#so I had to rely on background screenshots from when I started this project lol

[omaano]

Big Blue joins The Mandalorian Meets Hades Project!

[sugarcomatosed]

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

[martechadvisor-blog]

5 Ways to Keep a Global Brand Consistent

See if you can picture the logo of the most recognizable brand in the world. I’ll just give you two hints: script font and the color red.

This logo looks about the same as it did when it was first trademarked in 1893. The name of the product is reportedly so familiar all over the world that it is surpassed only by the word “okay.”

I’m talking, of course, about Coca-Cola, a company with an advertising budget that numbers in the billions. “Even with a massive ad budget, the sheer scale of this branding phenomenon would be unsustainable without an unwavering commitment to consistency,” writes North Carolina-based North Star Marketing in a brilliant blog post about why brand consistency matters. Here are the five reasons they cite:

Consistency helps you manage perceptions.

Consistency conveys your outlook and attitude.

Consistency eliminates issues surrounding brand confusion.

Consistency protects your investment.

Consistency builds upon previous successes.

This fits completely with a marketing mantra that I have preached for years: “Being consistent is better than being better.” How do you go about maintaining consistency for a global brand—especially one that doesn’t have a billion-dollar budget and isn’t quite as iconic as Coke?

Let’s start with what not to do. Don’t think you’ll be able to enforce your brand standards by inspection alone. Trying to be the logo cop or the brand police simply doesn’t work, especially as your company grows and expands. Instead, try these five universal tips.

1. Publish and Enforce Brand Guidelines

At Workfront, where I am the CMO, we have a 25-page Brand Guide that is maintained and distributed by our creative director. Everyone who contributes in any way to visual identity is given a copy and expected to adhere to the guidelines.

This PDF includes multiple examples of proper logo usage, with visual examples of improper usage as well, such as:

Do not change logo colors—only use approved logo and background combinations.

Do not replace or alter logo type.

Do not stretch or distort logo.

Do not use the logotype without the icon.

The guide also covers font usage, primary color palette, complimentary color palettes, supporting icons, typefaces, backgrounds, and photography, providing some contextual examples at the end.

Creating and distributing your own guide is only the beginning, however. You also have to enforce the guidelines—even for internal usage, even for something as innocuous as an HR poster. As soon as an incorrect logo is used in one place, someone else will see it and think that’s okay. And once that one little file is in circulation, it has a tendency to propagate itself.

2. Establish Brand Voice and Messaging

While it’s no less important, written brand messaging is harder to define and enforce than brand look and feel. Why? Because voice is so much more subjective than pinpointing a couple of PMS colors, where it’s either the right orange or it’s not.

On top of creating a style guide that attempts to define how to write for the brand, you may also need to hold a training meeting or two. As you’ve no doubt seen from your colleagues’ emails and social media updates, not everyone possesses that critical eye for written language.

Your style guide could cover things like:

Your brand promise and/or your mission or vision statement

Key messages that you thread into everything you do

Personality—Is your brand informal and conversational? More serious and authoritative? Fun and friendly?

Humor—Is your brand edgy and sarcastic? A little bit sassy? Or more on the funny, witty side?

Grammar and punctuation—Do you ever use trendy social speak (LOL), or is it proper English only? Are exclamation points acceptable? Do you use the Oxford comma or not?

Style—Are headlines sentence case or title case, and do they include punctuation? Do you use contractions or not?

Industry-specific spellings—Are there certain words or phrases that your company takes a stand on? In our industry, “on-premise solution” is commonly used, but we prefer the more grammatical “on-premises solution.”

Forbidden words—Are there words that you just never want to see associated with your brand, such as “deal” or “discount”? Make a list and add it to your style guide.

Once you’ve outlined the basics, there has to be some enforcement via an established review and approval processes. Anything that’s written to be public facing should be evaluated and approved by whatever group you’ve appointed to own that function.

3. Build a Repository of Approved Graphics

Everyone in your company is armed with tools like PowerPoint these days, and if there is a void, they will create their own assets using whatever they can find. Say you have a salesperson who wants to send a customized one-sheet to a prospect, and he wants it to look “professional,” but he doesn’t have the current version of the logo. It wouldn’t be unheard of for him to take a screenshot of the logo from the website and drag it into a Word document to create his own letterhead—with unpredictable results.

Do what you can to make approved logos, backgrounds, letterhead, and templates more widely available. And I don’t mean appointing someone in your team to field requests via email.

Your best bet is a digital asset management (DAM) solution, which I wrote about in depth here. One of the biggest benefits of a centralized digital library is that you have a single place for people to get approved graphics. When there’s an update to the logo or another file, you can permanently delete all old versions—or restrict access to them.

Of course, you still need to educate everyone on how to use the DAM, where to find what they need, and especially why it’s important to grab assets from the DAM every single time—rather than relying on that logo they downloaded to their desktop six months ago.

After the initial training, reinforce it by directing people to the DAM every single time they email you for an asset. It won’t take long for those email requests to slow down and then stop.

4. Automate Reviews & Approvals

The more you can automate and streamline your approval process, the easier it will be to keep on top of branding consistency problems. When your process is poor, things easily slip through the cracks, which could result in an off-brand graphic being used in a public-facing way. Then someone else spots that usage and thinks, “I guess it’s okay to use the logo in green now,” copies it, and the vicious cycle continues.

A digital proofing solution with automatic notifications and mobile capabilities not only makes it less likely for assets to get overlooked, it also drastically reduces the amount of time it takes to get the thumbs-up from all relevant stakeholders. For one example, the Northstar New Jersey Lottery Group was able to reduce their project approval turnaround time by a full 24 hours per project after onboarding the Workfront proofing product.

5. Rely On Audit Trails

With a comprehensive work management solution and/or digital proofing software, you have an audit trail to consult anytime there’s a branding issue and you want to pinpoint where the process broke down. You’ll be able to see if:

The CMO simply didn’t weigh in by the deadline, so it was published anyway, as per your previous agreement.

The creative director approved the project, but must not have spotted the branding problem.

The creative director asked for the correction, but it never got made in the final version.

Your voice and messaging gatekeeper was not invited to review the asset.

The VP who’s now complaining about that asset did review the piece but didn’t speak up about the problem when she had the chance.

One of a myriad of other ways that reviews and approvals can go wrong.

If you have an audit trail, you don’t have to waste time asking what happened; you know what the problem was. Now you have the opportunity to do a little bit of coaching to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Another benefit of the audit trail is that it reveals the history of this asset prior to it reaching you. For example, I may be second-guessing a certain aspect of a design, but if I see that my creative director approved it first, I’ll pause before I speak up about it—saving us both some unnecessary back-and-forth.

Taste the Feeling of Brand Consistency

You don’t have to be working for a 130-year-old behemoth soft drink company to care deeply about brand consistency. In fact, the smaller and younger your firm is, the easier it will be to establish good branding habits from the beginning. Then when your brand goes global, which is inevitable in this Internet-driven age, you’ll already be a few steps ahead of the competition.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor