#this point could be more concise and better phrased but you know

[seveneyesoup]

can i just say. i’m sick of showrunner discourse. like every few months it seems like people draw their lines and dig their trenches and every time it’s the same handful of points and episodes brought up to prove that their favorite showrunner is Good And Progressive and that their least favorite is Wrong And Bigoted and like. all of those episodes exist. they’re all real episodes of doctor who, and the sooner we can look at the good and the bad in doctor who, the sooner we can get somewhere actually worth being regarding discussion of politics on the show

[coinandcandle]

Anatomy of a Spell

This post will go over what is needed for a spell to be created!

This is a page from my grimoire and by no means is this a set-in-stone situation. Take what you will and leave what you won't.

Desire or intent. This is the whole point of the spell. What is the desired outcome, what do you want to achieve from this spell?

Planning of ingredients, spell structure, time, and location. This includes the verbal or written aspect of the spell if any.

Protection, there’s really no reason not to have a safeguard on your spell in my opinion but this isn't true for everyone. Do what feels right for you.

Raising, gathering, or building energy for the spell. Energy is how you get your spell to work. This can be done by chanting, breathwork, borrowing energy, and more.

Directing energy into the spell. Self-explanatory, gotta get it in there somehow. Basically just getting the intent/desire from inside you to inside the spell so that it can work its magic (pun intended).

Release any excess energy if needed. Grounding is a good way to do this.

Clear and concise ending; this could be a phrase, word, or physical act that indicates the ending of the spell. It’s best when everyone and everything involved knows when you have ceased doing the spell.

Extras:

It’s a good idea to record your process and results of the spells you create and cast so that you have a reference for future spells; also you can figure out what went wrong or right.

I personally think it’s a good idea to put a fail-safe in a spell, I usually do this by stating it out loud: i.e. “If I take apart this spell bag then the spell will cease.” or “If I do this spell in reverse the spell will cease/reverse” and so on.

Preparing the physical and non-physical things for the spell; can mean gathering, cleansing, or preparing yourself to be in the headspace needed for the spell. It's better to be prepared than to get blindsided halfway through because you’re missing something!

[not-poignant]

Raphael has a very poetic and grandiose way of speaking that is absolutely not the norm for day-to-day life. How do you get in the mindset to come up with his dialogues? They're perfection and I just can't even imagine how long it would take to do one paragraph of the way he talks, but you're writing an entire story with him...

Oh I love this question because I can answer it, lol sadlkjfsda

Okay so, Raphael's character is tough for me.

Normally I do a lot of dialogue research before starting to write a character in fanfiction and original fiction, but Raphael actually gets proportionately very few lines that really show his full emotional range (compared to say, Astarion), and he's got an incredibly specific way of talking that sounds similar to Astarion but at the same time is very different.

They share enough similarities (calling people darling and dear for example) that it's easy to fall into the trap of giving them the same 'voice.'

I find Astarion's voice a lot easier to 'get' and I feel like I can hear him better when I'm writing him. But Raphael I'm taking into emotional spaces we simply never see in the game, and then I have to really guess how he'd sound (like coming up with the idea that the theatricality vanishes when Raphael is genuinely panicking).

I ended up listening to a lot of interviews with Andrew Wincott, the Voice Actor for Raphael who is an incredible actor and extremely articulate. He was very clear in one of his interviews that one of the reasons he was selected to play Raphael was because, in part, he already sounded like him. Obviously there's differences / skill in changing cadence and more, but for the most part, Andrew Wincott uses similar vocabulary and talks in a similar manner to Raphael naturally, so I had an abundance of interviews that I could then listen to in order to get a feel for Raphael's voice. I picked the things that felt more 'Raphael' and added them to my dialogue notes.

I often have to go back and edit Raphael's dialogue. Sometimes it's very simple things, I had him say 'much more' in the chapter I'm editing right now, and I edited it to 'far more' because I think he'd just phrase it like that. Sometimes I expand a sentence into an entire paragraph.

I've also leaned a lot from Korilla's transcripts in the game, which have been super useful. They really cement, more than anything, how much he loves lullabies, nursery rhymes, children's tales and more.

HOW TO DO DIALOGUE RESEARCH:-

If you're new to dialogue research, it mostly involves listening to - and watching a character and then literally taking notes of how they talk. The things you observe are:

The tone of their voice - Fast or slow. Loud or soft. Musical or flat. Theatrical or matter-of-fact. High or low. Questioning or complete statements. Considered or hedging (i.e. very well constructed sentences, or a lot of pauses, ellipses, broken sentences). Rambling or concise.

How often they talk - Some characters actually say a lot with very little. Raphael is actually a lot of observation and facial expressions and eyebrow movements in between his dialogue. Little smirks, hand gestures and more. Do they interrupt or let people finish their sentences? Are they comfortable with silence? I find Raphael oscillates between long theatrical paragraphs, single sentences or words, and then a lot of silence. He's actually not very conversational, in that you can have a conversation with him, but I doubt he'd see the point of two hours of small-talk. (At this point you might be realising that dialogue research is also character research, how a character talks tells you so much about a character.)

The words (and metaphors/subjects) they use - This is a big one and I'm going to break this down a little bit more:

How they pause if they don't know what to say. Is it 'um' 'uh' 'ah' 'hm' 'mm' 'mn' or nothing at all (or something else) because they've mastered self-control over their dialogue? If Raphael says 'ah' he does so on purpose.

Filler words. Things like characters saying 'like' in a sentence. 'He was like, 'I can't believe it'' etc. This is very similar to how they pause, but it's the things people say to get from point A to point B. People who don't do this have often had training or think very hard about what they're going to say before they say it. But people say 'like' or 'and then' or 'well' or 'i realised that' or 'i thought that' etc. to carry them on. Some are more acceptable than others (people do just have realisations for example).

Profanity. How often do they swear, and how intentional is it? Some characters only swear when they get hurt or stub their toe or get angry. Some characters swear all the time for fun. Some characters only use some swear words and not others. Be specific. Be aware that some swear words are cultural! This includes blasphemy. In Faerun they use 'gods' and 'gods damn it' more often than we use 'god' or 'oh my god.'

Vulgarity. This is useful for Raphael (and Astarion) because he's very happy to be vulgar. This is like... how comfortable are they talking about sex, about sexual subjects, being crude, being seductive, flirtatious? And if they use it, do they use vulgarity to shock, seduce, scare, threaten, or for humour?

Salutations and farewells. How do they greet people? Silence? A calm hello? (A lot of greetings are omitted in dialogue but this is still good to know). How do they say hello, goodbye. How does that change between friends and enemies and strangers?

Single word sentences. This might sound weird, but sometimes when a character hears something that shocks them, or needs to acknowledge something, they may say anything from 'huh' to 'yeah' to 'fuck' to 'okay' to 'all right' to 'sure' to 'go on' to 'indeed' to just laughing out loud. The list goes on. Raphael is team 'indeed' lmao.

Sentence structure. Raphael's sentence structure is - when he's most comfortable - gently provoking, teasing, vaguely threatening, and makes liberal use of simile, metaphor, fairy tale, rhyme, sayings, colloquialisms and more. Raphael talks like someone who knows someone could quote him at any moment lmao. But from here, how a character structures their sentences can be helpful to know. Go back to 'the tone of their voice.' Those notes will give you an idea of structure.

Emotionality. How emotional are they? Do they have rage rants? Joyful giggling dialogue? Do they infodump with little emotion? Or with sheer excitement? Does their dialogue feel fake or real? Opaque or transparent? Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, and others will never be able to say 'I love you' in anything other than actions. Raphael's emotionality in dialogue is more present in his anger and irritation, and also when he feels triumphant and/or turned on.

The symbols, sayings, colloquialisms and metaphors themselves. Not all characters use these. But some people/characters will talk through analogies, colloquialisms. This is actually Raphael's biggest dialogue departure from Astarion, imho, aside from the fact that Astarion is a lot more emotional with his dialogue.

Take into account their culture, ethnicity, conceits, upbringing, education and the people they're close to:

This one is vital. Firstly, some people tend to 'absorb' elements of those around them. A person raised by affluent people will often 'sound affluent' and a person raised in poverty will often have dialogue that reflects this and if they don't there will be reasons for that. It might be a conceit (some people self-teach themselves different accents), it might be education, it might be training, it might be the subculture/s they've entered into, and so on.

~

When doing this research, you'll end up with a kind of master-list of actual words and probably some sentences you've written down, along with a lot of notes. You can also do this for any original characters you're making at all, you're just then making it up based on the character, and this research will also give in many ways the shape of the character.

It's a fun exercise and I highly recommend everyone tries it literally for people who don't exist and also observe your friends and family, and do a dialogue cheat sheet for some of them. It's pretty eye-opening! Even one page will teach you more than nothing at all. You can go deep and write many pages, or you can do what I do and keep it lean at 2 pages. Anyone who struggles with characterisation I suggest at least try this exercise, because anyone can put on a YouTube video and/or streaming service or even a favourite Tiktoker and start doing dialogue research! It's a way of building a character from the top down while also getting information about their foundations.

[theerurishipper]

I think it's ridiculous how people hear/read "ever since iv'e been born, you've put me through so much!" and immediately jump to "zuko hates azula and is blaming her for his issues!!!" because A: She actually is responsible for a lot of his issues and hes actually doing a good thing by calling her out to her face because he knows this isn't normal anymore and B: Of course hes not blaming her as a baby, some phrases aren't literal, including this. What he meant is that as far as he's remembered, Azula has always hated him and treated him accordingly.

On another note, I wish people would stop giving flack for leaving azula with ozai. Yes, contact with her abuser would do more harm than good, but azula herself requested to talk to him and she herself doesnt realize she's been abused so she shows no fear or discomfort. Zuko naturally assumes they have a special bond or that ozai likes her, because that's what almost everyone, including azula herself, has drilled into his head. All zuko knows at this point is that azula is better than him and that he can be never like her. just because zuko is smart doesnt mean hes a mind reader.

You're absolutely right. I did actually write about this, but it's so weird to me that people are taking what is obviously hyperbole and treating it like Zuko legitimately thinks Azula was abusing him since he was a baby. The way they twist an abuse victim's language that he's expressing himself with and use it as some gotcha moment against him is pretty weird lol. I'm so sorry Zuko didn't have a perfectly concise and accurate speech prepared that he could recite to Azula, but that's what happens when you've just been attacked.

And you're also right about Zuko leaving Azula with Ozai. Yes, it's not good for Azula, she needs to get away from Ozai, but Zuko doesn't know that. He's still just a kid, he's still dealing with his own issues, and what's been shown to him about Azula and Ozai his whole life is that Ozai actually likes her and that they have a different relationship. Even Azula isn't aware of the truth, and she says that she wants to speak to Ozai herself. Of course, she has to realize the truth for herself, but you can't blame Zuko for not realizing it either when he's pretty consistently been shown a certain picture about their relationship (one that Azula uses to her advantage and throws in his face herself and making use of the fact that Ozai "prefers" her). All in all, you're absolutely right anon.

Thank you for your ask!

[flockrest]

mun(day) questions / @sentinaels, @vigilantdesert, & @stygicniron

thank you lots for these! ♡ very fun to think about and answer! all under the cut because it's a doozy. i am not a concise person, what can i say :'D

when did you first start writing?

in the roleplaying context, ten years ago ( half of which i took a hiatus for aslfkjsdl )! core memory, no joke, i can still very keenly remember weird details of the day it all started. as a hobby, this started way back before i even hit secondary school! i was not an objectively good writer, but no tween really is. i had lots of fun and all the cringefail phases i've gone through since have helped me get to where i am now in my writing development — i can at least say i'm happy with where i'm at with that! and i'm still having fun! ♡

in what language did you start writing?

online? english....my beloathed. very ironic, i know aslkfjdsl

if your mother tongue is not the language you write now, what caused you to switch languages?

quite honestly for the engagement! then simply because i feel i got better at writing in english than i could in vietnamese — my education for both differed, especially in my adolescent years, and i've practiced literacy in this context more for english than i have for viet.

i am still very insecure about my grasp of english in online spaces though ( my writing process involves a lot of me searching up even the simplest words to ensure their meaning and that they will convey what i want you to feel, i still forget words or mix phrases up — sorry to my dm buddies when this happens btw — and my editing is so time-consuming because i have to often cut things or rephrase them to avoid being redundant ), which is why i have that it's my second language disclaimer alfjslfk

what was the first muse that you’ve written?

my first ever muse was my lovely queen zelda from twilight princess! she saw me through a lot of my roleplaying firsts, honestly. she still holds such a special place in my heart because of all the experiences writing her allowed me to make, as well as all the wonderful people i befriended through her that i still haven't forgotten about to this day!

( i always find myself missing one in particular when the mood hits, because we were years-long mains during what felt like the peak of the zelda rpc prime and she was as close to an exclusive affiliate i'd ever get. i hope you've been doing super well out there, my liege!! if we ever somehow get to writing again, y'all will just not be ready for my unhinged status over her link, and my zelda, and the midzelink we've crafted entire worlds over, and that is a promise aflkjdsj )

do you still write your first muse?

unfortunately, no! i have dipped in and out with her before, but i don't know if i'll ever return to her now when i've got so many others wrangling for my time and energy...i think i would like to if i got the opportunity to regularly write with twilight princess muses again :) zelda was a more character-contained muse, in that i studied less of the world-lore around her and more of her, her dynamics, and her relationships, so activity would be very slow and pretty contingent on level of interest from others aslkfdjf

what caused you to start writing? what was your key point?

okay. don't laugh at me please. i'm pretty sure this is a connecting point for a few of us. but for fanfic purposes, of course asflkjds i started reading fics before i started writing any, and only began doing so because there was such a dearth of the stories that catered specifically to my niche whims and wants that past ray was like "FINE. i'll do it myself"

now, fr, you gotta promise to not laugh at me. the want for a more interactive experience didn't really hit until i discovered tumblr ask blogs, wherein i wanted to have a try at running one myself! then that evolved into more writing than art...then i just leaned into roleplaying wholeheartedly asflkjdf everybody say thank you to artists for inspiring artists!

have you ever written a canon muse that you first thought of ‘meh’ when they appeared in their canon show/movie/book?

not that i can think of, no! i don't tend to pick up muses i don't feel super invested in. if it's meh in the more oh this character SUCKS sense, then i guess. rauru? like i love that funky fellow, or at least huge parts of him that i'll steal from nintendo because man what the fuck were they doing with him, but he seems to be my most polarising muse in terms of audience reception aflksjdla this isn't a dig at anyone for that btw!!

how far do you go with divergencies when it comes to your canon muse?

as far as it'll take for me to be satisfied with them! this ofc differs with every muse, but i try to keep general characterisations unchanged — or at least the parts of them that stand out to me and feel crucial to who my muses are.

e.g. i ignored the entirety of the hidden world when it came to writing toothless from httyd, because its depiction of his behaviour ( and hence, implicated thoughts ) was so extremely Bad Tier, i was flabbergasted that it came from the same writer as httyd2. there was, imo, such a huge gap between the toothless of httyd2 and the toothless of the hidden world in terms of characterisation and character development ( ESPECIALLY with what it did to his bond with hiccup. i'm still infuriated about that ) that i had an entire rewrite where things might've ended the same way, but it would've taken a different road for berk to get there in the works.

that's when canon has disappointed me to the extreme, though aflkdslj i have misgivings about totk, yes, but i doubt you'll be seeing unprompted >2.5k words essays from me regarding my birdies or even rauru ( if only because nintendo didn't give us enough about him to make me feel like they fucked up beyond words ) anytime soon.

with rauru, anyway, it's more of a..."i am construing him differently; you couldn't make him palatable despite clearly wanting to do so, so i'm making him 'palatable' ( in the HE AND HIS FAULTS ARE SO INTERESTING I WANT TO EXPLORE THEM IN A WAY THAT DOESN'T HAVE ME GAGGING sense ); also i think you make him way too important without actually committing to the bit, so i'm gonna give him so many complexes about it" case.

[greenlikethesea]

greenie my beloved i swear every time i read anything about fair ithilien it adds a year to my life, and also in honour of the post you rb about fanfic details and research, i have a question, do you have a favourite little detail in fair ithilien (or a few little details you love) that is something that you (or the equally as lovely ms sparkly) spent quite a bit of time on that went mostly unnoticed or didn’t get the hype it deserves!!

this is such a kind, lovely ask that really made my day! i've had a few personal setbacks these past few days, including a muscle injury sustained after hitting a deer, so this is a balm for my soul.

oh goodness, there are quite a few of these! a lot of these details i love the most are also well loved by our readers, which makes me happy -- we really do have the best readership bar none. i'll just write a few that pop into my mind, most of which are @sparklyslug originals and which made me feel many an emotion upon first reading them.

sparkly has done a lot of incredible work in emphasizing the fact that steve and megan are two sides of the same coin -- megan is what steve could have been if he were female and had had more attentive parents. a knockout detail that's so small but speaks volumes is this thing she added in during chapter 2 of three weddings:

"Steve follows her subtle elbow-gesture (Megan, with how she was raised, never points a finger at anyone or anything) to where Max is standing."

it's just such a great character detail that speaks to megan's whole deal -- polite, occasionally to the point of a terrible feedback loop. speaking of feedback loops, here's another detail of sparkly's that really gets me, from there's a phrase that fits:

"As Steve explains the situation, it’s so clear he’s trying his hardest to be calm, to be level for Megan, whose warm voice Eddie can occasionally hear chiming in in the background of the call, but Eddie knows him better than most. Eddie doesn’t have to interact with Megan to guess that she’s freaking out, but doing that passive-aggressive WASP “oh no, it’s fine, it’s fine” thing that’s practically genetic. Which, Eddie knows, kicks off the same programmed behavior in Steve, trapping them both in the kind of horrible feedback loop that has been (Eddie almost wishes he didn’t know this, but he does) one of the foundational issues in their increasingly rocky marriage."

to me, that's the perfect summary of the breakdown of their marriage -- a horrible feedback loop of passive aggression where they don't actually talk about anything, because they don't know how. it also contrasts how eddie and steve later communicate with each other, far more direct and a little more than confrontational. it does so much with such tight, concise details.

as for details I've specifically contributed, oh man, haha. it's hard for me to talk about my writing in a way that isn't neutral erring toward critical, mainly because i've been through a battery of programs and career choices that have leant themselves to this behavior of mine, but by golly, am i gonna deliver because you asked so nicely.

people have noted how much they enjoy the gay man to gay man conversation that's in (well, that basically is the entirety of) there's a phrase that fits, but this is a detail i love, because it's a callback to how eddie learned to be comfortable with being gay, with this aspect of himself, in a context away from hawkins:

"“And aren’t you so proud?” It’s vicious, not innate but learned from Lloyd and the boys. Read him like a book and hit him where it hurts, sweetheart, Lloyd had purred, steady like a soldier by Eddie’s side when Tom sneered at him to impress his new boy toy. Eddie has found his own version of calculation that suits his own purposes just fine, a mix of cool cattiness and Dungeon Master character analysis. Will’s lucky it’s just Eddie taking a swing – Lloyd would have absolutely eviscerated Will if he were here right now."

both of the named people in this scenario that eddie is thinking of have been dead for a number of years, both due to tragic circumstances. this is truly a distilled moment in time, but eddie has still been permanently shaped by those who are no longer there, for better or for worse, people he only got to know for a short time before they were taken from him. tom's a complicated case for eddie, but eddie will always, always miss and love lloyd, and that lives in his body and his actions forever.

thanks so much for asking this question! <3

[antisolararc]

(for the uncommon oc questions)

15 and E for Tjong; 39, 40, and H for Meridian ?

15. How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first? (Tjong)

His verbiage tend to be... contrived, which could make what he's saying seem overly planned, but it's actually the opposite. It just so happens that his thoughts are structured like that. If he takes more time to think about what he's saying, his speech will generally become more concise.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you? (Tjong)

It pains me a little to say no, but... 😓His egotism and nonexistent self-awareness would drive me crazy. Maybe I'd get on with him better after an arc or two of character development, though. There's certainly some entertainment value in being around him. I don't think he'd dislike me in particular, but he'd probably think I'm, like, an uncouth scoundrel. Granted, that was his first impression of more than one person he gets close to later.

39. How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people? (Meridian)

Very easy, when he wants to. There are traits they find annoying and others they truly despise, of course, but it's very rare for them to call it out. He tends to think that others' flaws are their own problems. It's not his business, unless someone decides to make it his business.

Meridian can't help but be a bit self-centered in their judgement of people - if someone displays selflessness towards them, they can brush aside behavior up to and including being on the international most wanted list.

40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws? (Meridian)

Too sensitive. They're the kind of person who is insecure to the point where it might seem, like, cringe and annoying to the people around them. Magic bullshit notwithstanding, Meridian considers himself a person of very little value.

H) What trait do you admire most? (Meridian)

I'm not exactly sure how to phrase this but like... having the ability to acquire an unimaginable amount of power and not only saying "no, I don't think it's right for anyone to have this," but actively stopping it from going to anyone else. Especially when they already know what (a fraction of) that power is and only double down on their stance as a result.

[actuallylisteningtolyrics]

Joanne

I find Lady Gaga to be a bit too dramatic for my tastes. It feels like Glee in a way, where it's sincere but not sincere enough.

It's simply a song about having to say goodbye to someone who's dying despite loving them so much.

It's something I've felt before, but perhaps not as much as I could have.

The Joanne part is a bit confusing but, I guess that's her name.

Beautiful song. Simple but beautiful. Just a bit theatrical for my tests.

I say I don't listen to lyrics but I definitely do when it comes to theater songs. I think they just have better diction, not to mention it's a story so you're incentivized to pay more attention to the lyrics. And there's a lot of those songs in my library.

The Other Side of Me

It's a solid song but a bit sloppy. It doesn't do a great job of defining the two sides and it feels like there was a missed opportunity to explore each one in each verse. It also doesn't really delve into the pros and cons of each side. But you know, oh well.

Elastic Heart

I really hate Sia's diction.

These lyrics also feel sloppy. The metaphors feels weak.

The way phrases are pronounced too. It feels very off.

Rhyming hard with fast was a dumb, terrible decision.

Alright let's try to crack this code. This girl wants love and has all the endurance in the world to achieve it.

It's fucking stupid though. She's saying she has an elastic heart. That you won't be able to break her. But then she's like "I'm worried that you might break me!"

The pronunciation of weapons is disgusting.

She had a break-up and it bums her out but she's still going to be on the look-out for love.

I'm guessing she's trying to say "There's always the threat of my breaking, but I'll pull through because of my elastic heart." But then why would she use metaphors that point out how elastic can break? It gives this effect that it's sort of futile. And honestly, I kind of like that interpretation.

It's still sloppy, though. She can't claim "I'm worried this elastic will break" and then immediately say "But it's okay, I'm elastic." The better approach would be inadvertently calling attention to the weakness in elastic.

Thick skin and elastic heart but like, what's the blade trying to pierce, you DUNCE?

She moves fast? What's she even trying to say? That she'll rebound?

I don't know, I feel like the song would have ultimately been strongest if it implied that she'll keep taking beatings because she believes in love, but she undoes her own metaphor with direct contradictions and details that don't support it, notwithstanding her shit diction and bewildering pronunciations. Fuck these lyrics.

Hide and Seek

No lyrics for this cover but let me do my best to listen.

You know, I blame myself for not listening to lyrics but you know what? I think I'm being hard on myself. I think often, lyrics are hard to make out and written in a confusing way.

I can do lyrics better than this. And I feel motivated to.

I didn't catch a fucking thing in that, oh well.

I Fell Off My Name

Another thing about lyrics. Songs can move fast, and if you make your lyrics too cryptic, I don't think you're going to have time to understand them and appreciate them.

Welp, these lyrics aren't loading so it looks like I'm going to have to try figuring this song out on my own too. I might give it another listen afterward while manually pulling up lyrics.

I don't even know what "I Fell Off My Name" means. What's that conveying? You're not yourself? That feels like, a clunky way to say that.

You know, I should make like, a document describing what I do and don't like in lyrics. I'm kind of surprised I've never done that before.

I'm not an enormous fan of metaphors in the first place, and I'm especially not a fan of mixed metaphors. I want a concise story.

[grahamstoney]

How to Write Damn Good Fiction by James N. Frey

New Post has been published on https://grahamstoney.com/story-telling/write-damn-good-fiction-james-n-frey

How to Write Damn Good Fiction by James N. Frey

Advanced Techniques for Dramatic Storytelling

I first heard James N. Frey’s book How to Write a Damn Good Novel recommended by champion speaker Craig Valentine for its tips on storytelling. I want to learn better storytelling and since I couldn’t find that book at my local library I ended up grabbing this sequel on advanced storytelling techniques instead. I’m not particularly interested in writing fiction but much of the advice also applies to telling true stories to a written or spoken audience. Here are the key insights I gleaned:

Having skipped the first book, I don’t know really what I missed (you know, we don’t know what we don’t know), but I could still follow much of what he was saying. The rules are there to be broken, but first you want to know what the rules are so you know when you’re breaking them.

I was most interested to learn what Frey had to say about how to hook people in to a story and really grab their attention. If you don’t hook them in early you’ll lose them, and the way to do it is via their emotions. Well yes, I already knew that from what I’d learned at Toastmasters and acting class, but Frey breaks this down in terms of how the audience relate to the main characters in the story and particularly to the protagonist (the main dude). There is a certain order to follow here; you need to tell the story in a manner which makes the readers/listeners:

Sympathise: You want the audience to start by feeling sorry for the character. Gaining the audience’s sympathy gets them in involved emotionally in the story.

Identify: Once emotionally involved, you want the audience to support the character’s goals and aspirations and have a strong desire to see him or her achieve them.

Empathise: Then you get the audience to feel what the character feels, by using sensuous emotion-provoking details in such a way that the audience can put themselves in the character’s place.

Hypnotise: Bring the audience to a point of complete absorbtion in the characters and their world, by revealing their inner-conflict.

This final step is the most profound thing I learned from this book: the way to complete the process of hooking your audience and transporting them hypnotically into your story is to reveal the conflict that’s going on inside them. In what way are they being pulled in different directions at once, and how do they resolve this? This matches what I’ve learned at acting school that people are drawn towards drama, drama is all about conflict, and audiences are held in suspense because they want to know how the conflict will be resolved. The more personal the conflict, the more interesting it is. Inner-conflict is the most personal of all, so it is the most compelling element to keeping an audience engaged.

So here’s the challenge: if you want to be a compelling story-teller, expose your inner conflict in your stories. After you’ve got your audience to sympathise, identify and empathise of course. This is the height of vulnerability. Frey points out that an audience may sympathise but not identify, or may identify but not empathise with a character. Break a step in the chain, and you’ll lose them. Likewise, I’m guessing that exposing your inner conflict before you’ve already hooked them on the first three steps may just make you look like a jerk. That said, now you know the rules, you’re free to break them if you want.

Good stories also need a premise, which means you can sum up what the story is about concisely. It’s a little different from a moral or a theme, and is more along the lines of what Craig Valentine calls a foundational phrase. If you can’t state the premise succinctly before writing the story, you’re not ready to start yet. The same story can come across very differently when told with a different premise.

Some stories are worth telling, and some are not. Aside from conflict and drama, another key element necessary for a story to be worth telling is a change in the characters. Audiences want to see characters that change and grow; this is what makes the story interesting. If the characters make it through the whole story without being changed by it in some way, the story probably isn’t worth telling.

Frey also talks about the use of first and third person narration, literary genres, deadly mistakes writers make, and the importance of being passionate. I found it a good read even though I’m not into fiction, since most of the lessons are just as relevant to writing non-fiction and storytelling while public speaking.

[automate123]

What Are The Best On-Page SEO Techniques To Increase Your Website Ranking?

On-page SEO, also known as on-site SEO, is the process of optimizing a page’s content, tags, and internal links to increase its search visibility and traffic. Automate Accelerator is one of the best SEO company in Melbourne and is here to guide you with SEO techniques to increase your website traffic. 

SEO factors to keep in mind

1. Content is the key element

SEO runs on content so it plays a huge role in your website ranking. Quality and presentation are extremely vital techniques for an increase in traffic. Google prioritizes your content based on three broad parameters which are expertise, trustworthiness, and authoritative content.

2. Keywords

The simplest way to let them know that the information on your website responds to a user’s query is in the language you employ. Pages with the search terms in the body, headings, or both of the pages are more likely to be relevant to the search. To put it briefly, you must be aware of the search terms used by your intended audience when creating content.

3. SEO Writing

It takes a definite level of skillset to produce content. The content prioritizes search engines while also converting website visitors into customers. This subtle art of SEO writing is all about creating convenient reading while the pieces are relevant. It is of paramount importance that there is a smooth flow of language. And highly scannable writing which enables readers to come back more often. These are the sub-points that you should remember for a better SEO writing

a) Don’t overuse keywords: Also known as keyword stuffing, this technique was used by unscrupulous SEO professionals in the past to game the system. Google frowns upon websites that overuse keywords. If caught, your page could be demoted or even removed from search engine results pages.

b) Keep phrases and paragraphs concise: If you’ve ever visited a website only to be met with a wall of text, you understand how difficult it is to read lengthy copy. Keep your sentences and paragraphs brief to avoid driving users away.

c) Utilize subheadings: Subheads stand out due to their size, drawing the attention of those who are scanning your page. Use enough to guide the reader down the page.

d) Use bulleted lists: This may seem very meta, but bulleted lists are an effective way to break up information into easily consumable chunks.

4. Visuals are important

With long-form and short-form content writing visuals play a significant role and if you are not supplementing the write-ups with infographics, videos or images there is a good chance that you might be losing a large chunk of traffic. Visuals are like information aids that help in a better perception of the products or services you offer.

5. Title Tags

This is a situation in which attention to detail is essential. This, a snippet of code that enables you to give a webpage a title probably won’t propel you to the top of search engine results pages by itself. But in conjunction with other on-page elements (such as those discussed here), it can help you establish context and demonstrate the relevance of your site.

6. Meta Description

They can aid Google in understanding what your web page is about, and more notably, they have a disproportionate impact on your CTRs. Better meta descriptions provide searchers with a clearer understanding of your page’s content, resulting in more clicks. Therefore, do not disregard them.

7. Efficient Design

Google took the logical step of prioritizing responsive designs in mobile search results as the number of mobile device users increased. This mobile-friendly update only affects mobile search results, and while it is still possible to rank in these results without responsive design, Google strongly advises that sites have a mobile version.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say the foundation of on-page best techniques lies in user convenience. In order to achieve such goals these are the basic techniques that we have discussed. At Automate Accelerator one of the best SEO company in Melbourne we assist you in expanding your online presence with significant accuracy with various strategies which will be tailor-made for your business needs.

This article was originally published here.

[prosperingwithgary]

Shortcut to Writing the Perfect Tagline

You've got a new product or website, but you're stuck for a tagline. Should you spend a lot of time thinking up the best possibility?

Surprisingly, no. There is a simple shortcut to writing the perfect tagline that will grab people's attention and let them know immediately that your product is right for them. So what's the shortcut? Believe it or not, it's letting your customer write your tagline FOR YOU.

First, a few things you should know about the perfect tagline:

1. Accurate, descriptive, and positive.

It needs to accurately articulate what it is that you are offering, and it needs to position you positively with your target market.

2. Set yourself apart by being original.

It's got to be original. Whatever it is that you're selling, odds are there are plenty of others selling something similar. By being original, you can stand apart from the crowd to get noticed and remembered.

3. Concise and Precise

It's got to be concise and precise. Memories are exceedingly short and the competition to be heard is getting tougher every day.

Listen to your customers and client reactions.

Now then, keeping those three points in mind, what do your clients tell you about your product or service? Better still, what do they tell you about the problem your product or service fixes? For example, career coach Julie Jansen helps people to find their ideal work. What do her clients frequently tell her when they're in her office? “I don't know what I want, but I know it's not this.” That became the title of her book.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Another career coach kept hearing, “I don't know what I want to be when I grow up!” She resisted using the phrase at first because her clients WERE grown up and she thought it might offend them. However, once she added it to the top of her website, she immediately experienced a dramatic increase in inquiries. Two young software designers were showing a venture capitalist how their software worked. The investor suddenly exclaimed, “That's so simple, my mother could do it!” Bingo! Their tagline was born. An author wanted to write and speak about male-female communications. With the room full of people, she laid out a scenario in which they were all trying to communicate with the opposite sex but having difficulties. One gentleman yelled out, “Can't she see I'm watching the game?” And her tagline was born. If your tagline captures exactly how your ideal customer feels, you've got it right. As you can see, you don't need to place pressure on yourself to find the perfect tagline – instead, simply listen to your customers. To learn more, read the book: “POP! Create the Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline” by Sam Horn. Then go improve the tagline for your product so you can sell more and serve more. Another great thing that goes along with taglines is amazing images. Read here about 10 keys using the magic of images. Have you been looking for funding for business or personal reasons? This may be the answer you've been looking for. You can check without affecting your credit score because they only do a "soft pull" check. Just fill out a short application and find out today here is your 7-Figure Funding to you started. Read the full article

[grabyourluck-blog]

Shortcut to Writing the Perfect Tagline

New Post has been published on https://www.referral-master.com/shortcut-to-writing-the-perfect-tagline/

Shortcut to Writing the Perfect Tagline

You’ve got a new product or website, but you’re stuck for a tagline.

Should you spend a lot of time thinking up the best possibility? Surprisingly, no. There is a simple shortcut to writing the perfect tagline that will grab people’s attention and let them know immediately that your product is right for them.

So what’s the shortcut? Believe it or not, it’s letting your customer write your tagline FOR YOU.

First, a few things you should know about the perfect tagline:

1. It needs to accurately articulate what it is that you are offering, and it needs to position you positively with your target market.

2. It’s got to be original. Whatever it is that you’re selling, odds are there are plenty of others selling something similar. By being original, you can stand apart from the crowd to get noticed and remembered.

3. It’s got to be concise and precise. Memories are exceedingly short and the competition to be heard is getting tougher every day.

Now then, keeping those three points in mind, what do your clients tell you about your product or service? Better still, what do they tell you about the problem your product or service fixes? For example, career coach Julie Jansen helps people to find their ideal work. What do her clients frequently tell her when they’re in her office? “I don’t know what I want, but I know it’s not this.” That became the title of her book.

Another career coach kept hearing, “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!” She resisted using the phrase at first because her clients WERE grown up and she thought it might offend them. However, once she added it to the top of her website, she immediately experienced a dramatic increase in inquiries.

Two young software designers were showing a venture capitalist how their software worked. The investor suddenly exclaimed, “That’s so simple, my mother could do it!” Bingo! Their tagline was born.

An author wanted to write and speak about male-female communications. With the room full of people, she laid out a scenario in which they were all trying to communicate with the opposite sex but having difficulties. One gentleman yelled out, “Can’t she see I’m watching the game?” And her tagline was born.

If your tagline captures exactly how your ideal customer feels, you’ve got it right. As you can see, you don’t need to place pressure on yourself to find the perfect tagline – instead, simply listen to your customers.

To learn more, read the book: “POP! Create the Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline” by Sam Horn. Then go improve the tagline for your product so you can sell more and serve more.

[icinch]

Shortcut to Writing the Perfect Tagline

New Post has been published on https://www.cinchhomebiz.com/shortcut-to-writing-the-perfect-tagline/

Shortcut to Writing the Perfect Tagline

You’ve got a new product or website, but you’re stuck for a tagline.

Should you spend a lot of time thinking up the best possibility? Surprisingly, no. There is a simple shortcut to writing the perfect tagline that will grab people’s attention and let them know immediately that your product is right for them.

So what’s the shortcut? Believe it or not, it’s letting your customer write your tagline FOR YOU.

First, a few things you should know about the perfect tagline:

1. It needs to accurately articulate what it is that you are offering, and it needs to position you positively with your target market.

2. It’s got to be original. Whatever it is that you’re selling, odds are there are plenty of others selling something similar. By being original, you can stand apart from the crowd to get noticed and remembered.

3. It’s got to be concise and precise. Memories are exceedingly short and the competition to be heard is getting tougher every day.

Now then, keeping those three points in mind, what do your clients tell you about your product or service? Better still, what do they tell you about the problem your product or service fixes? For example, career coach Julie Jansen helps people to find their ideal work. What do her clients frequently tell her when they’re in her office? “I don’t know what I want, but I know it’s not this.” That became the title of her book.

Another career coach kept hearing, “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!” She resisted using the phrase at first because her clients WERE grown up and she thought it might offend them. However, once she added it to the top of her website, she immediately experienced a dramatic increase in inquiries.

Two young software designers were showing a venture capitalist how their software worked. The investor suddenly exclaimed, “That’s so simple, my mother could do it!” Bingo! Their tagline was born.

An author wanted to write and speak about male-female communications. With the room full of people, she laid out a scenario in which they were all trying to communicate with the opposite sex but having difficulties. One gentleman yelled out, “Can’t she see I’m watching the game?” And her tagline was born.

If your tagline captures exactly how your ideal customer feels, you’ve got it right. As you can see, you don’t need to place pressure on yourself to find the perfect tagline – instead, simply listen to your customers.

To learn more, read the book: “POP! Create the Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline” by Sam Horn. Then go improve the tagline for your product so you can sell more and serve more.

[englishspring]

Tips and Strategies to Score Better Bands in IELTS

In the event that you are wanting to settle or concentrate abroad, you really want to give IELTS test. IELTS represents the International English Language Testing System which is only a testing framework to check your English language abilities in light of 4 primary perspectives: talking, perusing, composing, and tuning in.

To get admission to your fantasy school in India you really want to score better in IELTS by following specific tips and methodologies. Assuming you are searching for such tips and deceives that will assist you with breaking your IELTS test then, at that point, continue to peruse this article till the end.

Concentrate on Vocabulary

Individuals that are learning the English language are educated to place words into the legitimate setting however much as could be expected. You can too acquire this ability by perusing it every now and again. Your jargon will turn out to be endlessly better when you are presented with additional words. As you continue to peruse, give close consideration to words you don't have the foggiest idea about and underline or feature them with a marker.

You can likewise know the implications from the supporting setting. In addition, to make your vocab solid, read and stand by listening to testing materials like the English language news with the goal that you will be presented with a lot more new words. Work on utilizing that you knew a word that you have learned.

To learn and communicate in English smoothly, utilize new words from time to time. As per research, it takes from 10 to 20 reiterations to make that word to your day-to-day discourse.

Agenda

Attempt and record articulations alongside phrases that can be utilized in an assortment of scholastic settings.

Utilize a decent monolingual word reference to really take a look at a legitimate word plan

Record helpful articulations that are connected with the subjects and work on talking and thinking of them in English

Peruse, Read, and Keep on Reading

This is the main step to scoring better on your ILETS test. You really want to have a reliable English word reference and might finish resolving the implications of new words, ensuring that you don't make an interpretation back to your language.

Agenda

Examine and go through to rapidly shape a general image of a text

Likewise, ensure that you know precisely the exact thing you will expect for each errand

Ensure that you check every one of the directions cautiously

Finally, don't utilize your word reference until and except if you have followed through with your responsibility and really taken a look at your responses.

Fortify your Writing Skills

The best way to reinforce your setting up abilities is to account for words as a reliable piece of your English examples. You can make the definition as well as a sentence using the word on a document card that you can check later for reference. You ought to have the option to say the word resoundingly to start your sound-related memory and relate the word to words that you most certainly know. For example, the word monstrous, which implies gigantic, has a similar expectation to the words goliath, tremendous, and far-reaching.

Agenda

Practice planned writing to work on your speed

Never under any circumstance compose replies underneath the base length

Practice more about Fluency and Pronunciation

On the off chance that you are giving IELTS interestingly, you probably won't realize that the talking part is separated into 3 unique parts: an organized meeting, a short talk, and a free meeting. During the test, you will be gotten some information about 2-3 brief worries on natural points that will go on for around 4-5 minutes.

While in the concise segment, you will be approached to give a discussion for 2 minutes where you will be given 1 moment to prepare for your conversation. This implies the entire area is around 3-4 minutes.

To break your talking part in the IELTS test, practice reliably by utilizing new words or right elocution. This will ultimately flag your mind to whoever showed you the new ability!

Agenda

Familiarity

Attempt and talk for quite a while

Additionally, talk noisily in English to hear yourself articulate the words

Articulation

Pay attention to English-spoken TV shows and movies however much as could be expected

Record and pay attention to yourself addressing check where you have articulated inaccurately.

Wrapping Up

These are a portion of the tips and deceives that you can use to score better on your IELTS test. In spite of the fact that you can likewise look for help from the best training places, for example, UWEZO Learning that will help you in IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, ACT, and SAT tests.

For More Info:-

Ielts Online One To One Coaching

[prosperingwithgary]

Shortcut to Writing the Perfect Tagline

You've got a new product or website, but you're stuck for a tagline. Should you spend a lot of time thinking up the best possibility?

Surprisingly, no. There is a simple shortcut to writing the perfect tagline that will grab people's attention and let them know immediately that your product is right for them. So what's the shortcut? Believe it or not, it's letting your customer write your tagline FOR YOU.

First, a few things you should know about the perfect tagline:

1. Accurate, descriptive, and positive.

It needs to accurately articulate what it is that you are offering, and it needs to position you positively with your target market.

2. Set yourself apart by being original.

It's got to be original. Whatever it is that you're selling, odds are there are plenty of others selling something similar. By being original, you can stand apart from the crowd to get noticed and remembered.

3. Concise and Precise

It's got to be concise and precise. Memories are exceedingly short and the competition to be heard is getting tougher every day.

Listen to your customers and client reactions.

Now then, keeping those three points in mind, what do your clients tell you about your product or service? Better still, what do they tell you about the problem your product or service fixes? For example, career coach Julie Jansen helps people to find their ideal work. What do her clients frequently tell her when they're in her office? “I don't know what I want, but I know it's not this.” That became the title of her book.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Another career coach kept hearing, “I don't know what I want to be when I grow up!” She resisted using the phrase at first because her clients WERE grown up and she thought it might offend them. However, once she added it to the top of her website, she immediately experienced a dramatic increase in inquiries. Two young software designers were showing a venture capitalist how their software worked. The investor suddenly exclaimed, “That's so simple, my mother could do it!” Bingo! Their tagline was born. An author wanted to write and speak about male-female communications. With the room full of people, she laid out a scenario in which they were all trying to communicate with the opposite sex but having difficulties. One gentleman yelled out, “Can't she see I'm watching the game?” And her tagline was born. If your tagline captures exactly how your ideal customer feels, you've got it right. As you can see, you don't need to place pressure on yourself to find the perfect tagline – instead, simply listen to your customers. To learn more, read the book: “POP! Create the Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline” by Sam Horn. Then go improve the tagline for your product so you can sell more and serve more. Another great thing that goes along with taglines is amazing images. Read here about 10 keys using the magic of images. Have you been looking for funding for business or personal reasons? This may be the answer you've been looking for. You can check without affecting your credit score because they only do a "soft pull" check. Just fill out a short application and find out today here is your 7-Figure Funding to you started. Read the full article

[duckprintspress]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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