#writers and basically every creative use to highlight certain aspects maybe even make it a didactic moment too

[kavehayati]

I agree with absolutely everything she said his in game model is not as good as I envision him to be 😭 like fanart carries him FRRR but it’s honestly so sad ppl see the coolest ever character and be like yaoi 😋✌️how about NOOOO !!!! 😭😭😭 gosh this is so !!!! He has so many deep important aspects to himself, he’s so full of contradictions and despite it all he’s still one of the most kindest characters

[yellowocaballero]

ugh what you said about jon just helplessly missing deisha and despite being able to connect, still ultimately grieves alone forced me to think about this one book that said something like “grief is a room you enter alone” and I just ;_; something I love about your metas so much is that you rlly pick apart how it can be true that multiple things can be happening at once - he’s being understood, but he can’t be understood, he’s monstrous, but he’s human etc. basically I adore these essays and just reading how you build and present flaws in characters I think is genuinely making me a better writer

THANK YOU...I think we all grieve alone, just a little bit. With people, and maybe especially with more intangible things - when we move to another city or country, when we live alienated from our home cultures, when our bodies fail us, or when relationships fail. It’s inherently such a solitary thing.

And yeah, so often in life we’re feeling so many contradictory things!! Maybe even ALL THE TIME! I’ve loved and hated simultaneously, I’ve never wanted to see someone again and found myself constantly seeking out contact. You ever never want someone to text you, but you’re sad that they don’t text? I want to go back to my workplace but also I want to keep working from home forever. So it’s a real, legitimate feeling, I think.

But that’s also not why I write it that way. Stories inherently kind of have to work on both a literal and symbolic/metaphorical level. You said that you were interested in the writing bits, so I’ll get specific - I determine what happens in layers. Some things are the most essential aspects of the story, and everything else has to warp around that. Hope Etc is a very weird and bad example because a) I put no thought in this story and b) the nature of daemons is that they literalize the metaphorical. So basically every physical thing that Jon does is metaphorical for something. 

So what a story is ‘about’ is the most important thing, and this can change and shift throughout the story as you realize what keeps cropping up time again and again (which is kind of oxymoronic). I use monster vs human a lot for this specific fandom, because monsters can have whatever metaphorical significance you fucking want them to, but other stories such as hope vs desolation, optimism vs pessimism, wanting to die vs choosing to live, etc, work too. The second thing is tone - which determines the message of the story dramatically. What a story is ‘about’ can’t be pessimism when you have a light-hearted and comedic tone. Unless you’re getting REALLY creative. You can add a lot of additional themes to that, but a bunch of themes together make is what something is about. Also very important is that for me what something is ‘about’ includes genre. 

Then what’s kind of wrapped around that is the metaphor. Literal things happen, which have metaphorical meaning, which advance what a story is ‘about’. Not everything that happens is metaphorical - sometimes things have to happen to advance the plot - but things that happen need to advance something. Either plot, or a character arc, or they need to have metaphorical significance. In my opinion the most deft writing is when everything that happens has all three. 

I think over metaphor is character arc and character. When something happens in a story it has to advance the plot and advance the character’s arc. The character’s arc forms a trajectory that spells out the theme. A character arc for me frequently means the relationship between two characters, which often really really work to highlight theme. I think people push each other to change and grow a lot. If it’s a romantic relationship I push that ‘growth instigated by the other’ hard. Also, foils. I think the best romantic relationships are foils. I love foils. I always write foils. Just adore them, they’re so easy to write. Just make someone the opposite of someone else but give them the same theme. It’s great. This is also why I’m always saying that I don’t really sit down and ‘make characters’, characters just happen based on what needs to happen. I don’t decide anything about a character when I start out besides “haha exact opposite of canon character” or “haha amnesiac PI” or “haha roleswap”. And that’s coming from someone who rarely uses canon characterizations and who writes everybody as a thinly veiled OC...and maybe that’s why everybody kind of ends up a thinly veiled OC...

Over that is plot. Plot is what has to happen to make all of these other things happen. I can’t plot. I think I can’t plot because I’m too worried about these other things and I forget ‘oh yeah, Things Have To Happen’. Maybe there’s other people who plot first and then figure out these other things based on what happens in the plot? ....why...

So I kind of made that a gumball, layered thing, because that’s how I build the story. And I shouldn’t have, because these things all feed each other. What a story is ‘about’ is highly dictated by what you’ve decided the character arc to be - highly - and it creates a feedback loop as both of these things get changed and twisted and tangled during writing. A story never ends how I intended, because different things crop up. But there is a ‘priority list’ for me, and that’s kind of the layers - these characters have to act in X way because that’s one of the cornerstones I need to hit for the genre, so I have to have their character arcs match this. Characters can’t act in a certain way just because the plot makes them - granted, sometimes they do, but that means that you have to go back and tweak their character arc to match. You cannot have something metaphorically happen that goes completely against the theme, unless that has repercussions. Plot isn’t the story for me, the about is the story. None of this is hard and fast, and there is nothing that you can’t do, you just really have to view all of these things in a complex interplay that constantly affect each other.

I think of it like gears? They all work together and churn together to make the story work. But if you twist one gear, the others move too. You first imagine it this one way, but then you keep on tweaking and tweaking and tweaking, and then everything else has to change too, so then you’re like why did I even bother to outline, outlining is stupid, and also I have this funny joke so I have to go back and change everything, and...

Wow, maybe that’s why I’m so bad at planning shit..

My...goal? Is to make it so that Everything works on every level. You should be able to read a story completely literally and completely miss the metaphorical meaning and still vibe. But unfortunately the way it turns out for me sometimes is that the symbolism outweighs the literal. When I write absurdist/surrealist stuff it’s just me being lazy and not having to have things be literal, lol. What you get when something only works on a symbolic level and not on a literal level at all is Utena. And I’m writing trashy fanfic so I can’t do that. What normally happens in practice is that things happen literally for a bit, and then I’m like ‘oh I’m Sensing a Theme’ and then I start playing into the theme, and then things happen because it’s thematic. Plot is...plot should be more important to me...

And then of course there’s grounding all of this in human emotion and making sure there’s a climax (me, shaking hope etc: THERE’S NO FUCKING CLIMAX), and dealing with all of that stuff that makes it actually emotional and impactful instead of just abstract and dumb. 

I chose not to use examples for all of that because I wanted it to just be broad writing advice? I can kind of point out there examples of that line of thinking in my writing, and I probably can for Hope, Etc, but it would be a bad example - both because the NATURE of that story is that the literal is INHERENTLY a metaphor so you really cannot view anything in that story as literal, nothing in it is literal - also because I put no thought into it. 

Of course that’s not my process. That’s not my process at all. I don’t sit down and figure this shit out. I didn’t read any of that anywhere, it’s just me bullshitting, that entire thing was just me bullshitting relentlessly I am so fucking sorry. My process is that I joke about ideas with friends, I sit down at a computer and I kind of thump a keyboard for a few hours, I live my life and daydream stuff and kinda make little movies in my heads, I go home and slam the keyboard some more, halfway through I walk up to my beta and go “hey what’s the plot of this?” she helps me figure it out by giving me very bad ideas, I kind of slam my keyboard some more, and then it’s done. And then I kinda edit it a little maybe whatever and then I post it. 

There’s not a lot of thought involved. I really can’t stress enough how I don’t think about all of this when I write. I’m really brain empty. When I do these analyses what I’m doing is that I’m looking back over my story and then I’m like...Oh That’s What I Was Doing! Huh! Neat!

Haha that got long. I’m not a good writer. Thanks for the ask!

[sociallyinsmmagency]

SNAPCHAT ADS: SECRETS TO TRUE ROI ACHIEVEMENT IN ONE FREE GUIDE

With 256 million daily active users on Snapchat creating content and keeping engagement regularly off the charts, it's no surprise that businesses are looking for a way to take advantage of the platform with Snapchat ads.

But is it worth it to take the time to create, manage, test, and update Snapchat Ads for your business?

The answer is yes, of course. However, we want to talk you through every step of the process not only to prove it's worth to your business, but to show you exactly how to tap into the bottomless well of success that is Snapchat Ads.

Are you ready? Let's jump right into it.

A Brief History of Snapchat

Who created Snapchat? It was three Samford University students, Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy who came up with the concept for an app with disappearing content in July 2011- originally named Picaboo. It was relaunched as Snapchat in September of 2011.

What are Snapchat Ads?

Snapchat Ads are like any social media ad in that they are usually targeted to specific audiences in order to make a sale, raise brand awareness, drive website traffic, or increase engagement.

There are three basic options when it comes to Snapchat ad formats.

Within each ad format, there are sub formats, which do make the process more complicated, but also spell out more success when you know how to target and utilize them effectively. We'll get into those shortly.

There are plenty of things about Snapchat that can be beneficial to a brand, but also wildly confusing.

For instance: if you're unfamiliar with augmented reality and filters, you'll probably be more than a little confused about what creating a Snapchat ad might actually entail, or maybe about how Snapchat Ads are even a thing on a platform that isn't "Newsfeed based" like Instagram or Facebook.

However, all of these incredible features can drive massive brand awareness for your business when paired with a good Snapchat ad strategy.

A Glance at the Snapchat Ad Formats

Now that you have a basic concept for what a Snapchat ad is, let's take a deeper dive into each of the Snapchat ad formats, Snapchat ad specs, and Snapchat ad sub-formats.

Snapchat Snap Ads

These will play with sound on, are full-screen ads that come in video form, are viewable in frame, and feature a "swipe up" for links.

They allow for three main objectives, (sub-formats) which include:

Website clicks and views with swipe up

Long-form video plays

App installs with swipe up

Each of these have positive/negative aspects, which we'll cover in just a second.

Filter Snapchat Ads

Filters aren't just fun. They're also a wonderful way to raise brand awareness and create positive feelings around your brand with younger audiences.

This is an especially popular option for people with brick and mortar locations or people advertising or creating excitement around a particular event.

Lense Snapchat Ads

The real MVP for Snapchat advertising, Lense Snapchat Ads can alter the appearance of users and can often include augmented reality elements centered around your brand.

(Image Courtesy of Neil Patel)

Story Snapchat Ads

There will be plenty of times when you'll need to communicate something that will take longer than 3-5 seconds. For cases like these, Story Snapchat Ads are a wonderful option because they allow you to show your ads in rapid succession.

Product Snapchat Ads

Looking to highlight a particular product or service? Just upload a catalogue or list of services and create “shoppable” Snapchat product ads!

They'll see a swipe collection of products and can click on anything that takes their fancy.

Dynamic Snapchat Ads

With dynamic ads, you can easily send people directly to your website, a particular product, a service or a catalogue of items they've been interested in and previously looked at on your website.

Think of it like retargeting, but even more targeted.

Snapchat "Commercials" (Only Available in Certain Countries)

This isn't available everywhere, so if it sounds unfamiliar, feel free to scroll.

However, if it does, here's the scoop: 🍦

These babies can't be skipped and often clock in at or around six seconds, which is an incredible amount of time when you're looking to create brand awareness, excitement, or even just draw users back to your website.

Are Snapchat Ads a Viable Option for Your Brand?

This question depends on a variety of factors.

For starters: who are you targeting?

More than 3/4 of daily Snapchat users are under the age of 25, which means if your target audience is over the age of, say, 30, we wouldn't recommend utilizing it for your business' advertising needs.

What are your goals as a brand?

If they involve brand awareness as a main objective and you're ready to put in the investment, we'd definitely recommend giving it a shot. Snapchat Ads are fun, versatile, and perfect for driving excitement and creativity around events, services, and products.

How to Create Snapchat Ads

Now for the fun part. 🧑🏻‍🔬

Step One: find your way over to the Snapchat Ads Manager. This is going to be where most of the action takes place and where you'll be able to create some pretty incredible Snap ads.

Step two: you'll have two basic options when it comes to the type of ad you'd like to create.

Instant Create: where you can create a single ad and get it rolling within minutes, (think of it as a similar thought to boosting- no ad groups, no complicated lists, just the bare basics).

Or

Advanced Create: you can take full, unbridled control over every angle and aspect of your Snapchat Ads and corresponding campaigns. Create as few or as many as you'd like- nothing is holding you back except budget! 🤑

(image courtesy of Hootsuite.)

Step Three: choose a goal! Your options will include:

Website Visits

App Installs

App Visits

Now copy/paste in any relevant URLs. AKA apps, your company website, etc.

Step Four: Write a headline! 🎉

Remember that headlines should be catchy, thumb-stopping, engaging, straight to the point, and also self-explanatory. Nobody should be asking what you're talking about in the comments or in your DMs.

Step Five: Choose your target demographic. This one is wildly important because if you aren't careful to choose the demographics that align with your customer base, you could end up paying for unqualified leads, unqualified clicks, etc.

(Images Courtesy of HootSuite)

Step Six: TIME TO LAUNCH!

It's go time! Now you can start watching the results come in and prepare to test, optimize and improve your Snapchat Ads overtime.

Remember: success doesn't come overnight. It takes hard work.

A Look at the Snapchat Ads Cost

Unfortunately, as much as we want to provide a definite answers, the truth is that there isn't one.

This is going to depend on your demographic, how long your campaign is running, your dollar-per-day investment, and so many other small details with too many combinations to mention at all.

Snapchat works by charging every 1,000 impressions, but there are also goal-based options to examine if you think it might be beneficial.

But consider this: advertising requires money to begin with- but usually not more than a couple hundred bucks for a simple start.

While more investing CAN equal more money later, this is going to largely depend on the success of your campaigns.

If you're new to the game, we recommend starting small. Or even better: get a professional so you don't waste time in the test phase!

Snapchat Ads Best Practices

If you want to make the most out of your Snapchat Ads budget, (who doesn't??) you'll want to make sure you're closely following the Snapchat advertising best practices we're going to outline below.

Start by Defining Your Snapchat Ads Objectives

What do you plan to accomplish through your Snapchat advertising efforts? Defining these goals and making a plan for how to reach them is important if you want to get the most out of your Snapchat ad campaign.

Get to Know Your Audience

It may very well be that Snapchat is not the right place for your audience to see yours ads or interact with them-and that's okay! There's plenty of other platforms that WILL encompass your target audience.

But you won't know whether you're going to reach them or not until you've really gotten to know them and taken a close look at the Snapchat demographics to see how they line up.

Test, Optimize, Test, Optimize

Limitless success is not a click away. It requires lots of work, dedication, and more work.

Snapchat will automatically optimize your ads for your ad objective, but it won't do all the work for you.

Pay attention to what ads are performing well and perfect your formula over time for best results.

Measure the Results of Your Snapchat Ads

You won't know whether you've hit the success jackpot or not unless you're regularly measuring the results of your Snapchat Ads efforts.

Similar to the testing and optimizing concept, measuring your results can provide important insight, let you know what needs to be adjusted and further improve results over time.

Snapchat Ads: Frequently Asked Questions

If we don't get to your question, we're still here to help. Drop a comment below or email our writer at jessica@sociallyin.com

"Why Do People Use Snapchat?"

Snapchat is the perfect place to be yourself, be chill, hang with friends, and never worry about what is being hung onto.

When interviewed about why they use Snapchat, 95% of users declared that it made them happy. And we think that's a pretty darn good reason to be continually using a social media platform.

"How to Get More Views on Snapchat?"

When it comes to getting more views, there are three rules you need to follow.

1) Post relevant, engaging content

2) Speak directly to your audience

3) Post REGULARLY

If you're doing these three things, your audience will start growing because you're engaging them, you're providing the content they want and need, (relevancy) and are giving it to them on a regular basis so they always know what to expect.

Easy, right? It takes effort, but you'll look back and it'll be easier than you imagined.

How Snapchat Works

Learning to use Snapchat, let alone advertise on the platform can be nothing short of exhausting and stressful.

But quite frankly, it's easier than you would imagine.

Open the app

Take a picture or upload one from your camera roll

Add it to your personal or brand story

OR

Click the friends icon on the lower right side and explore what's happening in your network!

Snapchat is all about quick messages, fun pics, and hilarious shorts, so get to sharing!

What to Post on Snapchat

There is no limit to the superbly fantastic things you can post on Snapchat, but it works best as a platform for "behind the scenes" content, 3D content, VR, and more.

The post Is  SNAPCHAT ADS: SECRETS TO TRUE ROI ACHIEVEMENT IN ONE FREE GUIDE appeared first on the Sociallyin Insider blog.

[jungblue]

→ writing & other tips!

Hello! This entire post is essentially stemming from the fact that I get messages often about the subject of writing / running a writing blog, and what advice I have in the area. In all honesty I’m not sure how new this information will be to anyone looking at it, but it’s more so to serve as something I can have linked in my FAQ, for anyone interested in my opinion on the matter. This post will be updated as I think of more things to include, but the basics that will be covered is writing advice, writing-blog advice, and just my overall opinion on certain aspects of writing in general on a public platform. 

↠ Running a Writing Blog

My initial advice for this is just going to be technical / formatting aspects of posting your writing. Nothing all that earth shattering, just creating masterlists, links in your bio, dealing with demands kind of stuff.

Formatting

When it comes to formatting, choose one that really displays what your fic is about. For example, my usual format is: Pairing, Genre, Word Count, Description, Gif / Banner. I find this important just because I think some people might underestimate the importance of a good format. Because if I’m being honest I usually won’t even click on a fic if there’s no word count. Not to say it’s necessary, because I’m not here to tell people specifically the 100% way to run a writing blog, but this is just my experience / personal preference. 

Tagging

Now once you’ve got your fic written and post formatted, next you have to put some tags. I tend to use very broad general tags such as, bts fanfic, bts scenarios, bts smut, bts angst, ect. Once you get into specifics there are tags such as seokjin fanfic, yoongi scenarios, hoseok smut, ect. This simply allows for people to find your fics when searching. 

Creating a Masterlist / Linking

Once your first scenario is posted you might want to make a masterlist to post in your bio. This probably isn’t new information for some, but I get an ask about links every couple of weeks, so I figured we might as well cover all of the bases. In order to create a masterlist, simply open up a new text post, type in the title of your fic (or however you’re wanting to organize it), get the url to your fic and copy it, highlight the title you’ve written on the text post, a series of buttons should appear above, choose the one that is the fourth from the left (it looks like an infinity sign), paste the url into the box that appears, and you have yourself the start of a masterlist. Once you have that done you might want to link your masterlist in your bio. In order to do so you simply:

1. Go to edit theme

2. Paste this code into your bio <a href=“url of masterlist”>masterlist</a>

3. Replace the things I’ve put in bold with your actual masterlist url, or whatever you want the link to be called, so masterlist, writing, mlist, ect

Dealing with Demands

It’s unfortunate, but more than likely you’ll get a demanding ask at least once in your tumblr lifetime. Sometimes it’s asking for updates, requesting repeatedly, or someone just being plain rude. To combat against the update asks, make an FAQ. It’ll cut down on some of the demands, but of course not all. As for the straight up rude anons / users, just block them. Don’t give them the satisfaction of allowing them to stay on your blog. If you really want to respond, screenshot it and answer it that way, but still block them. This is your blog. No one has the right to be demanding of you, and to make it a place that you come to detest. 

↠ The Actual Writing Part

I would say the first piece of advice I have about writing in general is to make sure that you’re writing for the right reasons. This is only because I’ve seen a common trend of people saying how stressed writing makes them, to the point of them actually hating it. I think this is because before people start posting on tumblr, they sometimes don’t get what comes along with it, or some aren’t necessarily doing it for the right reasons (of course regardless of anyone’s reasons, it’s your hobby, so really do what you want! this is simply an opinion).

For instance if you’re doing it strictly for notes, you might be highly disappointed when the pwp smut that took your three hours to write gets a 1,000 notes, whereas that fic that took you three weeks to plan out, and six weeks to write gets 300. It’s going to really stunt your creativity if you’re doing it strictly for that particular reason, because unfortunately the previously mentioned scenario is quite common. Or there are some who start writing because they want to have a ‘popular’ blog of sorts with lots of followers who will message them… But unfortunately even with a lot of followers, people just tend to not send messages for the most part. You might really love a fic that you posted, but get maybe six or seven comments on it. So again, if that’s your specific underlying reasoning behind wanting to post your writing, it might not turn out how you expected. 

I just wanted to say the above points because I see it time and time again, and I don’t want people to get discouraged if it’s not what they were expecting it to be. Don’t get me wrong, as a writer on this site, I appreciate so, so much the notes / comments / ect that people give to my fics, but if that is what’s specifically tethering you to the craft, then you might not enjoy your time posting on tumblr. But again, this is your choice, so if you want to write simply for notes or for whatever reason, then obviously that’s completely fine! I’m mostly just saying the above because writing can become tiresome after a while if it doesn’t bring the outcome you’re expecting and it’s not something you truly enjoyed in the first place.

Okay, so now that I’ve gotten this disclaimer out of the way, I’ll try to give tips on writing, sorry if they’re generic. Honestly, my writing process is really simple, so I’m not sure how helpful this will be, but I’m going to try my best. 

Forming an Idea / Plot

This is probably the simplest part. Just the general idea that you want to write about. Not the details, just the main focus. Sometimes it can stem from just knowing what au you want to tackle, so college au, expecting parents au, werewolf au, ect. Or perhaps you don’t know the setting yet, but you know the conflict or emotions you want the characters to elicit. Maybe you just know in your head that you really want to write a Jimin fluff. With that you can sit back and mull over what the best template for displaying that would be. So maybe a first date, anniversary, cute frat boy takes you to the greek formal, it can literally be anything. So really play around with things. Write that vampire hanahaki au or fic that’s so cheesy you cringe (I’ve written many of those lol). Just explore the wonderful world of genres or aus, because in the end you should write what you want to write. 

Planning

This section is quite flexible. I mean all of these points are flexible, but this one most certainly. If there’s one thing that varies to a great degree between each and every writer it’s planning a fic out. There’s hundreds of methods, and you really just need to find the one that works for you! I personally have a very simple approach to writing. I’ll use Loving Him, Loving Her as an example.

1. Simply think of an idea: Unrequited love + best friend AU

2. Make mental bullet points of plot: flash-forward scene, the oc and Taehyung meeting, time-skip, party at Taehyung’s lake house, sex scene —

3. Write it out with this loose template

4. Once the writing process is over, go back through, re-read for misspellings, grammar issues, spaces where a bit of added narrative is needed

5. Post

It’s honestly a very simple process, but it’s what works best for me, and everyone is of course different! Personally, planning a fic out down to the very scenes, just doesn’t work for me. Because then when I’m writing I feel very constricted. I much prefer just having a vague idea of what I want the plot to be, and tackling it that way. However, again this is my approach, and it’s obviously okay if it doesn’t work for everyone. Lots of people love to outline, and that’s a totally viable option. Plan out each scene, one by one, jot down the emotions, dialogue, actions, ect that you want to happen within the scenes. That way once you go to write your fic, everything is planned and you just have to follow the template you’ve set for yourself. 

These are just two methods of the many that there are. Eventually, after writing a lot, you’ll find a specific process that personally works for you!

Process

Writing can honestly be really stressful. Even if the constant asks for updates or demanding messages don’t bother you. Sometimes it’s just stressful because you want to write, but it just isn’t coming as easily as you would like. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in front of my laptop, wanting to write, but then I just blank. It’s incredibly frustrating to have a plot locked in your head, and knowing exactly what you want to happen, but then not being able to find the words to formulate it. So just understand that it’s okay to take breaks, to throw away a wip, to take a seven month hiatus on a series. It doesn’t mean that you should give up on writing, it just means that you need a break, a change in direction, or just something. People get burnt out on things they love all the time. Sports, drawing, writing, whatever it is, you just have to understand that it’s all a part of a process. 

Know when to take breaks. Put your health at the forefront of everything, because finishing a fic isn’t worth jeopardizing that. Understand that the fic will be there tomorrow, the next day, and the next day, so take your time!

Again, I know all if this is stuff that you’ve all probably heard, but sometimes people ask for my writing advice, and this post pretty much encompasses my opinion on writing and the process of writing / posting on a public format such as tumblr. I hope it was somewhat helpful. Just remember that this is supposed to be fun. Don’t let the stress destroy your love for writing if it’s really something that you honestly enjoy!