bursts. He is best played at a medium distance from the enemy front line and to not to be wholly damage focused when he is much more defense focused. 'Poking' the enemy from behind structures is not only a great way to conserve your abilities, but it utilizes Magneto's primary and secondary fires well due to their moderately-slow start up and overall DPS, letting him take cover when need be.

While attacking on the front line, once you notice your health start to dip below half or you feel as though the crowd is about to overwhelm you, raise your Metallic Curtain and step back to give yourself some air. Bubble yourself as a last resort if you still need to back up- be sure to fire your Mag Cannon beforehand so you'll immediately have it replenished if your bubble pops during your escape. It's important to remember Magneto has zero movement abilities and it takes 5 seconds for him to traverse 30M: it doesn't sound too bad, but when there's a large crowd in front of you, you'll wish he could move faster. Don't push too far ahead, and be aware of exits around you.

That being said, be conscious of your teammates. This is a TEAM game after all. We've covered Magneto and Scarlet Witch's team-up ability before and how valuable it is. As a result, you'll need to learn to play well with any Scarlet Witches on your team, and this means having your bubble ready to protect her when she decides to ult (this also means making sure to check the scoreboard occasionally for your teammate's ult charge as well as, again, being ability-conscious of those around you). Only when she's in immediate danger do you bubble her, not before: this ensures the bubble lasts long enough for her to get her ult off (or there's a better chance it'll be executed, anyhow). If you feel as though you won't be able to react fast enough, then you can try to bubble her beforehand; don't stress out about timing the bubble perfectly, just make sure she's protected. In general, bubble your duelists when they're deep in a crowd to give them a chance to escape (but don't stress out about protecting them. After all, there's only so much you can do before you put yourself in danger or use a bubble inappropriately when someone else could have better benefited from it). Besides Wanda, it's naturally best to look after your support units and to make sure they're not being overwhelmed. Don't helicopter them and neglect the rest of the team, but just make sure to check on them every now and then. Ultimately, your bubble priority should be Supports -> Yourself -> Others. After all, your support/s can't help you or the team if they're dead.

Two Tanks Are Better Than One

Magneto has the fortitude to be able to tank by himself comfortably, however the rare days you find yourself partnered up with a second tank, know these are the days you can be more generous with your bubbles and shields to your teammates. Your second tank will help cover with you and should make it easier for you to escape the crowd when need be, so bubble-hogging is less of a necessity. Make sure to help your tank too if they're in a bind and they're out of defenses/movement abilities (but again, not at the detriment of yourself or your supports: once more, Magneto can tank by himself if need be so long as you use your abilities carefully).

Metallic Fusion

It's tempting to want to use Magneto and Scarlet Witch's team-up ability the second you have it, however it's best to save it for crowd control. That being said, once it is active, make the absolute most of it: there's no consequence to holding down the primary fire, so just let loose and go crazy (with reason, of course: don't run in and get yourself killed and don't forget your teammates).

How to Use Meteor M

Someone asked me this midmatch once and I scrambled to come up with an answer. Both because the round was about to start in five seconds but also because I truly didn't know the answer at the time. The longer I've played though, I think I finally have the answer- or a better one besides "spray and pray" at least. As noted before, Meteor M is a fickle ultimate and how you use it is dependent on the situation (many such cases about anything, honestly). At times, you'll want to play higher to the skybox to ensure your meteor doesn't explode immediately. Alternatively, a quick throw of the meteor might do the trick in some situations where it's both safe to build meteor charge close to the ground, and the faster you remove a target/s, the better. This is also dependent on how many projectiles are being thrown out onto the field: if you're in a situation with predominantly melee opponents, it's best to use your meteors to single-out troublesome duelists and supports- there's little chance your meteor's going to exceed 30+ charge in those kinds of matches. Generally, you'll want to use it to counter support ults like Cloak + Dagger and Luna Snow (NOTE: a raw meteor will NOT KO an ulting Luna. You need at least 30+ charge before a direct hit can KO her. Cloak + Dagger can be KO'd from the get-go with a direct hit). Don't be afraid to throw out a meteor if you see a cluster of low health/squishy enemies without any defenses, however. Just remember it's ok to hold onto an ult if it means it gets greater value later on, and that you shouldn't hunt exclusively for team wipes. If you find yourself popping ult and the crowd's dispersed, support units should be your default priority (unless there's a duelist/DPS unit using their ultimate: take them out instead if you can). Initiating Meteor against Punisher's Final Judgement can be tricky if you aren't fast enough, as Frank's ammunition will quickly push your meteor to its limit. If you don't throw your meteor fast enough, you could potentially risk your teammates their lives and waste an ultimate in the process. Use your meteor against Punisher with caution. Similar notes to be said about Star-Lord's Galactic Legend, only now your problem is also throwing at a flying enemy. If he's close enough to your 25M range, I personally would shoot him down with a regular primary/secondary as his DPS isn't nearly as grand as Punisher's and a meteor could be superfluous. Otherwise, focus on getting to cover and protecting your vulnerable teammates. You'll especially want to be wary of enemy tanks and their shields as they'll without a doubt cancel out your ult with ease, more specifically enemy Magneto's and Doctor Stranges. Be cautious that Captain America can deflect your ultimate, though I personally have had minimal trouble with Captains. In general, you should track enemy ability usage, but especially the prior two if you hope to pop your rock soon.

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Closing Thoughts

Ultimately, improving at Marvel Rivals in general comes with time and willingness to acknowledge you're bad at the game sometimes but to not let that stop you from playing who you wanna play, whether you're playing as Magneto or not. While you can do your best to improve your aim in Rivals' practice area, things like game sense are something that can only really be accumulated through experience and playing the game.

Sometimes I watch back old games/moments of mine to figure out where I could've gone wrong to improve next time, but you don't HAVE to do that: just play the game, have fun, and love Magneto.

And throw a rock at every support you see for me okbyethankyouforreading

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Bonus: My Credentials so you can determine if i'm reliable or not. or something.

[PS: every hero Not Mags/Wanda/Adam is purely my brother i swear im loyal]

[homewardskies]

Holidays, Offerings, and Other Ancient Praxis in Paganism: It's Not an Exact Science

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

A lot of people just starting out have questions about the specific details of their praxis, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! Beginners, I've noticed, especially want to know how many holidays, what to do for them, when exactly they are, etc. Some are caught up in wondering what acceptable offerings are, how they should offer, and how should they pray. And these are all very reasonable questions from a beginner's perspective. The problem is that pagan religions, particularly those that are reconstructed from ancient belief systems, (in other words, not new age religions like Wicca) are not that easily simplified; there isn't one secret collection of knowledge on how to get it "right."

So, I wanted to break down a few of the difficulties with reconstructing historical traditions that you might run into and also remind you that maximum accuracy isn't always the goal.

1. Timeframe

The first problem we run into for recreating really anything, is that some traditions (ahem, especially Hellenic and Kemetic paganism) have a lengthy history. Those civilizations spanned thousands of years, so their religion did not exist in one singular, unchanged form for the countless generations it was practiced. If you want a modern example, we can look at holidays popular in modern culture, like Christmas, that have already changed and adapted over the course of maybe the last 200 years.

Now, put that into perspective for figuring out holidays from ancient religions. There is no single answer for how to go about Paganism because there wasn't just one correct way to practice when these religions were "alive." The best we can usually do is guesstimate based on surviving records and fill in the rest with our own UPG and experience. And that leads us to the second struggle:

2. Lack of information

This is a bigger issue for pagan traditions like Norse, Celtic, or Slavic. These people relied far more on oral tradition, well up to Christianization. Because of this, we don't have a super detailed idea of what certain aspects of the practice looked like, particularly from further back in their history. There's a bit we can infer from anthropological findings and secondary sources, although those aren't always reliable since many were retold from a Christian perspective, and we then lose the context.

3. Localization

This isn't so much an issue as it is something to simply be aware of. Ancient pagan civilizations were not monoliths of culture and belief; different regions had different practices. In Hellenic Paganism, for example, there were different deity cults that were city-specific. Just as culture changed over time, it also changed over space, so the recorded history of holidays in, say, Athens, wouldn't be the same as a rural village fifty miles north of Athens.

This is one that can really inform our modern practice because I'm fairly certain that the average practitioner isn't living like folks were back in those times. We can localize according to our own cultures, geography, and lifestyle, just as they had to do. Example: Olives and wine were a central part of Ancient Greece and many offerings were centered around this. I, however, live in the southern US. Instead of stressing about the cost of imported Olive Oil, I will instead pick honey suckles, offer a locally brewed Stout, or set aside some Crawfish.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Now, this is all to say, don't get weighed down by the finer details of your practice, especially if you're a beginner, because the "right way" is in itself an oversimplification of the change inherent to spiritual practice. Even when the religion was still "alive," it was not a single, uniform structure (deconstruct that Othodoxy, ya'll).

Yes, a pre-made calendar is a good frame of reference for worship, and yes, a guide on how to pray to each God would have helped in the beginning. But odds are, you live in a different environment than ancient people, under different circumstances than the religion was originally practiced, and most of the original context under which they practiced no longer prevails. So you have room to create your own path.

Don't get stuck in the "learning phase" because your whole practice is the learning phase.

[thegreatyin]

Thinking of finally starting Fallen London. What do?

sorry this took multiple days to answer. i started grabbing links and immediately got distracted.

Starting Fallen London is a very easy task. All you have to do is visit the official website and register an account! From there, simply follow the tutorial and set off on your neathly adventure.

That's it. That's all you need. Yes, really. With very few exceptions, Fallen London is free to play, and with over 4.5 million words and counting, you'll never be completely out of things to do in the Neath. And you can do so very many things indeed! Build a railway to hell! Learn the language of the gods! Fantasize about kissing bats! Take your batkissing to the next level and become one yourself!

If you ever feel lost, I highly recommend consulting the official fan wiki for tips, tricks, and a nearly-complete encyclopedia on all items and their sources. Their beginner's guide in particular is great. There's also my own list of newbie advice for more specific guidance, and if you still can't find what you're looking for I'm always happy to answer questions directly on Tumblr (eg; "how do I beat Mr Pages to death with a brick?")

Above all else? Make sure to take your time with it!! Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will your Fallen London career. There are very few choices you can't take back, and even fewer that don't lead to something interesting or even infinitesimally profitable. Fallen London is a game that's meant to be digested and savored like a good meal. Don't stress about endgame achievements or missed collectables- just go at your own pace and see where the Neathly road takes you.

If you're ever in need of a tutor, you can find all four of my accounts here, here, here, and here. Of them, the Scoundrel is the one with the most to offer new players (particularly if you need coins for Heart's Desire) but they're all open to send menace reduction and/or general social actions if you need it!

Hopefully this ask was helpful. If not? Here's THE CHURCH CUBE to stare at as a consolation prize.

Look at it... so majestic... it brings a tear to the eye....

[html-tryhard]

HTML Fic Event Week

Prompt Sheet Generator | AO3 Collection | html tryhard on AO3

HTML is a markup language used to tell a web browser how to display content. You might be aware of simple uses of HTML, such as bold and italics but HTML can be used to do so much more! Do you like r/AITA stories? Have you ever been interested in including realistic text messages into your fics? Did you like choose-your-own-adventure books as a kid? HTML can be used for all of these things and more!

Join us for HTML Tryhards 2025, where we bully our friends (and you? 👀) into making fanfiction super extra shiny using the power of HTML.

AO3, a fanfiction hosting platform, supports the use of HTML, and that's where submissions for this event should be posted. We have a collection for you to post to, but please use the tag #HTML Tryhard on your work as well!

On Tumblr, @ this blog or use the tag #htmltryhard2025, and we'll reblog your posts.

Prompts

There are two (optional) prompts per day, one to influence the format and one to influence the story. You can generate your own custom prompt list here. Use as many or as few of the prompts as you like.

Rules

All fandoms welcome.

Submissions must include a significant portion of HTML. We'd prefer the entire work be HTML, but mixed prose and HTML is also acceptable.

Submissions MUST be HTML and not images or screenshots of text logs/tweets/etc.

There is no required minimum word count, but the suggested minimum word count is 500 words.

The prompts are OPTIONAL, use as many or as few as you'd like.

HTML/CSS guides are accepted (and encouraged!) as submissions.

Submissions should include the #HTML Tryhard tag on AO3.

Submissions should be added to the collection on AO3.

You can start posting submissions January 13th. The last date of the event is January 17th, though if you're running behind you can still post to the collection after that date.

Follow us!

If you don't know how to use HTML but it's something you're interested in, give us a follow! In the days leading up to the event, we'll be sharing works that have utilized HTML, as well as helpful tutorials. The difficulty of these tutorials will vary, and we'll post things we hope will be helpful for tryhard veterans and beginners alike.

You can also send us your HTML questions and we'll do our best to help you out!

[witchyintention]

Witchcraft in the Digital Age

The 21st century didn’t just bring us smartphones, social media, and memes—it also ushered witchcraft into the technological spotlight. With the power of Wi-Fi and a little keyboard magic, witches from all over the world can connect, learn, and cast spells in ways that our broomstick-riding ancestors couldn’t have dreamed of. Let’s explore how the digital age has revolutionized witchcraft, from online covens to the rise of TikTok witches, and everything in between.

From Grimoires to Google Docs: Sharing Knowledge in the Digital Realm

In the pre-internet days, learning witchcraft often required finding a mentor, stumbling upon the right dusty book in the back of a shop, or deciphering cryptic information passed down orally. Now, a quick Google search can teach you how to cleanse your crystals, create moon water, or banish negative energy—all without leaving your couch.

The internet has democratized access to witchcraft, tearing down barriers that once kept this knowledge elusive. Blogs, YouTube channels, and digital libraries offer endless resources on every kind of practice imaginable. Whether you’re into Wicca, Hoodoo, traditional witchcraft, or chaos magic, there’s a treasure trove of information waiting to be explored. This accessibility has also helped reclaim and preserve marginalized magical traditions, giving practitioners a platform to share their practices and connect with others.

Hashtag Hexes: Social Media and the Rise of the Digital Witch

Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest have given witchcraft a visually stunning makeover. Witchy influencers share photos of perfectly curated altars, short how-to videos, and aesthetic spell tutorials that look as good as they (hopefully) work. But it’s TikTok, affectionately nicknamed “WitchTok,” that has truly taken the digital cauldron by storm.

On WitchTok, creators share everything from beginner tips to elaborate rituals, often condensed into bite-sized videos with trending audio tracks. Want to learn about planetary correspondences or the best herbs for protection spells? There’s a TikTok for that. Need a quick guide to reading tarot? Someone’s already made a video with helpful graphics and snarky commentary.

While WitchTok has made witchcraft more accessible and engaging for younger generations, it’s not without its quirks (or curses, depending on who you ask). Viral trends like the infamous “hexing the moon” incident highlight the occasional clash between traditional practitioners and younger, less experienced witches. However, these moments also spark important discussions about respect, responsibility, and the need for deeper knowledge.

Digital Covens: Finding Your Community Online

Gone are the days when witches had to rely solely on local communities or secret gatherings to find their covens. Today, online forums, Discord servers, and Facebook groups have become virtual meeting spaces for witches of all paths. These digital covens offer a space to share spells, ask questions, and support one another, all while sipping tea in your pajamas.

The inclusivity of online spaces has been a game-changer for those who might not have access to in-person communities. Witches in conservative areas, individuals with disabilities, and those who prefer solitary practice can still feel connected to a broader magical network. Platforms like Reddit’s r/witchcraft or specialized apps like Amino provide spaces for open dialogue, mentorship, and collaboration.

Of course, online communities have their challenges. Differing opinions, misinformation, and the occasional “gatekeeper” can make these spaces tricky to navigate. But for many witches, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

The Curse of Misinformation

While the internet has made witchcraft more accessible, it’s also created a breeding ground for misinformation. Not every TikTok spell or Pinterest graphic is accurate—or safe. Some “quick fixes” can lead to unintended consequences (like burning cinnamon on charcoal and nearly setting off the fire alarm) or appropriating practices without understanding their cultural significance.

It’s become increasingly important for modern witches to verify their sources, cross-reference information, and approach their craft with respect and curiosity. The digital age might make learning easier, but it also requires a critical eye to separate authentic wisdom from clickbait magic.

The E-Commerce Boom: Spell Kits, Crystals, and Online Witch Shops

The rise of e-commerce has transformed how witches gather their tools. Need ethically sourced sage, a crescent moon-shaped candle, or a deck of oracle cards? Etsy, Amazon, and countless independent online shops have got you covered. You can even have spell kits delivered to your doorstep, complete with instructions and pre-measured ingredients.

While this convenience is undeniably appealing, it’s also sparked debates within the community. Concerns about over-harvesting herbs like white sage, the exploitation of crystal miners, and the commercialization of spiritual practices have led many witches to seek sustainable and ethical alternatives. Supporting small businesses and researching sourcing practices are key ways to ensure your magic aligns with your values.

The Rise of Witchcraft Apps and Digital Tools

In the digital age, there’s an app for everything—including witchcraft. Astrology apps like Co-Star and The Pattern provide daily horoscopes and personalized birth chart insights, while moon phase trackers help witches plan their rituals around lunar cycles. Tarot apps, spell planners, and even virtual altars make it easier than ever to integrate magic into everyday life.

These tools are especially useful for witches on the go or those looking to organize their practice in a more structured way. However, as with all technology, it’s important to balance convenience with mindfulness. After all, no app can replace the personal connection and intuition that lie at the heart of witchcraft.

Social Justice and Activism in the Digital Age

The internet has also amplified witchcraft’s role in social justice and activism. Modern witches often use their platforms to advocate for causes like climate change, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ rights, blending their magical practices with activism. Hexing political figures, creating protection spells for protestors, and fundraising for marginalized communities are just a few examples of how digital witches are making their voices heard.

This intersection of magic and activism has strengthened witchcraft’s position as a tool for empowerment and resistance. The digital age has given witches the power not just to connect with each other, but to amplify their collective voices and effect real-world change.

The Future of Witchcraft in the Digital Era

As technology continues to evolve, so too will witchcraft. Virtual reality rituals, AI-powered tarot readings, and blockchain-based spell trading might sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but they’re closer than you think. The digital age has opened up endless possibilities for innovation, creativity, and connection in the magical community.

But even as witchcraft embraces the future, its essence remains timeless. At its core, magic is about intention, connection, and transformation—whether you’re casting a spell by candlelight or clicking “like” on a WitchTok video.

Witchcraft in the digital age is a vibrant, dynamic blend of ancient tradition and modern innovation. It’s a world where hashtags meet history, and technology bridges the gap between solitary practitioners and global communities. While the digital realm presents its share of challenges, it’s ultimately given witches a platform to thrive, connect, and reimagine what it means to practice magic in the 21st century.

[xenocorner]

Art Resources 01 [Facial anatomy]

Hi! First post of the Art Resources thing I mentioned a while back :) Figured I'd start with something people generally want to know more about- or something people think they already know about but could still used some lesser known tips!

Resources, break downs and tips under the Keep Reading thing :]

1. The Basics

There are thousands of methods to constructing the face. The most popular one is the little circle with the cross in the middle, and sometimes a few more lines for the jaw. While that can be a useful guideline, if you're just starting to learn the ropes it might be better to use a method that has more structure decomposition and land marks to help guide you. Here I'll leave two methods of deconstructing the face that I believe are the most useful to draw faces in different angles and perspectives as well as identify where exactly should each element be placed.

REMEMBER: All of these methods are just guidelines. In order to get different facial features, you can adjust proportions for each of these and play around with sizes.

1.1 The Loomis Method

A structural approach to drawing the head, based on first: simplifying general forms and second: identifying landmarks for the face elements. Pretty good for beginners, helps you understand the head from a more tridimensional stand point to be able to draw it from different angles.

1.2 The Reilly Method

Also a structural approach, but this one is based on understanding the rhythms of the face (proportions, harmonies, and even some general muscular anatomy). It can be a bit harder to understand and use as a building block for beginner artists, but it can serve as a way to check your proportions after an initial sketch.

Here are other two methods, a bit less known, but that go a bit more in depth about the head. If you're a beginner, I'd recommend watching the Loomis method first before diving into these other two methods. Note: these are playlists covering each method, and the videos are longer, but worthwhile.

1.3 The Michael Hampton Method

1.4 The Steve Huston Method

And here's a hybrid of a visual and structural approach too if you're interested! (Again, this one is recommended mostly if you already have a good grasp of the general structure)

Having trouble finding that reference of the head from that specific angle? Here's a 3D model that can be used as reference from any angle. Bonus: It has a built in light feature that allows you to understand which planes of the face the light would hit!

There's also a version with more feminine features.

Here's a website that lets you pick a head angle and then searches for reference images with that angle too. Allows you to pick age, gender, and other features like glasses, facial hair, etc.

2. Understanding What's Below

When drawing the head and face, what most people think of is what we see everyday: the skin. However, there's more to the head and face than just that: there's a whole structure laying underneath that builds up everything on top. Understanding that structure can lead to better execution of skin level facial anatomy.

And what's that structure? Well, bones of course. And muscles. Even if (most of the time) we don't draw them, knowing they exist and how they are placed on top of each other can help with building what we do draw. Understanding the building blocks of the face will make it easier to avoid, say, making one eye bigger than the other. Or a forehead that's too small. Or ears that are too high. Or side profiles that cut off the brain.

Something I recommend for this is making study sheets of the bone structure, muscular structure, and skin structure. For this it's important to name the main bones and muscle groups. Not because you need to commit them to memory, but because if you name them on your practice sheet, it's easier to remember later on that they EXIST (even if you don't remember the name).

Here's a 3D model of the skull

Useful guide for the names of the bones of the skull

Here's a 3D model of the face muscles with names

3. Elements of a Whole

So we now understand the general structure of a face and some useful guidelines to build it. Good! But now, a face has a bunch of individual elements with their own individual structure and stuff to look out for. Those are, of course:

Eyes

Noses

Lips

Ears

3.1 Eyes

It's important to note that the eye has a volume of its own- it's not just a sticker laying on top of the face. It can be helpful to think of the eyeball inside the eye socket when drawing it (taking into account the bone structure we learned before). When understanding the eyeball as a sphere, it becomes easier to place the skin above: the eyelids. This can help with drawing the eye from any angle.

This can also help when drawing the dreaded Other EyeTM, specially if you are still a beginner artist. If you start by constructing the eyes with spheres and approach it from the perspective of "placing" the skin above that sphere, it's easier to get sizes and proportions right.

3.2 Noses

Again, spheres can be your friend.

3.3 Lips

Spheres part 3

A funny thing with lips that often gets over looked when one is just learning the ropes of anatomy is that it also wraps around the volume of the face. Just like the eyes aren't stickers laying on top, the lips aren't either. It's important to take the curvature of the face when placing the lips from different angles and expressions. For example, when we thing of a smile, its usually this idea that comes to mind:

Which yeah, that's fine! ...As long as your subject is facing straight to the camera.

But when we have even a bit of perspective, the way the mouth looks changes, and we often don't think of that and just draw what we think the mouth looks like... which can lead to odd looking mouths, like they're pasted on. So, it's important to keep in mind the volume of the face:

This is true for all features of the face: keeping in mind the volume. But, it can be more noticeable on the mouth.

3.4 Ears

Spheres part- no.

Even if the ear is one of the "flatter" parts of the head, it doesn't mean they don't have volume. Depending on the angle of the face, it'll change how much of the ear is shown- or which parts.

All ears are different and have their quirks, but they all can be divided in three major segments, colour coded in the image. If you deconstruct the ear in these three major parts, keeping in mind they have their own volume, it should be easier to figure out which of those parts will be seen depending on the angle of your face.

4. Expressions!

Now that we understand the elements and construction blocks of the face (bones and muscles), we can play around with them a bit more. So, time to make expressions!

When playing with how the skin moves, it's fundamental to understand the muscle groups of the face and how they move, relax and tense depending on the expression. Knowing that these muscles exist and how they interact with the skin above will help you know where the eyebrow should furrow, where wrinkles would form.

A BOOK I widely recommend is Anatomy of Facial Expression, which you can find here for purchase

Or here as a PDF

This book also covers skull anatomy, so it's a useful tool to study the structure talked about in 02.

There's also an ArtStation account that uploads a bunch of useful 3D model resources for anatomy (facial or otherwise).

Scott McCloud's book, Making Comics, has a section dedicated to facial expressions too (great book in general, not only if you're interested in comics!). You can find it in PAGE 80 (or 88 in the document).

Another thing that can be helpful is studying from life! You can do that by making different expressions in front of a mirror and pay close attention to which muscle groups tense and relax, where wrinkles appear, how your skin moves. Or, if you're like me and hate staring at your face, you can also study from video references.

Here's a link to a PLAYLIST containing various videos of people making different expressions.

The previous playlist contains real people, thus, REALISTIC ANATOMY. It's important to note that even if your drawing style is heavily stylised (like anime, cartoon, etc), it's still fundamental that you understand real world rules so you later know how to bend and break them properly to implement those to your own style.

However, that doesn't mean you can't study STYLISED EXPRESSIONS too! It's actually a great idea to see how other people exaggerate certain anatomical aspects to their own work so you can also understand how to do it in yours. Here's a list with various videos of EXPRESSIONS IN MOTION for animation tests. Study them the same as the previous ones: paying close attention to how the face and muscles MOVE.

Pause the videos you study as needed! While all of this might seem more useful for animation, it's also incredibly useful in illustration, and studying things in movement can help with understanding them better, thus putting them to paper (or tablet) becomes easier.

Finally, here's some videos in a sort of CLASS FORMAT that can help with walking you through drawing expressions more effectively than a text post could lol

[tmos-time]

Do you think Eridan and Sollux game together? If so what types of games? Co-op or competitive?

On that note it's probably my own brainrot, but I've been thinking Sollux probably enjoys bullet hell games from time to time, like Touhou titles and Savant Ascent for example. (The song Ism (Original Mix) by the artist Savant specifically makes me think of that wet ferret of a nerd.)

OHHH, this is a fun one >:)

so USUALLY when im thinking about them playing video games together, i think of them playing older games; it's typically sollux playing a game like earthbound, original super mario rpg, world of goo, psychonauts, whatever solluxcore game hes gotten his hands on recently, while eridan sits around to watch him play-- which then leads to eridan either wanting to try the game himself or the two swapping to multiplayer mode if the game has it. sometimes they reverse it and eridan picks the game, somehow convincing sollux to sit down to experience more atmospheric games like superliminal, the beginners guide, and the stanley parable (AND its ultra deluxe version AND the demo because eridan is simply deranged about the themes in that game <3)

and sometimes they just find a game with co-op that meshes decently enough with the both of them! they'd probably like portal 2 co-op; im sure rain world co-op would have something for the both of them, even if its biased to sollux lol; they might have fun with katamari damacy and we love katamari's co-op stuff? im sure they'd find more overall entertainment being complete dickheads to each other in we love katamari actually lol

as for sollux liking bullet hells; literally he's an everhood enjoyer to me of course he'd like bullet hells in general alongside rhythm games LMAO. he likes when a game can go fast!!

[astrolovecosmos]

I’m trying to get into astrology and I have no idea where to being and it’s hard to find good information

do you have like a beginners guide or just a small spiel of where to start? thank you :)

A beginner's guide is a really good idea, maybe I'll create one some day. As to where to start I suggest getting to know what many in the community now call your "big 3" which is your Sun Sign, Moon Sign, and Rising/Ascendant. Your Sun Sign is your "zodiac sign", the sign most people are familiar with in astrology. This is the sign based on the month you were born, for example if you were born between June 21 through July 22 then your Zodiac Sign or Sun Sign is Cancer. Your Sun Sign is your individuality, ego, some describe it as your life force, your vitality, it is the self, sort of like a base personality in which all other placements are integrated through. Many who first are learning about astrology I've noticed almost go through a "moon sign" phase. It is one of the planets or subjects outside of your zodiac sign many first learn about. The Moon Sign is your inner, emotional self. It is how you react to things emotionally, process emotions, it is your intuition, your nurturing side, your emotional needs, and it also has a connection to motherhood/parenthood. I sometimes describe the Moon Sign as almost a second zodiac sign because of how important our emotional selves are to who we are and how we live our life. The Moon changes zodiac signs every 2-3 days, so you will need to know the day, month, and year of your birth to determine what your Moon Sign is. Your Rising/Ascendant is another placement many first learn about when diving into astrology. The Rising, also called Ascendant, is a point in space, technically an angle in your natal chart. This determines how you come off to others, your raw self-expression, your impression or you could look at it as your "vibe", it describes your approach to the world, and it is also linked to interests and some believe physical appearance. To find your rising you will need to know your day, month, year, time of birth, and location of birth. After learning more about the Sun, Moon, and Rising, I would then suggest to learn about zodiac sign's elements and qualities so you can have a basic idea of how each sign can function in different areas of a chart/placement. Elements and qualities are also the basis of compatibility. Fire Signs are generalized by traits of passion, openness, individuality, independence, a temper, generosity as well as selfishness, and confidence. (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) Earth Signs are generalized by traits of dependability, loyalty, practicality, being grounded, patient, being a hard worker, and logical. (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) Air Signs are generalized by traits of sociability, intellect and/or a love of learning, objectivity, has social intuition or intelligence, fair, respectful, detachment, an open mind, but also arguing, debating, and being opinionated. (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) Water Signs are generalized by traits of sensitivity, intuitive, depth, gentle, calmness, healing talents, emotional intelligence, understanding, empathy, kindness, and attachment. (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) The qualities are a classification of how a sign's energy might flow or be expressed. There is one sign in each element for every quality. The qualities are Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. Cardinal Signs are about taking action, leading, initiation, change, and assertion. (Aries, Cancer. Libra, Capricorn) Fixed Signs are about sustaining, managing, consistency, stability, and stubbornness. (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) Mutable Signs are about flexibility, endings and beginnings, versatility, instability, and unpredictability. (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces)

I wrote a Part 2 Here.

[iztea]

Iztea I need your help💔💔 I'm genuinely trying to find my art style but I'm not very good at art in the first place, I'm a beginner and I just don't feel motivated to draw anymore because I'm not good at it,, can you pls link your tutorials so I can try to follow them the best I can..😓 I genuinely love your art and your a huge inspiration but I can't draw for shit. A lot of the tutorials on YouTube don't actually help me as much as they do for other people so I'm lowkey putting my faith in you to try and help me lmao, I just can't get the proportions of anything right, like I can't draw a body or head,, and when I trace things it just feels like cheating in art like ugghhjjnn,, can you help me😓☹️

If you struggle with proportions, then drawing over the reference photo (which you should totally have, btw) to get a feel for the distance between things is a great starting point. I also think you should have simplified anatomy references, as well as references from other artists. Basically, everything I mentioned here i don't want to repeat the same points

Tracing is not "cheating" if you're using it to learn. It can be very distasteful if it's used for finished art, where it is obviously meant to replace actual skill, or if it's traced from another artist. If you're using it to study and as a stepping stone to improve your skills, then it's totally fine and even encouraged (it's like doing assisted pull-ups at the gym). But you gotta to play it smart—tracing the actual outline without engaging in critical thought leads to ugly, mediocre, commercialized art that we don't want because we're cool based and always striving to improve ourselves

Okay anyways "But how exactly do I trace references in a smart way, iztea?" Well, like I said, you can lower the opacity of your reference photo and draw over it. Use the general shapes and volume of the body as your guide until you learn to draw without them. Don't follow the outline exactly—exaggerate or stylize the limbs to your liking. For example, I like drawing small wrists and long, slim necks because I think it looks more appealing. So whenever I'm using a reference, I (subconsciously most of the time) slim these body parts down, elongate the fingers, and so on. If you're still not sure what your style is, that's fine too. Use this exercise to find out what your hand naturally leans into

I'm not the cleanest sketcher, and it's been a while since I've done this sort of approach, so excuse the messiness but I wanted to show an example of how I'd tackle this technique. If you look closely, you'll see that I didn't exactly draw over the body parts, especially in the neck and arm area. I exaggerated the posture by adding more gestures—I made the shoulders rounder, the skull bigger, and the arms and neck longer and slimmer. I didn't focus on details like the face or fingers because that's not the point

The next important step after creating your guidelines is to redraw the lines from scratch on a separate layer, but this time without the reference. Set the reference aside and focus on copying your own guidelines. Afterward, compare the two drawings to check if your proportions are accurate. If they're off, take note of any recurring mistakes and correct them. For example, I have a tendency to draw the mouth too far down on the face, so it's something I am always aware of whenever I'm drawing. Other times, I draw the eyebrows too high from the eyes and so on. Another important thing to point out is that not all references are created equal—there are such things as bad or poor references. If the body’s silhouette looks like a blob or the limbs are heavily foreshortened, you'll find it much harder to draw so for practice, I recommend choosing poses that are fluid, clear, and expressive, with good lighting and features you can exaggerate. This will make it easier to understand the form and you'll have more fun in general I've provided a little comparison below. I'm not saying the 2nd pose is terrible and impossible to draw, it's obviously not, you can draw anything you want howeveerrr if you're just starting out, painting the 2nd one can be much more challenging due to it not being very clear in shape, value range, pose, gesture etc. So what I'm trying to say is to choose your poses wisely too

I don't remember doing any tutorials outside that hair one unless you consider my rambling sessions tutorials (i don't) but you can also scroll through the #ask iztea: art talk hashtag for whatever art-related question I might have answered I'm too lazy to link everything so YOU put the work and stalk my page

anyways yeah idk this is how i'd start.... so to summarize:

pull up references, from both real-life people, simplified anatomy sheets, and artists you like

draw over your reference photo and treat it as your training wheels

close the og reference, and use the newly traced, much more simplified outline as your new reference, and now draw the pose again, but "freehand" this time

compare the traced and the freehand version, take notice of your proportions and try to correct them

choose good, readable, easy to draw refs

never give up never what