#Effective Writing Tips 2019

[planckstorytime]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Strangled by Gentle Hands

*The following contains spoilers*

“You would risk everything you have in the hope that the future is better? What if it isn’t? What if you wake up to find the future you shaped is worse than what was?”

– Solas, Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)

I. Whatever It Takes

My premium tickets for a local film festival crumpled and dissolved in my pants pocket, unredeemed as they swirled in the washing machine. Throughout that October weekend in 2015, I neglected my celebratory privileges, my social visits to friends, and even my brutal honors literary theory class. All because a golden opportunity stretched before me: a job opening for a writing position at the once-legendary BioWare, with an impending deadline.

The application process wasn’t like anything I’d seen before. Rather than copy+paste a cover letter and quickly swap out a couple of nouns here and there, this opening required me to demonstrate my proficiency in both words and characters – namely, BioWare’s characters. Fanfiction wasn’t normally in my wheelhouse – at the time, I had taken mainly to spinning love sonnets (with a miserable success rate). But I wouldn’t balk at this chance to work on one of my dream franchises – especially since the job prospects for fresh English BAs weren’t exactly promising. So, I got to work crafting a branching narrative based on the company’s most recent title: Dragon Age: Inquisition. Barely two months prior, I saw the conclusion of that cast’s story when the Inquisitor stabbed a knife into a map and swore to hunt her former ally, Solas, to the ends of the earth. Now it was my turn to puppeteer them, to replicate the distinct voice of each party member and account for how they’d react to the scenario I crafted. And if it went well, then maybe I’d be at the tip of the spear on that hunt for Solas. Finishing the writing sprint left me exhausted, but also proud of my work.

The folks at BioWare obviously felt differently, because I received a rejection letter less than a week later. Maybe they found my story trite and my characterization inaccurate, or maybe they just didn’t want to hire a student with no professional experience to his name. Regardless, I was devastated. It wouldn’t be until years later that I learned that, had my application been accepted, I likely would’ve been drafted into working on the studio’s ill-fated looter shooter, Anthem (2019), noteworthy for its crunch and mismanagement. My serendipitous rejection revealed that sometimes the future you strive to build was never meant to match your dreams. What seemed like an opportunity to strike oil actually turned out to be a catastrophic spill.

Still, my passion for the Dragon Age series (as well as Mass Effect) persisted in the face of BioWare’s apparent decline. I maintain that Inquisition is actually one of the studio’s best games, and my favorite in the series, to the point where I even dressed up as Cole for a convention one time. The game came to me at a very sensitive time in my life, and its themes of faith vs falsehood, the co-opting of movements in history, and the instability of power all spoke to me. But I will elaborate more on that at a later date. My point is, I held on to that hope that, in spite of everything, BioWare could eventually deliver a satisfactory resolution to the cliffhanger from their last title. Or perhaps it was less hope and more of a sunk cost fallacy, as an entire decade passed with nary a peep from Dragon Age.

As years wore on, news gradually surfaced about the troubled development of the fourth game. Beginning under the codename “Joplin” in 2015 with much of the same creative staff as its predecessors, this promising version of the game would be scrapped two years later for not being in line with Electronic Arts’s business model (i.e. not being a live-service scam). Thus, it was restarted as “Morrison”. The project cantered along in this borderline unrecognizable state for a few years until they decided to reorient it back into a single-player RPG, piling even more years of development time onto its shaky Jenga tower of production. Indeed, critical pieces were constantly being pulled out from the foundations during this ten year development cycle. Series regulars like producer Mark Darrah and director Mike Laidlaw made their departures, and the project would go on to have several more directors and producers come and go: Matthew Goldman, Christian Dailey, and Mac Walters, to name a few key figures. They eventually landed on John Epler as creative director, Corinne Busche as game director, and Benoit Houle as director of product development. Then came the massive layoffs of dozens of employees, including series-long writer Mary Kirby, whose work still made it into the final version of DA4. Finally, the game received a rebranding just four months before release, going from Dreadwolf (which it had been known as since 2022) to The Veilguard (2024) – a strange title with an even stranger article.

Needless to say, these production snags did not inspire confidence, especially considering BioWare’s been low on goodwill between a string of flops like Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) and, before that, controversial releases like Dragon Age II (2011) and Mass Effect 3 (2012). The tumult impacted The Veilguard’s shape, which scarcely resembles an RPG anymore, let alone a Dragon Age game. The party size is reduced from four to three, companions can no longer be directly controlled, the game has shifted to a focus on action over tactics a la God of War (2018), the number of available abilities has shrunk, and there’s been a noticeable aesthetic shift towards a more cartoonish style. While I was open to the idea of changing up the combat (the series was never incredible on that front), I can’t get over the sensation that these weren’t changes conceived out of genuine inspiration, but rather vestigial traces from the live-service multiplayer iteration. The digital fossil record implies a lot. Aspects like the tier-based gear system, the instanced and segmented missions, the vapid party approval system, the deficit of World State import options, and the fact that rarely does more than the single mandatory companion have anything unique to say on a quest – it all points to an initial design with a very different structure from your typical single-player RPG. The Veilguard resembles a Sonic Drive-In with a mysterious interior dining area – you can tell it was originally conceived as something else.1

That said, the product itself is functional. It contains fewer bugs than any previous game in the franchise, and maybe BioWare’s entire catalog for that matter. I wouldn’t say the combat soars, but it does glide. There’s a momentum and responsiveness to the battle system that makes it satisfying to pull off combos and takedowns against enemies, especially if you’re juggling multiple foes at once. Monotony sets in after about thirty or forty hours, largely due to the fact that you’re restricted to a single class’s moveset on account of the uncontrollable companions. Still, this design choice can encourage replay value, as it does in Mass Effect, and free respec options and generous skill point allocations offset the tedium somewhat.

While the character and creature designs elicit controversy – both for the exaggerated art direction and, in the case of demons and darkspawn, total redesign – the environmental art is nothing short of breathtaking. I worried that this title would look dated because of how long it had been in development and the age of the technology it was built upon. Those fears were swiftly banished when I saw the cityscapes of Minrathous, the cyclopean architecture of the Nevarran Grand Necropolis, or the overgrown ruins of Arlathan. But like everything in The Veilguard, it’s a double-edged sword. The neon-illuminated streets of Docktown, the floating citadel of the Archon’s Palace, and the whirring mechanisms of the elven ruins evoke a more fantastically futuristic setting that feels at odds with all three previous titles (even though all three exhibited a stylistic shift to some extent). It aggravates the feeling of discordance between this rendition of Thedas and the one returning players know.

All of these elements make The Veilguard a fine fantasy action-adventure game – even a good one, I’d say. But as both the culmination of fifteen years of storytelling and as a narrative-based roleplaying game – the two most important facets of its identity – it consistently falls short. Dragon Age began as a series with outdated visuals and often obtuse gameplay, but was borne aloft by its worldbuilding, characterization, and dialogue. Now, that paradigm is completely inverted. The more you compare it to the older entries, the more alien it appears. After all these years of anticipation, how did it end up this way? Was this the only path forward?

Throughout The Veilguard’s final act, characters utter the phrase “Whatever it takes,” multiple times. Some might say too many. I feel like this mantra applied to the development cycle. As more struggles mounted, the team made compromise after compromise to allow the game to exist at all, to give the overarching story some conclusion in the face of pressure from corporate shareholders, AAA market expectations, and impatient fans. Whatever it takes to get this product out the door and into people’s homes.

This resulted in a game that was frankensteined together, assembled out of spare parts and broken dreams. It doesn’t live up to either the comedic heights or dramatic gravity of Inquisition’s “Trespasser” DLC from 2015, despite boasting the same lead writer in Trick Weekes. Amid the disappointment, we’re left with an unfortunate ultimatum: It’s either this or nothing.

I don’t mean that as a way to shield The Veilguard from criticism, or to dismiss legitimate complaints as ungrateful gripes. Rather, I’m weighing the value of a disappointing reality vs an idealized fantasy. The “nothing”, in this sense, was the dream I had for the past decade of what a perfect Dragon Age 4 looked like. With the game finally released, every longtime fan has lost their individualized, imaginary perfection in the face of an authentic, imperfect text. Was the destruction of those fantasies a worthy trade? It doesn’t help that the official artbook showcases a separate reality that could’ve been, with a significant portion dedicated to the original concepts for Joplin that are, personally, a lot closer to my ideal vision. I think it would’ve done wonders to ground the game as more Dragon Age-y had they stuck with bringing back legacy characters, such as Cole, Calpernia, Imshael, and the qunari-formerly-known as Sten.

I don’t necessarily hate The Veilguard (I might actually prefer it to Dragon Age II), but I can’t help but notice a pattern in its many problems – a pattern that stems from a lack of faith in the audience and a smothering commitment to safety over boldness. As I examine its narrative and roleplaying nuances, I wish to avoid comparing it to groundbreaking RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023) or even Dragon Age: Origins (2009), as the series has long been diverging from that type of old-school CRPG. Rather, except when absolutely necessary, I will only qualitatively compare it to Inquisition, its closest relative.

And nowhere does it come up shorter to Inquisition than in the agency (or lack thereof) bestowed to the player to influence their character and World State.

II. Damnatio Memoriae

No, that’s not the name of an Antivan Crow (though I wouldn’t blame you for thinking so, since we have a character named “Lucanis Dellamorte”). It’s a Latin phrase meaning “condemnation of memory”, applied to a reviled person by destroying records of their existence and defacing objects of their legacy. In this case, it refers to the player. When it comes to their influence over the world and their in-game avatar, The Veilguard deigns to limit or outright eliminate it.

Save transfers that allow for the transmission of World States (the carrying over of choices from the previous games) have been a staple of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises. Even when their consequences are slight, the psychological effect that this personalization has on players is profound, and one of many reasons why fans grow so attached to the characters and world. At its core, it’s an illusion, but one that’s of similar importance to the illusion that an arbitrary collection of 1s and 0s can create an entire digital world. Player co-authorship guarantees a level of emotional investment that eclipses pre-built backgrounds.

However, The Veilguard limits the scope to just three choices, a dramatic decrease from the former standard. All import options come from Inquisition, with two just from the “Trespasser” expansion. One variable potentially impacts the ending, while the other two, in most cases, add one or two lines of dialogue and a single codex entry. Inquisition, by contrast, imported a bevy of choices from both previous games. Some of them had major consequences to quests such as “Here Lies the Abyss” and “The Final Piece”, both of which incorporated data from two games prior. The Veilguard is decidedly less ambitious. Conspicuously absent options include: whether Morrigan has a child or not, the fate of Hawke, the status of the Hero of Fereldan, the current monarchs of Fereldan and Orlais, the current Divine of the southern Chantry, and the individual outcomes of more than two dozen beloved party members across the series. Consequently, the fourth installment awkwardly writes around these subjects – Varric avoids mentioning his best friend, Hawke, as does Isabela ignore her potential lover. Fereldan, Orlais, and the Chantry are headed by Nobody in Particular. Morrigan, a prominent figure in the latest game, makes no mention of her potential son or even her former traveling companions. And the absence of many previous heroes, even ones with personal stakes in the story, feels palpably unnatural. I suspect this flattening of World States into a uniform mold served, in addition to cutting costs, to create parity between multiple cooperative players during the initial live-service version of Morrison. Again, the compromises of the troubled production become apparent, except this time, they’re taking a bite out of the core narrative.

Moreover, the game’s unwillingness to acknowledge quantum character states means that it’s obliged to omit several important cast members. At this point, I would’ve rather had them establish an official canon for the series rather than leaving everything as nebulous and undefined as possible. That way at least the world would’ve felt more alive, and we could’ve gotten more action out of relevant figures like Cassandra, Alistair, Fenris, Merrill, Cole, and Iron Bull. Not to mention that The Veilguard’s half-measure of respectful non-intereference in past World States ultimately fails. Certain conversations unintentionally canonize specific events, including references to Thom Rainier and Sera, both of whom could go unrecruited in Inquisition, as well as Morrigan’s transformation into a dragon in the battle with Corypheus in that game’s finale. But whatever personal history the player had with them doesn’t matter. The entire Dragon Age setting now drifts in a sea of ambiguity, its history obfuscated. It feels as gray and purgatorial as Solas’s prison for the gods.

Beyond obscuring the past, The Veilguard restrains the player’s agency over the present. When publications first announced that the game would allow audiences to roleplay transgender identities and have that acknowledged by the party, I grew very excited – both at the encouraging representation, and at the depth of roleplaying mechanics that such an inclusion suggested. Unfortunately, The Veilguard offers little in roleplaying beyond this. The player character, Rook, always manifests as an altruistic, determined, friendly hero, no matter what the player chooses (if they’re offered choices at all). The selections of gender identity and romantic partner constitute the totality of how Rook defines themselves, post-character creation – exceptions that prove the rule of vacancy. Everything else is set in stone. The options presented are good, and should remain as standard, but in the absence of other substantive roleplaying experiences, their inclusion starts to feel frustratingly disingenuous and hollow, as if they were the only aspects the developers were willing to implement, and only out of obligation to meet the bare minimum for player agency. In my opinion, it sours the feature and exudes a miasma of cynicism.

Actual decisions that impact the plot are few and far between, but at least we have plenty of dialogue trees. In this type of game, dialogue options might usually lead to diverging paths that eventually converge to progress the plot. You might be choosing between three different flavors of saying “yes”, but as with the World States, that illusion of agency is imperative for the roleplaying experience. The Veilguard doesn’t even give you the three flavors – the encouraging, humorous, and stern dialogue options are frequently interchangeable, and rarely does it ever feel like the player is allowed to influence Rook’s reactions. Relationships with companions feel predetermined, as the approval system has no bearing on your interactions anymore. There are so few moments for you to ask your companions questions and dig in deep compared to Inquisition. Combined together, these issues make me question why we even have dialogue with our party at all. Rook adopts the same parental affect with each grown adult under their command, and it feels like every conversation ends the same way irrespective of the player’s input. With the exception of the flirting opportunities, they might as well be non-interactive cutscenes.

Rook’s weak characterization drags the game down significantly. With such limited authorship afforded to the player, it’s difficult to regard them as anything more than their eponymous chess piece – a straightfoward tool, locked on a grid, and moving flatly along the surface as directed.

III. Dull in Docktown

On paper, a plot summary of The Veilguard sounds somewhere between serviceable and phenomenal: Rook and Varric track down Solas to stop him from tearing down the Veil and destroying the world. In the process, they accidentally unleash Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, two of the wicked Evanuris who once ruled over the elven people millenia ago. With Solas advising them from an astral prison, Rook gathers a party together to defeat the risen gods, along with their servants and sycophants. Over the course of the adventure, they uncover dark truths about the origins of the elves, the mysterious Titans, and the malevolent Blight that’s served as an overarching antagonistic force. Eventually, Rook and friends join forces with Morrigan and the Inquisitor, rally armies to face off with their foes, and slay both the gods and their Archdemon thralls before they can conjure the full terror of the Blight. As Solas once again betrays the group, Rook and company have to put a decisive stop to his plans, which could potentially involve finally showing him the error of his ways.

The bones of The Veilguard’s story are sturdier than a calcium golem. Problems arise when you look at the actual writing, dialogue, and characterization – the flesh, blood, and organs of the work.

I’ve seen others chide the writing as overly quippy, but that better describes previous titles. Rather, I think The Veilguard’s dialogue is excessively utilitarian and preliminary, like a first draft awaiting refinement. Characters describe precisely what’s happening on screen as it’s happening, dryly exposit upon present circumstances, and repeat the same information ad nauseum. This infuriating repetition does little to reveal hidden components of their personalities, or their unique responses to situations. You won’t hear anything like Cole’s cerebral magnetic poetry or Vivienne’s dismissive arrogance. Many exchanges could’ve been uttered by Nobody in Particular, as it’s just dry recitation after recitation. It almost feels like watching an English second language instructional video, or a demonstration on workplace safety precautions. Clarity and coherence come at the cost of characterization and charisma.

Words alone fail to make them interesting. Most companions lack the subtlety and depth I had come to expect from the franchise, with many conversations amounting to them just plainly stating how they’re feeling. Most rap sessions sound like they’re happening in a therapist’s office with how gentle, open, and uncomplicated they feel. Compare this to Inquisition, where every character has a distinct voice (I should know, I had to try to copy them for that stupid application), as well as their own personal demons that it betrays: Sera’s internalized racism, hints of Blackwall’s stolen valor, Iron Bull’s espionage masked by bluster, or Solas’s lingering guilt and yearning for a bygone age. These aspects of their characters aren’t front and center, but things the audience can delve into that gives every moment with them more texture. The Veilguard’s companions lay out all their baggage carefullly and respectfully upfront, whether it’s Taash’s multiculturalism and gender identity issues or Neve’s brooding cynicism towards Tevinter’s underbelly. You’ve plumbed the depths of their personas within the first few minutes of meeting most of them.

Small exceptions exist. Professor Emmerich Volkarin stands out from the rest of the cast as a particularly inspired character: a charming, Vincent Price-like necromancer. His attachment to tombs and necromancy as a way to cope with his crippling fear of death makes for curiously compelling melodrama. The way in which he ultimately has to face his fear – either by foregoing his opportunity for immortality to save his beloved skeletal ward, Manfred, or by allowing his friend to pass on so that he can transcend into a new type existence – rises above the other binary choices in the game by being both narratively interesting and legitimately difficult to judge. Still, I feel Emmerich’s whole “lawful good gentleman necromancer” conceit, while a unique and clever subversion of tropes, would’ve worked better if it actually contrasted with anyone else in the party. Instead, the whole crew is full of unproblematic do-gooders who are forbidden by the game to nurture any meaningful interpersonal conflict. While I’d appreciate this lack of toxicity in my real-life relationships, fictional chemistry demands more reactive ingredients.

The Veilguard’s developers frequently positioned the game as “cozy” and about a “found family”, but I can guarantee you that there’s more tension at my Thanksgiving dinners than there is anywhere in this title. This family would get along swimmingly even during a presidential election. The thing about the “found family” trope is that it’s more satisfying when it’s earned. Here, it represents the default state, the starting point, and the status quo that they will always return to. Any minor squabbles (Harding wanting to sleep in the dirt, Emmerich taking too many books on a camping trip, Taash not liking necromancy) are introduced and squashed within the same scene. They all feel so extraneous. There’s so little friction among the companions here that you’d think it disproves Newton’s Third Law. The previous games never struggled in this regard, which makes the choices here all the more baffling.

Beyond the intra-party dynamics, characters lack grit or darkness to them – even when the narrative absolutely calls for it. Remember how I described the necromancer as lawful good (to use traditional Dungeons and Dragons alignments)? Yeah, that’s every character. Even the demonic assassin. Lucanis is a notorious hitman possessed by a demon of Spite, and possibly the weakest character of the game. This may or may not be due to the fact that his writer, Mary Kirby, was laid off mid-development. Regardless, he has noticeably less content than the other party members and generally feels unfinished. The demonic possession storyline goes nowhere; he doesn’t exorcise Spite, nor does he learn more about it or how to live with it. Instead, Spite is just an excuse to give Lucanis cool spectral wings (which he will use to fail several assassination attempts). The demon itself mostly just comes across as rude rather than threatening. The biggest issue, however, stems from the absence of any edge to Lucanis. When confronting his traitorous cousin, Ilario – the man who sold out Lucanis’s family to an enemy faction, kidnapped his grandmother, and made multiple attempts on his life – our grizzled, hardened assassin, pushed to the brink, demands… due process. Seriously, if your choices have led Lucanis to have a hardened heart, his method for dealing with the grievous traitor is sending him to jail. That’s The Veilguard’s idea of vindictive brutality among a clan of unforgiving murderers-for-hire. By contrast, Inquisition features Sera insubordinately murdering a stuck-up nobleman for talking too much. I believe that if modern BioWare had written The Godfather (1972), it would’ve ended with Michael Corleone recommending his brother-in-law to attend confession and seek a marriage counselor.

The writers seem intent on making the cast wholly unproblematic, with no way that the audience could ever question their morality or taste the delicious nuance of seeing someone you like do something bad. Measures were taken to child-proof every aspect of the good guys so that they couldn’t possibly be construed as anything else – even if it constricts them to the point of numbness and eventual atrophy.

To make things as palatable and accessible as possible, the language itself was dumbed down. Characters make frequent use of neologisms and bark phrases like “Suit up,” or “These guys go hard.” It emulates popular blockbuster superhero stuff rather than staying true to the diction the series traditionally employed. It’s all about the team, and the entire Dragon Age world has been stripped down into simplistic conflicts and recognizable stock characters.

This is why The Veilguard’s story largely fails. Despite being ostensibly being about the characters, they come off as an afterthought. Most of the time, only the sole requisite follower has anything to say on a given mission. Even in combat, their wholeness as fully-implemented party members falls short of expectations. Their damage output pales in comparison to the Rook’s, they have no health and cannot be downed in battle, and they mainly exist to give the player three extra ability slots. That’s the game’s true ethos for the companions, whether in combat or dialogue – utility, tools to make things happen rather than elegantly crafted identities. We end up with the largest amount of content per companion among any game in the franchise, only to have the weakest roster.

I know these writers can do better, because I’ve seen them do better. Trick Weekes wrote Iron Bull, Cole, and Solas in Inquisition, as well as Mordin Solus and Tali’Zorah in Mass Effect 2 (2010) and Mass Effect 3. Mary Kirby wrote Varric throughout the series, as well as Sten and Loghain in Origins. Plenty of other experienced writers, such as Sylvia Feketekuty and John Dombrow also contributed, so I can’t put any of the blame on a lack of skill. I don’t know if the mistake was trying to appeal to a wider audience, or if the constant reorientations of the DA4 project drained the crew’s passion and left them lacking in time to polish things.

I personally suspect that the writers had to rush out a script for all of the voiced dialogue. A video from August of 2020 showed off the voice actors for Davrin and Bellara, more than four years before the final game’s release. I think the codex entries, letters, and missives that you find throughout the game, which consist of only text, are much better written than the dialogue. My theory is that the writers had more time to revise and spruce up these tidbits, where edits were minimally invasive, as far as production is concerned. But my knowledge is limited; after all, BioWare rejected my application almost a decade ago.

Still, there are aspects of The Veilguard’s plot that I enjoy. The lore reveals were particularly satisfying2, and many felt rewarding after a decade of speculation. I called that elves were originally spirits, as well as the connection between the Archdemons and the Evanuris, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the Blight formed out of the smoldering rage of the Titans’ severed dreams. I’d concisely describe The Veilguard’s story as the opposite of Mass Effect 3: Whereas ME3 did excellent character work, the characterization in The Veilguard leaves much to be desired. Whereas ME3’s tone was overwhelmingly grim, The Veilguard feels inappropriately positive. Whereas ME3’s lore reveals ruined much about the series’s mystique, The Veilguard’s helped tie the setting’s history together. And whereas ME3 fumbled the ending about as much as it possibly could, The Veilguard actually coalesces into a spectacular third act.

While I think the twist with Varric’s death is weak (outright pitiful compared to the Dread Wolf twist of Inquisition), the actual events that make up the finale carry a momentum and urgency that the rest of the game severely lacked. Everything from the sacrifice and kidnapping of Rook’s companions to the slaying of Ghilan’nain to the awe-inspiring battle between the Dread Wolf and Archdemon Lusacan – the whole affair takes the best parts of Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission and elevates it to the scale of an apocalyptic series finale. Ultimately, Solas takes center stage as the final antagonist, and the drama crescendos to a height the rest of the game desperately needed. He remains the most interesting character in the game and perhaps the franchise, and thankfully, the resolution to his story did not disappoint me (though I would’ve preferred the option for a boss battle against his Dread Wolf form if the player’s negotiations broke down). So in that sense, I think the worst possible scenario was avoided.

But is that really worth celebrating? Averting complete disaster? Exceeding the lowest standards? In many regards, The Veilguard still could have been – should have been – more.

IV. A World of Tranquil

In my essay on Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (2024), I briefly discussed a trend in media to sand off the edges so as not to upset the audience in any way. The encroachment of this media sanitization seems to be an over-correction to the brimming grimness of late 2000s and early 2010s fiction (to which the first two Dragon Age titles belong), which earned comparable levels of criticism. Like Solas, I occasionally feel trapped in a cycle of regret, where it feels like our previous yearning for less aggressive, mean-spirited content led to a media landscape that prioritized patronizingly positive art. Now it’s clear to me that, in order to have a point, you need to have an edge.

Dragon Age historically drew a very progressive audience, and many of them congregated around Tumblr in that website’s heyday. Tumblr has garnered something of a reputation for overzealous discourse and sensitivity among its userbase, and I think that the developers of The Veilguard, in an attempt to cater to one of their core audiences, may have misunderstood both that passion and the fundamental appeal of their products. They became so concerned about optics, about avoiding politically charged criticism, that they kneecapped their world-building, rendering it as inoffensive and sterile as possible. It’s not so much “PC culture” as it is “PG culture.”

To that end, the various governments, factions, and societies of Thedas lost their edge. Dragon Age previously presented itself as anti-authoritarian by showcasing the rampant abuses of power across all cultures. Whether it was the incarceration of mages under the Chantry, the slavery practiced by the Tevinter Imperium, the expansionist anti-individualism of the Qun, the restrictive dwarven caste system, or the rampant racism against elves, social strife abounded in this world. I think that’s one thing that drew so many marginalized fans to the series. But the correlation of fictional atrocities with those of real life frequently prompted volatile discourse, with many concerned about how allegedly allegorized groups were being represented. You began to see countless essays pop up by folks who use the phrase “blood quantum” more than any healthy person should for a setting about wizards. BioWare responded to this by making Thedosian society wholly pleasant and the people in power responsible and cool and the disparate cultures tolerant and cooperative. If nothing’s portrayed negatively (outside of the cartoonishly evil gods), nobody can take offense, right?

For starters, the Antivan Crows have gone from an amoral group of assassins to basically Batman. These figures, which previously purchased children off slave markets to train them into killers, are now the “true rulers” of Antiva, by which the official government derives its authority. The Crows in The Veilguard stand against the insurgent qunari army as heroes of the common folk. They’re not an unscrupulous faction that Rook is reluctantly forced to ally with for the greater good; no, the Crows are simply good guys now. When the pompous governor of Treviso rails against them, with such audacious claims as “assassins and thugs should not represent the citizenry,” we’re meant to laugh at the governor’s foolishness. The unintentional implication this sends is that lethal vigilantism and unchecked power are cool because the people who use it are cool and stylish. The slave trade goes unacknoweldged; Antivan children want to grow up to be assassins now. The Crows never do anything wrong in The Veilguard – the governor is later revealed to be cooperating with the invaders for their own power. BioWare avoids the unpleasantness inherent in the Crows’ concept by pretending it never existed.

Perhaps more ridiculous is the Lords of Fortune, a new faction of pirates and treasure hunters based out of Rivain. Except they don’t really do piracy or treasure hunting. The game goes to lengths to ensure that the audience knows that the Lords don’t steal important cultural artifacts from any of the tombs and ruins they raid. What do they steal, then? There is no such thing as an ethical treasure hunter – plundering indigenous sites for souvenirs is inherently problematic – but the writers wanted to reap the appeal of adventurous swashbucklers without any of the baggage, regardless of whether it makes sense or not3. It comes across as a child’s idea of a pirate: they’re not thinking about the murder and looting, just the funny men with eye-patches who say “ARRR!” The developers want us to like the Lords of Fortune, and to that end, they can’t do anything culturally insensitive – even fictional disrespect toward a made-up culture. This is doubly amusing because the Lords are represented by Isabela from Dragon Age II. The same Isabela that kicked off a war with the qunari by stealing their holy book, the Tome of Koslun. This irony goes unacknowledged by the game.4

When these rogue buccaneers aren’t busy giving land acknowledgments to displaced Dalish elves or whatever, they’re enjoying their nonviolent coliseum. Pirates revel in bloodsport, but only so long as no actual blood is spilled. The Lords refuse to fight prisoners or animals in their arena, as they find such acts too cruel. I guess they’re all big Peter Singer readers. Instead, they summon spirits to adopt the visages of common enemies so that the player can kill them with a clean conscience. It’s another example of wanting to have your cake and eat it too – they wanted to create a glory hunter/gladiator faction, but couldn’t stand the underlying implications of such. So they twisted and bent them to fit into their unproblematic paradigm, leaving the Lords flavorless and lame. They barely even contribute to the main story, and they’re practically the only look we get into Rivaini society (which remains criminally underdeveloped).

More tragic is the handling of the qunari, once one of the most unique and nuanced civilizations in the Dragon Age setting. The Qun, as portrayed in the first three installments, is a society that demands all of its composite parts work in harmony. Thus, they have predetermined vocations for their children, rigid gender roles, strict codes of conduct, and an ambition to “enlighten” the rest of the world. While the Qun has often been presented as antagonistic toward the heroes, the series has commonly balanced its portrayal by showing how seductive its absolutism can be for people without hope. In some cases, life under the Qun is preferable, as is the case with former Tevinter slaves. Conformity becomes comfort when the world is regularly threatening to split apart.

The Veilguard opts for a different approach. See, Rook’s not fighting members of the Qun in this game – they’re fighting the Antaam, the former qunari military. The Veilguard constantly reiterates that the Antaam, which makes up one of the three branches of the Qun, has broken off and decided to invade, pillage, and stoke chaos. BioWare didn’t want the questionable morality and complexity of fighting an invading people from a humanized, multi-faceted culture, so they removed their culture. Their efforts to turn the non-Western-coded qunari into something digestible for their mistaken conception of a modern audience instead results in two caricatures: one being a fetishized, perfect society where there are no perceivable social ills; and the other a bunch of rampaging brutes.

Contending with a realized conception of Plato’s Republic mixed with the Ottoman Empire makes for more compelling drama than a horde of murderous giants. Again, BioWare wanted to have it both ways, and they still needed nameless, faceless orcs to kill. So every bit about the qunari’s militancy, imperialism, and repression coexisting alongside some of their more progressive ideas and communal unity is stripped of its context and meaning. Blame is placed solely on the Antaam, who no longer represent (and retroactively, never represented) the Qun’s ideology. It’s a cowardly compromise, attempting to pin the blame of all the Qun’s failings on a renegade military and seeking to exonerate the political and social apparatuses of their culpability.

At one point, a minor character named Seer Rowan lectures to an ignorant human (a proxy for the audience absorbing these retcons) that qunari society has always been egalitarian in practice, with mages enjoying freedom there. Previous games showed that the qunari shackle their “saarebas” mages, stitch their mouths, cut out their tongues, and teach them to commit suicide if they ever stray from their masters. However, we’re now assured that this is only practiced under the Antaam, and No True Qunari would ever do such a thing. Ignore the fact that, in Inquisition, we witness the enslaved saarebas under the supervision of the Ben-Hasserath, a subdivision of the Ariqun (i.e. not part of the Antaam). In fact, the Antaam that Rook fights in The Veilguard never command saarebas at all. They’re completely absent from the game (likely because the image of the bound, mutilated minority was too much for The Veilguard’s sensibilities). Seer Rowan’s weak, conciliatory retcon can’t even justify itself in its own game. The scolding diatribe communicates an intrinsic misunderstanding of the Qun by the writers – namely, it continues the pattern established with the Antivan Crows that the mechanics of power in society are fundamentally good as long as aberrant forces aren’t in charge. While I understand the desire to be conscientious about the portrayal of fictional cultures that draw upon non-Western traditions and iconography (which have historically been demonized in media), glamorizing the Qun and stripping it of its realistic nuance does little to alleviate any problems with representation. If anything, it creates new ones.

But hey, now we have our faceless orcs to guiltlessly slaughter. That’s what the Antaam’s been reduced to, bereft of the ideology that made them people. We kill them because they’re strange and scary and foreign and seeking to destroy our cities for fun. They remain the most prominent representation of the qunari in-game, barring our party member Taash. BioWare’s attempts to reverse what they viewed as problematic components to the qunari instead devolved into the very tropes they wished to avoid.

Which leads us to the elves. Much of the series’s discourse has surrounded the portrayal of the long-suffering elven people, who endure slavery under Tevinter, expulsion from their homeland in the Dales, confinement in ghettos, and the general disdain from other races. The games’ stories use symbolic shorthand of real-life oppressed peoples to communicate these tragedies, and this has led to a variety of intense, emotional interpretations over the years. The unending misery of the systematically marginalized elves hasn’t gone unnoticed by the fanbase – and their criticisms haven’t gone unnoticed by the developers. To quote The Veilguard’s creative director, John Epler, in an interview with Polygon:

“Dragon Age has not always been the kindest to the Dalish [elves]. Somebody once made a joke to me, and it’s not untrue, that it’s possible to wipe out a Dalish clan in all three of the games in some way.”

He and others on the development team must’ve thought elves needed a break, because the omnipresent racism against them vanishes completely in The Veilguard. Tevinter, an empire built on the back of chattel slavery, doesn’t show any of that. Consequently, it feels like players in the know still haven’t seen the true face of Tevinter, despite spending half a game there. The notion that the capital of Minrathous gives now is one of a prosperous city that’s centuries ahead of the countries down south, rather than a cruel regime cracking the whip at every opportunity. Perhaps the writers weren’t comfortable portraying this, or felt that their audience might not be amenable to it after years of incendiary argumentation. Nevertheless, it castrates their established world-building and robs us of the opportunity to witness true elven liberation in the climax. With both the fall of Minrathous and the toppling of the tyrannical elven gods, we could have delivered a much needed catharsis after four games of oppression, but The Veilguard forgoes this storytelling opportunity to play it safe.

I worry that this hesitancy originated from anxieties about the sensitivity of depicting marginalized peoples in brutal, dehumanizing conditions, and how that might look to more fragile viewers. But I think it’s important for all players, watchers, and readers to know that, though there might be aspects shared between them, fictional minorities are distinct from real ones.

Dragon Age’s elves are aesthetically Celtic. Their residency in alienages evokes images of Disapora Jews in Europe. Their Long Walk after being driven from the Dales calls back to the Trail of Tears, sharing an experience with Native Americans. Their subsequent migratory nature is reminiscent of the Romani people. And their ancient empire of Arlathan, with its large columns and temples of worship, headed by ascended humanoid (for lack of a better term) deities that cast down an enemy called the Titans, and which has since had its religion and culture co-opted and renamed by Roman-inspired Tevinter invites comparisons to classical Greece.

My point is, the elves of Dragon Age don’t represent one group of people, because fictional cultures are constructs drawing from countless inspirations. If they represent anything beyond themselves, it’s the idea of a proud people that’s fallen under the yoke of conquering powers – a supervictim to embody all. The idea that one must be limited in their storytelling options based on how the portrayal might reflect upon or disrespect an existing culture is flawed, in my opinion. In the overwhelming majority of cases, coding cannot be read as a 1:1 allegory, especially in speculative fiction like science-fiction and fantasy. I believe the most mature way to evaluate a story isn’t to try to pigeonhole what it’s trying to say say about who, as if there’s some insidious encrypted message in the text. Rather, it’s to see the forest through the trees and interpret the work as a complete whole in itself.

On that basis, I ask: would it have been so bad to see some of those enslaved elves, praying for salvation, side with their manipulative, nefarious gods? To add some nuance to the conflict with Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, would the story of elven liberation not have been better if the game actually engaged with it? Could we actually have a moral quandary with those whom Rook ends up fighting, even if the content might be seemingly problematic?

Epler might respond in the negative, per the Polygon interview, claiming that the gods “simply don’t care” about the elves.

“Those blighted, decrepit gods, they’re not bothering with the soft pitch. Their pitch is, We’re going to make a horrible world. We’re going to give you a lot of power, and maybe you’ll be OK.”

Like a chess board, the core conflict of The Veilguard is black and white. BioWare abandoned the chance to make Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain more interesting villains because it was too risky.

Similarly risky was Solas’s role as an antagonist, since his motivations, as explained in “Trespasser”, are deeply sympathetic. Perhaps too much so for the developers’ comfort. Unlike the Evanuris and their disinterest in the elves, Solas wants to restore the elven people to their former glory. At least, that seemed to be his pitch in the last game. Frustratingly absent from The Veilguard are the Agents of Fen’Harel – elves who swore fealty to Solas’s cause. They infiltrated and compromised the Inquisition, effectively precipitating the final decision to end the organization in its current form. The idea that Solas had amassed an army of common folk who found the idea of a renewed elven empire appealing made him appear formidable and intimidating. “Trespasser” implies that a mass uprising of elves under Solas’s leadership was imminent, and anyone could be in on it.

None of this happens in The Veilguard. Not only does Solas lack an army, but their absence isn’t explained or even acknowledged. As a result, Solas remains a passive antagonist until near the end, since the player has no disciples of his to contend with (either physically or ideologically) along the way. It wastes a side of his character that had been foreshadowed in a decade-long cliffhanger – that of a charismatic leader, capable of coordinating a rebellion that could spell disaster for its own followers.

In a Reddit AMA after the latest game’s release, Epler answered where the Agents of Fen’Harel disappeared to:

“Solas’ experience leading the rebellion against the Evanuris turned him against the idea of being a leader. You see it in the memories – the entire experience of being in charge ate at him and, ultimately, convinced him he needed to do this on his own. And his own motivations were very different from the motivations of those who wanted to follow him – he had no real regard for their lives or their goals. So at some point between Trespasser and DATV, he severed that connection with his ‘followers’ and went back to being a lone wolf. There are Dalish clans who are sympathetic to his goals, but even there, there’s an understanding that he’s too dangerous to have a more formal connection with, and that he will, ultimately, sacrifice them to his own ends if necessary.”

I find this explanation unsatisfying, not the least bit because the narrative offers next to nothing to imply this. The disappearance of Solas’s agents represents my biggest bugbear with the game, depriving it of the full potential of its highly anticipated antagonist in favor of the more generically villainous Evanuris. Moreover, this omission fits into the aggravating blueprint for The Veilguard’s inoffensive direction. The motivations, emotions, and backgrounds of the Agents of Fen’Harel would be sympathetic, and therefore might problematize the otherwise cut-and-dry conflicts. Epler seemed concerned that audiences might think Solas was “a little too sympathetic in his goals,” according to an interview with GamesRadar+.

But that’s the thing: sympathy isn’t endorsement, and portrayal of sympathetic characters isn’t endorsement either. But neither does that invalidate the emotions and experiences that generate that sympathy, even if the character’s actions ultimately turn toward evil. I’ve noticed a trend (especially in symptomatic criticism, which I generally dislike5) to view art as propaganda, and to evaluate it from a moralizing, top-down perspective. Antagonists with complex or understandable motivations (in this case, revolutionary villains) are often judged by this framework as tools for stories wishing to champion the status quo. Common arguments that I’ve seen imply that the relatability that we often find in villains is not a strength of the writing, but a devilish trick of ideology by which writers can reinforce conservative doctrine, to scold us away from certain beliefs. Any decent writer knows this isn’t the case, and that people don’t write morally or emotionally complex antagonists for didactic purposes. Instead, characters such as these embody the anxieties of their creators – the fear of losing yourself to your passions, the fear of going about things the wrong way, the fear of sacrificing too much to achieve your desired ends. The concepts and feelings that compel these characters remain authentic to the writer’s heart and the connection they established with the audience.

Art isn’t propaganda. To read it as such reduces it and promotes intellectual dishonesty and foolhardy myopia. Stories are irreducible (otherwise, we would not waste our time with them), and so I believe interpretations should be formed from the bottom-up, rooted in the text as much as possible. The “message” cannot be imposed from the top-down, but symptomatic readings, in their focus on tropes and cultural context, frequently condemn without a trial. Hindering your story in order to future-proof it for the sake of optics is a safeguard against this, and one that leads to bad stories. Artists should have confidence that their text will hold its ground on its own. To quote Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay “A Message about Messages”:

“The complex meanings of a serious story or novel can be understood only by participation in the language of the story itself. To translate them into a message or reduce them to a sermon distorts, betrays, and destroys them… Any reduction of that language into intellectual messages is radically, destructively incomplete.” (67-68)

BioWare’s doctrine of passive writing violates this wisdom by surrendering to their fear of (bad) criticism. The Veilguard lacks punch, stakes, and empathy and becomes incongruous with its established lore because it’s not willing to take risks that might alienate or upset players. They’re more concerned with making sure their work is inoffensive than they are with conveying a moving story.

I believe all of this was inherited from an incestuous feedback loop between a vocal minority of critics, of which I might’ve once counted myself among the blameworthy, and the apprehensiveness of out-of-touch corporate board room decision-making. Dragon Age’s genome mutated, and it slowly lost its teeth.

Over the course of a decade, we bred the Dread Wolf into a Dread Pug.

V. What It Took

The Veilguard’s lack of confidence in itself and lack of faith in its audience contribute to its capitulatory nature. In many respects, it feels like the developers lost their passion for it over the course of the ten year hellish production and just wanted to be done with it. This resulted in a decent game that nonetheless feels divorced from what came before it. It tries to juggle being a soft reboot while also trying to close out the series’s biggest and longest running story arcs, but inevitably fumbles.

Nearly everything done by The Veilguard was handled better by Inquisition. And Inquisition was certainly the more ambitious title. Perhaps more returning characters would have established a sense of continuity between the two, or at least made it less awkward by having them present for the story’s grand finale. For as strong as the endgame is, it could’ve benefited from the presence of slave liberator Fenris, elven history aficionado Merrill, possible Evanuris soul vessel Sera, or Divine Victoria (any of them). The core pillar of Dragon Age is the characters, and The Veilguard’s under-performance (and in some cases, outright dismissal) in that regard sabotages its integrity. Without this to anchor it, the changes to gameplay, visuals, and roleplaying depth become more alienating.

Personally, what do I take away from this? The Veilguard is far from the game I dreamed about for ten years, and not the one that loyal fans deserved either. I’m no stranger to disappointment at this point in my life, and yet this still leaves me with a hollow feeling. Will I still be able to return to Inquisition, a game I truly adore, and see it the same way as before, knowing now where all this is leading? The true cost of The Veilguard, for me, has nothing to do with the price tag: it’s the loss of that perfectly tailored dream, now that the possibilities of the future have shut their gates.

Where do those dreams go? Are they doomed to fester in their lonely, incommunicable agony? Will they be twisted by their enmity, like the blighted dreams of the Titans, and spread their corruption into those important happy memories?

In 2014, I was depressed as fuck, and Dragon Age: Inquisition helped me to see the light and come out of it. In 2024, I was depressed as fuck, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard made me feel nothing. There’s no less favorable comparison in my eyes. It’s disheartening to behold something that once meant so much to me and be greeted with numbness. I have to wonder if that affection will ever return, or if I’ve just grown out of it.

But as I wandered the streets of Minrathous as Rook, I heard a familiar song. It was one of the tavern songs from Inquisition, its nostalgic chords filling me with wistful sentiment. I know, deep down, there’s still something there. Maybe I just need to dig it up. Maybe it’s time to look back…

To be continued…

– Hunter Galbraith

Further Reading

Le Guin, Ursula K. “A Message about Messages.” Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, Abrams Image, 2018, pp. 67–68.

Incidentally, this was an anomaly my friends and I pondered over and eventually solved. It turned out to be a former Wienerschnitzel. ↩︎

You could argue that this credit goes more to Inquisition and the previous games for laying the groundwork for said reveals, which were obviously planned out ahead of time, as confirmed by the aforementioned official artbook. Regardless, the payoff satisfied me and gave me proper closure. ↩︎

I’ve been informed that there is a hidden conversation that explains that the Lords of Fortune do, in fact, sell cultural artifacts at times, but only to the rightful owners. This just makes me wonder what they do with the artifacts if the prospective clients can’t pay. Do they shove them back in the ruins and re-arm all the booby traps? ↩︎

I would argue that this does not represent character progression on Isabela’s part, as her (possible, depending on the player’s choices) return of the Tome of Koslun in Dragon Age II was a pragmatic sacrifice she made to save her friends and the city, rather than an acknowledgment of the qunari’s inviolable ownership. In fact, in many continuities, she never returns the Tome at all. ↩︎

I prefer more formalist criticism because it allows the text to lead the dance, not the critique. I think it’s only fair, given that the creators likely spent more effort crafting the piece than I spent consuming it. Symptomatic criticism mandates that the reader consider everything around the text, typically at the text’s expense. In the worst cases, symptomatic critics make their arguments about seemingly everything besides the text in question. ↩︎ Link to article: https://planckstorytime.wordpress.com/2025/01/01/dragon-age-the-veilguard-strangled-by-gentle-hands/

[respectthepetty]

GMMTV 2025 - Hot Tops and One Bottom

GMMTV offered up ONE straight show, and even though I'm salty that I didn't get Midnight Museum 2 and despite the current state of the world, I have never been happier to be alive at this exact moment that I'm living in. GMMTV really cemented that it is Disney BL, and said FUCK THEM HETEROS!

As usual, I'm listing what shows I'm most excited to see from GMMTV's annual unveiling, but in order to be fair to the other shows, I will not consider one of the shows in the rankings because I am a Jaidee fan first, and a human second:

Dare You to Death

My boys are giving me ~Murder, Manipulate, Make-Out, and MAYHEM~ so I'm already seated, sat, and sitted. I've always thought Joong should play a character who was insincere and a bit crazy, and Dunk should lean into his haughtiness (emphasis on HOT), so even though all these other shows look great, they aren't JoongDunk trying to solve a murder while trying to not murder each other, and it would be unfair of me to hold that against everyone else. I was going to take whatever I was getting from them, but THIS?! Sorry, to everyone else, but y'all never stood a chance.

#1a - Memoir of Rati

Moment of honesty - Inn and Great are fine as fuck. They are already attractive to begin with, so to put them in a historical drama, of course, I'm going to eat it up. This is a serious piece about political and social tensions which I have no doubts they will carry into getting some awards for it. I was getting worried that these two weren't going to have another show together next year, but not only did GMMTV give them one of the meatier plots, the series also has Aou and Boom in it with an amazing story as well, so this was easily my top choice.

Or at least it was my top choice until . . .

#1b - Ticket to Heaven

Religious trauma aligned with Catholicism is my special brand of queer angst, so this series already has me all the way fucked up. Fourth is such a phenomenal actor and Gemini always acts his ass off, so I know they will have me in a fetal position every single episode clutching my rosary and praying for God's mercy since I'm already in my feelings about this. The heathens in the room better read up on some biblical references because if you thought I was doing too much over a cross necklace in Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo and the praying in The Warp Effect, I Saw You in My Dreams, and Marahuyo Project, block me now because that was only the tip of the religious iceberg.

#2 - Cat for Cash

Although I'm a vegetarian, I'm a Disney villain who strongly dislikes animals, yet even I was happy to see First getting advice from cats on how to make coffee and how to win over Khao. This is the FirstKhao romance we have been waiting for! It looks soft and sincere, and even though the plot involves hearing cats, First as the worst debt collector and Khao as a grieving sad boy are their most realistic characters they have ever played. The series also looks like it's going to make me cry, so thank goodness Satang showed up to make sure I would be emotional about every show GMMTV gives me next year.

#3 - That Summer

On the topic of Satang, I'm shocked that I clicked with this trailer. I was ready to write this off as a Hallmark series due to its plot about a prince with amnesia falling in love with a commoner until the trailer revealed that he doesn't have amnesia, and the commoner knows he is a prince. The trailer situated the problem will come from their class differences plus Mond is kissing a homie (in secret), and since I just asked for more series with sad wet boys on the beach, this show goes at the top for GMMTV delivering me something I didn't know I wanted but a show I definitely needed.

#4 - A Dog and a Plane

Tay and New got me by the throat in 2019 and 2024 with Dark Blue Kiss and Peaceful Property, and even when I wanted to be mad at Cherry Magic, I couldn't because these men always sell the hell out of a ship even when they shouldn't. I'm a Jaidee fan first, and a human second, but I'll throw on some polar bear and whale jammies any day to join the Polcas because Tay and New have not disappointed me once in their joint shows or individual shows. So here I am, super duper excited to see New play a GAY flight attendant (a stereotype I love to see) whose man is trying to screw Pun only for Tay to take the hush money yet still catch feelings AND FLIGHTS! Marc's there too, so it's time I was served openly gay men who are trying to join the mile-high club since it's been over a decade since I got Pedro Almodóvar's I'm So Excited.

#5 - My Romance Scammer

I support marriage equality, but I do not believe in the institution of marriage, so I'm thrilled that GMMTV decided to throw me some gay divorce the same year gay marriage was legalized! Next, I'm getting the odd ball couple of Ohm and Fluke with Fluke being a dummy who falls for the first man who is nice to him, only for Marc to think he has a great relationship with Junior, BUT IT'S ALL A SCAM! I will probably end up defending this show with my life because this is the romcom romcoN I deserve!

Side Quest - Tarot Card Series

The theme for this year's announcement was "Riding the Wave" but it should have been "Wheel of Fortune" because there were a lot of shows about destiny and changing the future, so I'm going to rank those in a quick sub-category:

1) My Magic Prophecy

This is the dynamic I want to see from Jimmy and Sea. Jimmy IS a doctor, so getting a clean-cut smarmy version of him will pair so well with muscular Sea being a jerk. I was going to make a quirky comment about how they can now see the future as a reference to Last Twilight, but I'm still salty about that show, so I'll just be happy for them and THIS show.

2) Head 2 Head

I'm excited for the Only Boo kids because I think they should've gotten the My Love Mix-Up remake since I think they do well with being complete opposites that make perfect sense being together. This is also how I found out that Surf from I Saw You in My Dream is now with GMMTV.

So although it was awkward to realize GMMTV had acquired another BL boy under my chismosa nose (am I slipping?), it's nice to see the company staying on brand as Disney BL in its attempt to capture all the Pokemon Avengers BL Boys.

3) Wu

Since I've been watching High School Frenemy through my dash, I know plenty of people will be ecstatic to see Nani and Sky play soulmates, again (because High School Fremeny is gay af!), but I'm showing up because I got the red bracelets of destiny tying the boys together!

The trailers this year were surprisingly lax on the colors, so I'm taking what I can get how I get it. Bring me the RED STRING OF FATE!

4) MU-TE-LUV

This is Club Sapan Fine with a different name so it's going to be campy and messy. But do I think GMMTV will handle fems well? No. Am I pressed about it? Also, no. Because I actually watch AND enjoy Club Sapan Fine, so if GMMTV wants to try its hand at wild wacky camp in an anthology-style series, I'm down to clown, at least for the queer episodes that is.

5) Melody of Secrets

This was originally going to be number three on my Tops List, but as the trailer continued, I got more confused. Then, Force's face blurred and it looked like he got snatched by a demon, so I got scared. Like real scared. I don't eff with los espookys, so I'll be watching this show with the lights on and my Care Bear squad to protect me.

Honorable Mentions

I watch ALL GMMTV queer shows (and even the ones that only I think are queer), so I'll still enjoy something about these shows, but they were just lacking that special razzle dazzle:

Burnout Syndrome

Director Nuchy. Gun in black lipstick. Gun being a sex worker. Off being an asshole. Thor. Poly(?). This should have been my Holy Grail, but I can't believe the show will give me a proper love conflict when OffGun are a branded pair. Also, Nuchy gave me ToddBlack, who I will NEVER be over, so even though I know she can and will give me *THE* toxic couple to root for above all other toxicitos, unless these two are about to drown each other in that bathtub and play Olympic-levels of mind games with each other, I'm reserving my excitement until it airs.

Me and Thee

A soap-opera loving mafioso. Pond in suits with slicked-back hair. Phuwin being beautiful. Santa looking delicious. Est back in his Naughty Babe assistant mode. Perth. COLORS! Just like Burnout Syndrome, on paper it looks like something I would devour, but a third of that trailer was Pond and Phuwin in a bathtub, and in my Michelle Visage voice, "stop relying on that body" even if that's the biggest reason I'll be showing up to watch.

Whale Store

Milk licked cat food off of Love's finger, and I fear this might be too lesbian for me. I don't kink shame, and I'm always down to eat a girl out go down, but cat food? Really, sis? On top of that, this felt like a JittiRain series with Love's character clearly hiding something that is going to hurt Milk's character, then the side couple was crying and making everything awkward. I support the lesbians. I support queer rights AND wrongs. I'll be repeating this even as I'm watching it.

Boys in Love

GMMTV was smart putting all the new kids in a show with Papang x Podd as the little older romance crumbs to keep us satisfied for the time being, but that's also why I'm being petty. If this is the stepping stone for Papang and Podd to be leads for GMMTV 2026, then I'll take what I can get, but I feel like Oliver Twist asking for more porridge, when I should already be getting a damn buffet!

Love You Teacher

This show almost had me in the first half. Sam's character was giving me everything. The premise was solid. Perth was an already gay man in a long-term relationship with his boyfriend. Things were going well even with the accident. Then, the show brought on the real plot --- seven-year-olds. Jesús Cristo. It was a lovely time up until then, and now, just like the cat food, I'm realizing new things about myself and my boundaries on a random Tuesday morning, and I don't like it.

Girl Rules

This is the female version of Only Friends saran wrapped in women's empowerment. No me gusta pero lo voy a ver because I support queer wrongs even when they are oh-so-very wrong.

The Love of Siam: The Musical

What. The. Fuck. But also, sign me up!

Dishonorable Mention - Only Friends 2: Dream On

I've reached new heights in my pettiness because this show is in Petty Prison before it even airs. My blog is a living record of how badly I wanted Minx Mix and Flirty Fluke in the first season of Only Friends. It was the only thing I could think about; then, I ended up hating the first season, so I counted my blessings that Minx Mix only showed up for two whole seconds and Flirty Fluke was nowhere in sight. And now this has happened. This is a lesson in "be careful what you wish for" because I have never been more upset that I finally got what I wanted. Unless the show gives Boston his cake and lets him eat it to, I'm not watching it. Not Minx Mix, Flirty Fluke, or Ohm's body could convince me to do this a second time.

[scenvs3000w25]

On the Meaning of Reading (Unit 6)

We read everyday. You’re reading this right now. This morning, you woke up, and read something on your phone, whether it was a text from a friend, a social media post, a news article, or something else. Then you went to school, where you read words on lecture slides or pages from a textbook. 

Reading is everywhere, so much so that we don’t think about it. However, what surprised me when reading the textbook chapters was the level of effort and planning that goes into much of what we read. The rules, the indices, the carefully curated suggestions and step-by-step programs for effective writing. The realization that someone carefully considered and chose all those words I just read on a day-to-day basis without a second thought. 

This revelation has me reconsidering my own writing. Leftridge (2006) makes the excellent point that ‘it’s good to have goals in your interpretive writing’. Having a clear, defined goal will make your writing impactful and help your story resonate with your audience. 

I also found the tips from William Zinsser (2006), who advises writers to keep sentences short and simple, use positive phrases, be specific, use active voice, and generally just try to be as clear and concise as possible. Zinsser said, “The essence of writing is rewrit-ing”, and I believe these tips can be extremely helpful for writers in the editing stage. Initially, just write what you want to write. Then, revise it until you are confident your words say what you want to say. - Serena 2025

Overall, though, I think the most important advice given in Chapter 14 of Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage is Zinsser (2006)’s fundamental rule to be yourself when writing. Have the courage and confidence to be authentic. Expanding on this rule, Tilden states, “Whatever is written without enthusiasm, will be read without interest”. If you are true to yourself, you will write about what interests you, and that is your best bet at keeping your audience engaged. Authors have repeated variations of this sentiment through the years: 

"You don't write because you want to say something; you write because you have something to say." - F. Scott Fitzgerald 

If we consider writing as a record of human history, then authenticity becomes paramount. What are we recording if not the authentic voices of past people? What would we know about the tenacity of the human spirit, about love, about living, if great writers throughout time had not experienced these things and been brave enough to express themselves? To express oneself authentically is a form of integrity. As Edward Hyams said in Chapter 7 of The Gift of Interpretation, “There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity”.

 Hymes goes on to describe integrity as a presentation of all the parts of a whole, to recognize the past as part of the whole, part of the process that shapes what stands today. If we choose to ignore the past or selectively focus on only what we want to see, we lose our integrity. We must acknowledge and understand our history and everything that led us here in order to understand and appreciate ourselves, on an individual and on a societal level. 

That is why, in writing, we must write with purpose. We must write with intention. We must write with authenticity. We must preserve our true selves in the written word, our experiences and lessons learned, in order to guide future generations and uphold a clear image of the past. This is important now more than ever, in my opinion, as we go through tumultuous times on a social and political level. 

References: 

Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2019). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage. Sagamore-Venture Publishing.

Leftridge, A. (2006). Interpretive Writing. Rowman & Littlefield.

Zinsser, W. (2006). On Writing Well. Harper Paperbacks.

12 Quotes on Writing by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (2021). Writinganalytics.co. https://www.writinganalytics.co/quotes/author/f-scott-fitzgerald/

[questioningespecialy]

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION]

Twilight version of the Domino Effect meme with 10 black dominoes from 2009's "World record for the largest domino toppled in a chain". On the lower right is a hunched over male about to tip over the smallest domino (1st domino). On the upper left is the largest domino (10th domino), which is 8.8 times taller than the smallest. Starting from the male and ending with the largest domino are individual sentences indicating specific moments in what is essentially Twilight history.

Male: “a group of “friends” get together at a villa (1816)” 1st domino: “Lord Byron proposes the “Ghost Story Challenge” (1816)” 2nd domino: “Polidori steals Byron’s idea (1819)” 3rd domino: “Stephanie Meyer wakes up “from a very vivid dream” (2003)” 4th domino: “Twilight gets published (2005)” 5th domino: “E.L. James writes a dangerously inaccurate BDSM fanfic (2009)” 6th domino: “Master of the Universe is published as Fifty Shades of Grey (2011)” 7th domino: “Dakota Johnson becomes famous (2015)” 8th domino: “Dakota calls Ellen DeGeneres out on her own show (2019)” 9th domino: “Ellen’s treatment of guests and employees finally gets noticed” 10th domino: “Ellen ends The Ellen DeGeneres Show after 19 years (2022)” 10th domino image: On the 10th domino stands an image with 6.9% opacity of Kelly Clarkson from The Kelly Clarkson Show.

[END OF IMAGE DESCRIPTION]

[art-of-manliness]

What Happened to Our Mental Bandwidth?

Does it seem like people are more tired and less motivated and ambitious these days? They do less hosting and attending of events. It’s harder to get them to volunteer to run the school carnival or participate in a church service project.  Hustle culture is out; self-care is in. People seem just to want to get through life, rather than transcend it; they’re more apt to aim low rather than for the stars. If this perception of a widespread energy ebb is accurate, what’s behind it? We have a hypothesis. The Tipping Point When smartphones first started taking off, which, strange to recall given their current ubiquity, was only a decade and a half ago, the subsequent years were filled with a fair amount of concern and contemplation as to how these devices were affecting our brains, behaviors, relationships, and culture. The disruptions to our minds that technology was causing were novel, and thus easily recognizable and highly salient. And we turned to books and blogs to help us make sense of these changes and how to navigate them. Websites offered thousands of articles on how to manage the increasingly distracting pull of digital devices: Turn off notifications! Put your phone in a desk drawer while you work! Download apps that block the use of other apps! Throughout the 2010s, books like The Shallows, which offered explanations as to what technology was doing to our brains and how to control its allure, were bestsellers. Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism was really the last significant gasp in this genre, and the year of its publication — 2019 — was really the last period where people felt determined to put a leash on their relationship with their phones. Then, a shift occurred.  It started with COVID. People who had tried to avoid checking their phones too much, who had committed to not looking at them first thing in the morning, began reaching for their phones as soon as they got up and started scanning the headlines far more frequently to see what was going on. How was the virus spreading? How dangerous was it? What were the local infection numbers? The political and social unrest that also took place in 2020 only increased the number of times people checked the news and scrolled through their phones. And as more folks started working from home, their phones had to be checked not only for personal updates but professional ones, too.  The last bit of distance people had tried to maintain between themselves and their devices collapsed. They surrendered to their attachment and fairly fused with their phones. Whereas they had occasionally been left in another room or not always taken in the car, phones were now kept permanently close at hand. Today, almost no one writes or thinks about how to be less distracted by your phone. It’s not that technology has stopped affecting our minds. It’s not that we no longer experience some disquiet over the effects of our phones. But because these effects are no longer novel, we experience them far less frequently and acutely. We’ve accepted their presence in our lives. We’ve become accustomed to the current state of our thoughts and behaviors. It feels like our normal. Whereas a decade ago, we could sense how our lives were being changed, now we can no longer remember what our old lives were like.  The Modern Bandwidth Shortage  While we may no longer be registering the impact that technology is having on our thoughts and behaviors, that impact continues as strongly as ever.  Much of it centers on the fragmentation of our attention.  As Dr. Gloria Mark shared on the podcast, when we switch from paying attention to one thing to paying attention to another, it takes us an average of 25 minutes to return to that original task. In that time, we do or think about two and a quarter other things, on average. “So we get interrupted, either by ourselves or by something external to us; we’re working on a second thing; we get interrupted again, so then we begin working on a third thing; we get interrupted again, [and] we start working… http://dlvr.it/SyCM5Q

[willpaul229]

How to Sell Gym Equipment at Online Auctions (Without the Headache)

If you've got a garage full of gym equipment collecting dust—or you're a gym owner downsizing, upgrading, or even shutting down—selling your fitness gear can seem like a daunting task. You’ve got heavy machines, bulky weights, and a dozen platforms that no longer spark joy (or income). What do you do?

Online auctions might just be your golden ticket.

They offer a practical, fast-moving way to turn unused gym gear into cash without dealing with flakey buyers, lowball offers, or the headache of setting up individual listings on Facebook Marketplace for every dumbbell you own. But it’s not just a matter of uploading a few pictures and waiting for the money to roll in. Selling successfully at an online auction—especially when it comes to specialized equipment—takes a little strategy.

Here’s a practical, no-fluff guide on how to sell gym equipment at online auctions effectively.

1. Know What You’re Selling (And Be Honest About It)  

Start by taking stock of your equipment. Is it commercial-grade or home-use? How old is it? Has it been maintained? Any rust, wear, or missing parts? Buyers want transparency—and seasoned bidders will know if something looks off.

Make a list of:

Brand and model numbers

Year purchased (or at least a rough idea)

Working condition (be honest)

Dimensions (especially for larger items like squat racks or treadmills)

Special features (touchscreen consoles, incline settings, Wi-Fi-enabled, etc.)

This info becomes gold when you list the product. More clarity = more trust = higher bids.

2. Choose the Right Online Auction Platform  

Not all online auction sites are created equal. Some are generalists (like eBay), while others specialize in fitness or commercial liquidation. It pays to know who you’re selling to.

Popular platforms:

eBay: Huge audience, but more suited to individual items or home-use gear. Be prepared for shipping.

GovDeals, AuctionTime, BidSpotter: Better for bulk commercial gear or full gym closures.

Local auction houses with an online presence: Many now run digital auctions—ideal if you want local pickup and less logistics stress.

Before committing, look into the platform’s:

Fees (some take 10%–20% commissions)

Buyer traffic (are people actually bidding on gym gear there?)

Shipping/pickup rules

Payment protections

3. Presentation Matters—Photos Sell Gear  

You don’t need to be a photographer, but you do need to show your equipment in the best light—literally and figuratively.

Tips for quality photos:

Use natural lighting if possible

Clean the equipment (wipe down dust and sweat marks)

Show the full item and close-ups of key features

Photograph any damage honestly

If it's plugged in and works, show it running

A grainy, shadowy picture of a treadmill wedged in your basement corner won’t inspire much confidence.

4. Write Descriptions That Actually Help Buyers  

It’s tempting to write, “Treadmill for sale. Works great.”

But that won’t cut it.

Instead, speak to what your ideal buyer wants to know. Use natural language, avoid jargon, and cover the key details—especially if it’s a commercial piece of gym gear.

Example:

Life Fitness 95T Inspire Treadmill – Commercial Grade

Purchased in 2019, gently used in a boutique gym. Touchscreen console with built-in workouts and TV. Smooth belt, incline works perfectly. Minor scuffs on side rails. No rust or performance issues. 220V plug. Local pickup only in Houston, TX.

That level of detail helps people make confident bids. And more confidence means more competition.

5. Set Realistic Starting Bids (And Use Reserves Wisely)  

You don’t want to scare buyers off with a high starting price—but you also don’t want to give your $2,000 spin bike away for $60.

Do a quick market check:

Search for similar equipment on the same platform

Check sold listings, not just current ones

Factor in the condition, age, and your pickup/shipping options

If your item is in demand, starting low can actually attract more bidders. Just be smart about using a reserve price if you’re not willing to let it go below a certain amount.

6. Decide on Shipping or Local Pickup  

Let’s be honest—shipping gym equipment is a pain.

A single elliptical machine can weigh 200 pounds and cost hundreds to ship across the country. Unless you have commercial shipping hookups, offering local pickup is often the simplest route.

But if you’re selling smaller items (like sets of dumbbells, kettlebells, or resistance bands), offering to ship can widen your buyer pool.

Pro tip: If you must ship a heavy item, mention “freight shipping available at buyer’s expense” in your listing. That keeps you covered.

7. Time Your Auction Strategically  

Yes, even timing can influence your success.

Try listing your gym equipment auction to end on a Sunday evening, when more people are casually browsing and have time to bid. Avoid holiday weekends or big sports events.

If your auction is running for a week, that mid-to-late timing matters more than you’d think.

8. Communicate Clearly With Buyers  

Once the auction ends, don’t disappear.

Answer questions quickly. Be courteous, especially if there’s a hiccup with pickup or payment. Solid communication keeps your reputation strong (and avoids disputes or bad reviews on platforms like eBay).

If someone flakes out, report the issue through the proper channel and relist. It happens.

9. Think Beyond Just One Auction  

If you’re liquidating an entire gym—or plan to sell fitness gear often—it might be worth building a seller profile on one or two platforms. Reviews and credibility go a long way in the auction world.

Plus, you’ll learn what sells fast, what doesn’t, and what types of listings perform best.

Final Thoughts  

Selling fitness equipment doesn’t have to feel like dragging a treadmill uphill.

Online auctions offer an efficient, scalable way to offload everything from squat racks to rowing machines—and with the right approach, they can get you better value than local classifieds or marketplace haggling ever could.

Just remember: clear listings, honest descriptions, good photos, and strategic pricing are your best allies.

So if you’re staring at a room full of machines wondering where to begin, try listing your first piece today. You might be surprised at how smooth the process can be—especially when you tap into the power of a gym equipment auction.

Want a bonus tip? Bundle similar items (like plates or kettlebells) into a single lot. It reduces your workload and boosts your chances of a decent final price.

Happy selling—and may the highest bidder win.

[jackdoshay]

A Brief Introduction Jack Doshay

Jack Doshay is a Crypto and Finance Blogger from Long Beach, CA, with a passion for helping others navigate the world of finance. Since 2019, Jack has been sharing his insights on cryptocurrency, finance, and effective money-making strategies. Graduating high school in 2022, he is dedicated to providing his readers with valuable information and tips to help them achieve their financial goals. With a friendly and approachable writing style, Jack's blog is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their financial literacy and make smart financial decisions.

[brownkyla]

Earned, Owned, Paid: How to Balance All Three in Your PR Strategy

You want your brand to stand out. You need a PR strategy that grabs attention, builds trust, and drives results. Earned, owned, and paid media are the three pillars to make it happen. Each plays a unique role, and balancing them creates a powerful approach. You’ll get practical steps, real-world examples, and personal insights to guide your efforts.

Along the way, we’ll recommend 9FigureMedia — a top choice for individuals, businesses, and startups seeking news PR services, placements in media outlets, and creative PR stunts. Let’s dive in.

What Are Earned, Owned, and Paid Media?

You’ve likely heard these terms, but what do they mean for your brand?

Earned Media: Free publicity from third parties. Think articles in media outlets, social media mentions, or influencer shout outs. It’s organic and builds credibility.

Owned Media: Content you control. Your website, blog, social profiles, or newsletters. You shape the message and share it directly.

Paid Media: Promotional content you pay for. Ads, sponsored posts, or influencer partnerships. It boosts reach and targets specific audiences.

Why does this matter? Each pillar has strengths and weaknesses. Use them together to amplify your message. Let’s break them down.

Earned Media: Build Trust Through Credibility

Earned media is about getting others to talk about you. It’s a journalist writing about your startup in a media outlet. It’s a customer sharing your product on X. It’s a blogger praising your service. This type of coverage feels authentic because it’s not paid for.

Why Earned Media Matters

Trust: People trust third-party endorsements more than ads. A 2021 Nielsen study found 88% of consumers trust recommendations from others over branded content.

Cost-Effective: No direct costs, though it takes time to pitch and build relationships.

Reach: A single article in a major media outlet can reach thousands or millions.

How to Earn Media

Pitch Strong Stories: Find angles that resonate. Are you solving a problem? Helping your community? Share a personal story. When I launched a small business, I pitched a local news PR outlet about hiring veterans. They ran a feature, and sales spiked 20% that month.

Build Journalist Relationships: Connect with writers on X or LinkedIn. Comment on their posts. Offer value before pitching.

Create PR Stunts: Bold moves grab attention. In 2019, a startup I worked with parked a solar-powered food truck outside a tech conference. It served free snacks and promoted their eco-friendly app. Two media outlets covered it, driving 5,000 app downloads.

Use Tools: Platforms like HARO connect you with journalists seeking sources. Respond quickly with concise pitches.

Challenges

You can’t control the narrative. A journalist might focus on something you didn’t expect.

It’s time-intensive. Building relationships takes effort.

Coverage isn’t guaranteed. You might pitch 50 outlets and get one hit.

Actionable Tips

Research media outlets that cover your industry. Tailor pitches to their audience.

Follow up politely after a week if you don’t hear back.

Share earned coverage on your owned channels to extend its life.

Want help crafting pitches or designing PR stunts? 9FigureMedia excels at securing earned media. They connect clients with top media outlets and create buzzworthy campaigns that get people talking.

Owned Media: Control Your Narrative

Owned media is your home base. It’s your website, blog, social profiles, or email list. You decide what to say, when to say it, and how it looks. This is where you tell your story on your terms.

Why Owned Media Matters

Control: You shape the message. No middleman.

Longevity: A blog post or video lives forever, unlike a fleeting news article.

Engagement: Direct channels let you connect with your audience.

How to Optimize Owned Media

Create Quality Content: Write blog posts that solve problems. Share videos that show your product in action. A fitness brand I advised posted workout tutorials on YouTube. Views grew 30% monthly, driving website traffic.

Post Consistently: Share updates on X, LinkedIn, or Instagram weekly. Use a content calendar to stay organized.

Optimize for Search: Include keywords like news PR or your industry terms. Ensure your website loads fast and works on mobile.

Repurpose Earned Media: Got a media outlet feature? Turn it into a blog post. Share quotes on social media. Link to it in newsletters.

Challenges

Content creation takes time and skill. Bad content hurts more than it helps.

You need promotion. A great blog post won’t gain traction without earned or paid media.

Engagement requires effort. Respond to comments and messages to build loyalty.

Actionable Tips

Use tools like Canva for visuals or Grammarly for polished writing.

Track performance with Google Analytics. Focus on what drives traffic or conversions.

Experiment with formats. Try videos, infographics, or podcasts to see what resonates.

Your owned media sets the foundation. It’s where you build trust and share your voice. Use it to amplify other efforts.

Paid Media: Amplify Your Reach

Paid media puts your message in front of the right people. It’s ads on Google, sponsored posts on Instagram, or partnerships with influencers. You pay for precision and scale.

Why Paid Media Matters

Targeting: Reach specific demographics, like millennials or small business owners.

Speed: Ads deliver instant visibility.

Measurability: Track clicks, conversions, and ROI with tools like Google Ads.

How to Use Paid Media

Choose the Right Platform: Match your audience. LinkedIn works for B2B. TikTok suits younger crowds. A retail client I worked with ran Instagram ads for a new product. Sales doubled in two weeks.

Craft Clear Ads: Use strong visuals and simple CTAs. “Shop Now” or “Learn More” work better than vague phrases.

Sponsor Content: Pay for articles in media outlets. A health brand I advised sponsored a news PR piece on wellness trends. It drove 10,000 website visits.

Partner with Influencers: Find creators who align with your values. Micro-influencers with 10,000 followers often deliver better engagement than celebrities.

Challenges

Costs add up. Small budgets can limit reach.

Ads lose impact if overused. Refresh creatives regularly.

Trust is lower. People may skip ads or view them skeptically.

Actionable Tips

Start small. Test ads with a $50 budget to find what works.

Use A/B testing. Try different headlines or images to boost performance.

Track results. Focus on metrics like cost-per-click or conversions.

Need help stretching your ad budget? 9FigureMedia designs targeted campaigns that pair paid media with news PR efforts. They ensure your ads reach the right media outlets and audiences.

Why Balance Matters

Focusing on one pillar leaves gaps. Earned media builds trust but lacks control. Owned media gives control but needs promotion. Paid media offers reach but can feel impersonal. Together, they create a cycle of credibility, consistency, and scale.

Ask yourself: Are you reaching new audiences? Are you building trust? Are you controlling your story? A balanced strategy answers “yes” to all three.

Here’s a real example: A startup I mentored launched a sustainable clothing line. They used:

Earned: A feature in a news PR outlet about eco-friendly fashion.

Owned: A blog post on their website about their sourcing process.

Paid: Instagram ads targeting eco-conscious shoppers.

The result? They sold out their first collection in three weeks.

How to Balance the Three Pillars

Ready to build your strategy? Follow these steps.

Step 1: Set Clear Goals

What do you want to achieve?

Awareness: Use earned media for credibility and paid media for reach.

Sales: Drive traffic with paid ads and convert with owned landing pages.

Authority: Publish thought leadership on owned channels and pitch it to media outlets.

Step 2: Know Your Audience

Who are you reaching? Research their habits.

Where do they get news? If they read Forbes, pitch there.

What platforms do they use? Focus paid ads on those channels.

What problems do they face? Address them in owned content.

Step 3: Allocate Resources

Budget: Startups can lean on earned and owned media to save costs. Bigger brands can invest in paid media for scale.

Time: Spend time pitching journalists and creating content.

Skills: If you lack expertise, hire help. 9FigureMedia offers tailored news PR services, from crafting PR stunts to securing media outlet placements.

Step 4: Plan Your Content

Create a calendar to sync efforts.

Monday: Post a blog (owned).

Wednesday: Pitch a media outlet (earned).

Friday: Launch a paid ad (paid).

Example: A coffee shop I advised announced a new location. They posted a blog about the opening (owned), pitched a local news PR outlet for coverage (earned), and ran Facebook ads targeting nearby residents (paid). Foot traffic doubled opening week.

Step 5: Measure Results

Track what works.

Earned: Count media mentions or social shares.

Owned: Monitor website traffic or engagement.

Paid: Check ad clicks or conversions.

Adjust based on data. If ads underperform, tweak targeting. If pitches fail, refine your story.

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Tech Startup

A SaaS company launched a productivity tool.

Earned: Pitched a media outlet for a feature. A PR stunt — a live demo at a tech event — landed coverage in Wired.

Owned: Shared a blog post about the tool’s benefits. Posted behind-the-scenes videos on X.

Paid: Ran LinkedIn ads targeting CEOs. Cost-per-click was $2, with 15% converting to sign-ups.

Result: 8,000 new users in 30 days.

Example 2: Nonprofit Campaign

A charity focused on literacy:

Earned: Worked with 9FigureMedia to pitch media outlets. A PR stunt — a city-wide book drive — got coverage in local news PR.

Owned: Created a campaign page on their website. Shared success stories on Instagram.

Paid: Ran Google Ads to drive donations. Each dollar spent generated $5 in contributions.

Result: Raised $75,000 in six weeks.

Example 3: Retail Expansion

A clothing brand entered a new city.

Earned: Secured a news PR feature on retail trends.

Owned: Updated their website with a new store page. Shared customer reviews on X.

Paid: Ran sponsored posts in local media outlets. Partnered with influencers for Instagram posts.

Result: 30% sales growth in the new market.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Focusing on One Pillar: Don’t just chase earned media. Pair it with owned and paid efforts.

Ignoring Data: Use analytics to track performance. Google Analytics is free and easy.

Inconsistent Messaging: Keep your brand voice the same across all channels.

Skipping Relationships: Build ties with journalists and influencers. It pays off long-term.

Why Work with a PR Agency?

Managing all three pillars takes time and skill. A PR agency can simplify the process. 9FigureMedia is a top pick for news PR. They secure placements in leading media outlets and design PR stunts that spark conversations. Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or a growing startup, their tailored approach ensures your strategy clicks.

What’s Next for PR?

The media world keeps changing. Here’s what to watch:

AI Tools: Use AI to target ads or personalize owned content.

Micro-Influencers: Smaller creators often drive better engagement for earned media.

Interactive Content: Try videos or quizzes on owned channels to boost engagement.

Data-Driven Campaigns: Use analytics to refine all three pillars.

Ask yourself: Are you ready to adapt? Can you test new ideas? The brands that stay flexible will win.

Final Thoughts

You can build a PR strategy that works. Earned media gives you credibility. Owned media lets you control your story. Paid media expands your reach. Use them together to connect with your audience and grow your brand. Start small, track results, and adjust as you go.

With the right approach and partners like 9FigureMedia — your news PR, media outlet placements, and PR stunts will drive real results. What’s your next step?

[freshparadisepaper]

How to Write a Resume for a STEM Teaching Job

Introduction: Stand Out in the Competitive World of STEM Education

In today's competitive job market, STEM teaching positions—particularly in science, math, and technology—require more than just credentials and passion. Whether you're an experienced educator or a recent graduate, crafting an effective resume that showcases your skills and aligns with the needs of hiring schools is essential.

With thousands of applications flooding HR desks, a well-structured and keyword-optimized resume can be the game-changer. This guide walks you through how to write a resume for a STEM teaching job, with teacher resume examples to help you land interviews and stand out in a crowded field.

Why a Specialized Resume Matters for STEM Teaching Jobs

STEM teachers bring specialized knowledge that sets them apart from general educators. Schools and educational institutions are actively looking for professionals who can:

Implement hands-on learning techniques

Use technology and digital tools to enhance classroom instruction

Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students

A generic resume won’t do justice to your capabilities. That’s where targeted resume writing comes in.

1. Start with a Powerful Resume Summary

Your resume summary is the first section recruiters will see—make it count. Tailor your summary to highlight your STEM expertise and teaching experience in a concise 3–4 sentence paragraph.

Example:

Innovative and dedicated STEM educator with over 5 years of experience teaching physics and computer science in middle and high schools. Proven track record of implementing interactive coding lessons, increasing student engagement by 40%. Passionate about integrating technology to foster curiosity and scientific thinking.

2. Highlight Key Skills Relevant to STEM Education

Include a skills section that features both hard and soft skills. Focus on competencies that align with STEM teaching.

Suggested Skills to Include:

Classroom technology integration (e.g., Smartboards, Google Classroom)

STEM curriculum development

Project-based learning

Data analysis and assessment

Lesson planning and differentiation

Communication and collaboration

Tip: Use terminology from actual job descriptions to increase keyword match rates for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

3. Showcase Your Teaching Experience Strategically

When listing teaching experience, focus on quantifiable achievements that illustrate your impact. Avoid generic descriptions—be specific about grade levels, subjects taught, and student outcomes.

Example:

High School Math Teacher Lincoln Public Schools, NE | 2019–Present

Designed and taught Algebra I & II, reaching 95% student pass rate

Integrated real-world problem-solving scenarios to boost engagement

Co-led STEM club, organizing weekly robotics challenges

This format mirrors what you'll see in example teacher resume formats used by top professionals.

4. Include Relevant Certifications and Education

Don’t forget to include any teaching certifications, professional development courses, or degrees that strengthen your qualifications.

Certifications to Highlight:

State Teaching Certification

STEM Teaching Endorsements

Google Certified Educator

CPR/First Aid (for classroom safety)

If you're applying for elementary positions, review elementary teacher resume examples for role-specific credentials.

5. Add a Section for Projects or Extra-Curricular Contributions

If you’ve led science fairs, coached robotics teams, or implemented classroom tech initiatives, feature those under a "Projects" or "Extracurricular Activities" section.

Example:

Led district-wide "Girls in STEM" initiative, increasing female student participation in coding programs by 60% within one academic year.

This adds personality and initiative—two things hiring managers love.

6. Format for Readability and ATS Compliance

Follow these tips to ensure your resume gets past ATS filters and appeals to human readers:

Use standard fonts like Arial or Calibri

Save and submit as PDF unless otherwise specified

Stick to chronological format unless you're a career switcher

Keep it under two pages

Avoid images, graphics, or fancy tables

Sample Structure from Example Teacher Resume Templates

Here’s how your resume layout might look:

Header: Name | Contact Info | LinkedIn (optional) Summary: Brief paragraph tailored to the job Skills: Bullet points with core competencies Experience: Detailed job roles with bullet-pointed achievements Education & Certifications: Degrees and licenses Projects/Extracurriculars: Optional but highly recommended

For inspiration, study teacher resume examples that demonstrate results-oriented phrasing and action verbs like "implemented," "facilitated," or "improved."

Conclusion: Let Your Resume Do the Talking

Writing a resume for a STEM teaching job requires a mix of strategic keyword placement, thoughtful design, and a keen understanding of what schools want. Whether you're targeting elementary schools or secondary education, studying elementary teacher resume examples and other example teacher resume formats can give you the edge.

A compelling resume isn't just a document—it's your personal brand pitch.

Ready to build a standout STEM teacher resume? 👉 Visit our website for customizable templates, expert reviews, and more winning strategies!

[conniephleb]

Crafting the Perfect Phlebotomist Resume: Essential Tips & an Example to Stand Out

Crafting the Perfect Phlebotomist Resume:⁤ Essential​ Tips & ‍Example to Stand Out

Writing a stellar Phlebotomist resume can be the difference ‌between landing ⁤an interview and ⁤having‌ your request lost ‍in a sea‍ of candidates. Given the highly specialized ⁣nature of this profession, it’s ⁤critical to‍ highlight your⁣ skills, ‍experiences, and educational background effectively. In this article, we will provide‌ essential⁢ tips, insights, ‌and an example to help you create a resume that stands out.

Why a Well-Crafted ⁤Resume Matters

The role of a phlebotomist demands a unique combination of technical skills, interpersonal abilities, and attention to detail. A⁤ well-crafted⁤ resume is your ⁣first chance to make a lasting impression ‍on ‍potential employers. Here are a few crucial reasons why ‌your resume matters:

First Impression: Your resume is often the ⁢first document that hiring managers ⁤will⁢ see.

Showcase Skills: It ⁣helps highlight relevant⁣ skills such as venipuncture, sample‍ handling, and patient interaction.

Stand ⁣Out: With many applicants vying for the ⁢same position, a great resume can ‍make you stand out.

Essential Tips for ‍Crafting a Phlebotomist Resume

Creating ‍the perfect phlebotomist resume doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are some essential tips to guide you through‌ the process:

1. Start with a Strong Header

Your resume header should include your name,phone number,email,and LinkedIn profile (if applicable). Make‌ sure your⁤ name stands out by using a⁢ larger font size or bold text.

2. ‌Wriet a Compelling Objective Statement

Your objective statement should be concise and tailored to the position you ⁢are applying for. Highlight your experience ‌and what you can bring to the organization.​ For ‌example:

“Dedicated and detail-oriented phlebotomist with over 3 years of experience in laboratory settings,⁤ seeking to leverage exceptional patient interaction skills and technical expertise at [Hospital/Clinic Name].”

3. Highlight Relevant Skills

Make a‌ section dedicated to your skills, ensuring to include both hard and soft skills relevant to phlebotomy.Here’s a list of essential skills to ‍consider:

Venipuncture and capillary puncture

Patient interaction and comfort

Sample ⁢labeling and handling

Knowlege of medical terminology

Time management and⁢ multitasking

Attention to ⁣detail

4. ⁢Detail Your Professional Experience

List your past job experiences in reverse chronological‍ order, ​emphasizing your duties and accomplishments. Use bullet points for readability.​ Here’s a simple ​format:

Job Title

Company

Date

Phlebotomist

Health ⁤Clinic ABC

June 2020 – Present

Phlebotomist Intern

Laboratory XYZ

Jan 2019 – May‌ 2020

5. Education and Certifications

Clearly list your educational​ background, ⁤focusing on your phlebotomy certification and any relevant coursework. Here’s how⁤ you can⁤ format this section:

Degree/Certification

Institution

Year

Certified Phlebotomy technician

National Phlebotomy Association

2020

Associate in Medical Assisting

Community College ‌ABC

2019

6.Include Additional ‍Sections

Consider adding sections for volunteer⁢ experience,language proficiency,or relevant ‌volunteer ‍work. These can give you an edge, demonstrating your commitment to the ⁢field.

Benefits ‌of a​ Strong ⁣Phlebotomist Resume

Investing time in crafting a strong​ resume⁤ has multiple benefits,including:

Increased interview calls

Better representation of your qualifications

Improved ⁣confidence during the application process

Practical Tips for Finalizing Your Resume

After crafting your resume,consider these practical tips:

Proofread: ⁢Check for spelling and grammar errors.

Use Action ‍Verbs: Start each bullet⁢ point with action verbs ⁢like “performed,” “collaborated,”​ or ​”administered.”

Keep It Concise: ⁣Limit your resume to one page, especially if ‍you ​have less than 10 years of ​experience.

Tailor Your Resume: Customize ‍your resume for each job application to align with the specific⁤ role.

Example⁢ Phlebotomist Resume

to better illustrate⁢ these tips, here’s a concise example of a phlebotomist resume:

john Doe (555) 123-4567 | johndoe@email.com | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johndoe Objective: Detail-oriented phlebotomist with over 3 years of experience seeking to leverage skills in patient care and sample handling at XYZ Hospital. Skills: - Venipuncture - Patient dialog - Sample handling - Medical terminology Experience: Phlebotomist, Health Clinic ABC June 2020 - present - Conducted blood draws for over 30 patients daily. - Ensured accurate labeling and handling of specimens. Education: Certified Phlebotomy Technician, National Phlebotomy Association, 2020 Associate in Medical assisting, Community College ABC, 2019

conclusion

Crafting the perfect phlebotomist resume requires careful attention ⁢to detail‌ and ‌a clear⁤ representation ⁢of your skills and experiences. By following the tips outlined ⁤in this guide, you ⁤can create a resume that not only​ highlights your qualifications but also sets you‍ apart⁢ in ⁤a competitive job market. Remember, your resume is your‌ ticket ⁢to securing an interview – make it count!

https://phlebotomytrainingcenter.net/crafting-the-perfect-phlebotomist-resume-essential-tips-an-example-to-stand-out/

[martiabernathey]

Leaving Another Social Media Account Behind

With the coming TikTok ban, I’ve realised that I’m doing something that I’ve done since 1997, which is leaving another social media site.

My online social media prepense since 1997: AOL community (1997), Livejournal (2001-2004), Friendster (2003-2004), Myspace (2004-2006), Tribe.net (2005), Facebook (2006-2019), Twitter (2008-2024), YouTube (2011), Mastodon (2018), TikTok (2020), PeerTube (2024).

This was never a linear event cycle, I just kind of floated from one app to the next with a lot of bleed over. At each site, I met different people and formed community bonds. Some of those connections lasted through those journeys, some did not. But at each part of the journey, there was always a sense of fear at not finding community again.

Here we are at the beginning of 2025 and TikTok is being banned in the USA. I’ve known for about a year that I’d be transitioning off TikTok anyway, but the ban has made me self-reflect on my journey. Things I’ve realised:

I’ll find community wherever I go. There’s always the fear of leaving community behind. Some people follow have followed me, others don’t. That’s OK.

Corporate ownership has turned the social media into a fucking rubbish tip. Corporate social media sites like TikTok/Facebook/Twitter get clicks and views through drama/outrage/rage bait. This has made social media a public cancer on society.

not everyone can do it, but those that can, should own their own social media sites. Self-censoring on social media is a thing. You can’t say can’t say “rape” or “killed” or “porn”. You’ll either get no views on your videos, or you’ll get a Community Guidelines Violation (CGV) that effectively silences you. So instead of rape, you’ll say “grape.” Instead of saying killed, you’ll say “unalived.” Instead of porn, you’ll say “corn”. It’s so ingrained that I feel uneasy writing the words here, even though there’s no censor here.

Most Millennials, and the generations beyond, aren’t really concerned about digital privacy or have any concept have how that data manipulates their everyday life. They’ve lived most of the life that they remember as a product on social media algorithms.

since the ban, many people on TikTok are leaving for RedNote. A mutual recently said, “I doubt that RedNote will be a permanent option, and it doesn’t really matter whether it can be or will be. We still need to be able to have our own comms based on our servers, protected by our nerds and our security. We will need to have global capacity. Our ability to be safe and have our comms protected means it must be able to move. It must be asymmetrical. It needs multiple servers across the global to do that.” That ability is already in place with Mastodon. I can spin a masto instance in a matter of minutes. Going to another corporate owned social media site isn’t praxis. You’re just going to find a new overlord.

I don’t see myself returning to corporate social media. As I’ve said recently, I’m going to focus on building community in a very specific way, namely POSSE. I’m no longer going to worry myself about the people who don’t come along for the ride with me, but on those that do.

[laraphleb]

Leading Tips for Crafting an Impressive Phlebotomist Resume: Stand Out in Your Job Search!

Top Tips for Crafting an Impressive ⁣Phlebotomist Resume: ​Stand Out in your Job Search!

Searching for a phlebotomist⁢ job ‌can be competitive,but with ⁢the right resume,you‍ can significantly increase​ your chances of standing ⁣out in today’s job market. An effective phlebotomist ‌resume not​ only highlights your skills and experience but also showcases your dedication to patient care ‌and attention to detail. In this article, we’ll discuss key tips for crafting​ a‌ resume that captures the attention of hiring managers.

understanding the ‌Role of a Phlebotomist

Before diving into writing your resume, it’s essential to‍ understand the responsibilities and skills required for‌ a phlebotomist. Phlebotomists are responsible for:

Collecting blood samples from patients

Preparing specimens for laboratory testing

Maintaining a safe and sterile working environment

Interacting with patients to‌ ease anxiety

accurately ⁢recording patient details

This ‌understanding will help you tailor your resume to highlight relevant skills ⁤and experiences‍ effectively.

Essential Components ⁤of a Phlebotomist Resume

Your resume should have a clear structure‌ and include the‌ following components:

1. Contact information

Include your name, phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile (if applicable) at the top of your resume.Ensure that your​ email address is professional.

2. Professional Summary

Start your resume with a compelling professional summary. This section should be a brief 2-3 sentence overview ‌of your skills, years of experience, and what you can offer to potential employers.

3. Relevant Skills

List‍ your core competencies related to phlebotomy. Here are some⁣ examples:

Excellent venipuncture skills

strong knowledge⁣ of anatomical landmarks

Effective patient ‌communication

Ability to manage time⁤ efficiently

Detail-oriented and organized

4. Professional experience

Your work history is ⁤crucial.List your experience in reverse chronological order. Include the ‍job title, name of the ​employer, dates of employment, and ⁤a brief description⁣ of ⁤your responsibilities and achievements.

Job Title

Employer

Date

Key⁤ Responsibilities

Phlebotomist

ABC Medical Centre

Jan 2020 – Present

Collected blood samples,⁢ maintained ​patient records, ensured compliance with safety protocols.

Phlebotomy intern

XY Health Clinic

jun 2019 – Dec 2019

Assisted in blood draws, managed lab specimens, supported patient care activities.

5. Education‌ and⁣ Certifications

Include ‌your educational ‍background and any‍ relevant certifications.Be sure to⁣ list:

Your degree or diploma

Phlebotomy certification (such as from ⁤the ​American Society for Clinical Pathology)

CPR and Frist Aid certifications

6. Additional Sections

Consider adding a⁣ section for volunteer work or‍ professional affiliations related to healthcare.These can demonstrate ⁢your ⁢commitment to the field.

Practical ⁢Tips for Writing Your Resume

Here are⁢ some practical tips​ to ensure your phlebotomist resume stands out:

Use Action verbs: Start each bullet point ⁣with strong action verbs like “collected,” “performed,” or “managed” to convey your role effectively.

Tailor Your‍ Resume: Customize your resume for⁢ each job application by incorporating relevant keywords​ from ​the job description.

Keep It‍ Concise: Aim for a one-page resume unless you have extensive ⁢experience. Limit your content​ to what is most relevant.

Proofread: Grammatical errors ⁢can reduce your professionalism. ⁣Always proofread your ‌resume ⁢or have someone else review it.

Showcase Success Stories: If possible, include metrics such as the number of successful blood draws or improvements in patient satisfaction to illustrate your achievements.

case Study: Successful Phlebotomist Resumes

To provide insight into what works, consider⁣ the cases of two aspiring phlebotomists:

Name

Success Factors

Jane Doe

Tailored her resume with specific keywords, highlighted patient interaction skills, and ‍showed certifications‌ prominently.

John Smith

Emphasized his internship experience, included metrics ‌of patient satisfaction, and had a professional LinkedIn profile.

Facing First hand⁤ Experience in Phlebotomy

As a phlebotomist, ​you‍ have firsthand experience that ‍can greatly enhance your resume. Consider including:

Challenging cases you managed effectively

Patient demographics you’ve worked with

Techniques or tools you’ve mastered and ‍how ⁣they improved​ patient outcomes

Conclusion

Crafting an impressive phlebotomist resume requires careful consideration‍ of the ​information you⁢ present and how you present it. By including relevant skills, experiences, and accomplishments, and following ⁢the practical tips provided, you ⁤can create a resume ‍that catches the attention of ​hiring managers. remember to⁢ tailor each application ‍and continuously update your resume reflecting new skills and experiences. With the right resume, you’re well on your way to securing a rewarding position⁣ in the healthcare ⁣sector.

https://phlebotomycareertraining.net/leading-tips-for-crafting-an-impressive-phlebotomist-resume-stand-out-in-your-job-search/

[sahraeyll]

Crafting the Perfect Medical Billing Resume: Tips & Examples for Success

Crafting the Perfect Medical Billing Resume: Tips & Examples‍ for Success

Creating an ⁣effective medical billing resume is ⁣crucial for landing your desired‌ job in an increasingly competitive field. ‍This article ​will provide you with comprehensive ⁤tips, actionable advice, and ⁣practical examples to help you craft the perfect resume. Let’s dive in!

Understanding Medical Billing Resumes

A medical billing resume serves to highlight your qualifications, skills, and experiences relevant ⁢to the healthcare billing sector. As a medical biller, your primary responsibility includes ⁢managing claims and ensuring‍ that healthcare providers receive‌ timely payments.⁤ Therefore, your resume ⁤must ⁤reflect⁢ your knowledge in medical codes, billing software, ⁤and compliance regulations.

Benefits of a Strong Medical Billing Resume

Increased Visibility: A well-structured resume increases your chances of getting noticed by recruiters.

Showcases Skills: Effective presentation of your skills makes you⁣ more appealing to potential employers.

Demonstrates Professionalism: A ⁢polished resume reflects your‌ commitment to your career.

Essential Components of‌ a Medical Billing Resume

When crafting your medical billing resume, ensure to include the following sections:

1. Contact Information

Include your full name, phone number, email address, ⁣and location at the top ⁣of your resume. Make sure these details are easy to find.

2. Professional Summary

Write a brief summary that highlights your experience, skills, and career ‌goals. Aim ‌for 3-5 sentences that encapsulate your professional identity.

3. Skills Section

List relevant skills, such ⁢as:

Medical Coding (CPT, ICD-10)

Billing Software Proficiency (e.g., Epic, Meditech)

Insurance Claims Processing

Knowledge of HIPAA Regulations

4. Work Experience

Detail your professional history with a focus ⁤on relevant positions. Use bullet points to describe your responsibilities and accomplishments. Ensure that each entry includes:

Job title

Company name

Location

Dates of employment

5. Education

List your educational background, ​including degrees,⁢ certifications, and relevant coursework.

6. Certifications

If you have certifications like Certified Professional Coder (CPC) or Certified ‍Billing and‌ Coding Specialist (CBCS), be sure​ to highlight them prominently.

Tips for Crafting Your Medical Billing Resume

Here are some practical tips to help you⁢ enhance your ⁢resume:

1. Use ⁣Keywords

Incorporate industry-specific⁤ keywords throughout your resume to pass through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).​ These may include terms like​ “claim processing,” “revenue cycle management,” and “patient‍ account management.”

2. Quantify Your Achievements

Whenever possible, use numbers to convey the impact of‌ your work. For example:

“Successfully reduced claim denial rates by 15%⁤ through improved documentation processes.”

“Processed over ⁤500 claims weekly, ensuring timely reimbursement ⁤for services rendered.”

3. Tailor Your Resume for Each Job ⁤Application

Customize your resume ‍to align with the specific job description. ‌Highlight the experiences and skills that are most relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Medical Billing Resume Example

Section

Details

Contact Information

John Doe 555-123-4567 john.doe@email.com City, State

Professional Summary

Detail-oriented medical biller with over 5 years of⁢ experience in healthcare billing and coding. Proven track record of reducing claim denials and enhancing revenue cycle processes.

Skills

Medical Coding (CPT, ICD-10) Billing Software (Epic) Claim ⁣Processing HIPAA Compliance

Work ⁣Experience

Medical⁣ Biller – ABC Healthcare (2019-Present) – ‍Processed an average of 600 claims weekly. – Reduced denial rates by 20% through meticulous coding.

Education

Associate ‍Degree in Health Information Technology XYZ Community College, Graduated 2018

Certifications

Certified Professional Coder (CPC) Certified Billing and Coding Specialist (CBCS)

First-Hand Experience: Crafting a Successful Resume

As someone who has navigated the competitive ​landscape of medical billing, I ​can tell⁤ you firsthand how a‍ well-crafted resume makes all the difference. When I first started, I struggled to land interviews. It wasn’t until I ​learned to tailor⁤ each​ resume I sent out ⁤that things started to change. By focusing on the skills and ⁣experiences that matched⁤ job descriptions, I quickly saw an increase in responses.

Conclusion: ⁤Your Pathway to Success

Creating the perfect medical billing resume is not just about listing⁢ your experiences;⁣ it’s about telling your‍ professional story in a way that catches the attention of hiring managers. By following the tips provided in this guide and utilizing the ‍example to inspire your own document, you can enhance your chances ⁣of securing a role in this vital field.

Remember, your resume is your first impression—make it count! If you incorporate your unique achievements and follow these guidelines, you’ll be well on your way to success in‌ your medical billing career.

https://medicalbillingcertificationprograms.org/crafting-the-perfect-medical-billing-resume-tips-examples-for-success/

[brookemedbil]

Crafting the Perfect Medical Billing Resume: Tips for Standing Out in a Competitive Job Market

Crafting⁤ the Perfect Medical Billing Resume: Tips for Standing Out⁣ in a Competitive Job Market

The job market for medical billing ‍professionals is increasingly competitive, making it crucial to ​have a ⁣standout resume. But what exactly does​ it take to ‍craft‍ the perfect medical billing resume? In this article, we’ll⁣ explore essential tips, practical ‌advice, and insider perspectives to help you‍ create a document that⁣ not only grabs attention but also lands you ⁣job interviews.

Understanding‌ the Role of a ‍Medical⁢ Biller

Before diving⁢ into resume⁣ writing tips, let’s briefly discuss what a‌ medical biller does.‍ Medical billers are responsible for processing healthcare‍ claims, ensuring that‍ providers are reimbursed accurately and promptly for their services. ⁢This requires a strong⁢ understanding of medical coding, ‌insurance policies, and healthcare regulations. With these⁢ responsibilities in mind, ​your resume must reflect your specialized skills and experience.

Why a Strong Resume Matters

A well-crafted resume can open doors in your career. ⁣Here are some reasons why it’s important:

First Impressions Count: ‌Your resume​ serves as the first point of contact with potential employers.

Showcase Skills: ​A good resume highlights your unique qualifications, making you stand out from the competition.

Demonstrate Professionalism: A polished resume signals your dedication and attention to ⁤detail.

Key Elements​ of an Effective Medical Billing Resume

To create an impactful medical⁤ billing ⁣resume, focus on the following sections:

1. Contact Information

Your resume should start with your full name, phone number, ‌email address, and LinkedIn profile link. Make sure to use a professional email address.

2. Professional Summary

Craft a ⁤compelling professional ‌summary that encapsulates your expertise ⁢in medical billing. Highlight your years of experience and key skills. Here’s a ⁢sample:

“Detail-oriented medical billing specialist ⁣with over⁣ 5 years of experience in processing claims, managing payments, and⁣ collaborating with ‍healthcare providers to ensure accuracy. Proficient in ICD-10, CPT coding, and insurance verification.”

3. Skills Section

Incorporate a skills​ section that lists both hard ‌and⁢ soft skills relevant to medical billing. Consider using bullet points ​for clarity:

ICD-10 and⁢ CPT Coding

Insurance Verification

Claim Submission and Follow-up

Attention to Detail

Communication Skills

4. ⁢Professional Experience

List your work experience ⁣in reverse chronological order. Be sure to‌ include specific accomplishments and quantify ⁣your achievements where possible. ​Use action verbs for a stronger impact. Below is a template for​ this section:

Job Title

Employer

Dates Employed

Key Responsibilities/Achievements

Senior Medical Biller

ABC ​Health Services

2019 – Present

Increased claim ⁣approval rate by 20% and reduced outstanding claims by 30%.

Medical Billing Specialist

XYZ​ Clinic

2017 – ⁢2019

Processed⁢ over 500 claims monthly with a⁢ 98% accuracy rate.

5. Education and Certifications

Include your educational background,⁣ focusing on degrees relevant to healthcare ‌or billing.⁢ Also, list any relevant certifications such as:

Certified Professional Biller (CPB)

Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist​ (CMRS)

Registered Health ⁤Information Technician (RHIT)

6. Additional Sections

Consider adding⁢ sections like ⁤professional associations, volunteer work,​ or relevant additional training courses that show your dedication to professional⁤ growth.

Practical Tips for Crafting⁤ Your Resume

Here are some practical tips to enhance your medical ⁢billing ‍resume:

Tailor ⁢Your Resume: Customize ​your‍ resume for each job application by using keywords from the job⁢ description to ‍align with the employer’s needs.

Keep it Concise: Aim for a one-page​ resume unless‌ you have extensive experience. ⁤Highlight only the most relevant information.

Use a Professional Format: Choose a clean, easy-to-read font‍ and‌ layout. Avoid overly complex designs‍ that can distract from your content.

Proofread: Errors can detract from a professional image. Always proofread‌ your⁢ resume multiple times or seek feedback ​from a colleague.

Case Studies: Successful Medical Billing Resumes

Let’s take a look⁤ at a couple of successful examples of ⁣how ​tailored resumes have made ⁣an ⁢impact:

Case Study⁤ 1: Emma’s Tailored Approach

Emma was applying for ​a medical billing position at a large​ hospital. ‌She tailored her resume to highlight her experience‌ with electronic health records (EHR) and specific healthcare software‍ mentioned in‍ the job ‌description. ‌Her targeted approach landed ⁣her an interview,⁣ and she ultimately secured the job.

Case Study 2: Mark’s Volunteer Experience

Mark included his volunteer ⁢work ‌at​ a local clinic where he assisted with billing processes. This not only ‍showcased his hands-on experience but ‌also his commitment to healthcare. Highlighting​ this ⁣unique aspect of his background helped him stand out and gain attention⁢ from hiring managers.

Conclusion

Crafting the perfect‍ medical⁣ billing⁤ resume can significantly improve your chances in a competitive job market. By focusing⁢ on essential⁣ elements, customizing your approach, and ⁤showcasing ‍relevant‍ skills and experiences, you ⁣can present yourself as the ‌ideal candidate for employers. Remember, your resume is your first opportunity ‍to impress potential employers, and investing time in making it as strong as possible ‌can ​pay off in‍ the long run. Good luck with your job search!

https://medicalbillingcodingcourses.net/crafting-the-perfect-medical-billing-resume-tips-for-standing-out-in-a-competitive-job-market/

[allsaeasonsvaleters]

Preparing for the SAT Exam in the UAE A Comprehensive Guide

The first step in preparing for the SAT is understanding the registration process. SAT registration can be done online through the official College Board website. Students should create an account and fill out the necessary information, including personal details, high school information, and preferred test dates. It's important to register early, as spots can fill up quickly, especially in a competitive region like the UAE. The registration fees must also be paid at this time, and students should be aware of any additional costs for sending their scores to colleges.

Once registration is complete, the next phase is preparation. Many students in the UAE opt for preparatory courses offered by various educational institutions, which can provide valuable insights and strategies tailored to the SAT format. These courses often include practice tests, which are crucial for familiarizing oneself with the types of questions that will appear on the exam. Practicing under timed conditions is also recommended, as it helps students manage their time effectively during the actual test.

For those who took the sat exam uae 2019, the structure of the test included several sections: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, Math, and an optional Essay. Understanding the test structure is key to effective preparation. Students should focus on enhancing their reading comprehension, analytical skills, and mathematical abilities. Resources such as official SAT prep books, online courses, and mobile apps can be incredibly helpful in this regard.

In addition to traditional study methods, many students in the UAE find success through group study sessions. Collaborating with peers can provide motivation and enhance understanding of complex topics. Moreover, students can benefit from sharing resources and study tips, creating a more comprehensive study environment.

It's also essential to develop a study schedule that allows for consistent preparation over time. Cramming at the last minute can lead to unnecessary stress and hinder performance on test day. Instead, students should allocate time for each section of the sat registration and include regular breaks to avoid burnout.

As the test date approaches, students should familiarize themselves with the testing location. The SAT is usually administered in various centers across the UAE, and knowing the route, potential traffic conditions, and check-in procedures can alleviate anxiety on the day of the exam. It’s advisable to arrive early to allow time for unforeseen delays and to get settled before the test begins.

In conclusion, preparing for the SAT exam in the UAE requires careful planning, dedicated study, and an understanding of the registration process. For those interested in taking the SAT exam in the UAE 2019, it’s crucial to stay organized and proactive throughout the preparation journey. Utilizing available resources, engaging in collaborative study, and maintaining a balanced approach to test preparation can significantly increase the chances of success.

By following these guidelines and committing to a thorough study plan, students can approach the SAT with confidence, setting a strong foundation for their future academic endeavors.

[jackdoshay]

Jack Doshay - A Passion For Helping Others

Jack Doshay is a Crypto and Finance Blogger from Long Beach, CA, with a passion for helping others navigate the world of finance. Since 2019, Jack has been sharing his insights on cryptocurrency, finance, and effective money-making strategies. Graduating high school in 2022, he is dedicated to providing his readers with valuable information and tips to help them achieve their financial goals. With a friendly and approachable writing style, Jack's blog is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their financial literacy and make smart financial decisions.