#LIAU STOP GIVING ME IDEAS

[dunmanticarchivistsmain]

istg one more beautiful piece of writing inspired by my self indulgent doodling and im gonna explode into one million pieces on fire <3

Round 3 fired and away! For your latest art, I'm sure we will have a perfectly normal conversation about this (and secret life tomorrow once I've watched it). Not sure if I need to put warnings on this, somewhat heavy on the selfwhump in the first bit

When Scarlet Pearl rose from the crater of Scott's sacrifice, she was untouched by the violence, as though the carnage of the previous day had not occured. Mindlessly she set about collecting the detrius of the casualties, a half-remembered habit of tidying up. A battered diamond chestplate, a bloody sword, a splintered bow. All with no body to bury. Nonetheless, she piled it into individual chests and heaped a mound of dirt over each. Sticking a sign over these graves, she left an epitaph for their ending.

"Scott, the star that went off with a bang"

"Martyn & Cleo, divided in life and death"

"Impulse & Bdubs, something wicked their way came"

"Etho & Joel, the boat burned, everything burned"

At last, with Jimmy and Tango's death already marked, she made her way back to her tower, a single leftover sign tucked away. One with her name on it. One last ending.

The lonely perches of her tower loomed out of her exhausted reach. It didn't seem worth the effort, to climb all the way up, to where pain had made its home in her heart. Scarlet Pearl wondered aloud, to no one but Tilly, if she should just dig her own grave and wait for death to claim her.

A reply unexpected came from the rustling in the brush.

"Who's there?" Scarlet Pearl called out, gripping her axe, then thought better of it. She did after all, call for the end. And Tilly didn't seem to mind whoever was out there, tail wagging and head tilted in confusion. A state of mind shared by Scarlet Pearl, for she was sure of being alone. She was cursed to be; victory had ensured it. She fell to her knees, letting the happy, silly look on Tilly fill the imminent void.

"You", whispered a voice that was at once familiar and foreign to her ears.

"That's not an answer mate", her head turned to the source of the voice.

Stepping out was an impossible figure. A worn blue hoodie, flowing brown hair and piercing grey eyes. Scarlet Pearl had to look away, she could not meet her mirror's gaze. Was it one of pity? Was it contempt? She could barely guess from a glimpse; would Death be so cruel to use herself in its image?

The question of who was an instinctive one, but the thought made her shudder, jumbling her words "who- why are you here?"

"You. I'm here for you."

"Get away from me!"

Shaking her head reflexively in denial, Scarlet Pearl fumbled for a weapon, finding the sign with her name on it and raised it in one shaking hand. In the depths of despair, her instincts found she would not let Death take her without a fight yet. She was Scarlet Pearl, undefeated and unscarred, survivor of the death games-

The apparition, as she was fully revealed in the moonlight, was no perfect replica of her. Patched up scrapes, bandaged wounds littering her unarmored skin. They looked to be in a real rough state, Scarlet Pearl could easily take on this version of her. But there was something about how her mirror carried themself, the gentleness in their voice, that paralyzed Scarlet Pearl. Not from fear or resignation. But an ugly, painful envy of the affection in her mirror's eyes.

How could she love or be loved ever again?

This Pearl sank to her knees in front of Scarlet Pearl, interlocking one of their hands. Scarlet Pearl was torn, her touch starved self cried out for the first human contact in days? Weeks-, wait human? That hand fit in hers so smoothly, they were undeniably her own.

"You're not Death" Scarlet Pearl said, feeling exceptionally foolish for being unable to recognise herself. Tilly clearly did, nuzzling between the two happily.

"I am no more Death than you are," the other Pearl agreed, gently prising the sign from her other hand, leaning it against the base of the tower then capturing her limp fingers with their own warm ones.

"I'm just the you, who you'd let lead you home."

The last gasp of adrenaline faded; oh Void she was so tired, so bone-deep tired of being alone. All Scarlet Pearl could do is clutch those hands, as though they'd fade away if she didn't.

But they were already were, the Pearl-that-was-her slowly becoming less substantial as their warmth lingered and spread.

"Don't leave me! How will I get home? Where even is a home for me?" she cried plaintively, the numbness wearing off, the pain sweeping in.

"Hold me in your heart. Hold your hurts; and hold closer the hope of their healing."

She could already feel her grasp slipping, her mauled mending mirror of a self, fading, no, melding into her. Gashes opened where swords have left their mark, bruises bloomed with a fresh vengeance and her heart felt like it was torn from her chest anew.

"Home is where they are waiting for you."

The last wisps of their fingers parted and Pearl collapsed, falling forwards-

Pearlescentmoon fell out of this world Pearlescentmoon joined the game

Into loving arms.

[choideokhye]

bury the castle. // self-para.

“Hello.. Father.” The word caught in her throat, such an alien thing to say with no corrupt emotions attached.

“Hello. What is ailing you, my child?” The voice belongs to an older man, probably in his late sixties. Even behind the pegged piece of wood, Deok can imagine his face perfectly. Wrinkled at the corners of his smile and perfect creases at the edge of his eyes. Probably black hair with peppery streaks through it, or perhaps he was already all grey. She wondered if her own father would’ve been grey by now or not.

“Where do I begin?” She chuckled darkly, running a hand through her hair. “I’ve a whole bunch of things going on right now.” Deokhye shifted on the bench, fingers fidgeting at the hem of her dress. She hadn’t planned to come here, so she didn’t quite dress accordingly. She never believed in a god or religion, and yet wearing such a provocative thing in a house of the so-called lord felt wrong.

“Is this your first time in the house of God my child?" The priest must’ve sensed her anxiousness. Maybe he had powers imbued on him by some higher power, or perhaps this room was rigged. Perhaps the promise of privacy and anonymity was false and the clergy knew the faces of all the sinners that come to them. Maybe they were snakes like the rest of the world.

“That obvious, huh?”

The laugh that came from the other side of the wall was husky, breathy. As though a barrel of thunder rolled deep within the cavity of his chest. It was a genuine laugh, like one you’d hear from a grandfather. Except Deokhye never had a grandfather. Or not one that she knew, that is.

“You’re not the first to come here in need. Nonbelievers aren’t as uncommon around here as you may think. Now, tell me about what things are going on in your life.”

“Ah, right.. ” She fidgeted, not quite sure how to begin. How much was she allowed to say? Sure, this was a confessional, but how much was she supposed to confess? Her entire life story? Her life as a criminal? Or was she only supposed to speak about her current problems? Deok tried to sort out the problems in her mind, ordering them from most crippling to mere annoyances when the older male’s voice caught her attention again.

“Is a man the cause of your despair?” Deoks head whipped up. How did he know? Was he spying on her? Or did a lot of women come in at this time of night to confess about their men? She wondered what other issues women may have. Adultery? Sex before marriage? Abuse? “I’ll take your silence as a yes then. What about your relationship is troubling you?”

Again, where was she supposed to start? Where did she begin and how much was she to say? Before she could organize her thoughts, figure out the best thing to start with her mouth made the decision for her.

“I love him.”

“Hmph.” He said and Deok could hear the sound of fabrics as he shifted on his side of the box. “Normally love is seen as a good thing. Why is it troubling you? Do you fear he doesn’t love you back?”

“No.” She replied too quickly, perhaps a bit too sharply. “I know he loves me. Probably more than I love him, honestly. But he shouldn’t love me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not worthy of being loved. My job–” She paused, collecting her composure again and swiping her hair to one shoulder. “My job is.. complicated. I move around all the time and it doesn’t allow me to have relationships.” That’s one way of putting it. She wanted to be truthful, but something about being dragged from a church in handcuffs didn’t sound like something she wanted for today. Today was for confessing emotions, not crimes. “I’m afraid it won’t last, or that something might happen to us.”

“I see.” Silence filled the box again and Deokhye secretly wondered if the old man had fallen asleep before he spoke up again. “Is that all? I sense there’s more to this problem.”

“When I’m with him, I want a future. Or, I think about a future. When I think about a future with him, I imagine us getting married and having kids and owning a house and growing old. Maybe even getting a dog, y'know?” After seeing Liau with Angel, Deok was worried about how Minseok might be with a dog but it fit the illusion anyways. “I want a happy ending with him.”

“Those all sound like nice things. Why do you fear thinking this way?”

“Because I know it’s impossible. Happiness doesn’t run in my family. My father was a selfish old man and my mother wasn’t much better. I feel like I’m destined to follow their footsteps and become a downward spiral and I don’t want to bring him down with me when I do. ”

“So you’re afraid that, because of your parents’ lives and mistakes, you will inevitably hurt your fiancé?”

Deok didn’t remember saying anything about being a fiancé, but she didn’t correct him. The sound of it didn’t make her upset. In fact, using ‘fiancé’ to describe Minseok brought a smile to her lips. A smile that faded as soon as it appeared.

“I’m afraid that I’ll end up like them and self destruct. I’m not scared of becoming like them, I’m afraid of the damage it could cause to him and the ones I care about. ”

“One thing you said earlier, is that ‘happiness doesn’t run in your family,’ yes?”

Deok nodded softly before remembering he couldn’t see her face and uttered a weak 'yeah’.

“I think that’s where your problem lies. Happiness isn’t a genetic thing. Happiness can form in anyone as long as one is willing to let it bloom. Your negative state of mind seems to be blocking you from allowing yourself to be happy. Why exactly do you think you will end up like your parents?”

“I don’t know.. I just do. ” She’d never really thought about it before, so she didn’t have an answer. As hard as she searched, she couldn’t find one and Deok let the air grow still. “I’ve never been the type to have a normal life. A had a bad childhood, bad parents, bad school career, bad choices one after another. My life is full of bad choices that I can’t seem to stop making.”

“Do you think he is a bad choice?”

“What?”

“Your fiancé. Do you think he was a bad choice you made?”

“No. If anything, he’s one of the best choices I’ve made.”

“Mistakes are a good thing sometimes. We, as humans, learn from our mistakes. And often times our parents’ mistakes teach us how not to be. Perhaps because of your upbringing, you will gain more happiness than they did. Because of their mistakes, you know what not to do and perhaps you will be a better person because of that. ”

“You don’t understand. What am I supposed to do if we were to get married? Become a housewife? Live a domestic life? Sure, that sounds nice in theory but that kind of ending doesn’t exist for people like me. What would I do for money? A desk job? I never finished high school and the only reason people would hire me is for my looks. While that’s nice, if I had a husband and child to look after that wouldn’t be realistic. A happy ending isn’t in the cards for me. I love him with all my heart but that doesn’t change how impossible these fantasies are. Don’t you understand?”

“Our Father only gives us things we’re capable of handling, my child.”

A choked laugh escapes her chest and all of a sudden, a rage begins to rise in her chest. God only gives us what we think we can handle? What bullshit, she thinks. She recalls all the times she almost died, she was almost killed, watched others being killed right before her eyes. Did he think they could handle a bullet to the skull? Did he misjudge them and that’s what cost them their lives? Did god make mistakes?

“God doesn’t know me very well, then.”

“God knows all of us. We are his children.”

“God is just as lousy a parent as my own, then.”

“My child, please understa–”

“Child? Am I God’s child or yours? Are you God?” Her voice began to raise as did the anger in her tone. “What kind of God would let things like this happen? What kind of god would make his children watch their friends be murdered before their eyes? What kind of god lets a fifteen year old girl lose her father and mother? If that’s the kind of God that exists here, then I think I came to the wrong place.”

“It seems as though you are angry, but you should not take it out on Him.”

“Why the hell not? ” She eyed the cross hanging above the door to the confessional. Oh how she wanted to knock it down, flip it upside down, set it ablaze. How she wanted to set this whole church ablaze. Why did she think coming here was a good idea? If she wanted to vent, she should’ve hired a therapist, not some old fart that claims to speak to an imaginary man in the sky. What the hell was getting into her?

“I’m done here. This was a mistake. Forget about everything I said.” With a huff, Deokhye stormed it of the little box and into the cold air of the church. The room was lit only by a line of candles and the whole place gave off bad vibes. What had she been thinking? She didn’t know. But right now she was thinking about chaos. Deok reached into her bra to pull out her pack of cigarettes. Opening the box, she let the brass lighter and a slender tube slip out into her hands. With practiced finesse, she flipped the cigarette between her fingers before resting it against her lips. Within seconds of lighting the tobacco, a door opened behind her and a small man, about her height, appeared from the box. She was right about what he looked like and this brought a smile to her face, although it soured at his words.

“No smoking on the grounds, miss.”

“Am I not your child anymore?” She smirked, showing no intent of putting out her cigarette. “Are you gonna abandon me like my real father did?”

The features on the man’s face softened at her question and he folded his hands in front of him. “I may not be your birth father, but He,” He pointed a crooked finger up to the ceiling. “Never abandons his children. As long as you have faith, he will always be with you.”

“I lost faith in anything a long time ago, pops.” With a dramatic display of confusion, Deok glanced up at the ceiling, noting only painting of naked babies. Her lips turned upwards before looking back to the man like he was crazy. “There’s no one up there either. Looks like he abandoned you too, yeah?” The grin on her face only grew when the priest began to look offended, hurt, disgusted. This was the reaction she was looking for. She wanted to make him doubt his faith, question his almighty god.

“Tell me, Father, if God only gives us things we can handle, does that make you and I flame retardant?” The spite was evident in her voice as she flicked off the burning ashes from the end of her cigarette, letting them flutter to the floor and die out. “Or do you have faith that he’ll protect you?”

It seemed as though she took the words right of of his mouth as his seemed to suck in a breath before stepping forward. “You’re angry, my dear, but causing harm won’t bring you peace. Now, please, it’s getting late. Why don’t you get home to your fiancé?”

“Don’t come any closer to me, old man. I know what guys like you do to little girls and pretty women. I know what kind of creeps you are.” Another twitch of her wrist sends more ashes falling to the carpet. She wonders how long it would take for the building to burn. She wonders how loud he would scream when the flames reached him. She wondered if she’d get out in time. She wondered if she would even want to survive.

His silence seemed to make the anger in her double. Was he confessing? Or was he attempting damage control? Either way, Deokhye wouldn’t let him defend an invisible deity anymore. Yes, Minseok was like a miracle to her, a blessing. Yes, loving him, making love to him felt like heaven. But compared to everything else hat happened to her within her lifetime, it was safe to assume there was no god. That there was no greater power making sure her life was on track. Her life was a game of chance and so was his. Whether or not he survived being engulfed in flames was up to chance, not god. At least that’s what she told herself as she walked away from the burning building behind her, cigarette still tucked between glossed lips and muttering curses under her breath.

[jvngminseok]

wide awake

task 002.

setting: minseok’s room

time: 12:18 AM

triggers: violence, depressive thoughts, longer than it has to be

Minseok liked to document things, take pictures of happy moments (though he had less of those, now) and write down what was happening in his life. But he’d never been one of those people could write an entry every single day, especially when some of them were completely unremarkable. So his entries were often sporadic, only writing when the mood hit him or he had thoughts and feelings to spill. When he went to his therapist, he was often advised to try writing in a diary to help relax him and ease his anxious mind, but it never really worked. He had too many thoughts and too much energy for it to be all that therapeutic. 

For him, journaling was more a habit than anything that could be considered a hobby. He sat down at the desk in his room, flipping through some of the crinkled pages of the well-worn journal to re-read some of the most recent entries. A lot had changed within the months that he’d been with The Outlaw Bloods. Some of those changes were good- others, not so much.

12/15/2016

I’m not sure how well I’m adjusting to this place. I know I should be happy for new job opportunities... but I hadn’t expected to get this involved. But I mean, I was dealing drugs anyway.. I’m kind of flattered that they like the way I do business enough to even want me. The tattoo is pretty ugly, though. A cup spilling blood? At least it’ll make me look more intimidating, but .. how am I gonna explain this one to Mom? The initiation process was pretty rough, too. I didn’t know I had it in me to do something like that.

I guess I’ll just wear long-sleeves for the rest of my life. I think it’s already too late to back out. Unless I just want them to flat out kill me. It’s funny how you can have all these impulsive, fucked up thoughts in your head but the moment you’re faced with the possibility of it becoming a reality you start to get scared. I guess I am. Scared.

12/19/2016

I smoked a few blunts last night and went out for a midnight snack. I think I started downing everything right there- I was so hungry, and all I needed to be happy was a bag of fast food with well seasoned fries.

 I don’t really remember everything that happened, or even the order that it happened but this strange girl came up to me and wiped the ketchup and mustard off my face. Didn’t really talk, just stared. But that was okay with me, she was good company even if she didn’t talk. I talked enough for the both of us. And I think I flashed my abs at her at one point.. just a peak, though. I don’t really remember, but I think it was because I thought it would be funny. She didn’t give me much of a reaction. It was a really weird night. Bambam is weird too,  but a good weird.

12/24/2016

It’s Christmas Eve. It’s not surprising, but I’m spending the holidays alone this year too. Mom’s new squeeze doesn’t seem that comfortable with the idea of having to spend it with her son left over from a previous marriage. I don’t really mind, even if I feel a little lonely. Nobody in my gang is really warming up to me yet. I don’t know, can you call being swindled out of your money being warmed up to? At least I got it all back. Jinyoung has been nice enough, even though I’ve only talked to him a handful of times. I think he might shoot me if I ask how his leg got like that, though.

12/30/2016

I’ve been seeing a girl. Well, not really seeing .. just the one time. But I liked her enough to take her home straight away, at the first meeting. That’s fast paced, even for me. We’ve been texting since then. Hwajung isn’t like any of the other girls I’ve met. Really pretty.. not afraid to say what she thinks. She seems pretty street smart too. I think we’re doing this out of order, but I’d like to take her out on a date and see where it leads. I stay away from the dating scene and usually skip out around the time they ask me what I do for a living, but I feel like if it was Hwajung she wouldn’t ask a lot of unnecessary questions.

1/01/2017

New year, new me! Or really, a new, more fucked up version of me. I think it’s too late to turn over a new leaf now. I’m not sure I even really want to. The money is great.. better than what I was making doing this shit solo. But it also means the stakes are higher. Every little gram has to be accounted for, along with the money for those grams. I can’t mess up. Jinyoung might serve my head on a platter.

1/06/2017

I met a really cool noona. Sunny. Sundeok? I don’t know if that’s her real name or just what she wants to be called. She scares me a little bit, if I’m being honest. She’s a great liar. She could tell me that she grew up in an RV that traveled the whole country and I would be inclined to believe it. She hasn’t tried to scam me even though I know that’s what she does. Maybe it’s because we’re in the same gang and it’d be like taking candy from a baby. Too easy. I’m hoping she can teach me a few things, since I’m just alright at lying. She’s really funny, too. I like her.

1/12/2017

I made friends with a Lost Boy. Liau. I probably should’ve joined The Lost Boys instead, I like their name a whole lot better- fits me, really. I feel lost. I’m not sure I’ll ever really be found, either. But at least I’m not having as bad of a time as Liau.. Jeez, I can’t believe such a nice person like him can’t catch a break. How many times has he been shot? He seems like he needs someone to protect him. Maybe that can be me. Though I guess it’s like the blind leading the blind..

1/27/2017

It looks like I didn’t write an entry about it, but Jinyoung died. Was murdered. I guess in a gang related power struggle. Sorry, Jinyoung.. you deserve to have an entry written about you, at least. The guy who killed him is our new leader now. Jihoon. He’s always been kind of silent and reserved, but a cool enough person- I wouldn’t have expected he had it in him. Everyone else seems to be alright with this, even if it just feels weird to me. Jinyoung must have been more terrible than I thought. I should just keep my nose out of it, keep my head down and make sure our product keeps circulating the streets. I mean, a paycheck is a paycheck, right? My feelings don’t matter.

1/29/2017

Bambam is in a gang too. It doesn’t seem possible. She’s practically a baby.. but she’s a baby that blows things up, apparently. I would have never expected it. I don’t think she wanted to tell me either. Maybe she was scared.. worried that I would drop her once I knew. But I saw her tattoo. I couldn’t just ignore it, even if I wanted to. She told me she’s a monster. I don’t think that. It doesn’t matter what she did, or what she’s still doing.. she’s a good girl in my eyes. How could I ever think badly of a girl that calls me Frenchfry oppa, anyhow?

02/01/2017

Liau and I are moving in together. I don’t really know why he wants me as a roommate since I’ll stink up the place with the smell of weed, but I’m pretty happy. Being around Liau makes me feel like everything will be alright. He’s a lot stronger than he looks, and in return I think me makes me feel stronger too. I think there’s something he’s hesitating to tell me, though. Maybe he has a basement that I’m not allowed to enter or else I’ll discover his dark, terrible secret. I’m hoping he’s not a serial killer, because he’s a pretty good friend.

02/06/2017

There was an important meeting yesterday with all five gangs. I was strangely excited since I’ve never been to anything like that before, and Jihoon actually wanted me to come along. Things were going well enough. Until someone called the cops. Has anything like that happened before? All five gangs meeting in one place seemed a little too convenient, now that I think about it. We all fucking scattered, and I ran into Hansol and Chanmi. I tried to escape with them but we got separated, and I ended up hitchhiking my way back to Seoul. Not the first time I’ve felt glad I was born with such a handsome face.. otherwise it might’ve taken a lot longer to get back home. Though it meant a lot of the drivers wanted to exploit me.

HQ got robbed today. The armory, the storage room .. everything. Even some of Deokhye’s belongings. When I first heard what was going on and saw her, I hugged her tighter than I’ve ever hugged anyone. I barely had time to catch my breath. 

At first I thought it could be the cops, but the cops wouldn’t ransack the place this badly even for evidence. Some of them were still here. Apparently they weren’t done robbing us blind. I shot one of them in the head. I couldn’t just stand back and do nothing, especially when Deokhye was only armed with a knife and six inch heels. I don’t know how I feel about it yet? It hasn’t sunk in. Life can be taken away so easily.  You either die slowly, killing yourself over time with small things, like booze and drugs- or die immediately. At least he died right away. 

02/14/2017

Valentines Day. I would have liked to spend the day with Hwajung, but it’s like she dropped off the face of the earth. She seemed pretty into me, so I don’t know why that is? If milkshakes and oral sex aren’t the way to romance anymore, then I’m truly clueless. Maybe it was just a one night stand and I read too much into it. I wasn’t the kind of person that slept with someone at the first meeting, but maybe I’m that type of guy now. I could be. If I stopped feeling so much, that is. I can only try.

I don’t want to spend another holiday alone, so I’m going to go look for Deokhye. She’s a hot commodity so I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s spoken for already, but it’d be nice if we could spend the day together watching cheesy movies and drinking.

03/01/2017

I messed up. I shouldn’t have gotten that fucked up, but I couldn’t help it. The raid messed me up more than I thought it would and I couldn’t stand being sober for a second longer. What I remember is popping some molly, having a few drinks and then making a fool of myself on the dancefloor.. then, when I left somebody put a cloth over my mouth. After that, nothing. 

When I woke up, my chest felt heavier than it’s ever felt. It was so dark and cramped. My hands and feet were bound with zipties and I couldn’t breathe through my mouth because of the duct tape over it. The back of my head was throbbing. Didn’t stop me from screaming and thrashing around to get out. Eventually someone heard me and let me out.. I was in a trunk. I don’t know what they wanted with me, if I was kidnapped because of my relation to the gang or something else. 

Maybe they just left me to die once they realized I wasn’t one of the more important members and they wouldn’t gain much from holding me hostage. I feel sorry to Jihoon. I should have never been that careless, especially when all of these terrible things have been happening. I’m lucky I wasn’t more hurt, aside from the concussion. But I don’t feel all that lucky.

03/05/2017

Qian noticed that I haven’t been in a great mood lately.. We can’t really have a full conversation with the language barrier, but she still treats me like I’m a great friend to her and tries to comfort me in her own way. She’s always ready to goof off with Liau and I too.. even though she calls us embarrassing first. I wish I could do more for her. I’m sure this is scary to her, especially since she might not even fully understand what’s happening. I promised her it’ll get better, and I really hope it does.

[siliconwebx]

Readability Score: What It Is, Why It’s Important, & How to Get a Good One on Every Post

Writing is, at its core, communication. If you are unable to communicate your point to your audience, you fail. Regardless of how well-thought out your argument is, how large your vocabulary, or how salient of a point you’re making…if people have no idea what you’re talking about, it’s all for nothing. Luckily, we can quantify that clarity with something called your readability score. With it, you can make sure the content of your website always reaches the broadest audience possible.

What is Readability Score?

In general, it’s how easy to read your content is. Sounds obvious, right? But because people read at different levels, what a Master’s student considers readable is different than what a freshman in high school does. What’s readable to me might not be readable for you.

And if you write only to what’s readable for you without taking into account others, there will be misunderstanding, ambiguity, and frustration around your content. Thus…the readability score.

With tools like the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Tests, you can determine at roughly what level a reader needs to be to understand your text. There are other metrics and scales out there that take different elements into consideration, and some are more subjective than others. But for the most part, this is what goes into determining readability:

sentence length

too many short sentences give the content a staccato feeling of starting and stopping too often

too many long sentences make the content feel burdensome and cause the reader to lose focus

scanability

use of headers

paragraph length

vocabulary level

how common each word is

syllable count for each word

the overall length of each word (on average)

active vs passive voice

use of standard punctuation and mechanics

Like we said, there are multiple readability tests that you can use, but one of the most popular is the Flesh-Kincaid readability score. Most online tools that look over your text for readability (such as Readable.io and Yoast SEO), have a Flesch-Kincaid score built in. With that in mind, let’s take a look at that scale in particular.

Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score

Flesch-Kincaid uses a scale of 1-100. The higher the score, the easier it is to read.

Flesch wrote a great article on how to find your score manually, and he gave a pretty simple explanation of how to use the 0-100 scale.

You can also use this formula: Multiply the average sentence length by 1.015. Multiply the average word length by 84.6. Add the two numbers. Subtract this sum from 206.835. The balance is your readability score.

The scale shows scores from 0 to 100. Zero means practically unreadable and 100 means extremely easy. The minimum score for Plain English is 60, or about 20 words per sentence and 11/2 syllables per word. Conversational English for consumers should score at least 80, or about 15 words per sentence and 1 1/2 syllables per word.

Here’s a quick reference chart he made for it.

There are tools out there that do this for us, thankfully. But doing this a few times on some of your pieces of writing gives you a good idea of where you stand.

Wikipedia even has a useful chart to show grade-level equivalency for the scores.

Flesch said that we should be aiming for an 80 on the scale. That means we should be looking at a 7th grade reading level (that’s 12ish years old in the United States). When you consider that age, it can take some care to make all your writing readable by that range. Especially if you are working in a highly technical field or trying to explain a particularly complex issue.

Some tactics like not using technical jargon (such as referring to an ethernet cable solely as CAT5) are fairly straightforward. But making sure that your sentence length is appropriate for your target audience or that your headings are broken up by few enough words aren’t as easy to eyeball. Especially if your audience isn’t the general public, but a slightly more advanced readership. For instance, this article scores a 67.8. That’s fine because you’re a technical audience with a foundational knowledge of the subject.

Now, let’s look at some of the tools you can use to keep your writing as accessible as possible.

Top 3 Readability Tools and Calculators

Having a good readability score is so important to publishing successfully that you will have no problem finding both free and premium services to check your work. No matter your budget, there is something out there to help you get a better readability score.

1. Grammarly

One of the most widely known writing tools on the internet, Grammarly tells you in real-time (if you have the browser extension installed) what parts of your writing need to be either clarified or are straight-up wrong. In the free version, you get spelling, punctuation/mechanics, and basic grammar checks.

In the premium version, you get all that plus word-choice suggestions, more complex grammatical analysis, and more in-depth checking across the board. Given that you can have the real-time checking for free with a simple browser extension, you should definitely check it out. I personally run everything I write through Grammarly at least once because…why not?

2. Readable.io

A premium option you have is Readable.io. While the service is paid, the plans start at $5 per month for their basic services. You can scan existing content by URL or as a file. They provide downloadable reports and email scanning, too. If you go into their higher tiers, you can simply put in the primary URL of your site, and they will scan the entire thing and send you a report of what works and what doesn’t. You also have the choice of automated alerts is something goes wonky — perhaps if a contributor doesn’t meet the standards and the work needs to be fixed. If you’re truly serious about making sure your audience gets your best foot put forward, Readable.io is an option.

3. WebFX Readability Test Tool

Coming into third (though this is in no particular order) is the WebFX Readability Test Tool. This tool is impressive. What’s even more impressive is the price. It’s free. Not only can you copy/paste the entire text directly to be analyzed, insert a single link at a time, or even include a button in your footer or sidebar where you can dynamically check any page on your site. When you get the results back, you get not only the Flesch-Kincaid results, but also the SMOG, Gunning Fog, ARI, and Coleman Liau scores. Plus the breakdown of how each score was calculated.

For a free tool, you can’t get much better than this. I mean, just look at that analysis you get from just copy/pasting a URL.

WordPress Readability Solutions

There are a few players in the readability and SEO game for WordPress. And if you want to get some useful info in your dashboard, you can for free. In general, WordPressers look to Yoast for the readability score for their posts. They do so because over the years, Yoast has made such an impact that many of the previously used plugins have not been maintained (but still exist on the repository). That doesn’t mean Yoast is your only option, though. There are some good alternatives still being maintained.

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the big dog in this yard. Not only does it keep track of the keyword targets you’re writing for, but it also has a completely separate section dedicated to the readability of your posts. You are given a rating of red, yellow, or green depending on where your content falls on the scale. You are graded on a lot of different points, and you don’t need to get a green rating in all of them to be good. They’re just suggestions, after all.

While getting a green (as in you’re good to go) rating with Yoast isn’t a guarantee that your blog will take over the internet, it’s a good indication that you’ve done enough to make it stand above the crowd.

2. SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant

If there’s one company who knows what Google wants out of your content, it’s SEMrush. So when they put out a writing assistant plugin, you jump on it. This plugin will go over your content, give you a Flesch-Kincaid score, suggest keywords based on your content, help you adjust based on the top Google results, and even check for plagiarism to make sure your content isn’t gonna get in trouble. Once your content is scored (in real time), you will get suggestions based on which sentences and words you can improve. SEMrush has proven themselves again and again. This is no different.

3. Squirrly SEO

If you’re not the type who wants numbers to rate your content, and you just want to know that it’s good enough for Google, Squirrly SEO is for you. Where the other tools give you a number on the Flesch-Kincaid (or another) scale for you to interpret, Squirrly tells you in what ways your content is adequate or inadequate.

It also tells you whether or not you have keyword stuffed so much that your content is unreadable (the Over Optimization metric). Probably the most useful is when it tells you that the article is human-friendly or not. Because Google runs on algorithms and the Flesch-Kincaid is done by formula, Squirrly SEO looks over your copy and tests for semantic readability, not just mechanical and grammatical. This one is absolutely a contender for WordPressers who want to rank and get read.

Tips for Achieving Readability

Readability is quantifiable. Obviously. We’ve gone over that a lot. But it’s because of that quantification that we can put together a quick list of rules for you to keep in the back of your mind.

Keep Sentences Short(ish)

If you feel like you’ve been typing for a long time, full stop. It can be very easy to get into your flow and just keep typing. We have an idea, and we want to tell people. So we never use simple sentences. We use compound sentences because they’re able to get our point across better. Until they run on for multiple lines. People don’t read everything. They scan over content. They’re not going to read James Joyce-length sentences on a blog. Even if they’re the best sentences you’ve ever written.

Write Like You’re Talking to a Kid

It’s hard to look at your own writing and say, “Yep, that’s written at an 80 on the Flesch-Kincade scale.” In fact, that’s almost impossible. Some of the best advice I have ever been given was to make sure that when you’re explaining something, break it down like you’d break it down for a child. That doesn’t mean dumb it down. Kids are smart, after all. They’re sharp. It means that you need to simplify it.

The difference in dumbing something down and simplifying something is this:

Complex: To make sure it achieves escape velocity from the surface of the Earth, roughly 11.186 km/s, a rocket’s fuel must be carefully calculated, as the mass of the necessary combustible fuel will differ in the launch’s relation to the Earth’s rotation.

Simple: Because fuel is so heavy, a rocket will need different amounts, depending on which direction it is aimed when it launches.

Dumbed Down: Rockets go boom to get to outer space.

That’s all it is. You don’t have to lose the overall concept, and you can adjust the amount of simplification at any time. However, if you think of how you’d explain the process to a child, you will come up with some extremely readable copy that you can then go back through and spruce up.

Hit Enter More Than You Want To

People hate walls of text. Bulleted lists are great for scanning, and so are short sentences. On top of that, short paragraphs are great, too. In general, you never want a paragraph to take more than a handful of lines on your page.

And try to add in single-line paragraphs every now and then for variety or emphasis.

By breaking up the text visually and using the whitespace of your site, your readers will be able to more easily get the gist of your content. If you hit them with a 600-word wall of text with no whitespace to break it up, they’re going to bounce and not return.

Read Your Text Aloud

If you have trouble reading what you’ve written out loud, something is off. After all, the whole point here is to be readable. When the person who wrote the stuff stumbles over words, gets winded before a sentence is over, or just flat-out drones on and on, your text needs jazzing up.

You might not be in an environment to read it fully aloud, but you can whisper quietly to yourself and get the same results. Fun fact: this is also a great way to get yourself back on track after a break. Just read the last few sentences out loud, and you will more easily be able to regain your train of thought.

Don’t Try to Sound Like a Writer

When I taught freshman composition, I told my students every semester to stop trying to sound like a writer. They thought if they wanted to succeed, they had to write in this grand, sweeping, epic style, using words they barely knew the meaning of (so they badly miscontextualized them) and couldn’t pronounce. When I would ask them to explain what a sentence meant — because I seriously couldn’t parse it — they wouldn’t be able to explain it, either.

That is literally unreadable.

Like I said at the beginning, writing is about communication. We know how to communicate. We talk every single day. So my advice to you is the same advice I gave them:��don’t try to sound like a writer. Write like you talk. 

Conclusion

While much of the internet today is populated by bots and run by algorithms, the content that we all produce is meant for humans. So it’s our job to make sure that real people can understand our work. Keyword stuffing, trying to sound too smart, or just getting excited and writing far too much without stopping can affect the readability of what you’re writing. So whether you use Yoast’s plugin, manually work out the Flesch-Kincaid readability score on your own, or just take some of these tips and try to work them in organically, your readers will thank you. And so will your search engine rankings.

What tips do you have to maintain readability in your writing?

Article featured image by Studio_G / shutterstock.com

The post Readability Score: What It Is, Why It’s Important, & How to Get a Good One on Every Post appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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