#stay tuned and read the other 50 thousand words when i post it��!

[cynicalmusings]

hey! this is chance & here’s week 3’s prompt. share an excerpt that you’re very proud of from any of your wips.

(or, if that’s too small to read:)

——————

[~500-300 D.A.W]

There were many of them, to begin with: Morax’s chosen warriors to cleanse the land of evil. When fallen gods’ lingering resentment seized the world like plague, they fought with fierce resolution and unparalleled skill, and dark manifestations fell before their blades like leaves before a hurricane.

Of these warriors—yakshas, they were called—five were the most pronounced: Bosacius, Indarias, Bonanus, Menogias, and Xiao. Together they tore through countless leagues of monsters, leaving oceans of blood in their wake. Not once did they falter or fail in their duty. Slaughter was their livelihood, and the battleground their home. 

Some yakshas fell in conflict to the fallen gods’ wrath, finding their end, too, among the torrent of flashing blades. Pervases was one such yaksha, whom Bosacius had loved like a brother, taken too soon by a monstrosity risen from hatred and fury.

These yakshas were the lucky ones.

The first few centuries were simple; kill, and move on. Kill, and move on. The yakshas’ forces were hindered by nothing as they cut down manifestations where they arose. Their only concern was leaving battle with their lives. Sometimes, when they were not fighting, there was laughter. Joy, even. Respite to be found in between the bloodshed where undeniable kinship had been forged.

Then the karma began to set in. 

Centuries of slaughter did not come freely: a price was demanded for clashing with the anger of gods, and it was one paid in blood, tears, and sanity. The lingering resentment they battled so relentlessly against took root in their hearts, turning their blood black with hatred until they turned on each other, raving and furious, tearing their comrades apart. It infected their minds, distorting honed focus to madness that only devoured, ever-hungry, splitting the head and splintering the world into red fragments behind their eyes.

Of the foremost five yakshas, Indarias was the first to fall. The madness took her, though she fought against it, when she took notice of the blood on her hands and could not wash it away. Her true nature as a slaughterer of thousands, once revealed to her in the broken mirror of her mind, could not be taken back. The flames she commanded consumed her, massacred gods screaming inside her head until all she knew was fear, and then all she knew was darkness. Her shattered mask clattered to the floor.

The remaining four carried on with heavy hearts.

(See, my child, how this dauntless hero is gnawed by fear.)

Menogias and Bonanus were the next to succumb to the price they owed. Camaraderie turned to loathing in the heat of a moment, ignited by the hatred gnawing away at their spirits. Blades clashed for days and nights on end until both fell to exhaustion and fatal wounds. Two more empty masks joined the first. 

(Behold, my child, how those lovers who swore by the sky and earth betray and torment each other with lies.)

Xiao and Bosacius struggled onwards, caught in constant battle not only with monsters of flesh but the ones within themselves. Neither of them spoke of it, but the silent acknowledgement of the other’s suffering hung thick in the air. Xiao was plagued by painful torment in his waking hours and nightmares in his slumber until he stopped sleeping altogether. 

One day, Bosacius cried out with sudden madness, and vanished without a trace. His mask was never found.

(See how selfless rulers bow as if they lacked spines.)

(Child, know that love is but a fleeting dog. It is power that forms the stuff of sweet dreams.)

The last millennia of the Archon War, Xiao spent alone.

[firelxdykatara]

I think if fiction didn’t matter we wouldn’t be rallying for better representation. But at the same time, there’s plenty of fiction that so clearly doesn’t try to impose a moral. Are you of the opinion that any fiction that displays objectively horrible things in a gratifying lense should be banned? Would you call people who liked the saw films monsters? What about first person shooter games? Any porn that features power imbalances as a kink?

Short answer, to all of those questions: No. Absolutely not.

But of course, as it’s me, have a much longer answer:

Here’s the thing that the ‘FICTION AFFECTS REALITY’/’IF YOU LIKE DARKFIC YOU’RE A MONSTER’ crowd fails to realize: when we say ‘fiction is not reality’ we are not saying ‘fiction doesn’t matter’ or ‘fiction has no affect on reality whatsoever’. What we are saying is that fiction does not have a direct, 1:1 affect on reality. ‘Normal’ people will NEVER read a piece of fiction and suddenly become a pedophile. Normal people will not read a piece of fiction and forget about boundaries. Normal people will not read a piece of fiction and suddenly think that societal taboos which used to disgust them are A-OK and then try to enact them in their real lives.

Antis really love to cite the Jaws Effect when talking about how fiction affects reality, but they miss one crucial point--Jaws was playing on the pre-existing fears of the movie-going public. (And also the fact that Jaws had millions of viewers worldwide and reached a far greater audience, and therefore had far greater impact, than some niche darkfic on ao3 ever will.) It’s the same argument that’s been trotted out again and again by the ‘violent video games turn normal happy kids into school shooters’ crowd. Can playing violent video games temporarily heighten someone’s aggression/make someone already prone to violence even more aggressive? Sure. Will playing violent video games (or watching/reading violent media) make someone with a normally healthy emotional responses to stimuli suddenly become a violent person? Absolutely not.

Like, I love games like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. I love slipping into Ancient Greece and running around, merrily hacking and slashing my way through Athenians and Spartans. I’ve never once gotten the urge to pick up a sword and go outside and start sticking it in people. I know plenty of people who love Grand Theft Auto and don’t have a violent bone in their body. I greatly enjoy taking head shots as a sniper in Mass Effect, but I’ve never picked up a high-powered rifle in my life. (I go to the shooting range sometimes, with my grandad’s old .22, but I certainly have never wanted to shoot anyone with it.) My taste for video game violence has never translated to my reactions or interactions with other people in real life. Because I’m not a violent person, and while I can’t say I’m mentally healthy, I can say that I’ve never wanted to hurt other people. (And I have one of those ‘scary’ mental illnesses that get demonized all the time in popular media.)

So like, here’s the thing: first of all, the argument that video game or media violence (or abuse, rape, incest, pedophilia, etc) creates violence (or etc) in otherwise normal people is absolute bullshit. You may hear antis trotting out the Slenderman killings as another example, but they again fail to take into account that even if the game was the trigger, it was not the cause, and if it hadn’t existed, something else would have set them off. (And that was 2 people out of the, I’m gonna guess, millions of people who’ve played the game or watched let’s plays or whatever else. Not exactly terrifying odds.)

Secondly, you have to remember that while fiction and reality do have a relationship and do have an affect on one another, that affect is far more noticeable from the other direction. Fiction informs reality--it is often a direct reflection of it. This is why Greek tragedies became so popular--because people saw in them the human condition, in all its ugliest parts, and found extreme catharsis in watching it unfold. And this is part of why, yes, representation is so important--because, right now, most fiction is not an accurate reflection of reality, and that creates an unbalanced dynamic that’s going to take a very long time to fix.

Which leads to my final point, that is most often overlooked by antis who insist that fiction cannot be separated from reality: mass media reaches a far greater audience than fanfiction. Yes, it’s bad that so much of Hollywood fare is white--because Hollywood has reach. Billions of people tune in to watch the latest blockbuster. Your average niche darkfic on ao3 will never reach that kind of audience, not in a million years. The effect of that reach is simply not comparable. If someone who is already prone to violence plays a game or watches a movie or tv show that glorifies it, sure, it may heighten their violent response, but that’s because it’s playing on something that’s already there. The fiction itself is not to blame for whatever the person who viewed it chooses to do.

One last thing, since this is something that I feel doesn’t get mentioned enough in these debates: if you’ve been following me long enough, you’ll probably have seen me rag on Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey. I hate both of those series’ with a burning passion. I think they’re badly written tripe, one of which began as fanfic of badly written tripe (and if 50sog had languished in the annals of internet obscurity as Master of the Universe and not become a multi-million dollar hit, I’d probably never have heard of it--again, the difference in reach between niche fanfic and a mass media sensation), and I hate the way the abusive relationships in both of them are glorified. I think the ‘themes’ Twilight spoonfed preteen girls who ate it up are harmful. I think the racism involved in its depiction of the Quileute tribe was despicable. I think everything 50sog had to say about BDSM and the kink community is horrific, and deserves to be called out.

But you know what else these books did?

They started conversations. Conversations that may not have happened to such a wide degree had these books not become famous. (Not that I’m saying it’d be any great loss if they’d never seen the light of day, but hey, they did, and we have to live with the fallout, so at least something good came out of it.) Conversations that desperately needed to be had--about red flags in abusive relationships, about what is ok and not ok to do or say to your partner, about what consent is and what healthy relationships are, and what a healthy BDSM/kink relationship should look like. (I swear to the gods if any anti kinksters start crawling all over this post, I will eat their toes. Stay out of consenting adults’ bedrooms for the love of all that is fucking holy.) Conversations about safe words and how to use them, and how it is always ok to use them please dear lord do not let things progress past the point of your comfort. Conversations about the real life Quileute tribe who has been trying for years to talk about the realities of tribal life, which were so butchered by Twilight, but that hopefully brought more awareness and helped show what not to do when you’re incorporating a real life culture into your work.

These are important conversations, which may not have been had to the widespread degree that they were and are were it not for the cultural phenomena that sparked them. So no, I don’t think it’s wrong to point out if an author is, for instance, glorifying harmful things in their works--however, I do think that the reach of the work in question matters. If you’re targeting a work with a few thousand hits at most, ask yourself: why? Why this work, and not an actual cultural powerhouse like, say, Game of Thrones, which features such hits as the showrunners openly admitting they waited for a teenage actress to turn 18 so they could film a scene where her character is brutally raped on screen? Why is it so important to draw attention to some niche work of darkfic (especially if it’s properly tagged so that it can be avoided by anyone to whom it would be harmful; and by the way, these tags don’t exist for things like, oh, VC Andrews novels, which any kid can pick up in a library without warning; I think that even a glorified/romanticized rape scene that is tagged as rape on ao3 is less harmful than similar themes occurring without warning in a book I picked up because it had pretty flowers on the cover), when you can easily find the exact same things in published, popular fiction?

Just something to think about, before trying to insist that fanfics that reach an audience of a few thousand at most are anywhere on the level of ‘affecting reality’ the same way that mass media that reaches billions is capable of.

[castielearmy]

Mission nightmare initiate ☆ 50 dollar baby part 2 ☆

 Links: Part 1, Part 3

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

Genre: fluff (I guess)

Warnings: little bit of swearing

Word count: 1.1k +

A/n ~ Sooo I made the whole post and saved it into drafts but tumblr decided not to save it 🤔 but yeah here it is. Alsooo there are actually gonna be 3 parts because part 2 was too long so I had to separate it into two, I'll be posting part 3 tomorrow so stay tuned. Hope you enjoy this part! 😊

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

(Gif not mine)

It's been a week since the party. Which gave her plenty of time to think about the incident. She was hurt. They dated for only a month but it felt like longer to her. He seemed like a perfect guy as cliché as it sounds. Love just happens I guess.

"How much?!", her friend asked in complete shock, jaw dropping wide open.

"50", she said calmly while picking the whip cream on her dessert with a spoon.

"Hundred? Thousand?", her friend was trying to guess the number, wanting to make sure she heard right.

"Just 50", she said emotioneless.

"50 bucks?! He sold you for 50 bucks?! Who does he think you are?! A street striper?!", her friend was beyond angry, talking with a higher tone and moving her hands in the air while other people on the terrace of the cafe looked at her like she was a maniac.

And she was. They were both maniacs in their own ways. Perhaps that's why they worked so well ever since their childhood. They had each others backs, like real friends should.

"Calm down bitch. It's not the end of the world", Y/n calmed her friend down.

"So what are you gonna do now?", her friend sat back down from her slightly raised position and put her hands on her lap politely.

"I'm gonna get back together with him", Y/n picked up a strawberry from her small plate and ate it.

"Ooh, so mission nightmare initiate", her friend picked up her iced coffee and took a sip, "I like how you think", she pointed her straw towards Y/n and smirked evilishly.

"Of course you do", Y/n smiled at her friend before they clinked their plastic cups with coffee.

. * • . ° * ☆ • .

He was waiting for her at the promised spot. A hill that looked over the whole city they lived in. It was peaceful up there. A place they would both go to when they wanted to have deep conversations or get some things off of their chests. He had his arms crossed over his chest because it was a little chilly, his foot constantly tapping on the hard ground beneath him and his teeth biting his lower lip agressively. To say that he was nervous was an understatement. He was freaking out. He was about to pour his heart out to the girl he fell for on accident. And even though she probably hated him for what he did, he still wanted her to know how much she meant to him. He loved her.

Car lights and a quiet sound of engine woke him up from his thoughts. She parked her black '67 Chevy Impala (if you get this inside joke then I love you) next to his blue Hyundai kona. Yes, they were quite different when it came to style but opposites attract right?

"I thought you weren't gonna come", he stated as she got out of the car. After all it was him who texted her to meet up, which was exactly what she wanted.

"Then why did you come?", she asked coldly. She had ripped short shorts that complimented her thighs and perfectly shaped her ass, a white v collar t-shirt that revealed little bit of her boobs and a red flannel that was originally tied around her hips but was now on her to keep her warm from the chilly summer breeze.

"I still had hope you would show up", he said as she slammed her car door and started walking towards him slowly.

"What do you want?", she ignored his heartfelt comment and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I want you to listen to me. You don't have to say or do anything, just listen to what I have to say", he had a lot of regret in his eyes.

"You have 60 seconds"

"Okay, I know I hurt you", he started and she scoffed while rolling her eyes, "and I hate myself for doing that. Yeah, I dated you for a stupid bet and it was supposed to be a bet until the end but... something happened along the way. The month that we spent together made me feel something I wasn't expecting", he made a small pause. Like he was trying not to... cry?

"It made me happy", his heart skipped a beat, "I never felt happier in my life and... you were the reason of my happiness. I'm so sorry... ", he looked at the ground and let his arms fall down from his chest.

Silence. It took over the atmosfere around small hill they were on. He stared at the ground and she stared at him. Being very good with reading people, she was studying his expression, body movements, anything and everything. What she found surprised her. It was remorse written all over him.

》Wow. He was really that dumb and fell for me. It almost makes me wanna forgive him《, she thought to herself.

"Okay well", she inhaled loudly and he looked up at her with anticipation in his eyes, "your 60 seconds passed so I'ma get going", she turned around and started walking to her car.

》3... 2... 1《, she counted in her mind.

"I love you!", he blurted out to what her heart skipped a beat. This was not part of the plan. In a month of them dating they never said the 3 words to each other. Regardless of that she can't give in.

She put on her shocked face which wasn't that hard because she party already felt like that, "What?"

"You heard me. Y/n L/n I love you!", he started walking towards her, "I'm so sorry that I hurt you, I was stupid and careless and an asshole and I'm so sorry but please. I need you. I love you", he was now holding her hands, completely close to her.

She was confused to this point. She knew that she fell for him but she didn't expect him to be head over heels for her. She almost wanted to forgive him and forget everything but now it was too late. He used her and just the fact that he did, beats every chance of them ever being together again in her head.

They stared into each other. She could see fear in his eyes. After all he just confessed his feelings to her. He searched her eyes for something but he couldn't find what he was looking for. To be honest, he didn't even know what he was looking for. So he started to lean closer to her face. After she showed no protest, he connected their lips in a sweet, loving and long kiss.

》It's on《, she said in her head.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

[sippin-on-red-wine]

No. 6 Collaborations Project: A review!

It’s been a week since this fabulous album has dropped into our hands. Click “Keep reading to hear my thoughts on each track!

Track 1. Beautiful People Khalid ★★★★ Favorite Lyric: You look stunning dear/So don’t ask that question here

Thoughts/Reflection: Ed keeps referring to this song as ‘cozy’ and I completely agree. The vibe is cool. I love the tone of his voice here and I think it meshes really nicely with Khalid’s. The content isn’t super relatable, but I think we can all take something away from this one. It’s a good note on self-awareness and being able to see the reality in things that may look glamorous on the surface. 

-

Track 2. South of the Border feat. Camila Cabello, Cardi B ★★★★★ Favorite Lyric: So join me in this bed that I’m in/Push up on me and sweat darlin’/So I’m gonna put my time in/Won’t stop until the angels sing

Thoughts/Reflection: This track is literally freaking scorching hot fire. TBH I’m surprised that they led the album with IDC and not this one. It feels like big radio potential to me. Regardless, this song is an absolute BOP - so catchy and so fucking sexy. 

I know Ed’s Spanish leaves something to be desired ☺ But I feel like we can cut him some slack after singing (yet another) song dedicated to going down on a woman. The ginger is forgiven! Five stars for him! And I’m going to have SOTB on repeat all summer (or for the rest of my life).

Oh, I also really like Cardi on this song. IDK if she’s problematic or w/e, I don’t really follow her in the media at all. But her verse is fun. (I think Ed got a lil jungle fever AY) bahahahah

-

Track 3. Cross Me feat. Chance the Rapper, PnB Rock ★★★★★ Favorite Lyric: Know she gonna slide anytime you bitches talk shit/Keep a lil blade in her fuckin’ lip gloss kit 

Thoughts/Reflection: Love love love LOVE this one. It just makes you want to get up and DANCE the damn thing! I have to laugh a little at the thought of Ed being hard & tough, lol, but it’s a cool concept nonetheless. Like he said in his Charlemagne interview, it’s kind of a love song…. but a different tempo. It’s catchy as all hell and Chance’s verse is fucking cool. 

Full points. 

-

Track 4. Take Me Back to London feat. Stormzy ★★★★★ Favorite Lyric: Coz you can win BRITS (it don’t stop)/And you can do Glasto (headline slot)

Thoughts/Reflection: Fuck. This song, though. IIt’s the first one that jumped out at me when I did my first full album listen. And I haven’t stopped listening since. The chorus is so syncopated. Stormzy is sick on this track, I love his voice so much. And it just feels like the two of them really play off each other nicely and probably had a blast making this song. 

Also, Ed flexing “Grossed half a billi on the Divide tour/No I’m not kidding what would I lie for” is BDE and I’m personally really here for it.

This song is a banger and you should dance in your kitchen to it while baking pastries. FIve stars for you, Big Mike and Teddy.

(Dear God please let Stormzy guest live in Ipswich)

-

Track 5. Best Part of Me feat. YEBBA ★★★★ Favorite Lyric: it’s not a lyric but that part when Ed & YEBBA are harmonizing perfectly in the whoooaaAAaaaA 

Thoughts/Reflection: I love the sound on this song! His voice is so raw and tender here. It reminds me of Plus era, but grown up. I think it may be how delicately he approaches the syllables in his verse and the chorus. YEBBA’s tone is super rich and lovely, and they sound great together.

I’m taking a “star” off here because I don’t love the lyrics. I get that he’s being vulnerable and showing insecurities in verse 1, but then YEBBA follows that up with lamenting about misplacing things and being late for the train? It doesn’t seem to match up with admitting physical/bodily insecurities. Also, it could just be that I hate that Ed thinks of himself this way.

DUDE IS HOT AF

-

Track 6. I Don’t Care feat. Justin Bieber ★★★★ Favorite Lyric: I don’t like nobody but you/I hate everyone here

Thoughts/Reflection: Oh god. When did this song come out? I’m trying to think back to my first impressions of it, LOL. It’s bright and poppy and of course it went and stayed #1 all summer (thus far). I remember thinking it was so cool that the melody is super mainstream and upbeat, but the underlying theme is around social anxiety. “Crippled with anxiety/But I’m told I’m where I’m sposed to be” 

I mostly skip this one now that the full album is out, but I think I listened to it for a full 48 hours on repeat when it first dropped. Bieber is problematic and shit, and honestly I don’t think he adds much to the song. I really like Ed’s acoustic version where he does the whole thing solo.

The bridge slaps. Literally. I love that clapping bit behind it. I wish that Ed hadn’t fucked up the lyrics to the bridge in the acoustic version lolololol

Four stars, will bop along for many moons to come

-

Track 7. Antisocial feat. Travis Scott ★★★★★ Favorite Lyric: So antisocial but I don’t care/Don’t give a damn I’m gonna smoke here/Got a bottle in my hand bring more tho

Thoughts/Reflection: DID YOU SEE HIM GUEST AT TRAVIS’ SHOW LAST NIGHT? This song was already one of my faves but holy shit. In interviews, Ed talks a lot about feeling awkward on stage without a guitar - but it didn’t look like that last night. He was bouncy as all hell, sounded great, looked great. Looked like he was loving the crowd’s energy too.

And the music video? That deserves a post all on it’s own.

This track is pretty short but it’s packed with good stuff. Ed’s intro is really strong here, the chorus is interesting despite the repetition. I physically can’t help but groove along to this tune. I’m sorry. I have no say in the matter

-

Track 8. Remember the Name feat. Eminem, 50 Cent ★★★★★ Favorite Lyric: 20 years old is when I came in the game/And now it's eight years on and you remember the name/And if you thought I was good, well, then I'm better today

Thoughts/Reflection: YES. YES. YES.  The song intros with a reference to Ipswich, bitch. I love how Ed makes those connections back to his upbringing.

It’s a little unreal that these three iconic voices/styles can flow so well on a song and still sound so balanced. 

I’ve got this one on repeat too. I’m determined to learn all of the words damnit!!

Five stars for a tune that I would love to see performed live someday.

-

Track 9. Feels feat. Young Thug, J Hus ★★★

Favorite Lyric: See you wigglin’, jigglin/If I have a bite will it taste like cinnamon?

Thoughts/Reflection: This song is fine. I like the feature verses. The song just doesn’t stick out that much for me.

-

Track 10. Put It All on Me feat. Ella Mai ★★★

Favorite Lyric: I try to be strong but I got demons/So can I lean on you?/I need a strong heart and a soft touch

Thoughts/Reflection: Falsetto. Falsetto everywhere. I love that! Ella Mai’s voice is so rich. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot more to say on this one. It’s not a song I’m playing on repeat, but I don’t skip it either.

-

Track 11. Nothing On You feat. Paulo Londra, Dave ★★★★ Favorite Lyric: You and I/Whisky on ice/Maybe later we can turn down all the lights

Thoughts/Reflection: This song is SEXY and cool…. ‘smoke clouds and the scent of perfume’.... the imagery. Man. More falsetto here. Also, please go look up the translation of Paulo Londra’s verse. Thanks. I’m sweating. Is it hot in here? This album is *sexual* 

ALSO THE ‘BRRRP’ AFTER “they keep ringing my phone”  bahahahahah 

-

Track 12. I Don’t Want Your Money feat. H.E.R. ★★★★★

Favorite Lyric: I need you here for the good times and the bad times/Yeah the pullin’ out my hair gettin’ mad times/Not just the when I’m in your bed on my back times

Thoughts/Reflection: THIS IS SUCH A GODDAMN TUUUUNEEEEEE!!!!!!! I love this song so much. 10/10 jamming out to this in the car at every opportunity. Finger snappin’ cool r&b vibe. I love the super quick tempo (but not quite rap?) in Ed’s verses. And I always appreciate the little double-meaning-references in Ed’s songs - like ‘diamonds, silver or gold’ means $$$ of course, but also just success in terms of album sales performance.

TBH when I saw the title on Ed’s tracklist reveal, I totally thought this would be a slow mushy love song about how Ed’s lucky to have found someone who wasn’t into him for his money. This was a pleasant surprise!! I love that it’s a little angsty.

Five STARS bitch I love this song and y’all are sleeping on it

-

Track 13. 1000 Nights feat. Meek Mill, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie ★★★★

Favorite Lyric: Birds eye view/Pay my dues/For a two-mile queue

Thoughts/Reflection: i been ON for a thousAND NIGHTSSSSS NEW YORK TO LONDONNN DIFFERENT CITY EVERY DAYAYYY

1000 Nights: a flexy bop and I love it

This song is about the Divide tour which has been going for approximately 572 years. Not that I’m complaining.

But it’s cool (how many times have I said ‘cool’ in this post? don’t answer that). Ed loves touring and that comes out in this song. And Meek’s verse is so fun to rap along to!

Four stars.

-

Track 14. Way To Break My Heart feat. Skrillex ★★★★★

Favorite Lyric: I can’t stop thinkin’ bout her/And her lips on mine, so soft/Feelings I don’t know the name of

Thoughts/Reflection: biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch.

This song is NOSTALGIC and I simply adore it. It has that same… “cozy” feel that Beautiful People does. Which is strange, considering it’s a song about heartbreak. But it’s just so. Soft. And warm. 

We’re back to super soft placement of words and such pure tone. 

It’s hauntingly beautiful. And yet uptempo! Bless, Skrillex. I especially love the drums that come in during the chorus, after “you’re still gone, and i’ll say”

PS, the soft sound of mouth smacking at :13. Use headphones.

Some of my favorite Ed songs are ones about heartbreak, and I appreciate that he included one here. About an imaginary heartbreak 👀

Take another five stars from me, bud

- Track 15. BLOW feat. Chris Stapleton, Bruno Mars ★★★★★

Favorite Lyric: Hot damn/Pop it like a pistol mama/You got me down on my knees/Baby please?

Thoughts/Reflection: *laughing nervously*

Again, definitely not what I expected out of this track when the titles were all revealed. I LOVED release day on this one. The world collectively lost their shit. I need nothing more in this world than to see this song performed live, especially with a full band and Ed on an electric guitar. 

I’m still not over this loud, full, energetic song full of men bellowing about wanting to, well, fuck.

Bye

(five stars from me and also my 62 year old coworker Jan)

:::OVERALL:::

This album is SO GOOD MATE and I already cannot wait until the next collabs project! Ed blessed us with 15 amazing tracks to tide us over until Subtract comes out. They’re so different from his normal album stuff and I really love to see him try new sounds and get to create/collaborate with artists he admires so much.

it also has me real hot and bothered lmao

Thanks for coming to my tEd talk.

[thesevenseraphs]

Director’s Cut: Part III (Finale)

OK. When I started writing this Director’s Cut, I figured it would be an easy couple-thousand-word post. My plan was to rapidly look back at the past six months of Destiny 2 and layout a simple outline of where we want to go this Fall. I think I still did that, but I ended up wanting to talk more about the “why”, the team, and share how we are thinking about Destiny. I remember following games when I was younger and being excited to dig into the messages the developers put together, like Tigole’s posts on raids and dungeons back in my WoW days. 

And I loved it. And I loved reading those posts.

Maybe this was all a love letter to long-form communication—a relic from a time before it was all hot takes, 140/280-character posts, and upvotes.

I didn’t think this would add up to something longer than almost every paper I wrote in college. But here we are.

Before we get to today’s programming, I want to circle back on reloader mods and also about mods more generally in Armor this fall, in case you missed my Twitter thoughts. 

These general mods--which provide the exact same effect as Hand Cannon reloader (but also affects other small arms weapons)--cost 4-5 energy (depending on the mod) and do not have an elemental affinity associated with them.

These general mods -- of which there are 11 -- are unlocked for everyone automatically, so you can start to tinker right away.  

Basically, when you want to specialize your weapon, it requires matching your armor's energy type.

And then you get an energy discount on socketing the mod.

Thanks for the questions on this.

Let’s finish this series by looking at combat—where the action game and RPG collide—and begin the conversation about the “single evolving world” portion of our vision. (We’ll have more on the evolving world later this month after the feeling has returned to my fingers.)

COMBAT: THE INEVITABLE COLLISION OF ACTION AND RPG

We want the game to be an awesome power fantasy where challenge can push back on its players. As we discussed in Part I, the game started to bend in Year 2 under the weight of this Power and Destiny’s imperative that it ride the line between action game and RPG. This section is going to explore that collision across a variety of places: the UI, the player character, and of course PvP.

Part I: Damage Numbers and the 999,999 Problem

Destiny 2 was built with very different goals in mind than was the much-improved version of the game we’re playing today. Some parts simply weren’t meant to last for several years. One of those parts is the displayed-damage values relative to the player’s Power level.  

This problem most clearly manifests to players as the frequency of “999,999” showing up in your HUD. As the post-Forsaken year continued, the curve that dictates the value of displayed damage sharpens into a hockey stick. The display values for Shadowkeep rocket off the graph and become almost vertical! 

This inflation for damage is getting retooled this Fall. It will look like a UI numbers squish, but more crucially, behind the scenes we’re setting up the damage-display system to last. It’s important that you understand we are not nerfing your outgoing damage; rather, we’re refactoring the displayed number game wide. 

We’ve also had something that, over the years, the team has come to call “The Immunity Wall.” This is a value where players cannot damage AI. In the game today, if you’re 50 Power below an enemy and you shoot it, you deal a big ol’ donut. Another change we’ve made for fall is that we’ve lowered (raised?) the immunity wall to 100. This means you can now deal damage to enemies you are up to 100 Power below. The at-Power (you and an enemy are the same Power) experience isn’t changing. This isn’t a nerf. This is a way for folks to take on greater challenges by fighting further below the Power curve.

Part II: Buffs, Debuffs, and Stacking Rules

You know it, I know it, and Gladd knows it: The way damage stacking works in the game right now is busted. Multiplicative damage combines with the exponential damage inflation above to send damage numbers to soaring heights of “we cannot continue this way.” 

We’ve taken all the weapon damage buffs (these enhance the player’s outgoing damage) that can appear on the character and stack-ranked their damage effects (these are effects like Empowering Rift, Well of Radiance, Lumina’s buff, and top-tree Void Titan’s Weapons of Light). We’ve also overhauled the system under the hood, so the damage calculations use only the most powerful buff on a player at a given time. It’s got nuance to it, though: If you’re under the damage effect of something stronger than Well of Radiance, you will still receive the healing effect from the Well, but the damage bonus would come from the other buff (e.g., Lumina or Weapons of Light).  

We’ve made some changes to debuffs as well (a debuff is an effect that weakens the enemy). We’ve touched the effects and durations of a number of them. These effects include Hammer Strike, Shattering Strike, Tractor Cannon, and Shadowshot (Shadowshot will now work on powerful weapons as well). 

In general, only one ability buff can be active on a player at a given time, and enemies can be affected by only one debuff at a time. There are notable exceptions in the form of Exotics and weapon amplification perks (Kill Clip, Rampage, et cetera). The Exotics and weapon amplification perks will remain multiplicative increases to damage above the ability buff values. 

Here’s a simple version: Buffs that apply to a single weapon (Rampage, Kill Clip, Exotics) can still stack. But buffs that affect all your weapons no longer stack. The most powerful of those buffs will be applied to your damage. I’m sure someone is gonna make a video that shows this in action on October 1st.

Part III: Supers Everywhere

Masterworked guns. Super mods. Orbs everywhere.

Right now, for a pretty decent player running Super mods, the time it takes to gain a Super is under two minutes in PvP. If you compare the duration and damage of roaming Supers in Destiny 2 to roaming Supers in Destiny 1, you’ll see they’re more powerful now than ever before. We didn’t even have roaming Arc Titans in Destiny 1, but every time I play PvP, I get killed by one twice in the same Super. Similar to the way that deep down, we all know the damage-dealing capabilities of Guardians has gotten out of control, we know the Supers have too. Destiny 2 was overly restrictive at launch, but now the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. We’ll start bringing this back toward center in Shadowkeep.

On a livestream a couple months ago, I mentioned that we’re lowering roaming Super damage resistance. And we are. Seeing someone pop a Super should not instinctively make us want to run away, give up, or float off the map. We want Super kills to feel earned, and we want players on the business end of a Super to feel like they can make a big play and put down that Striker Titan. Being able to challenge someone in their Super is important, and right now, many of the Supers are very, very hard to challenge.

On top of that, more things than ever now contribute to players getting their Supers back, so we’re doing some tuning there as well. Supers will be just as powerful, but they will be a more strategic choice. As such, we’re reducing the effectiveness of orbs on refilling the Super meter and reducing the Super energy gained from kills and assists.

This isn’t just a PvP problem. Remember that series on the Reckoning in Part I? It’s all related. Supers are still very, very powerful in the PvE game—players will just need to be slightly more specific with their timing and positioning than in the past. This kind of tuning is a pendulum: We’ve swung it hard in different directions, and we’re all hopeful that these changes will begin to find a better middle ground for Destiny 2.

I know you’ll let us know your thoughts (once you’ve played it this Fall).

Part IV: Heavy Ammo Available

In Destiny 1, Heavy ammo became an in-match rally point in 6v6 matches. Once opened, players nearby would all get some Heavy ammo. In Destiny 2, Heavy ammo is a jockey-for-position speed-before-need looting game that gets played all the time. In Destiny 1, Heavy ammo felt metered, and in Destiny 2 you can defeat a team (but not an Arc Titan) multiple times with a brick for a Hammerhead.

See where is this heading?

We’re making some changes to Heavy ammo in Destiny 2: Heavy ammo will be communal in 6v6 playlists. We’re also reducing the amount of ammo per brick in PvP for certain 6v6 archetypes. It’s not exactly the same as D1 though—when a player cracks open the Heavy crate, other players have a window of time to interact with it to get their Heavy ammo.

Part V: Let’s Talk About PvP

There has been a lot of conversation (internally and externally!) at different points during the year around the support Bungie provides PvP. On one hand, we have continued to tune the game each quarter, added pinnacle PvP weapons (that somehow ended up as pinnacle PvE weapons), tried out a ranking system in the Crucible, and returned the game to its 6v6 roots. On the other hand: We haven’t released a new permanent game mode, many game modes from Destiny 1 are nowhere to be seen, there isn’t a public-facing PvP team, and the last real thing we said was Trials is staying on hiatus indefinitely.

Let’s get some of this sorted out.

Trials of the Nine wasn’t the hero we wanted it to be. We made too many changes to a formula that—while it had begun to decline in Destiny 1—wasn’t as flawed as we thought. When we were making Destiny 2, we talked a lot about making sure it felt like a sequel, bringing in new players, and simplifying the game—and Trials of the Nine created another casualty there. It happened on my watch, and if I could turn back time, I’d challenge us to do many things differently. If nothing else, I hope it’s clear we are committed to learning from the mistakes we make and making it right.

There were some really cool parts to the Emissary. Some of the gear was pretty potent (Sup, Darkest Before), but the theme felt weaker, the Trials card was less important, and the stakes felt lower. Trials of the Nine didn’t work the way we’d hoped, and Trials of the Nine is on hiatus indefinitely.

So why have we been so quiet about PvP? Well, we didn’t have a lot to say. We weren’t actively developing something to hype up. We knew PvP was going to be something everyone got for free in New Light, so it wasn’t really a part of the Shadowkeep core offering. What are we doing about PvP became a question we were asked internally, too. A bunch of folks on our team are passionate about PvP and wanted to know where it was heading.

PvP is in need of some quality-of-life improvements and restructuring. This Fall, with New Light (hopefully) bringing a bunch of new folks into Destiny and with our existing players looking for some updates to PvP, we will start by making significant changes to the PvP portion of the Director.

Today, it’s a fine balance between adding playlists and maintaining healthy populations when we’re looking at changes to playlist structures. We want to achieve a couple of goals: First, we want players to have some more agency with respect to “pick a playlist, play a mode.” And second, we want the playlists to drift back to the “everything is a factor of 3” that Destiny 1 used (and that the rest of the game mostly uses).

Player counts being based on a common number (like 3) is important. It enables a bunch of activity options for groups of friends to engage with. In Destiny 1, players could run a couple strike groups, team up for a raid, go play 6v6 PvP, split up and go to 3v3 PvP, et cetera. At launch, Destiny 2’s 4v4 PvP completely broke this pattern, and we want to reset that bone with PvP this Fall.

We’ve revised the playlists a lot, and here’s how it’s going to work:

We’ve removed the Quickplay and Competitive nodes from the Director.

If you’re looking for an experience like Quickplay, we’ve added Classic Mix (a connection-based playlist [like Quickplay today]). Classic Mix includes Control, Clash, and Supremacy.

Competitive is replaced by 3v3 Survival (which now awards Glory).

We’ve also added a Survival Solo Queue playlist that also awards Glory.

We’ve added 6v6 Control as its own playlist.

With the potential influx of new players this Fall, we want to have a playlist that signals to new players that this is where to start. 

We feel like 6v6 Control is the right starting place when introducing new friends to Destiny.

We’ve added a weekly 6v6 rotator and a weekly 4v4 rotator. 

These rotator playlists are where modes like Clash, Supremacy, Mayhem, Lockdown, and Countdown will appear.

We’ve removed some underperforming maps from matchmaking, too.

We’ve also been working on four variants of 3v3 Elimination. They include different approaches to revives (token resurrection or not) and variations on how Heavy ammo works. Elimination is going to make its return in Crucible Labs. However, Elimination is very much unfinished. It’s missing VO, and there are no unique medals associated with it. Between the missing polish and the four variants we’d like your feedback on, Elimination—for the time being—is a great fit for Crucible Labs. We fully expect it to graduate out of Labs and find a warmer home.

We wanted to make sure we could test Elimination on some familiar maps, so we’ve brought back Widow’s Court and Twilight Gap. We want to play with you, and watch you play Elimination in this combat sandbox and see how it all fits together.

We’re also changing how we do matchmaking. With a bunch of potential new players entering Destiny via New Light, we don’t want PvP to feel like you’re being told it’s time to learn to swim as the helicopter door opens over the Pacific Ocean. So, we’ve made some changes to separate the new swimmers from the Olympians.

Additionally, we’ve also taken a longer look at matchmaking and overhauled the skill-matching system. In the game today, Quickplay is the only playlist that doesn’t have some version of skill matching in the game. We’re preserving that behavior (connection matchmaking) in the 6v6 Classic Mix playlist. Here’s what gets really annoying about skill match:

When it’s overly restrictive, it’s fatiguing when every single game feels like a sweat fest.

When it’s overly loose, a player can get an entire evening of unlucky matchmaking RNG where they’re getting dumped on by squads of Terminators shredding Kinderguardians. A bad time (for the Kinderguardians)!

There’s much more complexity and nuance to an evening of PvP than those two statements above, but they do accurately capture the core problem: a lack of match-to-match variety. Sure, for a bunch of Terminators, a night of stomping might be a blast, but what about the folks on the receiving end of that business? This is where it gets tricky to improve matchmaking—people generally tend to focus on their own experience in their feedback.

We think variety across an evening of PvP is important. This Fall, skill match should ensure a wider variety of matches, regardless of player skill. Some matches should be tense and thrilling, while other matches should be stomps. This philosophy should also apply to the top players, so they don’t feel like every match is a sweatshow, either. We’ve refactored how players gain Glory ranks with these skill match changes—we’re factoring in your skill value to Glory gains and losses, so that number can more effectively represent skill. We’ve also made a number of quality-of-life changes to Glory, Valor, and Infamy to make losses less punishing to your streaks. Once the above changes go live in October, we’ll be watching, listening, and reading as you check them out.

AN EVOLVING WORLD

There’s an aspirational vision for what “evolving” could mean for Destiny. Someday, Destiny could become a dynamic world, where the world changes each season. We want playing Destiny to feel like you're playing in a game world with true momentum, a universe that is going somewhere. A game where things are happening—not just in terms of new items and activities but also in terms of narrative. It’s frequently seemed like Destiny was treading water in terms of moving the world’s narrative forward. We want to tackle this in Destiny 2’s third year.

During Season 8, a new situation will unfold on the Moon (I’m being cagey here only because I am reluctant to spoil anything). Over the course of the season, parts of the game will change before the situation culminates in an event that will ultimate resolve it, and its content will be exhausted. But this resolution sets up the events of Season 9, which again adds something new to the game and resolves it, something that too will go away, but not before setting up Season 10, et cetera.

This differs from last year’s Annual Pass, which permanently added activities to the game. This year will see events that last for three months and offer new rewards to chase, although at the end of that period, some of the activities will go away. For a time, the rewards will too. But we also acknowledge that part of playing Destiny is collecting all of the stuff, so in future seasons the weapons and Legendary armor associated with these seasonal activities will be added to other reward sites.

I alluded to some of this when we were Looking Back. The game continuing to grow forever isn’t something we can support. Destiny’s simulation, fidelity, and architecture fundamentally make it a big game. I’ve seen a lot of “game X does it, why can’t Destiny?” but the referenced games and ours have very different technical profiles.

Technical limitations aside, we also don’t think making a game that grows forever is Destiny’s path forward. It’s why the second component of the vision is a single, evolving world (to clarify, that single evolving world doesn’t mean there’s only one destination on the Director—that’s not where we’re heading!).

You were there with your friends, got the gear and weapons to remember it by, made the memories, and changed alongside Destiny.  

In late August, we’re going to talk more about the Annual Pass and how it’s continuing to evolve.

CLOSING TIME

If you’ve made it this far, thanks. I think I could probably write another 10,000 words about this game. This Fall is my ninth working on Destiny. And at times it’s felt way longer than nine years. There have been dark, dark days. For you. For us here, and certainly for me. But this year has been special—it’s been a lot of fun talking with you all and getting to try some different things (whether they are a stream where I turned up unshowered because my hot water went out the morning of [yep] or a Twitter promise that turned into way too many words [this]).

The Bungie team has worked incredibly hard, and we’re excited to get Shadowkeep onto your hard drives in October. Big thanks to them for their hard work and also for helping me put this together on a comically tight timeline. Many, many emails and work-related IMs were sent during the construction of this message.

Thanks for playing, reading, and being a part of this community.

[ginnyzero]

Being a Fanfic Writer is Okay

AKA I love Fanfiction

Fan Fiction, a bit controversial and a bit time worn topic in writing and fandom circles. But let’s face it, fan fiction is older than dirt (Shakespeare anyone?) and isn’t about to go away any time soon. So, we might as well face the pink elephant in the room and address the issue. Besides, fan fiction is really personal to me. Of course, before I get all maudlin about my experiences with fan fiction, maybe we better discuss what fan fiction is, a bit of history and where to find it.

Fan fiction is at its core, a story written by someone who isn’t the original owner of a story. They are simply a fan writing in someone else’s world using someone else’s characters. After that, the possibilities are pretty much limitless and maybe we can discuss some of the more interesting aspects of fan fiction later. Some of our favorite classic stories might be considered fan fiction, Homer’s take on the Trojan War for example. Shakespeare wrote wild interpretations of the lives of British Kings. And modern day published fan fiction would be the books based on favorite television shows or popular games, video, role playing or even board games. A type of visual fan fiction would be the movie Clue! Based on the popular Clue board game. (Sadly not really an action movie, drat.) Star Wars Expanded Universe is a type of authorized published fan fiction. And who can forget the hundreds and hundreds of Star Trek novels based upon the episodes and later expounding upon the universe.

Speaking of Star Trek, the modern take on fan fiction really took off with the introduction of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Before the internet (what a phrase,) ambitious Trekkies created magazines that writers could submit their own stories about the Starship Enterprise and her crew and receive subscriptions of them in the mail. Many of these stories revolved around Kirk and Spock in a romantic relationship, which is still a huge pairing today. Other fandom groups copied this magazine model and later as the internet took off, they created online email groups, forums, journaling sites, chat rooms and individual sites, until someone got ambitious enough to create the first fan fiction archive. And suddenly, there was a place where any writer of any talent could post their work to one place and read everyone else’s work no matter the quality or fandom. And with the introduction of Japanese anime to America, the concept of fan fiction exploded.

And Sturgeon’s Law reared its ugly head. 90% of it is crap.

But that’s okay.

A lot of archives came and went. There are only a few that stayed the course; fanfiction.net, mediaminer.org, adult-fanfiction.org and the baby of the family, archiveofourown.org (AO3). Each of these rather interesting archives have a tumultuous history and interesting backstories, which I really don’t want to get into right now. Just saying, if you have a bunch of free time, want to read some free stories and have some fandoms you really love, then these are the places to go. It might take some time to wade through the truly awful stories to find the gems, but the side effect of fan fiction archives, are fan fiction recommendation lists! These handy lists have the best fan fiction from certain fandoms in the compliers subjective viewpoint! Always a good starting place.

As I said, fan fiction is really personal to me. As it says in my bio, I have no formal education about writing outside some interesting English classes in college. I got a C in research papers and grammar; a B in creating a pitch and an A in narrative storytelling. This probably should have told me something. What I do have, is a very long history and experience in fan fiction. I’m not comfortable with putting my pen name out there, let’s just say I’ve been writing fan fiction for over fifteen years in a variety of fandoms under a couple of different names. And in the beginning, I was one of those probably writing crap. And I didn’t care. I was writing and I was having fun. Writing fan fiction helped me through my bad high school experience (a lot of people have them) and it helped others too. And that was important to me. Is still important to me. I grew. I improved. I got to focus on things in fan fiction that I would never have focused on if I had been trying to write original works. And it helped me churn out idea after idea and see how I could string these ideas together to create good concepts and make better stories.

The greatest thing about fan fiction in my opinion, is that it gets people of every age (I have met as many forty year olds as I have twelve year olds) writing. And when people write, they also tend to read. Okay, so maybe they are reading in this vacuum bubble of fan fiction where 90% of it is crap and they may or may not improve, yet, they are reading and you know, that is okay. Because, let’s face it, 90% of the published world of books is crap too. And let us not get started on this idea of self-publishing. Seriously, anything that introduces a little bit of literacy to the world I’m all for. I’m not going to discourage anyone from taking up a pen or sitting down at a computer or type writer and taking these ideas they have in their head and getting them out there. Because, there is a certain magic to it. Let’s not stifle any form of creativity of the arts here.

Now writing and posting fan fiction are two completely different things. And if someone wants to write a story based on 10 Things I Hate About You (which in itself was an authorized fan fiction of the Taming of the Shrew, which is based on classic literature tropes) and keep on their computer for only themselves to read. That is fine! However, if they want to take that fantastical leap of courage and post it the internet in one fashion or another for the public to see, then that, is inspirational. Posting, which in this case is essentially publishing, something you have created from your heart for others to see and consume is perhaps one of the scariest things you can do. And I applaud them for their courage because the public is not a safe place and you never know what will happen. Now, I will say that a lot of fandom communities can be nice and welcoming. And then there are the communities that are insular and full of drama. And sometimes, publishing in the fan fiction world is like shouting into a canyon and hearing the echo and you might have to shout several times (meaning publish more than one story or more than one chapter of a story) to get any sort of response. Hey, being popular in one fandom, doesn’t automatically guarantee being popular in another fandom!

And that is where the sense of community steps in. Sure, you will probably get a lot of ‘squee, I love it, write more!’ responses, which are good for the ego and the soul. But there will be rare times, where you will meet people who love the same things you do and want to squee and discuss writing. About characterization, and plot bunnies hopping out of control and multiplying and isn’t so and so just hot as this character. And suddenly, one isn’t so alone anymore. You don’t feel exactly strange or like a hermit who sits alone in their bedroom typing for hours at a time. Out there, in the world, there are people just like you, doing the same things. And it is okay. People, as a community who like a certain thing, are being creative and sharing ideas. And that is wonderful. So, the execution of said ideas might not be wonderful, but now, the idea is out there in the universal consciousness waiting to be picked up by someone else, tinkered with and fine-tuned and maybe a better version of it, or maybe one just as bad, will be published to be seen and shared by more people so more interesting and diverse stories can be born. (Or, as it is so easy to see in fan fiction if you pay attention, a new fad of fiction tropes and mish mash of nonsensical ideas put together to create something absolutely crazy but mind numbingly fun that you have to go ‘what the fuck, who came up with this bullshit and how did it become so popular and why wasn’t it me? [Superwholock, Omegaverse, Soulbonding])

Now we could discuss the legality of fan fiction, or some of the crazy views that published authors have about fan fiction (Anne McCaffery, George RR Martin), or some of the awesome things that have happened to people because of their fan fiction and the original creators being okay with it (Avatar: The Last Air Bender, Joss Whedon). Or the crazy things that some fan fiction writers do to take their fan fiction and make it into original fiction (Cassandra Claire, 50 Shades of Grey.) But those could take a couple thousand more words and some of it sincerely bewilders me.

Fan fiction is great. I enjoy writing it. And I also enjoy reading it when I have time. There is nothing wrong with people, in their spare time, writing fluffy and sometimes not so fluffy stories about their favorite characters in their favorite universes. There are a lot more horrible things they could be doing than writing stories about fictional people and posting it on the internet.

Now, when I get published (and I say when, not if because I must believe in the when), as a matter of course and a, for your information, I won’t be reading any fan fiction of my own works. (Though, I’d love to keep track of statistics for it, that would be amusing.) It comes down to the universal consciousness once again. If one of those stories someone writes about my work has an amazing idea and I read it, later forget about it, and then think I come up with it on my own and use that idea, then, well, I could be sued. (It has happened.) It is unlikely that the fan fiction writer will win (there is precedent about this), but I would still feel awful. So it is just better all around if I don’t read fan fiction of my own work. Which for me is kind of sadness, but hey, it is a fact of life.

That being said. I hope that I do inspire people to write their own crazy times using my characters or creating their own characters and putting them in my world, or crossing my world into their other favorite worlds. Because, if I wasn’t so busy writing the original world, I’d probably be doing the same thing. There is nothing wrong with people having a good time and enjoying themselves. In fact, if it helps get them through a bad place in their life, then good for them.

Not that the die hard fan fiction writers need permission from me. But those who aren’t so certain, and maybe worry a bit too much or have been told that writing original is superior to writing fan fiction and believed it. Writing fan fiction is okay. Don’t beat yourself up over it and go out there and have fun. Go on, get your fanfic on!

[lazyfox411]

Baby it’s Cold Outside

Awesome news!!!! As of today, I’ve hit 50 followers! (51 actually by the time I post this :P) To some people that may not seem like a lot, but to me, that’s 51 more than I ever expected to have, even if a lot may be porn bots :/ but!! to those of you who aren’t!!! you guys are amazing!!! thanks for sticking with me, it’s really awesome and I appreciate you all. so, to celebrate and as a thank you, here is some wintery klance fluff :) if youre reading this and youre following me, this is for you! you’ve earned it for simply existing. if youre no following me and you enjoy my writing…maybe give me a follow? who knows where we’ll go

“Keith!”

“Hey, Lance,” Keith smiled sheepishly. He shivered in the doorway, massive snowflakes blowing around him, hair whipping in the wind. His nose was bright red and he was hunched up inside his coat.

Lance dragged him inside and closed the door on the storm. “Are you out of your mind?” he demanded. “It’s a total blizzard out there. What were you doing?”

Keith blushed, the red spreading from his nose and cheeks to the rest of his face. “I missed you,” he said quietly.

That alone was enough to melt Lance, but he kept up a stoic expression as he ushered Keith further inside and helped him out of his thick winter outer layers.

“You shouldn’t be driving at all today,” he said, “the roads are a mess. Even though, I know, I am very difficult to live without.”

“I wasn’t driving,” Keith replied simply, “I walked.”

“You what? Keith, it’s like minus two thousand degrees outside! We need to get you warmed up before you catch a cold.” Lance grabbed him by the hand and dragged him to the sofa to be wrapped up in blankets.

“I’m not cold,” Keith protested weakly.

“Lies,” Lance declared. “Your fingers are freezing.”

“Okay, so I’m a little chilly. But I really wanted to see you. I’m glad I did.”

Lance sighed and kissed his forehead. “It’s good to see you too. You want some hot cocoa?”

Keith nodded eagerly and Lance strode to the kitchen. As he turned on the kettle, he felt something firm lean into him and soft hairs tickled his neck.

“Keith,” he sighed, “what are you doing?”

“I’m cold,” Keith mumbled. He leaned closer and wrapped his arms around Lance. “Warm me up.”

“What exactly are you implying, Mr. Kogane?” Lance raised an eyebrow, smirk growing on his face.

Keith rolled his eyes, “Just cuddle.”

Lance smiled, and happily obliged, turning to cup Keith’s face and give him a kiss. Keith was wearing a blanket like a cape, and Lance grabbed the sides to pull him close. They stayed like that for…well, Lance wasn’t really sure how long, but they stood and looked out the window and the wall of white that swirled outside until the kettle started to whistle.

They sipped their drinks in silence, meandering back to the couch without any real reason. They didn’t need to talk, they didn’t need a reason, all they needed was each other’s company.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Lance asked, fingers combing through Keith’s hair.

“Hm,” Keith’s face was buried in Lance’s chest, muffling his voice. He was already half asleep.

Lance chuckled and reached for the remote, careful not to disturb his sleepy boyfriend. He flicked on a movie and turned the volume low. His fingers never left Keith’s hair.

It was a few hours later, Lance guessed, when he awoke to Keith shifting and Netflix asking him if he was still there. He turned the tv off and watched Keith yawn and rub his eyes.

“Sleep good?” he asked teasingly.

Keith pouted. “You fell asleep too.” The pout turned to a frown when he glanced at his watch. “I need to go.”

“Aw, what? You just barely got here.”

Keith didn’t look impressed. “It’s been hours, Lance. And I have to work.”

“Too bad. It’s still a snowstorm outside. No business is going to be open. And no one should be on the roads,” Lance protested matter-of-factly.

Keith was already up and walking towards the door, shoving his arms into his coat.

“Keeeeeeeith. I don’t want you to go. It’s really messy out. Not to mention freezing.”

“I really can’t stay,” Keith insisted. “I’ve got to go.”

Lance’s eyes suddenly had a glint in them. He smiled, that stunning smile of his, and he began to hum. It was a tune Keith had heard before but couldn’t place.

“It’s been nice to see you,” Keith managed before Lance took his hands.

He heard Lance’s voice, soft in his ear, “I’ll hold your hands, they’re just like ice.”

“Lance? What are you doing? Why are you singing?”

“But baby it’s cold outside!” Lance finished the verse with a flourish, and Keith finally recognized the song.

“Well, maybe just a half a drink more.” Keith didn’t remember all the words, but he picked up with what he did know and Lance beamed, twirling him around the kitchen in a dance.

“Put some records on while I pour.”

“The neighbors might think,” Keith sang. His voice was shakier than Lance’s, not as loud, but if singing would make Lance smile like that, then he’d sing for the rest of his life.

“Baby, it’s bad out there.”

“Say, what’s in this drink?”

“No cabs to be had out there.”

“I wish I knew how.”

“Your eyes are like starlight now,” Lance purred, dipping Keith nearly to the floor.

“To break the spell.”

“I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell.”

They finished more verses, breathless laughter in between lines, dancing like lovestruck idiots, and by the time they reached the end they were hardly even singing anymore.

Lance whispered the last line, resting his forehead against Keith’s. “But baby it’s cold outside.”

It was a good thing Keith’s shift did get cancelled because of the storm, because if not he would have been late. Not that he really cared.

[cophoenixseo]

Best way to increase my organic rankings in Gilbert

Every year Google issues more than five hundred algorithmic tweaks to its search engine, and with more than 200 SEO factors, keeping track of what is working for SEO is a critical thing every marketing manager and business principal must do.What follows below is a summary of the ranking factors to watch carefully if you desire to be # 1 ranked on Google in Gilbert Arizona. To start, learn what search engine optimization can do for your business website traffic.Video: Learn what a Gilbert top ranked SEO company can do for your business.CLICK HERE TO Get your free seo audit.In our experience, an integrated search strategy that uses both search engine optimization and pay-per click (PPC) is a highly reliable technique for growing your presence online. Outcomes will be improved in every channel by using paid and natural marketing methods. For high-growth, aggressive services you will want to develop a holistic search engine strategy instead of look at SEO or PPC as stand-alone services. To help even more inform company owner, executives and marketing directors on the virtues of PPC and SEO, continue checking out for more important details as it relates to paid advertising and search engine optimization. To start, Pay Per Click offers laser focused visibility.

Top SEO conditions:

# 1 – Optimizing for mobile discovery is very important.Greater than 50% of common searches are now happening on a phone. Isn’t it time that you made your website mobile responsive? Do this work, and there is a guaranteed SEO and conversion benefit.Video: Why ranking your site for mobile search is critically important.# 2 – The value of AMP pages is increasing.Accelerated mobile web pages (AMP) allows a site on mobile phones to load more quickly than standard HTML rendered in a mobile browser. Google has been indicating that AMP compatible websites may perform better in search. Don’t wait, you need to have your site mobile optimized with AMP.# 3 – Better design means enriched UI/UX and deeper engagement.Google prefers websites that supply users with a favorable experience, and those which make finding the information the user is requesting easy. If you are looking to rank higher in the SERPs, the design of your site is a growing ranking element, and attention should be paid to it. To learn more about the role of video in marketing, watch this video.# 4 – Loading time of webpages needs to be optimized.Be certain that all your photos are properly labeled, and metadata fields such as the ALT tag are used properly, the extra time to scale your photos and reduce their size, will be worth the investment. Google increasingly is taking into consideration site load times, as a ranking factor. In addition to using a photo optimization solution like JPEGmini, a fast and simple way to reduce photo sizes is to make sure that all your photos are scaled to the optimum size needed. Don’t upload images that are larger than the web design requires. Example- you do not need to upload a 1000px wide image if the window in your design only displays 300px.# 5 – Rank Brain by Google and artificial intelligence now control search.With artificial intelligence driving everything Google does, whether developing self-driving cars or a next generation search engine, AI, starting with RankBrain is the power behind the search engine results pages (SERPs) served by Google. Local Gilbert SEO agencies must now invest more R&D dollars to discover the most effective ways to tune business websites for ranking performance and discoverability.# 6 – New content wins on Google.For Google to rank your website in your specialty niche, you must craft engaging, innovative content. Google can track almost every website, and this means that content which is not unique or doesn’t add value to a topic will have a difficult time getting discovered.# 7 – Longer content ranks higher.Put simple, add value, and do not spam your audience. If you are in the habit of authoring brief “SEO posts” that offer little value except the inclusion of keywords, stop doing it now. Google now rewards posts of 1,500 words and more with improved SERPs.# 8 – Search results are now factoring in rich snippets, schema, FAQs and pre-populated information fields.For searches where Google can identify common questions, FAQs, or other key information, they are beginning to fill a larger area of the home page with data lists, including FAQ blocks so that the consumer can get their question answered without needing to or directly visit a website. For this reason, the correct use of schema on your site should not be overlooked.# 9 – Social variables carry considerable weight when it comes to website ranking results.At SEO Ranker Agency our team reports that social shares of the referring page are now one of the leading 100 ranking signals. This fact is proven by the more than one thousand first page rankings that SEO Ranker Agency has delivered where traffic from social media networks, backlinks, and shares, were proven to be a major ranking condition.# 10 – Voice search and also IoT gadgets will get rid of SERP ranking order at some point.As voice user interfaces are expanding on mobile devices, car infomercial systems with gadgets like the apple iphone, Amazon.com Echo, Google Home and also others, even more people will be getting answers to a search query expressed by voice. Not just will being in the leading issue a lot more but now, if you are not in the initial or maybe second position, you are not going to receive any one of the search question outcomes.# 11 – HTTPS will certainly end up being essential for rating.Web protection experts see Google pushing HTTPS ever before harder as cybercrime and also hacking proceed to provide a genuine threat to the world. Google as well has actually spoken regarding the prioritization of HTTPS in such a way that it can be a ranking aspect not to ignore.# 12 – The Facebook online search engine will acquire more and more customers.All Facebook users are making use of the Facebook online search engine. Expect this trend to speed up as individuals do not desire to leave the Facebook app simply to search for something on Google.com# 13 – Titles as well as Descriptions with much better click thru rates will place greater.Google will proceed gratifying authors that’ve gone above and beyond to produce memorable titles that get clicked. You might expect to see articles that attract a lot more clicks to increase in the SERPs while links with average titles are pushed down. There is no question that Google not offers concern to websites just for the large variety of inbound links that they have. Google is currently tracking involvement, click thru rates (CTR) and time on web page. This is sensible as the longer a person stays on a website, and the more they engage with it, the a lot more engaged they will certainly be.# 14 – More individuals are looking for video, infographics, photos and multimedia web content.If you’re not producing different kinds of aesthetic content to boost your brand online, you should seriously take into consideration taking the campaign on. Customers are now becoming aware of the indexing capabilities of Google, Bing, and also Yahoo! – as well as they are carrying out look for videos and even scenes inside of video clips. To stick out from your competitors, initially, begin generating more aesthetic material. Then, remember to publish it with as total metadata and also markup text as feasible.Video: See the advantage of search engine optimization compared to paid traffic.If you are wondering, “how can I improve my ranking results?” then you will want to read on.Gilbert SEO – absolutely free Google traffic, is the most inexpensive promotion approach for any type of service that supplies their products and solutions to neighborhood clients. So exactly what is much better, Search Engine Optimization or PPC? Frankly, we can not answer this inquiry without analyzing the business’s goals and also goals.A securely niched down company with little competition in a very small solution area and a demand for just a few leads weekly could develop strong exposure in the neighborhood and also natural search results with a standard Search Engine Optimization consulting bundle.At the same time, a shopping store taking on initial web page SERPs from Amazon, eBay.com and also various other major online retailers, is likely going to battle in organic search.Does your organisation demand leads currently? What is the paid search (Pay Per Click) expense per click for your targeted key words? Exactly how challenging is your organic search competition?CTR and trust are in favor of organic search, so why would an organisation consider paid search? Here are a couple of Pay Per Click benefits:Paid search dominates the material are above the fold. In short, on a smaller screen, you will not have to scroll to see the advertisements, but you will have to scroll to see all of the organic search listings. Remember that Pay Per Click ads are just that: ads, which indicates as an advertiser you will have more control and space readily available for delivering your marketing messages.Google provides the alternative of a visual shopping ad that can assist a user picture what they are selecting/clicking. This advertisement type enhances greatly the ads CTR by offering a function (visual carousel) that is not available in natural search.By running paid search advertisements, you will be seen by the best individuals and guarantee brand name visibility. Furthermore, PPC permits a much tighter control of the spending plan. Determine what does it cost? you are willing to spend per day and this is all you will be charged. PPC also provides the small company owner a highly targeted method to get in front of potential clients or customers. Organic traffic is a bit more scattershot while advertisements might be targeted by search keywords, time of day they will be served, the day of the week, location/geography, language, device and custom audiences based on previous sees to your website.Establishing a strong natural search presence can take time, making SEO a medium to long variety play. On the other hand, a PPC project can be ramped and return positive results in weeks. Considering that there is no faster method to obtain in front of your audience than with Pay Per Click, numerous companies utilize Pay Per Click while the authority of their site is being built up and SEO strategies take a firmer hold.Where natural search obscures keyword data, there is no restriction with paid search (PPC). Speed offers dexterity and enables quick feedback on new mottos, messages, product statements, with the use of short Pay Per Click advertisement campaigns.If you are a company targeting a regional service location with a restricted set of keywords, you will discover that PPC can develop more than sufficient leads without going over budget. Cautious use of match types and analysis of the search term reports permit for the elimination of scrap search and a boost in return on investment.The advantages of PPC and also SEO may not be so evident, however they consist of the following factors of factor to consider.1. Conversion information from PPC keywords can be valuable to figure out the most reliable natural search (SEO) strategy.2. Pay Per Click can ramp website traffic by targeting clicks in paid and natural for high-performing keywords. If you are winning the Google AdWords auction and rank in the top 3 SERPs for the exact same keyword, you can anticipate up to 50% or more of the overall search volume.3. A/B testing of Pay Per Click landing page and marketing copy can be fed into your natural listing and landing pages.4. Use PPC to evaluate your keyword technique prior to committing to seo job initiatives.5. Talk to users in all stages of the consumer journey from preliminary item research to the competitive comparison, through to the purchase choice stage, with business intent keywords.6. Look huge online and increase the confidence and awareness in your brand and company with a robust natural and paid existence.7. Retarget your website visitors on other properties by utilizing the Facebook and Google pixel on your site. This is an extremely effective strategy that allows you to remain in front of visitors to your website even after they have actually left.There are numerous advantages to paid search marketing, but there are also mistakes advertisers need to be cognizant of.1. PPC is relatively simple to copy which means your competitors can quickly imitate your advertisement copy, images and contact us to actions. Effective PPC project management requires keeping an eye on quotes, Quality Scores, keyword positions and click-through rates (CTRs). Some of this work can be finished with automation, but despite the approach, you must make sure that a system is in location to track this important info.2. Paid search advertising (Pay Per Click) needs an in advance and ongoing investment. As soon as you stop paying for advertisements, your lead generation engine instantly stops. There are numerous options available for Pay Per Click that can influence your results. If item listings control the screen for the keywords you are targeting; then text based ads may not transform. At the exact same time, if you run item ads when Google is mainly revealing text advertisements, the odds are good that these advertisements will likewise not carry out.For this factor, it is very important to do some research study prior to you release your Pay Per Click campaign. Make certain to Google the keywords that you are targeting and be specifically careful to view what type is being revealed. Likewise, be sure to look at the words they are utilizing. Don’t copy the advertisements, however you would do good to replicate them.Improve search traffic to your company site with search engine optimization of your business website.A significant reason to buy SEO is because of the power of online search engine to improve your awareness. If you have visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for the keywords that you are targeting, this will put your company in front of an enormously high variety of possible consumers. The very best method to think of SEO is that SEO drives brand name awareness and is free Google advertising.Branding is another advantage of local search engine optimization in that search terms and informational inquiries related to your company can have a positive branding benefit. As your brand name is returned in the search results, it can (and normally will) become more related to and relied on by searchers, and this will result in a purchase choice. Content marketing is the foundation and structure of SEO. The more that your material, for this reason brand, is associated as a specialist in your field, place or market, you will become a reliable voice which will lead more Internet searchers to discover you and do business with your company.Studies have revealed that online search engine users trust organic outcomes as being more reliable than paid advertising. Many users avoid over the ads and go straight to the natural results as they presume that Google also ranks the organic sites more extremely. Showing up on the very first page of Google will offer your business a stamp of approval that can be the distinction between somebody clicking on your listing (ranking) or your rivals.Don’t forget the role that favorable evaluations play in getting your target client to call you. It’s a fact that even if you rank higher than your competitor if they have more stars revealing excellent evaluations, this can make all the distinction in your conversions. For numerous service based businesses, evaluations are necessary.search engine optimization increases website traffic as the higher you rank, the more visitors you will have to your website and the more chance to own awareness of your organisation. Traffic from organic search is complimentary, establishing exposure takes time and effort, as Google has slowed down ranking results considerably over the last couple of years.As an outcome of the points above, organic online search engine traffic by way of seo can offer a better ROI over standard forms of paid media consisting of Pay Per Click. While search engine optimization is initially not low-cost or easy, it is in the long term far more cost-effective than most other marketing strategies and provides stronger brand name awareness and traffic to your business website. Unlike paid search marketing or Pay Per Click, free traffic from Google does not dry up the minute you stop paying.This means that SEO will create more clicks from an organic search listing than from an extremely positioned paid advertisement. Keyword-level experimentation is needed to make sure that you are not paying for clicks that you might get for complimentary, but to optimize outcomes and that is certified leads, some companies discover that presence in both paid and natural listings are needed.Because of the always altering and dynamic nature of the web, numerous entrepreneur and marketing executives discover that working with an expert digital marketing and SEO specialist is the best method for them to ensure the very best results. Organic traffic can take time, and the competence needed to beat those above you in the SERPs is substantial. Which is why, if you are just beginning, and the keywords you are targeting are already “owned” by high authority websites, you might need to rethink your strategy.A competent search marketing professional need to have the ability to assist your team in developing content properties to online search engine ranking supremacy. A # 1 rated search engine optimization business will prove their worth by helping you develop safe, sustainable links so you can attain the website rankings that will propel your service to the next level.Click here to receive a FREE seo audit and learn how SEO can impact your business.Discover what local SEO in Gilbert Arizona can do for your business site. Watch this video:

Best way to increase my organic rankings in Cottonwood Station

The post Best way to increase my organic rankings in Gilbert appeared first on Get your website on the first page of Google with SEO.

[clevercatchphrase]

2017 in review, and goals for 2018

If I had to describe 2017 in one word it would be... monotonous. Sure, there were plenty of ups and downs, but for the most part, especially the latter 6 months, I just felt like I was going through the motions, holding my nose to the grind stone, doing work and paying off student loans. 2017 blew by me, and I remember thinking each month passed by with unusal quickness. There's a strange sense of disociation with that, like I wasn't really connected to reality for most of the year, and instead watched it pass me by from a seperate temporal window. In a weird way it may have been a bit of a godsend as well. I hear 2017 was hard for a lot of people, but feeling so disonnected from the year may have protected me and cushioned the blow in a sense.

I lost a family member this year in early june. I knew it was coming ever since january as I hated having to watch them deteriorate and get worse and worse until they finally passed. The three months leading up to it and the three months after were particularly hard and left me feeling unable to write or draw or do anything productive. I still miss them terribly. I always will. But I hope I won't let it immobilize me as much this year as it did last year.

Anyway, Let's review my goals for last year and see what I've accomplished. I’ve a lot to say, so for brevity’s sake I’ve put it all under the cut.

GOALS FOR 2017 1) Finish my 50 billion fan fictions so I can get back to drawing Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha. HAHAHAHAHA. The depression I got halfway through the year throughly put a halt on this. I haven't even finished one of the fics I've started in 2016. I got close, seeing as i participated in NaNoWriMo this year to try and force myself to finish, but I still need to revise and edit all that I've written and the motivation is non existant. GOD, I have so many stories too, all of them still undertale fan fiction because I'm still not over that game. I'll list them all when I share my goals for this year later below. 2)Draw in 2 pages of my sketch book each week so I'll finish a sketch book in a year. I was SO CLOSE with this one! I filled out 95 pages! But you know what i discovered in august? I realized that my 100 page sketch book.... was actually 150 pages! Oh well! I drew more this year than I thought i would! Just because i didn't hit 100 pages, doesn't mean I didn't accomplish something! 3) Finish 14 out of the remaining 27 lessons on my duolingo course I went fucking above and beyond with this one. I hit this goal back in may, and then I completely finished up the danish duolingo course by november. I also passed my 1095 day streak which translates to doing duolingo daily for OVER 3 YEARS STRAIGHT. I still practice daily to build my vocabulary, and I know I can't speak it for the life of me, or follow along with fast speakers, but give me a few minutes and I can probably read it for you. Funny how that works, where I can understand danish if it's written out, but ask me to translate from english to danish and I struggle like a butterfly in a tumble dryer. 4) Become passibly fluent in ASL I have this box of 600 ASL flash cards, and this year I practiced two of them a day until I got through the entire box. I certainly learned a bunch of new words but I wouldn't say I was fluent yet. I certainly don't know all the grammar rules yet. I HAVE been able to sign with people at my job, though I do rely heavily on fingerspelling still. Most everyone I talked with seemed to know I was trying and they seemed really excited that I could understand them if they were patient with me. I put more of my focus on Danish last year, but now that I'm done with Danish, maybe I can focust more on ASL. My sister told me about this site similar to duolingo called "memrise" that actually has an ASL course, so you can bet I'll be looking into that. 5) Read the entire dictionary I did this! I kept two spiral note books and wrote down any words I thought were cool or interesting! I haven't gone back and re-read the words I wrote down, but maybe I will this year! It was exhausting. It was weird. I still can't believe I spent about 200 hours last year doing this. 6) Read one new book every month Much like my sketch book goal, I almost completed this one. I kept it up every month until October, and then I just... stopped. I read more than I thought this year, though I ended up usually waiting until the last week of each month to read, and I also cheated by counting the dictionary as one of the things I read (hey, it's a book, ain't it?) I also re-read old books that I know I like, so not entirely 10 new books were read this year. Reading 1 new book a month isn't one of my goals this year, but I hope to read more new stuff reguardless, 7) Actually use the tutorials and references I reblog Seeing as I barely did any digitial art this year, I can't say I did this one. 8) Do more art streams I think my goal was to stream once a month. I clearly didn't do this. I DID stream in 2017, I just didn't tell anyone. Idk why, I just... went live for people to see but didn't let anyone know I did. I also only streamed like... twice? sigh... So... out of the 8 goals I set, I would say I accomplished close to half. I read the dictionary, I finished my danish language course (which I'm counting as two completed goals) and combining the "read 1 new book a month" and "draw 100 pages in a sketch book" I'll count that as one completed goal. I went through all my ASL cards, though I'm not fluent, OH! I also wanted to pay off 6k loan that I had. I want to count this one as a success because I DID FUCKING PAY OVER 6 THOUSAND DOLLARS IN LOANS THIS YEAR. I got a surprise loan I had no idea about in june that was 1500 dollars, which threw me off. I managed to pay it off in 2 months, BUT IF THAT LOAN HAD NEVER EXISTED I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE FINISHED PAYING OFF THE 6K ONE. I've got a little over a thousand left to pay on the 6k loan now, which I will complete by the end of January. I'm so close to being under 10k in debt... GOALS FOR 2018 1)Go from being 5 figures in student loan debt down to 4 figures in debt (pay off 2 out of 4 loans) If everything goes according to Keikaku I'll achieve this by the end of June. This has to factor in things like updating my car registration in april, oil changes, tune ups, tire rotation, gas and food expenses, but as long as I don't get fired I should be fine! 2) Stretch Daily Not exercise. I never exercise. But it would be nice to increase my flexibility. 3) STOP TOUCHING YOUR GODDAMN FACE/ find an effective acne treatment I also want to try washing my face daily. Im fucking 25. I shouldn't have this many pimples. 4) Do another song comic I made A lyrictale for Undertale at the end of 2015 in ten days. I want to make another. I already have it scripted, now I just need to do it. 5) Do at least one art stream a month. Hey, maybe I can stream the next song comic I do. Sure, it'd spoil the song and story for everyone, but doesn't that sound fun? 6)Practice ASL I just started looking into Memrise and their ASL courses. They actually have A LOT, AND! THEY HAVE SIGN LANGUAGE COURSES FOR OTHER COUNTRIES! This year is gonna be fun. (Also, the only reason I want to learn ASL because of Undertale. I'll let you figure out how they are connected) 7) Sew 4 stuffed animals I started sewwing a Hobbes plush in the middle of last year. His body is finished. I just never did the head. The other three stuffed animals I want to make I will keep a secret because I love to keep people guessing. 8) Make two AMVs There are two songs I want to put to Avatar; The Last Airbender, and Avatar; The Legend of Korra. I have about half the footage... I just... need to rewatch the shows and put the clips together. Hey, maybe after I find all the clips I can do a stream of that as well. 9) Last but not least, finish my many, MANY Undertale Fan Fics. a. You Monster (34 out of 37 chapters are written, but only 29 are posted) b. Finish the "Of Two Minds" series (it's explicit don't look) c. Color Theory (A chasriel one shot) d. Something Left Behind (Terrible AU Idea #647) e. Let's Get Real (Self insert, joke, parody thing that will also be explicit) f. Game Day! (something about soccer games with Mettaton along the same vain as Field Trip!) g. Would You Like Fries With That (Nicepants because there's not enough of it in the world) h. Science Fair! (something with Undyne and school projects along the same vain as Field Trip!) i. One that is so horribly dark and fucked that I won't even describe it here. Welp! Those are my goals for 2018! What are your goals for 2018? Whatever they are, I wish you success and improvement, health and wealth! Stay safe this year! I love you all~

[daresplaining]

Defenders Countdown: 28 Days

Power Man and Iron Fist

    The time has come! In less than a month, Luke Cage and Danny Rand will finally be running headfirst (fist first?) into each other in glorious live action. In preparation, here is a quick overview of the history of this most beautiful of friendships.  

    Luke and Danny meet under less-than-ideal circumstances-- though as any longtime reader of superhero comics knows, the best friendships often start with an editorially-mandated Superpowered Showdown(TM). Luke’s loved ones-- Claire Temple and Noah Burstein-- are kidnapped by sleazy mob boss Bushmaster, and threatened with death unless Luke kidnaps one of Bushmaster’s own enemies. The kidnappee in question is Misty Knight-- bionic ex-cop, one half of Nightwing Restorations, and Danny’s girlfriend. Luke, who grudgingly agrees in order to ensure Claire and Burstein’s safety, learns that Misty is at the Rand townhouse and busts in to grab her. 

    Chaos ensues. It just so happens that Misty and Danny are out on a date, and instead, Luke runs into Colleen Wing-- who manages to call for backup just before Luke knocks her unconscious. Misty shows up next, and gets in a few good hits before getting KO’d as well. When Danny arrives and sees what’s happened to his two closest friends, he is... less than forgiving.    

Danny: “Mr. Cage-- turn around.”

Power Man #48 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Francoise Mouly

    As anyone might after getting a building dropped on them, Luke comes up swinging. The fight is as intense as you’d expect, with Danny’s extreme training and chi powers balanced out by Luke’s sheer toughness and strength. They’re both used to winning, and this surprising challenge shocks and impresses them. Seeing at last that the fight can’t go on, and trusting Power Man’s heroic reputation in spite of his current behavior, Danny takes a gamble and lets Luke grab him. 

Danny: “Hands like vise... can’t breathe... But... I... sense at heart... Power Man isn’t... killer. I can try... tiger claw to eyes... last resort... blind him... Then, if that works, if I can summon... strength... pop his eardrums... killing blow, but not yet.”

Luke: “Lord, no-- What am I doin’?”

Power Man #48 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Francoise Mouly

    This near murder shocks Luke out of the fight. Calming down enough to explain himself, he soon earns Danny, Misty, and Colleen’s trust and sympathy. As a team, they rescue Claire and Dr. Burstein from Bushmaster’s headquarters, and then-- with the help of Danny’s attorney Jeryn Hogarth-- free Luke, at last, of the drug charges that originally sent him to jail. 

Danny: “Alone at last. You changed your name, huh? Jeryn says your real, legal identity is now Lucas Cage! [...] Luke, how do you feel?”

Luke: “Kid, if you live a thousand years, you’ll never know [...] how sick I felt when they put me away... an’ how gut-bustin’ good I feel tonight. I ain’t just free, Danny-boy, I been reborn!”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #50 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Dan Green, et al. 

    Luke and Danny’s friendship progresses quickly after this. They start hanging out (their first one-on-one team-up occurs while Luke is giving Danny a tour of Harlem), and they come to realize that they really enjoy partnering up. At the time, Luke is working on retainer for Misty and Colleen’s P.I. business, but with Danny in the picture he considers revitalizing his own operation-- this time with some key changes.   

Luke: “Y’know, Danny-- we make a pretty good team. If I wasn’t part of Misty’s detective agency...”

Danny: “You got fired, remember? Although I’m sure they’ll take you back. If you really want them to...”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #53 by Chris Claremont, Ed Hannigan, Sal Buscema, et al.

    When the offer comes, Danny eagerly agrees to join Luke’s Heroes for Hire business-- for several reasons. Having been born wealthy and then raised in a society without an emphasis on financial gain, Danny has no concept of the value of money. He hopes that joining Luke’s small, low-income business will fix this. It also gives him the sense of purpose and chance to use his skills that he has been desperately searching for since becoming stranded on Earth. But mostly, it allows him to spend more time with Luke. For the 72 issues that Heroes for Hire exists in its original form, Luke, Danny, and friends face down everything from dragons to Daleks (not a joke-- there are actual Daleks in this series)-- while building both a reputation as one of the baddest street-level teams around, and a friendship that is nothing short of legendary.    

Danny: “--It’s me! [...] Are you all right?”

Luke: “Just fine now! Bet you’re the one who saved my hide, right?”

Danny: “Well, I, uh, suppose I did.”

Luke: “I knew that you did!”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #85 by Denny O’Neil, Keith Pollard, and Christie Scheele

    All good things must come to an end, however, and the first iteration of Luke and Danny’s partnership ends in the most sudden, shocking way possible. In a freak accident, Danny is beaten to death by another superhero, and Luke is blamed for it. 

Tower: “Fact: Iron Fist was pummeled to death by someone with superhuman strength. Fact: the day before the murder you had an argument with Iron Fist. A very loud, very public argument. Fact: Iron Fist’s will names you as sole beneficiary of the Rand fortune. Fact: your P.I. firm, Heroes for Hire, has been going down the drain from the word go. Fact: you’re an ex-con with a reputation for being a hothead. [...] I may not have an airtight case... but I’ve got enough to hang on to you until I do.”

Luke: “What are you pushin’ for, Tower? District Attorney not good enough for you? You runnin’ for mayor or somethin’?! You’re grasping at straws, man. You got nothin’ and you know it. I loved that man.”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #125 by James Owsley, Mark Bright, and Bob Sharen

    Luke manages to avoid a prison sentence, but the experience seriously damages his psyche. He has once more been accused of a crime he didn’t commit, thus proving that in the eyes of the world, he’ll always be a morally suspect ex-con-- one capable of murdering someone he thought of as a brother. In the wake of Danny’s death he moves to Chicago, trades in the yellow v-neck and tiara for a more subdued, darker look, and starts a new solo act as a tough mercenary who’s only in it for the money. When it turns out that Danny didn’t actually die, but had been replaced by a shape-shifting sentient plant from K’un-Lun (er, long story...), it takes Luke a little while to sort out his feelings. 

Danny: “Like the ‘in it for bucks’ attitude you throw in everyone’s face? That’s not you. [...] And it also stops anyone from getting too close, eh? Like I did?”

Luke: “Yeah! Don’t you get it? You proved the only one I could ever count on’s me.”

Cage vol. 1 #12 by Marc McLaurin, Dwayne Turner, and Kris Renkewitz

    ...But he and Danny figure things out. 

Luke: “Got your ticket and... all, Fist?”

Danny: “Yeah, Luke. Look, despite all that’s happened-- all that’s changed-- I want you to know, you’re still my best friend. And I’ll always be there.”

Luke: “Me too, man. Me too.”

Cage vol. 1 #13 by Marc McLaurin, Scott Benefiel, and Frank Turner

    Since then they have remained BFFs and de facto brothers, sticking together through several more iterations of Heroes for Hire, Luke’s own personal Avengers team, and everything in between. When Luke and Jessica Jones have a baby, they name her Danielle-- Dani for short.       

Danny: “That’s really nice, guys.”

Jessica: “You’re her family. You know that, right? (Unless you’re really a Skrull, then you can go @##$ yourself.)”

Luke: “And you got matchin’ booties.” 

Jessica: “Man, he’s been waiting to drop that joke on you.” 

New Avengers vol. 1 #34 by Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Yu, and Dave McCaig

    ...And in that one alternate universe where Danny and Misty’s baby is real (stay tuned for our Danny and Misty post for more on that...), they name her after her uncle Luke. 

Jessica: “Lucy, how does your dad look?”

Lucy: “Daddy, you look beautiful.”

Danny: “Thank you, Lucy. Man, you look so much like your mom. How’d I get so lucky?”

Secret Wars: Secret Love, “Misty and Danny Forever” by Jeremy Whitley and Gurihiru

   As is often the case with people who have spent years in close proximity, they’ve rubbed off on each other-- to the point where they can anticipate each other’s behavior, occasionally finish each other’s sentences, and (possibly most endearingly) have even picked up each other’s slang and speech patterns.

Guy: “What about the explosives?”

Luke: “Fist’s taken care of that.”

Guy: How do you know?”

Luke: “’Cause I know him!”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #89 by Denny O’Neil, Denys Cowan, and Christie Scheele

Danny: “All right, mama, you may be bigger, badder and... a few thousand years more powerful than the last dragon I faced... but then I hadn’t mastered the power of the Iron Fist!”

Immortal Weapons #5 by David Lapham, Arturo Lozzi, and June Chung

    Luke and Danny’s newest H4H venture was recently torpedoed by Diamondback, and they’re both currently working through some major changes in their own lives, but their love is stronger than ever. 

Luke: “It’s gonna be okay, brother. I love you.”

Danny: “Love you, too.”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 3 #15 by David Walker, Sanford Greene, and Lee Loughridge

    The teasing and baiting of Luke and Danny’s imminent encounter in The Defenders has been relentless-- from Danny worrying about Claire’s unnamed, bullet-riddled friend in Episode 11 of Iron Fist, to Mike Colter and Finn Jones hugging on stage at NYCC last year. In the interviews they’ve done together so far, the two actors have displayed what we consider to be fantastic chemistry, and when questioned about their characters’ relationship in the show, they’ve both indicated a level of care being taken to their interactions that, for us, is a big relief. After all, they can’t rely on viewers having read the comics-- this friendship needs to be built anew in the MCU.   

Finn: "The dynamic between the characters is working really well. Before we started this, because there was such hype around our characters coming together for the first time, there was a worry that it might be too over- sensationalised or too over-written or too over-anticipated. But the way that it’s written and the way that we’re getting on and working together, it feels really natural.”

Mike: "They’re trying to organically allow our characters to get to know each other, without just going, ‘Hey, I like you, you like me, let’s hang out!’”

Source: SFX

    At this point, we know that Luke and Danny will have their all-important bonding fight-- likely not on the building-destroying scale we’d like (see the beginning of the post), but that’s okay. We also know that both characters are starting from different emotional places than when they met in the comics-- with Luke relatively at peace following his acceptance as Harlem’s hero and the end of his prison sentence, and Danny feeling lost and untrusting in the wake of  all his recent betrayals and the disappearance of K’un-Lun. It will be fascinating to see how these altered mindsets impact the development of their relationship in the show. We also have this little tidbit from Finn, which provides some hints as to the source of their initial tension: 

“There's friction there at the beginning, and it's pretty obvious because we come from two different worlds. Luke Cage is from the streets. And he's trying to do good. He cares about community, he cares about lifting the bottom up... whereas Danny comes from a completely different side of New York, one of privilege, power, and money. And so when they come together, they definitely have a clash of ideals which, throughout The Defenders, they are coming to grips with.”

Source: Den of Geek 

    We have to admit to being nervous about this. The class difference is a notable element of Luke and Danny’s friendship, and something that has been a source of misunderstandings in the comics: 

Luke: “Don’t seem fair, somehow... how some folks gotta hustle all their lives just to get by, and others got it made ‘cause they were born rich. Only thing all that hustling ever got me was a term in Seagate Prison-- ‘Little Alcatraz’-- for something I never even did.”

Danny: “Luke, we’re partners now. You’re my best friend. Anything I have is yours... whatever you want. Just name it.”

Luke: “No way! I got little enough as it is without losin’ my self respect, too.”

Danny: “But I didn’t... I only meant...”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #56 by Mary Jo Duffy, Trevor Von Eeden, and George Roussos

    Danny’s utter lack of interest in money jarring with Luke’s desire to make a living is a neat thing, and we would love to see it integrated into the show. However... it shouldn’t lead them to actually fight. Unless handled impeccably, that would feel out-of-character and weird. Danny is the most down-to-earth billionaire ever, who lacks the typical mindset of those born rich, and this needs to remain true since it’s a key component of his character. Even if Rand Enterprises had some direct, negative impact on Harlem that were to come to light in The Defenders (which-- hey-- is possible), we can’t imagine a reason why Danny wouldn’t be completely on Luke’s side. 

    But of course, we’ll reserve our judgement until we’ve actually watched the show. For the moment, we can’t wait to finally see this friendship happen. It’s gonna be beautiful.           

[ultralifehackerguru-blog]

New Post has been published on http://lifehacker.guru/how-to-achieve-10x-results-in-2019-using-this-simple-strategy/

How to Achieve 10x Results in 2019 Using This Simple Strategy

You try.

Like all of us, you have a goal in your life you’re struggling with.

You want to get in better shape, make more money, find more clients for your business, switch careers — the list goes on.

What do you do? You set a goal. Your goal is always reasonable — work out three times a week, write 500 words a day, outline your business in the next 90 days and find one customer.

You’ve been told, “the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step,” and you try to make progress little by little, but somewhere along the line, you fall short.

What gives? You know if you just “put your mind to it” you’d accomplish your goals, but you can’t bring yourself to execute and commit long enough.

What if the problem isn’t your inability to follow through with reasonable goals?

What if your goals are too reasonable and small?

Enter the 10x rule.

Photo by Matt Ragland on Unsplash

The 10x Rule Explained

Grant Cardone, entrepreneur, and author wrote the book The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure.

Here’s the rule — Take your original goal and multiply it by 10. Also, multiply your effort to achieve your goal by 10.

I know what you’re thinking…

This is just wishful thinking and macho talk.

But the 10x Rule is one of the most practical books you’ll ever read.

Some of the core ideas behind the 10x rule are:

Small goals are uninspiring — Small goals are easy to accomplish but they’re also easy to dismiss. You also don’t get much satisfaction from reaching them.

10x goals stretch your thinking and actions — The common wisdom is aiming high leads to disappointment, but this thinking is rooted in fear. Setting 10x goals and multiplying your effort 10x requires a transformation, which is what we all really want in the first place. The higher the potential payoff, the less likely you are to quit when things get tough.

Don’t reduce your target, increase action — What’s the first thing we do when stumbling toward a goal? We lower it. Instead, why not ramp up your effort? If we’re honest in these situations we’d see we’re nowhere near our effort ceiling.

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

Why Reaching for the Stars is Safer Than Staying on the Ground

There’s a quote from Warren Buffet that says, “When the tide goes out you’ll see who’s swimming naked.”

The 10x rule isn’t just an exercise in lofty thinking. It’s a hedge against the tightrope of average results.

There’s nothing wrong with average thinking, average planning, and average amounts of action…as long as everything goes smoothly. But as soon as situations go south, failure to set big enough targets causes massive pain.

Just look at these examples:

Most Americans grossly underestimate how much money they need to retire.

Many are living paycheck to paycheck and have no savings.

The average household has piles of debt (would you survive a repeat of 2008?)

Most businesses fail because they underestimate how much cash they’ll need to survive lean times

Almost all people with ‘revolutionary’ ideas severely underestimate how much effort it will take to execute those ideas

Living an abundant lifestyle isn’t just pleasurable, it protects you. Society emphasizes the virtue of mediocrity, but all morality aside, mediocrity is mathematically and pragmatically not good because it can all be swept away in the tide of circumstances.

You can’t just create 10x goals and make them magically happen. You have to give a 10x effort in as well. But how do you do that when taking normal levels of actions is hard?

Photo by Kid Circus on Unsplash

Massive Action = Massive Results

In the book, Grant tells the story of running one of his first businesses. He expected to do reasonably well. He wasn’t unrealistic. It would take time to earn as much through his business as he did from his former day job. He estimated he’d get back to that amount in 6 months. It turns out it would actually take years before he reached the same level of income.

He reached a point of frustration and began to lean on the crutch of excuses we’re all prone to leaning on when things go south. The market wasn’t ready for the product. The timing was off. Clients didn’t have the funds. So it goes.

Rather than quit, however, he increased his activity.

Instead of making 5 sales calls per day, he made 50.

Instead of posting social media updates twice per day, he posted twice per hour.

As the company grew, customers started to complain about the frequency of his email marketing messages. What’d he do? He decided to send messages more frequently. This turned some of his audience off, but many began to admire the hustle and his influence grew.

He had the same business idea, in the same market, with the same customer pool, and his business exploded. The only thing that changed was his effort.

Aspiring writers reach out to me a lot. They’re all frustrated with their progress. Many haven’t even written 50 blog posts yet. I shake my head. They should come to me if they’re still struggling after having written 500 posts.

This begs the question — how is the 10x rule any different from the notion of trying hard?

Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

The 4 Levels of Action

According to the author, we all operate at one of four levels of action:

Do nothing — Pretty self-explanatory.

Retreat — When faced with any form of resistance we back down immediately. People in retreat mode fear even beginning the journey of massive accomplishment.

Normal levels of action — You go to work and do just enough to not get fired.

Massive action — You mentally and physically go all in.

The author brings up an honest point I love. People at the first two levels aren’t really ready to take massive action in their lives.

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

I’ve heard this argument before — self-help in general usually works best for people who are already well-adjusted enough.

Fortunately, most of us fit into the normal level of action category and can move into massive action.

I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a pretty motivated guy. I wake up daily at 5 a.m. to write, work out three times a week, wrote two books, spoke at a TEDx conference in front of 1000+ people, and run a successful side business. By all accounts, I’m doing well and I’m grateful for how far I’ve come, but am I capable of much more? Absolutely.

As motivated and productive as I may be, I still have limiting beliefs and mental barriers that keep me from working ten times as hard to achieve ten times the results.

These days, I’m setting 10x goals and focusing on giving 10x effort because it might be the only way to see what I’m actually made of. But that comes with an emotional toll right? Life is hard. People don’t necessarily have time or energy to go 10x. How do we deal with our current realities and find a way to step up our game?

Stop Being a Little Bitch

In the audio version of the book, the author on-the-spot renames one of the chapters, “stop being a little bitch” as opposed to “stop being a victim.”

Look, setting aside issues on religion, politics, and sex, let’s just be honest for a second.

As a society, we’ve grown marshmallow soft. Slowly but surely, we’re learning to become more helpless, reliant, and downright whiny.

I can say this almost objectively — the government isn’t going to save you…hell they don’t even care about you at all.

I have my bias, of course, but it seems clear to me people have been conditioned into expecting good things to just happen and crying when they don’t.

Look, I get it. Your circumstances are quite real. No one’s saying they’re not. But at the end of the day, your life is your life and you have to live it. Your two choices are to act or don’t. And as much as being a victim gives you the weird pleasure that comes with martyrdom, you still end up somewhere you don’t want to be.

Anytime I feel sorry for myself, feel tired and weak, or feel like giving up. In essence, I tell myself to stop being a little bitch. I remind myself of the only two options I have — stay the same or act. After this internal conversation, I always do the latter.

Let’s explore some other topics from the book and explore strategies to support your new 10x way of thinking and living.

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

An Unusual and Extremely Useful Way to Look at Success

“Do kids benefit when they see their moms and dads losing or quitting?”

This section of the book struck me as something I’ve never heard before.

The author says to succeed you should treat the acquisition of success as an ethical issue.

Most of us look at success as a luxury. We shrug it off with “sure, that’d be nice” types of phrasing. We look at giving the most of ourselves to our lives and the people around us as an option, not a duty.

Also, we all have a tendency to act pious and believe ourselves to be moral.You think you’re a good person because you don’t steal, commit acts of violence, or overtly cheat other people. But, if looking at the acquisition of success as an ethical issue, are you cheating yourself and others out of what you can contribute?

You probably are.

If you’re tempted to rush off and mount your high horse, remember, success means much more than a monetary reward or status. So, the argument of “I don’t care about money and status” doesn’t fly here.

Look deeply at your life…even in the way you treat your family. Are you fully present? Are you giving them your full self? Or are you physically there but not mentally because you’re preoccupied with worry or trying to drown that worry out by tuning out?

The point of treating success as an ethical problem isn’t to beat yourself up for not having a million in the bank. The point is actually to humble you by realizing that doing just enough isn’t something to be proud of.

You’re alone reading this. Have that conversation with yourself. Are you making success a duty or are you bullsh**ing yourself?

You know the answer…

Adopt This Attitude

“Think about it: What’s the worst thing that can happen to you if you just totally go for it?”

I entered a competition against 23 other speakers for a chance to give a talk at a TEDx conference. I’d been in a Toastmasters club for less than six months. I had no reason to believe they’d chose me. But I figured, “Why not? The worse thing that could happen is they say no. That’s it.”

When I write a new book, I spend a few thousand dollars to produce it. The worst thing that could happen? I lose a few thousand bucks — not a ton of money in the grand scheme of things. Plus, I can’t sell negative books — I know the downside.

I make these little bets on my future all the time. And the worst case scenario is usually just getting my feelings hurt and ego bruised. But we’re emotional creatures and the fear of failure and rejection can be too much to bear.

What about you? What imaginary ghosts are you battling now?

If you went all in on that idea lingering in your mind, really, what’s the worse thing that could happen?

You don’t need a loan from the bank to start a business anymore.

You don’t have to put your family at risk to start a new venture or find a new career — you can always use your spare time.

There usually isn’t a great answer to “Why not?” is there? Just fear. Always fear.

Here’s what I know. If you do fail, there won’t be a giant crowd to witness it. Others aren’t paying as much attention to you as you think they are. Also, human beings have the amazing ability to recover from setbacks. Think of a time that felt bad in the moment but barely registers with you now.

I’ve failed at many different things. It felt bad then. But now I think, “Eh. It was still worth the effort.” Then I move on.

I’m no different than you. I just act before I’m ready — and the secret is you’re never really ready.

10X The Quality of Your Life

I never seek to judge. I’m not the type to admonish anyone for how they live. My goal is to get you to think for yourself and make observations that help you change.

But let’s just call a spade a spade. There is such a thing as being mediocre. By way of pure numbers and comparison, some people are just in the middle.

I know from experience that being in the middle is one of the most dangerous places you can be — it’s also the riskiest.

Who got hit hardest by the financial crisis? The middle.

Who is a few health scares or negative financial windfalls from being destitute? The middle.

Who gets put on the chopping block when a company downsizes? Average mid-level management.

At least at the bottom, you have aid, support, and assistance. At the top — at 10x levels — you’re constantly prepared for the future and always taking action, so you know you’re ready for whatever the future brings.

In the middle, you’re most susceptible to the rug being pulled from underneath you.

From a purely pragmatic and practical viewpoint, it seems like escaping the middle should be a priority.

You may not be able to 10x your income, but you can 10x your creativity, energy, and effort.

You can 10x the standards you have for yourself.

The core idea of the 10x rule is this — You are nowhere near the universe of what you’re capable of.

Maybe going 10x isn’t the key to everything you want in life, but underestimating your capabilities is the key to not getting it.

I’ve never looked at success in terms of just status, money, or otherworldly measures. The level of effort you exert to become successful turns you into a better version of yourself.

Become a better version of yourself for the sake of becoming a better version of yourself.

(C)

[beneaththetangles]

Lost in Translation: Authorial Intent and Localization

Today we’re joined by Kaze as we continue a final series of Throwback Thursday posts to run through the end of 2020 and celebrating our 10th anniversary! Enjoy his temporary return to “Lost in Translation,” and continue to stay tuned as other former and current writers revisit their own past columns in the coming weeks. Warning: As always, Kaze’s thoughts are likely to stir things up and you may disagree with his assessments, but I have no doubt that they’ll give you pause and consider important aspects of faith.

=====

When it comes to translation, a big topic that often comes up is authorial intent and how to localize that properly to a new audience. Contrary to the idea of literal translation, localization is about translation of what the author intends to convey into a different culture. Due to things like cultural context or language specific idioms, localization will significantly change the words in order to convey the same feelings and get the same reaction from the audience that the original intended to. In other words, localization aims to prevent meaning from being lost in translation; in exchange, the original text is lost instead. A well known example among anime fans might be the English dub of Pokemon changing onigiri into jelly donuts. A lot of people have said that this localization was silly as the rice balls were obviously not donuts. However, I can say that when I was 10 and heard that, I understood through context that they were talking about a snack to eat and you can be sure that I didn’t really think too hard about how strange those donuts looked. Perhaps something in between may have been better? Maybe to be more accurate. But localization considers the audience, and if the audience is a bunch of children, then maybe donuts is a pretty good choice. Either way, localization is difficult with no easy answer. While there are many good options that can be argued for, it is much harder to argue that something is the best option.

There was another example that happened relatively recently which stirred a lot of drama. The well known term tsundere was translated to “fragile male ego,” which is extremely different from a literal translation perspective. However, when looking at the actual context of the conversation, the sarcasm involved and character personalities, and the actual author’s opinion on the translation being accurate, it was a very good way to localize the word. But of course, there was some strong criticism over the word choice, and most of it completely ignored or went against the public opinions of the original author. It didn’t matter to people if the localization maintained the intended meaning of a sarcastic insult; people became overly focused on the literal translation and insisted that the words were left unchanged even if the contextual meaning was lost to the audience as result.

Translations are always controversial no matter what. People prefer literal translations, others prefer localizations, and still others prefer something in between. When it comes to the Bible, it does not matter if the original text was ordained, inspired, or directed by God; there will always be a group which points at a translation and says “that’s not the right way to translate it.” In many ways, that’s exactly why there are so many different translations of the Bible. And yet, we’ve built up a culture that looks at Biblical translations as a perfect reflection of God’s words. How can this be true in a world where so many different translations exist of the same text, where language evolves over time, and with people who will inevitably interpret identical text differently depending on society and cultural context?

Martin Luther has a lot of interesting quotes when it came to his German translation of the Bible. “Your reader must be able to read God’s Word as though it were written yesterday.” And “I endeavored to make Moses so German that no one would suspect he was a Jew.” While I obviously have no clue what his German translation reads like to a native German, it is clear that Martin Luther believed in localization of the Bible rather than a literal translation. But more importantly, if we follow the localization belief that it must be read “as though it were written yesterday,” that would mean the Bible would continuously need to be re-translated as society changes and progresses. In a world where we can instantly talk to anyone in on earth and scientifically explain nearly every disease that afflicts us, many of the concepts in the Bible appear as archaic ideas that we have no use for anymore. If Martin Luther made Biblical figures German, then what would the Bible look like if the people were American? What if they were Japanese? These answers are completely different if you localized it to the 1800s versus today, and it will surely change again if you look at people 100, 200, or 500 years from now.

To go back to the earlier example of fragile male ego, perhaps that makes for a good translation now. But imagine a world 1000 years from now where the concepts of male and female do not even exist anymore. (While I realize this is a sensitive topic, just think of how quickly ideas on gender and sexuality have shifted in the last 50 years. 1,000 years is a long time for everything about language and concepts to change) In such a world, the translation would simply not be understood even if it’s recognized as a “concept that people used 1,000 years ago.” At best, people would probably argue about what the original meaning was…hmm that sounds familiar.

The Bible may be our only source of God’s truth, but it is influenced by the translations over time and the interpretations of each individual’s culture. To claim otherwise is to argue that every translation that exists is equally true with no differences and ignore the countless denominations that arose out of disagreements surrounding the text yet exist under the umbrella term of Christianity. We’ve reached the point where the disagreements between fellow Christians are so expansive and varied, that it is hard to imagine how we could all be using the same text as the source of our beliefs.

All of this culminates to one big point I’ve pondered about lately. I think a lot of people can accept that the generic idea that the Bible should be localized so we can understand its intent easier, but what if the very idea of laws and rules which God gave Israel and the Jews were reflective of the specific time period and culture rather than laws which transcended time? Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor, but when it came to many of the questions people asked him about specific situations and laws, he always responded in parables. Unlike strict rules to follow in any situation, parables are more nebulous and generic ideas to apply to how we live and treat others. In fact, unlike many of the Biblical laws that atheists tend to disagree with, the parables often teach life lessons that do stand the test of time and people of many different theological beliefs can agree on. Following this train of thought, perhaps loving people like Jesus means to localize the laws themselves to fit the current culture and society. Rather than thinking about what is needed to maintain the morality of Biblical laws, we should consider what kind of laws will create and foster a loving society that imitates Jesus.

Unfortunately, Biblical laws are often taught as an absolute where breaking them would be considered sin, the ultimate evil. Yet, Jesus was the one who broke many Old Testament laws and completely upended the religious teachings of the time. It seems plausible to me that fixation on laws rather than love is something Jesus wanted to end. Christians are always focused on what constitutes sin or not, but in the same way that we claim good works are a product of love, perhaps sin is more of a concept that involves the absence of love rather than a list of specific actions and nothing else. If this is truly the case then it would mean the archaic Old Testament laws which we no longer follow are indeed a byproduct of the time period and culture from thousands of years ago—laws which God gave which would foster a loving society at the time but no longer did once society had advanced to the time of the Romans. And so when we apply this logic to today’s society, it means we must think about new rules that will create a loving society in the culture that we live in without restricting ourselves to merely following an unchanging set of laws. For example, one could imagine a society where legalizing murder creates a less violent society.  As society progresses and humanity changes its views on life, laws which seem immoral now may make for more loving people a thousand years from now. If we don’t continuously localize the love of Jesus, then we are keeping a literal translation of the law but losing the authorial intent of them in translation.

[reviewandbonuss]

How I Grew My Dying Facebook Traffic

Is it me, or does Facebook just want to keep you on Facebook?

Every time I post a link to my site, I get less and less traffic. And it’s been this way for years.

In other words, my organic reach on Facebook was dying.

And to make matters worse, they give you hope every time they launch a new feature.

For example, when they launched Facebook Live, you used to be able to get tons of views because they promoted it organically… but not really anymore.

The same goes with Facebook Watch. I used to easily get 30,000 plus views per video when Facebook Watch came out… again, not anymore.

Now I am lucky to get 10,000 views.

But hey, I can’t really hate on Facebook. They are a business and they have to do what’s best for them. So instead of getting upset at Facebook, I decided to run some tests to see if I could find a way to get more organic traffic.

Because there has to be a way, right?

Well, there is. 🙂

And here is my traffic from Facebook over the last 7 days:

That may not seem like a big increase, but I generated 10,621 visitors the month before. In other words, I took my Facebook traffic from 10,621 visitors PER MONTH to 10,085 visitors PER WEEK.

I am getting roughly the same amount of traffic I used to get in 30 days from Facebook, now in just 7 days.

So how did I do this?

Taking control of your own destiny

As marketers, our faith typically relies on the big giants… you know, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram…

If they decide to change their algorithms your traffic could go up, down, or stay flat.

For that reason, over the last few years, I’ve been building up marketing channels that aren’t as reliant on algorithms.

For example, you may learn about new blog posts I publish through my email lists because every time I publish a new post, I usually send out an email blast.

Or it could be through browser notifications.

Every time I release a blog post or a video… again, I send a message out through push notifications.

But why can’t we do the same with Facebook?

Sure, you can post on your wall or page like everyone else, but if Facebook doesn’t want to show it to people they don’t have to.

So, I decided to push really hard on Facebook Messenger, which gives you the same ability.

In other words, you can send a direct message to everyone on Facebook through their chat feature and share a message or a link to your website.

Something that isn’t too controlled by an algorithm… similar to text messaging or email marketing.

I built this list of 129,560 Facebook Messenger contacts and leveraged them to continually generate traffic back to my blog.

Now before I break down the exact steps I took to do this, the tactics here take execution and elbow grease. It isn’t rocket science, it’s not hard to do, but it does take a bit of work.

But first, let’s go over how Facebook Messenger marketing works.

Facebook Messenger

First, let’s back up on why Facebook Messenger is working so well today.

Facebook Messenger open rates are 50-80% click-through rates post elite stats.

When you send an email campaign, you can expect a 20% open rate on a really good day. On average, I get 28 to 31% with my NeilPatel.com email list.

In other words, if you send your email newsletter to 100 people, 20 people will open it. If you scrub your list and work really hard like me, roughly 30 people will open it, which still isn’t great.

However, when you send a Messenger message to 100 people, 88 people will open it and read it.

We’re talking about an 88% open rate on Messenger. That is crazy!!!!

Now over time, you will notice that it will go down, but it is still substantially higher than email.

But here is where it really gets interesting.

With email marketing, you’ll typically see a 2% to a 4% click-through rate. So for every 100 emails you send, you will get 2 to 4 clicks back to your site.

To give you a benchmark, again, I spend a lot of time fine-tuning my emails and I can get about 6 clicks for every 100 emails I send.

Better than the 2 to 4 percent most people get, but still not life-changing.

With Messenger? You can get 20% click rates.

Over time, you will see it go down, but it is still substantially higher than email marketing.

And it is not just marketing, it works with pretty much any industry. Here’s an example of a real estate company that leverages Facebook Messenger:

As you can see from the screenshot above, Facebook Messenger works like how you would chat with a friend on Facebook or even email. You don’t always have to promote or link, you could just have a conversation with a friend.

This is why their adoption rate is continually climbing in the United States.

That’s almost 140 million users that are projected to use Messenger.

Messaging apps are also surpassing social networks in popularity. Just ask yourself… how many times do you use WhatsApp each week?

But the key is to start now because it will become saturated just like every other marketing channel that works. So whoever builds the biggest list early on will have the best shot of doing well in the long run.

If you are already leveraging Messenger, great, just skip to the tips below to start growing your Facebook traffic.

If you aren’t, just like email marketing you are going to need software so you can send the messages on Facebook. You can start off with this free software called MobileMonkey.

Now let’s get into how you can build your Messenger list and get consistent Facebook traffic.

Tactic #1: Website Messenger widget

My own tests have shown that chat on a website can boost conversions 45%.

So I wondered, what would happen if I installed a Messenger bot on a website?

What’s great about adding this is that visitors get answers to their questions immediately, 24/7. Say goodbye to conversion bottlenecks.

But also, everyone who starts a chat on the site becomes a new contact in my Messenger list.

So how does this work?

Add a Facebook Messenger bot to your website with a widget.

Everyone who visits your website is invited to become a Messenger contact. Website traffic turns into Messenger contacts.

Most users are already logged into Messenger on their desktop or device. So when they have questions or want info and see the Messenger widget, they tap it and boom — new Messenger contact.

If your site is on WordPress site like 34% of the world’s sites, a WordPress plugin called WP-Chatbot is the quickest way to add Facebook Messenger chat to your site.

Install the plugin on your WordPress site and you’ll have Messenger chat on your site in just a few minutes.

This widget makes list building easy. An active website could get hundreds or thousands of new contacts from the visitors on the site who engage the chatbot every day.

Think about yourself.

Are you more likely to search for a contact form on a site, fill it out, and sit back and wait who knows how long for an answer to your question?

Or are you more likely to pop open the chat window, ask your question, and get an immediate response?

Tactic #2: Run Facebook click to Messenger ads

You can do a lot without leveraging paid traffic, but if you really want to put some fuel on the fire, a few hundred dollars goes a long way.

And for the purpose of this blog post, I spent $391.58 just so I would have some stats to share with you. 🙂

Facebook Messenger ads are a Facebook Ad format in which the user who clicks on the ad is immediately added to your Messenger contact list as opposed to going to a landing page where they may bounce or exit, anonymously.

Everyone who clicks the button on the ad converts when they send the advertiser a message — becoming a permanent Messenger contact.

The key part is… they need to send the advertiser a message. In other words, if you don’t get them to send you a message they won’t be added to your Messenger contact list so you won’t be able to send blasts to them.

That’s why you want to use an autoresponder. If which you automatically start talking to each person to increase your chance that they will get added to your contact list.

Here’s an example of an ad:

How much will Facebook click-to-Messenger ads run you?

I personally haven’t scaled a campaign too large yet, but with a $391.58 test budget, I’ve been able to generate leads for roughly 62% less than traditional Facebook ads.

But again, the key with all of this is in the autoresponder. Without that, your numbers won’t be too great.

Within MobileMonkey, use the bot content builder to create the autoresponder to your Facebook Ad.

Then create a new Messenger ad in MobileMonkey to connect your autoresponder to your Facebook Ad.

Next, pick the autoresponder from a drop-down of all your bot dialogues and connect it to your Facebook Ads Manager account.

The result is a low-cost ad campaign that drives more contacts into your Messenger list.

Facebook Messenger ads work time and again across industries, including e-commerce and service businesses.

Now, if you are like me and you prefer to do things a bit more organically and save some money, here’s how you generate more contacts without spending money.

Tactic #3: Use organic Facebook post autoresponders

Growing your list with a little ad spend goes a long way, but this next list building power tactic is totally free.

Anyone who comments on your Facebook Page posts instantly becomes your Messenger contact.

A Facebook post autoresponder adds people to your Messenger contact list if they comment on any Facebook post.

Here’s how it works.

You post to your Facebook Business Page.

Someone comments.

A Messenger bot automatically responds and as soon as that person replies, they’ve become a contact in Messenger.

You can see an example of this tactic in action here:

The more engaging your Facebook post, the more likely it will be that people will want to comment on it.

These kinds of posts always get a ton of comments and contacts:

Quizzes

Contests

Riddles

You could ask fans to post a GIF in response to a question. “Describe your boss with a GIF.”

Or ask them to tell a story or ask them a question like “What industry are most of your clients in?”

Even just asking them “what do you do?” is super-engaging because people love to talk about themselves!

This store asks fans to name how many duck species are in the photo. Comment with your guess and get a discount code in the autoresponder follow-up.

You can create the Messenger dialog for this technique in MobileMonkey with the “FB Comment Guard” tool.

That feature is what allows you to add the autoresponder to an organic post.

I love this technique because it converts my hard-fought organic Facebook engagement into a list of contacts I can follow up with.

Tactic #4: Convert page fans into Messenger contacts

I’m a fan of cross-promoting, traffic-sharing, and allowing various marketing channels to build off each other.

After all, if someone follows you on one channel, they may want your updates on a different channel as well. This increases your odds of connecting with them and amplifying your content reach at any given time.

This tactic combines several methodologies for a boost to Messenger contacts.

If you’ve gone to the effort of building a robust Facebook page, you will want to convert these fans into Messenger contacts. Fans are great, but Messenger contacts are better because Messenger is personalized, interactive, one-on-one, and has way more visibility than Facebook News Feed.

Organic reach on Facebook is very low. Maybe 1%, of your fans on your Facebook Page will even see your post.

Using Facebook Messenger changes this. Instead of a low organic reach, you’re getting high-powered interactions that are personalized.

This is important because page fans aren’t automatically Messenger contacts. You have to invite them or connect with them in Messenger first.

Here are three ways to convert your Page fans into Messenger contacts.

First, and this one is pretty obvious, you can change the CTA button on your Facebook Page to “Send Message”.

Right now your Facebook Page CTA button might be sending traffic to your site with a button like “Learn More”.

Hover over the button until you see “Edit Button.” Then choose the option to “Contact you” and “Send Message.”

Customize the message that people will see when they click that button in MobileMonkey.

Boom. Now anyone who clicks the “Send Message” button from a Facebook Page will become a Messenger contact.

Second, create a Facebook Post Autoresponder (see tip #3).

This autoresponder was a simple invitation — Stay in touch! Sign up for Messenger updates.

Third, you can then use Page fan audience targeting of a click-to-Messenger Facebook Ad campaign.

Remember, your existing Page fans are more likely to take another step into more interaction with a brand that they know and trust.

Tactic #5: Turn your email subscribers into Messenger contacts

Email marketing has a low engagement rate.

Facebook Messenger has high engagement.

Would you rather send your content to your subscribers in a channel with a 2% click-rate or 20% click-through rate?

Ideally, you should do what I do and leverage them both.

Send your email list an invitation to join your Facebook Messenger list. Those who choose to do so will become email subscribers and Messenger subscribers, but their engagement level (and therefore your reach) will increase using Messenger.

One of the most effective marketing methods is to convert your existing contacts into more effective marketing channels.

Using MobileMonkey’s chatbot builder, you can create an opt-in page consisting of a quick and simple “Want to receive occasional updates?” invitation.

Link to that invitation anywhere you’d normally include a link.

Link to that invitation in a button, like the examples below.

And here:

Link to your Messenger experience in your:

Email signature

CTAs in blog posts

Business card in QR codes

Landing pages

Newsletter subscription forms

The list is as long as you are clever. And it works very well!

Conclusion

You are always going to deal with algorithms, but if you want more consistent traffic you need to take matters into your own hands.

Just look at me, I leverage email marketing, push notifications, and even Facebook Messenger marketing.

I’m now looking into leveraging text messaging too.

Sure, I leverage SEO, content marketing, paid ads, social media marketing… and every other major channel out there.

But I focus a large part of my efforts on controlling my own destiny and you can too.

If you haven’t started, start with Facebook Messenger. It works so well right now and I expect it to last for a while. The key is getting in on the right time and time is right now.

So what do you think about this strategy? Have you tried Facebook Messenger marketing yet?

The post How I Grew My Dying Facebook Traffic appeared first on Neil Patel.

[onlinemarketingcourses]

Using Python to recover SEO site traffic (Part three) Search Engine Watch

When you incorporate machine learning techniques to speed up SEO recovery, the results can be amazing.

This is the third and last installment from our series on using Python to speed SEO traffic recovery. In part one, I explained how our unique approach, that we call “winners vs losers” helps us quickly narrow down the pages losing traffic to find the main reason for the drop. In part two, we improved on our initial approach to manually group pages using regular expressions, which is very useful when you have sites with thousands or millions of pages, which is typically the case with ecommerce sites. In part three, we will learn something really exciting. We will learn to automatically group pages using machine learning.

As mentioned before, you can find the code used in part one, two and three in this Google Colab notebook.

Let’s get started.

URL matching vs content matching

When we grouped pages manually in part two, we benefited from the fact the URLs groups had clear patterns (collections, products, and the others) but it is often the case where there are no patterns in the URL. For example, Yahoo Stores’ sites use a flat URL structure with no directory paths. Our manual approach wouldn’t work in this case.

Fortunately, it is possible to group pages by their contents because most page templates have different content structures. They serve different user needs, so that needs to be the case.

How can we organize pages by their content? We can use DOM element selectors for this. We will specifically use XPaths.

For example, I can use the presence of a big product image to know the page is a product detail page. I can grab the product image address in the document (its XPath) by right-clicking on it in Chrome and choosing “Inspect,” then right-clicking to copy the XPath.

We can identify other page groups by finding page elements that are unique to them. However, note that while this would allow us to group Yahoo Store-type sites, it would still be a manual process to create the groups.

A scientist’s bottom-up approach

In order to group pages automatically, we need to use a statistical approach. In other words, we need to find patterns in the data that we can use to cluster similar pages together because they share similar statistics. This is a perfect problem for machine learning algorithms.

BloomReach, a digital experience platform vendor, shared their machine learning solution to this problem. To summarize it, they first manually selected cleaned features from the HTML tags like class IDs, CSS style sheet names, and the others. Then, they automatically grouped pages based on the presence and variability of these features. In their tests, they achieved around 90% accuracy, which is pretty good.

When you give problems like this to scientists and engineers with no domain expertise, they will generally come up with complicated, bottom-up solutions. The scientist will say, “Here is the data I have, let me try different computer science ideas I know until I find a good solution.”

One of the reasons I advocate practitioners learn programming is that you can start solving problems using your domain expertise and find shortcuts like the one I will share next.

Hamlet’s observation and a simpler solution

For most ecommerce sites, most page templates include images (and input elements), and those generally change in quantity and size.

I decided to test the quantity and size of images, and the number of input elements as my features set. We were able to achieve 97.5% accuracy in our tests. This is a much simpler and effective approach for this specific problem. All of this is possible because I didn’t start with the data I could access, but with a simpler domain-level observation.

I am not trying to say my approach is superior, as they have tested theirs in millions of pages and I’ve only tested this on a few thousand. My point is that as a practitioner you should learn this stuff so you can contribute your own expertise and creativity.

Now let’s get to the fun part and get to code some machine learning code in Python!

Collecting training data

We need training data to build a model. This training data needs to come pre-labeled with “correct” answers so that the model can learn from the correct answers and make its own predictions on unseen data.

In our case, as discussed above, we’ll use our intuition that most product pages have one or more large images on the page, and most category type pages have many smaller images on the page.

What’s more, product pages typically have more form elements than category pages (for filling in quantity, color, and more).

Unfortunately, crawling a web page for this data requires knowledge of web browser automation, and image manipulation, which are outside the scope of this post. Feel free to study this GitHub gist we put together to learn more.

Here we load the raw data already collected.

Feature engineering

Each row of the form_counts data frame above corresponds to a single URL and provides a count of both form elements, and input elements contained on that page.

Meanwhile, in the img_counts data frame, each row corresponds to a single image from a particular page. Each image has an associated file size, height, and width. Pages are more than likely to have multiple images on each page, and so there are many rows corresponding to each URL.

It is often the case that HTML documents don’t include explicit image dimensions. We are using a little trick to compensate for this. We are capturing the size of the image files, which would be proportional to the multiplication of the width and the length of the images.

We want our image counts and image file sizes to be treated as categorical features, not numerical ones. When a numerical feature, say new visitors, increases it generally implies improvement, but we don’t want bigger images to imply improvement. A common technique to do this is called one-hot encoding.

Most site pages can have an arbitrary number of images. We are going to further process our dataset by bucketing images into 50 groups. This technique is called “binning”.

Here is what our processed data set looks like.

Adding ground truth labels

As we already have correct labels from our manual regex approach, we can use them to create the correct labels to feed the model.

We also need to split our dataset randomly into a training set and a test set. This allows us to train the machine learning model on one set of data, and test it on another set that it’s never seen before. We do this to prevent our model from simply “memorizing” the training data and doing terribly on new, unseen data. You can check it out at the link given below:

Model training and grid search

Finally, the good stuff!

All the steps above, the data collection and preparation, are generally the hardest part to code. The machine learning code is generally quite simple.

We’re using the well-known Scikitlearn python library to train a number of popular models using a bunch of standard hyperparameters (settings for fine-tuning a model). Scikitlearn will run through all of them to find the best one, we simply need to feed in the X variables (our feature engineering parameters above) and the Y variables (the correct labels) to each model, and perform the .fit() function and voila!

Evaluating performance

After running the grid search, we find our winning model to be the Linear SVM (0.974) and Logistic regression (0.968) coming at a close second. Even with such high accuracy, a machine learning model will make mistakes. If it doesn’t make any mistakes, then there is definitely something wrong with the code.

In order to understand where the model performs best and worst, we will use another useful machine learning tool, the confusion matrix.

When looking at a confusion matrix, focus on the diagonal squares. The counts there are correct predictions and the counts outside are failures. In the confusion matrix above we can quickly see that the model does really well-labeling products, but terribly labeling pages that are not product or categories. Intuitively, we can assume that such pages would not have consistent image usage.

Here is the code to put together the confusion matrix:

Finally, here is the code to plot the model evaluation:

Resources to learn more

You might be thinking that this is a lot of work to just tell page groups, and you are right!

Mirko Obkircher commented in my article for part two that there is a much simpler approach, which is to have your client set up a Google Analytics data layer with the page group type. Very smart recommendation, Mirko!

I am using this example for illustration purposes. What if the issue requires a deeper exploratory investigation? If you already started the analysis using Python, your creativity and knowledge are the only limits.

If you want to jump onto the machine learning bandwagon, here are some resources I recommend to learn more:

Got any tips or queries? Share it in the comments.

Hamlet Batista is the CEO and founder of RankSense, an agile SEO platform for online retailers and manufacturers. He can be found on Twitter .

Want to stay on top of the latest search trends?

Get top insights and news from our search experts.

Related reading

Complete overivew of what Google Search Console is, what it does for your site, how to use it, and what you need to get started taking advantage of it today.

Last month, Google tested AR functionality in Google Maps. What are the implications of VPS, street view, and machine learning for local search and SEOs?

The robots.txt file is an often overlooked and sometimes forgotten part of a website and SEO. Here’s what it is, examples, how to’s, and tips for success.

What exactly agencies need when it comes to website audits and what to look for in choosing a tool. Five specific recommendations, screenshots, examples.

Want to stay on top of the latest search trends?

Get top insights and news from our search experts.

Source link

[filipeteimuraz]

How to Double Your Writing Speed Without Lowering Its Quality

How in the world do they do it?

Day after day, they write monstrous posts that are extremely useful and easy to read.

You know the people I’m talking about—you might even consider me to be one of them.

Here’s what a typical week looks like for me in terms of blog content alone:

2 posts on Quick Sprout (1,000-5,000 words each) plus an infographic

2 posts on the NeilPatel.com blog (about 5,000 words each)

2 guest posts on other popular blogs (about 1,500 words each)

0.5-1 blog post for the Crazy Egg blog (about 2 per month at about 2,000 words each)

Total that up, and you get around 17,000 words per week or 3,400 words per weekday.

And I’ve been able to sustain this type of volume for years.

I’m the first to admit that in technical terms, I’m not the best writer. I certainly didn’t go to college to get a degree in English or creative writing. Yet, I have thousands of awesome readers who really enjoy what I write.

There’s a reason I spent much time learning first how to write quality blog posts and then how to write them fast.

Although time is my most valuable resource, I spend a significant chunk of it every week writing. That’s because I know how effective content marketing can be for a business.

But I’m far from the only one.

Contently found that 41% of businesses struggle with creating enough content.

Wouldn’t it be easier to create more content if you could write faster?

If you need to learn how to write a great post, start by checking out my guide to writing high quality data-driven articles.

If you already write high quality posts but it takes you a long time to do it, then this article is for you. I’m going to show you 11 key concepts that you can start using today to start writing faster.

Imagine being able to write posts in half the time you currently do now! That would free up a lot of time to either write more posts or work on other parts of your business.

An extra few posts a week can greatly speed up your business’ growth, possibly by years. 

1. Get your typing up to speed

No matter how well you can remain focused for long period of times and how fast you can think of what to say, if you can’t type at a decent speed, you’ll never write quickly.

If you’re still pecking at letters, one finger at a time, it’s not going to cut it.

You don’t have to be a master typist, but you should be able to type at least 60 words per minute (60 WPM). If you could type at that speed for an hour straight, that would be 3,600 words per hour. Obviously that’s unrealistic, but you can achieve a decent fraction of that production rate.

I’d like you to take a minute to test your typing speed. Head to Key Hero, and do a quick typing test:

If you’d like to repeat it a few times to get a more accurate result, go ahead.

If your speed is under 60 WPM, you’ll have to fix that before you can worry about any of the other concepts in this article. I know it’s not the most fun thing in the world, but you’ll be grateful you did it in the long run.

Step 1: Use the proper hand placement

To type properly, you should be resting the four fingers of each hand on the keys of the middle row, with your thumbs hovering over the space bar.

If you don’t already do this, it will take a bit of practice for it to feel natural.

Step 2: Don’t look at the keyboard

You should be able to type with your eyes closed—literally. If you can’t, it means you need to practice to get you to the point when typing no longer requires an active focus (the unconscious takes care of it).

Part of this can be your posture. If you’re hunched over while sitting, it’s possible that you’re looking at the keyboard just because that’s where your line of sight is. Do your best to sit up straight when writing.

Step 3: Practice, practice, practice

Kids these days practice typing from a young age, but you might not have been so lucky. The good news is that you can find online tools to help you practice and learn. One example is the Key Hero practice tools. If you need more instruction from the beginning, use a typing tutor tool:

Alternative: Try speech-to-text software

You have a number of speech-to-text tools you can use, e.g., TalkTyper (free), Ivona (paid), and Dragon Naturally Speaking (paid). These tools allow you to simply talk to your computer while it records your words and whatever punctuation you indicate.

While you can obviously talk faster than you can type, there are some downsides to this method. The free or cheap tools aren’t always accurate, and it can take a lot of time to fix the mistakes those programs make. Even the expensive ones aren’t perfect, and they also have a steep learning curve at first.

It’s not the first option I’d recommend, but if for some reason you aren’t able to type, or type quickly, it’s a decent backup.

2. Don’t forget your ideas: make a list

How much time do you waste trying to come up with a good idea for a blog post?

It’s hard enough if you’re just writing a couple of them a week, but if I had to come up with ideas for all the posts I write one at a time, I don’t know if I could do it.

The good news is: there’s a better way. It’s called an idea list.

Coming up with ideas on demand can be difficult because it’s a creative task. Creativity comes and goes as we observe and experience different things in our lives. It’s why book writers often take years to write their novels.

You can’t just sit down and say to yourself, “Okay brain, start coming up with great ideas.”

Instead, you need to develop your idea muscle so that you can spontaneously come up with many ideas throughout the day.

The concept of an idea muscle was coined by James Altucher, who says that as you practice coming up with ideas, you get better at it.

“Every situation you are in, you will have a ton of ideas. Any question  you are asked, you will know the response. Every meeting you are at, you will take the meeting so far out of the box you’ll be on another planet, if you are stuck on a desert highway – you will figure the way out, if you need to make money you’ll come up with 50 ideas to make  money, and so on.” — James Altucher

He advises to start by trying to come up with at least 10 ideas throughout the day.

Here’s the second part: record them. Not all of these ideas will be good, but some will be, and others may lead you to good ideas.

You can use a simple notepad from the dollar store, or you can do what the team at Buffer does and record ideas in Trello:

An alternative: create a repeatable strategy

I’ve already shown you how to steal ideas for your next post. This is a strategy that you can use over and over again to get inspiration for post ideas.

It’s still not a good idea to come up with post ideas as you need them—it’s inefficient. Instead, schedule a block of time, maybe an hour, every week or month (depending on your post volume). Use this time to use your strategy to come up with as many ideas as you can.

Instead of coming up with a single idea in 10 minutes every time you need one, you can come up with five times the number of ideas in the same time frame once you get some momentum going.

Either way, you’ll be able to cut down on time coming up with ideas and focus more time and energy on the actual writing.

3. Get rid of distractions

Distractions are everywhere, especially on the computer.

The urge to check email, visit social media sites, or just click a bookmark to go to your favorite site to kill time is strong.

Maybe you’d rather check your search engine rankings again or website traffic instead of writing a post, which seems way less fun.

If you give into these urges, your productivity is going to go way down. But even if you don’t, those urges in the back of your head are going to distract you and prevent you from being as productive as possible.

In real life, there are even more distractions, especially if you work from home. Kids running around, people talking on the phone or watching TV, and temptation to take a break and grab a snack.

Distractions are everywhere.

You’ll never get rid of them all, but you can get rid of many, which will greatly boost your writing speed.

Distraction elimination #1: Work in an office or quiet space

Noise kills writing productivity. You need to be able to hear your thoughts uninterrupted. If you work from home, designate a room as your office, and make sure that no one disturbs you while the door is closed.

If you’re working at an office or co-working space, keep your door closed while writing. Tell any friends or coworkers to not disturb you while the door is closed unless there is an emergency.

If neither of those are realistic, head to a library. Libraries are quiet, and some even have dedicated rooms for silent work.

Distraction elimination #2: Turn off the tunes

Who doesn’t like music? Wouldn’t it be more fun to write while listening to Taylor Swift?

Well, sure, it will be more fun, but it will slow you down when you are writing.

Studies have shown that music is a distraction that slows down complex thought processes. So while music might help you with simple, straight-forward tasks such as lifting more in the gym, it’s going to slow down your writing.

But that’s not the full story. Those studies looked typical lyrical music.

A 2012 study showed that low to moderate levels of ambient noise can actually lead to slightly higher creative output.

Similarly, another study showed that baroque classical music can increase mood and productivity. Note that classical music rarely has any lyrics. It is soft and consistent.

So you have two options: work with no music or work with low to medium volume ambient noise or classical music.

To have some ambient sound in the background, you can use tools such as A Soft Murmur or Simply Noise.

Distraction elimination #3: Lock-down distracting websites

If you have trouble staying on task, you can block certain trouble websites for a designated time period. There are many plugins that can do this, e.g., Strict Workflow for Chrome.

You simply tell the plugin which sites you’d like blocked and for how long, and you won’t be able to access them until the time period is up.

In addition, you can hide your bookmarks bar if you’re working inside a web text application such as Google Docs. Just right-click any empty space in the bookmarks bar and uncheck “show bookmarks bar.”

Distraction elimination #4: Write offline

If blocking distracting sites doesn’t work, you can take it to the next level and disconnect your Internet altogether. Writing offline will eliminate all online distractions.

Distraction elimination #5: Finish all important tasks before writing

Sometimes it’s hard to focus because there’s something else important that you need to do during the day. If you’re thinking about this in the back of your head, your writing speed will go down.

Instead, think about doing any distracting tasks upfront, and then come back to writing later.

4. Outline your post beforehand

Before I write any post, I always outline it.

When you outline a post, you get a really clear idea of how you will be making the point you’re trying to make as well as any research or resources you’ll need to make the article as strong as possible.

You’ll notice that all of my posts have an introduction section (like everyone else’s posts would have) and also a conclusion section.

The headlines of the other sections will depend on the type of post I’m writing. There are 12 main types of posts, and I have general outlines for all of them.

The outlines don’t need to take very long to put together. Their main point is to make sure you’re not missing any important pieces of the puzzle.

I write out all the subheadlines (H2s) in the article as well as a few main bullet points below each to remind me what I should cover.

When I get to each section while writing, I don’t have to remember what I had in mind for this section before—it’s already there.

5. Research comes first

What do you think is easier to write about for me: how to ride a horse or how to write a good blog post?

Of course, how to write a good blog post is a simpler topic for me because it’s a topic that I have a lot of experience and expertise in.

The first step is to become an expert on the topic you’re writing about. It’s easy to talk/write about something you know well but difficult if you’re trying to put the pieces together as you go.

Take my nutrition blog case study. I’m not a nutrition expert, and I didn’t have the time to invest in becoming well-versed in the subject so that I could write about it credibly. That’s why I had Mike take over content creation.

This doesn’t mean you need to be an expert from day one, but you need at the very least to learn about the specific topic you’re writing about before starting.

Otherwise, task switching is going to kill your writing speed.

What’s task switching? It’s a concept that refers to having to switch between different activities. For example, having to switch from writing mode to research mode because you don’t understand a concept you need for a particular article.

While some may multitask better than others, we all are more productive when we focus on a single task.

Dr. David Meyer and colleagues conducted a study in 2001 to quantify the effects of task switching. He had subjects try to switch between different tasks such as solving math problems and naming geometric objects.

When both problems were simple, subjects didn’t lose much time going back and forth. But as the tasks became complex, the subjects lost more and more time with each switch.

It’s hard to pin down the exact cost of switching, but Meyer estimated that it could cost someone up to 40% of their productivity for complex tasks. Make no mistake, writing and researching are complex tasks.

Every time you have to switch, it not only takes a bit of time (up to a few seconds) to get into the right mindset, but it also fatigues you. Just thinking about having to switch back and forth several times an hour makes me tired.

Here’s the takeaway: learn everything you need to know about the topic you are writing about before you write a single word. This means that you should note down any relevant statistics, resources, or findings from studies beforehand.

6. Write first, edit later

Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is garbage.”

I’m not sure how much fiction you read, but Hemingway was one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.

He won a Nobel Prize in Literature and a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction before he died. Even now, we remember his writing genius.

If Hemingway thought his first drafts were garbage, imagine what he’d think of mine or yours.

So, you basically have two options if you want to write a post that doesn’t suck.

First, you can continually edit each sentence and paragraph as you go. Or you can write your first draft like most prolific writers do, and then edit later.

Both can produce a good article, but I’ll tell you why the second option is by far the best choice.

If you continually switch between writing and editing, you have the same problem that we looked at before: task switching. You’re asking your brain to switch from trying to write to trying to edit. This kills any writing momentum you have and makes you start from scratch every sentence or paragraph.

When you write—just write—you can focus on writing only. This allows your mind to focus on what you should write now and what should come next. Similarly, when you’re editing, all your focus can be on “how can I make this better?” instead of also trying to think of what needs to be said next.

In my experience, Meyer’s guess of about a 40% decrease in productivity from task switching is probably about right.

Write first, edit second.

7. Take (smart) breaks

Unless you’re a robot, you need breaks. All people get tired.

Sure, you can get stronger over time, but you’ll still need breaks.

Everyone’s different in this aspect. Some need frequent breaks, while others only need breaks after a few hours. It depends on how much you enjoy writing, your writing ability, and a few personal factors.

If you’re not sure where to start, I recommend the Pomodoro Technique. Yes, pomodoro means “tomato” in Italian, so essentially it’s a tomato technique. It’s named after the timer that the creator used:

It was designed in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo. Even though it’s not new, it hasn’t been until the last decade or so that it really became popular as a productivity technique.

Here’s how it works:

You set a timer for 25 minutes

You work until the timer finishes

You take a 5 minute break

All of that is one Pomodoro

Now you repeat that process four times. After the 4th 30-minute period, you take a 15-20 minute break.

You can either buy a pomodoro timer or just use this online tomato timer.

This procedure is supposed to keep you focused and fresh while working.

For accountability purposes, you are supposed to start the day by making a to-do list of what you’d like to accomplish.

You put an “X” beside each item to indicate how many pomodoro periods (25 minutes of work) it took to finish.

“You will probably begin to notice a difference in your work or study process within a day or two. True mastery of the technique takes from seven to twenty days of constant use.”

The final piece of the system is dealing with interruptions. There are two types of interruptions: internal and external.

Internal interruptions are thoughts that are distracting you from working. With this system, if they are important tasks, you are supposed to write them down on your to-do sheet so that you can be sure they will get done later.

External interruptions are from other people and things (phones, emails, etc.). The pomodoro system suggests to deal with such interruptions as quickly as possible. Tell the people who want your attention now to come back later or promise them you’ll call them back as soon as you can (on a break). In the meantime, get back to work.

8. Give yourself a deadline

Parkinson’s law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.

This means if you give yourself too much time to finish something, or that you don’t think it matters when you finish it, it will take longer to do. Either you’ll procrastinate because you know you can do it quickly, or it’ll become increasingly complex, which will result in accomplishing something other than what you set out to do.

Think about how most people study for a test. They put it off as long as possible and then cram everything in at the last possible minute.

While it’s not optimal from a learning point of view, it illustrates that people are capable of working extremely quickly when there’s a firm deadline that must be met.

The problem many professional writers have is that they give themselves a day to write a post, even if they may not need it. They say that if they finish early, they’ll start working on something else—but they never do finish early because the work expands to fill the available time.

When you start writing a post, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to include in the post, nothing more. Then, give yourself a deadline for writing the post, which is equal to the minimum amount of time you think you might need.

Remember that this is just for writing the post, which you want to do as quickly as possible. The quality really comes from the editing. You should still have a deadline, but don’t make it strict since you will need your creativity and careful thought.

Don’t limit deadlines to your writing only. You can also set a deadline for checking emails in the morning. Most people spend over 2 hours on email a day, when they could probably reduce it to two 10-minute periods, in the morning and at night, if they set a hard deadline.

9. Write during your most productive time

You’ve heard that some people work better in the morning and some at night, right?

Morning people are called “early birds,” while people who prefer the night are called “night owls.”

It turns out that there’s a significant amount of science backing up this phenomenon. German scientists found that night owls had a different brain composition than early risers.

This affects your circadian rhythm, which is responsible for controlling your sleep schedule and alertness throughout your day. Dr. Katherine Sharkey says that night owls have longer circadian rhythms than early risers.

We don’t need to know exactly how it works to see how it affects how we write.

If you find that you’re much more productive in the morning, write in the morning.

If you find that you’re much more productive in the evening, write in the evening.

Simple.

You will accomplish more in one really productive hour of writing than you would with more time but struggling to focus.

10. Use simple words

Do you ever pause while writing in order to think of the perfect word?

If so, you’re wasting time.

When it comes to blog posts, or any type of web content, your writing should be simple.

People have very limited attention spans and like to skim. Jakob Nielson collected data that shows an average visitor reads just 20-28% of the words in a post. If they can’t skim it, they usually skip it. That means your perfect word won’t even be read by most.

When you read complex words, it takes longer to understand them. It’s partly because they are complex words, but it’s also because we don’t see them often.

So not only do complicated words and sentences confuse and deter your readers but they also slow down your writing. Instead of just stopping and thinking about which word to use, write the simplest alternative that comes to mind.

Instead of “convoluted,” write “complex”.

Instead of “disastrous,” write “poor”.

Instead of “proficiency,” write “skill.”

Get what I’m saying? Here are 24 more examples.

If you want to see how you’re doing, put one of your blog posts into this readability score calculator.

Here are the Flesch-Kincaid grade level scores of a few popular writers. I write at about a 4th-grade level. If you use complex words often, your score will be much higher.

11. The one factor behind all great writers

I’ve given you 10 concepts so far that can help you write faster without rushing and sacrificing quality.

Even if you apply all of these overnight, you still won’t write as quickly as I do by tomorrow.

Writing quickly takes practice, a lot of practice.

Malcolm Gladwell estimates that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. If you write five hours a day, five days a week, that’s about eight years.

I’m probably getting pretty close to that number.

But even if you’re not close, you will get better every step of the way there. So, don’t get discouraged if you can only write 300 words per hour right now. Over time, if you’re truly working on writing faster, it will creep up to 310, then 320, then 350, and so on…

In just a year or two, you might be writing 1,000 words per hour—sooner if you’re a quick learner.

Imagine that for a second: you could effectively double or triple the value of your time. That’s huge.

Conclusion

If you apply just one concept in this article, you can probably increase your writing speed by over 10% within a few days.

If you currently write for 20 hours a week at a rate of 500 words per hour, a 10% improvement alone will give you an extra 1,000 words per week. This is about an article a week for most blogs or 52 extra articles per year without spending any extra time.

If you really take the concepts I’ve laid out here to heart and apply more than one, you could see an even bigger improvement.

http://www.quicksprout.com/how-to-double-your-writing-speed-without-lowering-your-quality/ Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-to-double-your-writing-speed.html

[spilledreality]

the hippie phenomenon

“The New Yorker has always dealt with experience not by trying to understand it but by prescribing the attitude to be adopted toward it. This makes it possible to feel intelligent without thinking, and it is a way of making everything tolerable, for the assumption of a suitable attitude toward experience can give one the illusion of having dealt with it adequately.”

—Robert Warshow, "E. B. White and the New Yorker"

I wanna take issue with Kerouac and Didion, not so much with their writing’s literary value but as cultural criticism. Chance aside, a prerequisite of good criticism as I see it is a penetrating, upper-percentile comprehension of the subject at hand, coupled with an epistemic humility sufficient to the task of staying open-minded. Both Kerouac and Didion, though they represent opposite sides of the cultural and political coin, seem most primarily in judgment of their subjects, rather than intrigued by them. Both their practices show a dedication to deduction over induction, which is to say the opposite of learning. There is little demonstrated effort to adequately reconcile their worldviews, motivations, and values with that of an other (in Kerouac’s case, PTA moms and nuclear families; in Didion’s, the acidfreaks of Haight-Ashbury). Any good lawyer will tell you, if you don’t adequately understand your opponent’s position, your rebuttal will follow in inadequacy, cf. Ideological Turing Tests. 

Here's Kerouac in My Woman describing a job application (one implication being that the American laborer is a drone, a zombie, whose guise Jack and his friends must take on to get hired): 

We entered [the office] with our arms stretched out in front of us [drunk] like the zombies we'd seen in a picture the other day; we made our feet go slow and automatic like the ghost of death. We asked the man for a job. The poor idiot said, 'I don't think you boys will do.' We got out of there... laughing at the top of our lungs. 

2.

As the 50s turned into the 60s, the Beat ethos into flower power, Kerouac drifted into Long Island alcoholism; Ginsberg adapted, stayed relevant. The transition between decades bridged by the Merry Pranksters’ cross-country quest to "tune out, drop out" in a refurbished 1939 school bus per Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. 

On assignment for The Saturday Evening Post, Joan Didion traveled to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where she saw posters of Ginsberg hung on the walls and devotees treated his opinions on the Krishna as of equal authority with the Swami. Didion saw a world falling apart, spiritually and socially in crisis. People forget, so it's worth reminding that Didion was not a progressive in this era. She was a National Review contributor and a Goldwater voter. And while I have no problem with her political conservatism, it’s important to link “Slouching” with the general moral hysteria over longhairedness taking place at the time, a hysteria which contributed in large part to Nixon's presidential and Reagan's gubernatorial elections.

The central argument (or assumption, or presumption of “Slouching” is that San Francisco is home to a generation of children (some literally, some relative maturity) who have embarked on an extended bad trip (either literally or figuratively) from which they may not ever return. Affectless and out-of-it, they show emotion only when discussing, acquiring, or ingesting narcotics (peyote, acid, smack, crystal, amps, and a now-mysterious “STP”).  “Pathetically unequipped" for the real world, they lack any serious political convictions or critical thinking abilities, instead swimming in self-delusion and macrobiotic diets.

I can't speak of Dideon's intent so I'll stick to her prose, sociopathic in its lack of empathy and interest. The essay’s divided into bits so that each section sports an ominous closing sentence cum punchline-zinger. Interviewees divide into strawmen or caricatures; none are depicted or explored as complex, flesh-and-blood human beings. Juvenile delinquents and drug dealers are picked as the primary representative spokespeople of a sizable neighborhood and subculture. There’s Debbie, 15, a runaway because “[her] parents said she had to go to Church.” There’s John, 16, who has left home because his mother “didn't like boots” and made him help out around the house: “Tell about the chores,” Debbie says. John: “For example, I had chores. If I didn't finish ironing my shirts for the week I couldn't go out for the weekend. It was weird, wow.” Shortly after her wide-eyed relay on chores, Didion recounts Debbie literally chipping a nail, then getting upset that the author isn't carrying extra polish on her. I'd say you can't make this stuff up, but I'm tempted to invoke Richard Bradley:

Some years ago, when I was an editor at George magazine, I was unfortunate enough to work with the writer Stephen Glass on a number of articles. They proved to be fake, filled with fabrications, as was pretty much all of his work. The experience was painful but educational; it forced me to examine how easily I had been duped. Why did I believe those insinuations about Bill Clinton-friend Vernon Jordan being a lech? About the dubious ethics of uber-fundraiser (now Virginia governor) Terry McAuliffe? The answer, I had to admit, was because they corroborated my pre-existing biases. I was well on the way to believing that Vernon Jordan was a philanderer, for example—everyone seemed to think so, back in the ’90s, during the Monica Lewinsky time.

I can't say whether Didion fabricated these stories. It doesn't matter either way. A piece which confirms existing biases of its readers, or which confirms its own initial biases at its start, doing little more than elaborate variations on a stereotype for thousands of words, is poor criticism and shoddy historiography.

A generic structure for a given section of “Slouching”: observe events unraveling around her, hazard a guess at (and editorialize heavily on) what is occurring, entertain the possibility of asking a participant or knowledgeable observer for more accurate information, and then—inexplicably—decide not to. In other words, there’s a lack of respect for her subjects’ subjectivity, or for her own ability to be wrong. Equally as incredible as this journalistic practice is Didion’s willingness to admit to it (and in the same breath berate Time and other publications for their own misunderstandings of the hippie phenomenon).

Didion gets haughty at points, seamlessly transitioning from picking on a teenager’s amateur poetry to a bout of philosophical reflection:

As it happens, I am still committed to the idea that the ability to think for one's self depends upon mastery of the language and I am not optimistic about children who will settle for saying, to indicate that their mother and father do not live together, that they come from a “broken home.”

For myself, I’m not so hot about the idea of a journalist who dedicates forty pages to belittling literal teenage runaways, especially when so many avenues of more substantial cultural interest are ignored. It’s off-handedly mentioned that McLuhan is read by many in the Haight community, as are the Hari Krishna and the writings of Zen Buddhism, but Didion never meaningfully pursues any of the community's beliefs.

3.

Some of the more interesting documents on this subject come from the exchanges between literary, Cold War liberal moderates and the generation of beatniks and hippies who were pulling the country toward a more radical vision. Adam Kirsch’s Why Trilling Matters charts the relationship between Lionel Trilling and his former student at Columbia, Allen Ginsberg. (Kirsch, drawing on Trilling, distinguishes between the Blakean and Wordsworthean impulse, Wordsworth a “representative of wisdom,” Blake as the blazing voice of passion. As Trilling writes, Blake's poetry would be one of the more significant influences on the art and voice of Sixties counterculture: “American undergraduates seem to be ever more alienated from the general body of English literature, but they have for some time made an exception of William Blake... uniquely relevant to their spiritual aspirations” and acting as a model for its “transvaluation of social and aesthetic values.”)

Equally good is the lifelong correspondence between Allen and his also-poet father Louis Ginsberg. Trilling and L.’s sensibilities are of moderation and qualification, both sure only of their own fallibility; the Blakean hubris is an ideology propping up conceits of heroism, a Manichean dualism where only the counterculture keeps it real. “Save me from that mixed-up, confused view of the Beat Generation which maintains it has a blueprint of Truth, obviously handed over to them in a mystic, blinding revelation from Heaven," Louis wrote to his son in ‘58.

An avid communist in the early-to-mid 1960s (before a trip to Cuba changed his mind w/r/t the freedom of its citizens¹) Allen berated his father in letter after letter over Lou's democratic socialist views, and got bit back:

Your holier-than-thou attitude, with your noble intentions, does not prove that you have a Heavenly blueprint of the truth. You may be a great poet, as I believe you are, but you can still have false ideas and false facts, despite your noble intentions. T.S. Eliot and Pound had Fascist ideas.

One more excerpt, for joy:

Dear Allen,

You have a right to your opinion, according to your lights; but I retain my energetic insistence to differ with you... on your whole Beat Generation's views that everything that is, to paraphrase Pope, is wrong. Everything, according to your views, is all wrong, all in ruins, all warmongering, all immoral—except you (plural; i.e., the Beat Generation). Nobody wants “beauty, poetry, freedom” but you (plural)... all is false; all civilization messed up, all progress in the wrong, false track; all doomed... (March 10, 1958)

The truth the Beats claimed to seek or else contain was partly religious, the result of chemical visions, Ginsberg hearing Blake’s voice come to him mid-orgasm, Cassady meditating. But it was also of the writers’ attempted escape from social structure, to chase an idea of the authentic self as the self unencumbered by the social. Trilling “...the idea of... surrendering oneself to experience without regard to... conventional morality, of escaping wholly from the societal bonds, is an ‘element’ somewhere in the mind of every modern person.” Hence the enormous success of On the Road, which functions as simulation, a virtual joyride for those unwilling, unable, or who know better than to take such a trip themselves.

4.

Morris Dickstein, Gates of Eden:

Postwar prosperity had provided [sixties radicals] with the freedom to protest, the freedom to run wild, and the luxury of dropping out without worrying about a job. But by the 1970s the economy turned sour and, as I wrote in [the 1977 edition of] this book, “we could see how much the rainbow colors of the culture of the sixties were built on the fragile bubble of a despised affluence, an economic boom that was simply taken for granted.”

This is not to invalidate the legitimacy of radicals’ complaints, but to complicate the picture of inheritance in dissent.

It’s no secret the Beats were a stretch short of sainthood. Cassady and Kerouac were philanderers, promising women marriages only to subsequently abandon them (illegitimate children included). Cars were stolen only to be drunkenly totaled. And Carr, of course, infamously knifed an overly attached romantic pursuer in Manhattan's Riverside Park, dumping his body in the Hudson River under conditions still unclear today.

Tied up in this transgressiveness is the question of privilege, a critique which Diana Trilling, wife of the famous Lionel, launches in her essay for Partisan Review, “The Other Night at Columbia”:

I had heard about [Ginsberg] much more than I usually hear of students for the simple reason that he got into a great deal of trouble which involved his instructors, and had to be rescued and revived and restored; eventually he had even to be kept out of jail. Of course there was always the question, should this young man be rescued, should he be restored? There was even the question, shouldn’t he go to jail? We argued about it some at home but the discussion, I’m afraid, was academic, despite my old resistance to the idea that people like Ginsberg had the right to ask and receive preferential treatment just because they read Rimbaud and Gide and undertook to put words on paper themselves.

Alexander:

The “heroes” of On The Road consider themselves ill-done by and beaten-down. But they are people who can go anywhere they want for free, get a job any time they want, hook up with any girl in the country, and be so clueless about the world that they’re pretty sure being a 1950s black person is a laugh a minute. On The Road seems to be a picture of a high-trust society. Drivers assume hitchhikers are trustworthy and will take them anywhere. Women assume men are trustworthy and will accept any promise. Employers assume workers are trustworthy and don’t bother with background checks. It’s pretty neat. But On The Road is, most importantly, a picture of a high-trust society collapsing. And it’s collapsing precisely because the book’s protagonists are going around defecting against everyone they meet at a hundred ten miles an hour.

I would hesitate to agree that America in the early 20th century was markedly higher-trust than modern times. Rates of violent crime in the interwar period are comparable to the highs of the 70s crime wave, and despite sagging post-1945, were only slightly lower in Kerouac's time than our own. (Trust != crime, I know.) But the mechanisms of opportunity and exploitation remain in play. It is a phenomenon in which transgressive parties advocate for their transgressive way of life as a replacement to the present social order, without realizing or acknowledging that their transgressions are logistically possible through this very structure. Behavior is advocated as moral in Beat writing which would fall apart as a Kantian imperative.

In Kerouac this is both identitarian and pragmatic; J.K.’s lifestyle is possible because it exploits a trusting industrial society and its hard-earned resources. But in Maggie Nelson’s queer theory, it’s primarily a matter of identity and spirituality, where transgression is an end (autotelic) in itself. This is the paradoxical relationship of hegemony to the queer: it is at once mortal enemy and dearest ally, struggle’s basis in every sense of the word.  

The Argonauts is frequently brilliant; its idea of flux (“a constant becoming which never becomes”) is infinitely valuable. But Nelson condemns at every turn the category, the pigeon-hole, the label. Words to her are cages which imprison minds and bodies. And yet both Nelson and Kerouac seem not to acknowledge that the lifestyles and self-images they hold so valuable—the rebellion, transgression, and self-elevation practiced by Kerouac; the queerness valued by Nelson—are possible only through the existence of a majority body or structure from which to self-elevate and self-other. They are advocating for identities of negation as if they were autonomous.

[1] Ginsberg was expelled from Cuba in February of 1965 for "talking too much about marijuana & sex & capital punishment"; he traveled from there to the less oppressive Czechoslovakia.