#i have longterm creative writing skills

[ghilan-maim]

what the hell.

i'm a trans disabled dude thing in the southern us who is unable to get a job at the moment due to a lot of circumstances. i never have any money for myself, and while my basic needs are met (but barely!), im working to get outta my horrible, life sapping living situation so i can be with my qpr soulmate by end of next year, start my transition and finally embark upon healing and life. any amount will go into my savings to help me get out because this just isn't sustainable anymore.

c*shapp: $aspringrevival v*nmo: invaderzin

How about we just have like... hey trans people, post your pay links or wishlist or whatever you got. No limits, no trans excluded, intersex welcome, any and all genders off the social conventions included. I'll just reblog em a bunch.

I need a reblog to share your info, please use those, not comments or tags. I try to reblog immediately every instance I see between 10am and 10pm, everything else goes into the queue.

Additionally, Reddit has some donation resources, which are outlined and linked in this post. However, there are potential difficulties associated with these resources, with more details in this post.

Potentially useful links as I find them: Guide to Fundraising.

[kittenintheden]

As someone who loves your writing, do you have advice for writing ff - especially when it comes to how to do Astarion’s character justice? I’ve tried several times to flesh out the ideas that have been swirling around in my mind ever since starting the game a year ago, but I always get overwhelmed and discouraged. I wish I were as talented as so many other writers in the fandom (like you!), but I feel just so stupid for struggling with it that I don’t even dare to write just for self-indulgence.

first of all I would like you to come here so I can give you a virtual hug. bring it in. ilu. you're doing amazing. nothing about this is stupid <3

creativity is not easy! it's frequently treated as something that people either have or don't, but that is not true. like any other skill, it requires commitment, practice, a willingness to study, and all that jazz. so the good news is: you can do this! the less-fun news is: it will take time and require some work.

it is absolutely normal for people who are just starting out with writing to feel discouraged or like they're not good enough. I STILL FEEL THAT WAY, and to be totally transparent, I'm a professional writer with publishing history and have won awards. like, objectively I am not bad at this. and yet, the doubts, they persist.

so here's my practical advice: start small. try a one-shot. if you have a particular scene that's really calling to you, focus on that. it's a lot easier to create a short work and then try to shape it into what you want then diving headfirst into longfic if you've never done longform writing before.

more practical advice: if you read something that really resonates with you, reread it and try to pinpoint what the author is doing that makes you feel that way. is it dialogue? action? setting? language? that's resonating with you for a reason. your brain is responding to it. explore that and try to figure out ways to incorporate it into your own writing. again, this is a practiced skill and it will take some time to get right!

and also: be self-indulgent! THAT IS OKAY! literally every fanfic I write is self-indulgent. I want to take these characters and put them in situations that I personally find funny or sexy or moving. and sometimes other people do to, because ultimately we are more alike than we are different. there is NOTHING wrong with making self-indulgent art. fuck, friend, I improved my drawing skills this year purely because I wanted to be able to draw my blorbos kissing.

I'll close out with some advice on doing characters justice, since you specifically asked. characterization is a skill like anything else. you're figuring out how to convey a person's unique outlook and personality without resorting to a laundry list of description.

those things can be portrayed in many ways. how they keep up their appearance. the language and phrasing they use while speaking. how their actions are informed by their history. whether they were raised poor or wealthy. how comfortable they are with intimacy. all the things they're not saying out loud but showing in other ways.

with Astarion, it came down to character study (which I'm skilled at after years of practice). who he is as a person, how his trauma informs his actions and dialogue, his theatricality as a defense mechanism, how forced vampirism and being severed from his bodily autonomy have affected how he views the world, the effects of longterm starvation on a person, who he was BEFORE all that, and who he becomes after he meets Tav/Durge.

I spent a LOT of time just putting on headphones and listening to Astarion dialogue compilations because Stephen Rooney and Neil Newbon put so much thought into how Astarion is written and acted, and those things convey so much about his character. you have to train yourself to pick up on those things, but once you can clock them, it's SO informative.

for example: when Astarion is being duplicitous, his posture, facial expressions, and even the register of his voice change. it's notably different from the way he acts spontaneously, which (in the beginning) is more fearful, reactionary, self-preserving, and, honestly, bratty.

when I say that I knew 1) he was a vampire and 2) he was using seduction as a ruse during my first playthrough, I'm not flexing that I'm smarter than people who didn't. the reason I recognized those things is because I have learned over time how to pick up on characterization clues that other writers are dropping.

a good start is watching clips from throughout the game and making notes about how he acts at the beginning vs at the end, regardless of the outcome you choose. it's everything from the things he says, the WAY he says them, the movement of his body, his expressions, to his actions over time. that applies to any character.

okay I have rambled on WAY longer than I meant to but I honestly hope this was helpful <3

you can always drop me more specific questions at any time and I'll do my best to answer!

[jack-of-heartstrings]

I just want to clarify, I've enjoyed some shows that ended up a lot darker than they started, but the way MLB did it feels too sudden and unnatural. And at this point, so much sadness has happened that the lighthearted scenes feel hollow.

Also, the main reason I'm not willing to accept the senti-kid plot is because, while they were sad when Sentibug was destroyed, the narrative didn't treat it with NEARLY as much gravity as a real human's death would warrant, and the other human sentimonsters we saw before season 5 were never implied to be real people. Not to mention, they were all copies of existing people and came out already teens or adults, while we know Adrien and Felix started out as babies. I've talked to several people who know a lot about creative writing, and they all think that the stuff people pointed to to support the senti-Adrien theory were a pathetic excuse for foreshadowing.

By the way, Thomas says the show is still meant to be for ages six and up.

It not being treated with gravity is what we call "Fridge Horror," and it's not nearly the only example.

Like... The show can dance around it all it wants, because the heroes don't want to directly see anyone get too hurt or for anyone to endure more than they have to, and not showing it too overtly is part of what keeps it "kid-friendly", but the miraculous ladybugs can pretty explicitly bring people back to life, so long as they die as a result of whatever problem the Lucky Charm was summoned to fix.

The temple after Feast alone was effectively that, but in that case you could argue everything it ate was more in magic stasis. But Marinette not only saw the apocalyptic state of Paris but watched her own corpse disintegrate in front of her (in season 3!! you wanna talk horrifying!!) in the Chat Blanc timeline and still even considered throwing her Lucky Charm then and there. Trains and buildings have been yeeted into space, under the sea, in volcanoes, buildings get crumbled, giant explosions take out multiple city blocks. In the London special, she had to tell Adrien that Gabriel's death was a result of using the Wish to sacrifice it, because otherwise her ladybugs should have been able to bring him back. People die offscreen and get brought back fairly often, and everyone just chooses not to talk about it, and that's always been a subtle part of the world. That's fridge horror!

(There's kind of a fun/devastating bonus there in imagining how that might interact with NOT being able to just fix Emilie, given the restrictions on how Lucky Charm can work, but of course that can't really come up without talking about the first thing, so that much is purely speculatory territory. But I digress.)

I do know quite a bit about creative writing, too, and I maintain that people are allowed to have different opinions on what works and what doesn't, but that doesn't make any of those opinions objectively true. You and your friends can agree the foreshadowing was weak. I and others can agree it was strong, especially if we personally picked up on it early. It's subjective, though, that's how storytelling works.

As for whether or not it's "appropriate for kids", that's also a matter of opinion, but like? Other Kid Show examples under the cut.

In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Equestria is the friendliest place in the known world, to a point that non-pony cultures struggle with the concept, yet even IN Equestria, the bond between Twilight and her friends even early on is rare. Even ponies need a School of Friendship because they struggle with maintaining deep and healthy connections longterm and with the communication skills needed to do that. That's pretty depressing tbh! Also there are multiple apocalyptic alternate timelines and near-apocalyptic events, among other things.

In Sofia the First, one of Sofia's greatest strengths and flaws is that she's extremely diplomatic/manipulative; these are the same skill, just used for different ends. She's extremely indirect and that both helps people and causes fully unnecessary problems; she's extremely secretive and that's both good for keeping her friends and powers safe and puts so much weigh on her shoulders over time when she doesn't trust people enough to seek more help. (The showrunner has directly said I am correct about this take btw, one of the biggest flexes of my life. ;w;) One could argue that's not the best role model for kids, or that the tone growing heavier as Sofia takes on more and more responsibilities and starts struggling more toward the end is getting too dark for a pre-school Disney show, but a lot of people loved it.

ALSO in Sofia, there's an episode where Sofia's stepsister Amber makes a wish on a magic well, which is VERY reminiscent of Hal 9000 and takes a 'careful what you wish for'/'all magic comes with a price' approach to granting wishes. Amber's wish to keep her dad from spending so much time with Sofia turns Sofia into a cat bc their dad is allergic, and at the end of the episode, their dad makes a very direct wish to just turn Sofia back to normal. The well, which gives anyone Three Wishes, says he still has one wish left, and when the kids ask what his first wish had been, he says that's a story for another time. Anyway the series finale confirms that he wished he and his first wife could have kids, so it made her pregnant with twins and then she died from their birth. SO... THAT HAPPENED...

In Lion Guard, the pilot's conflict is resolved with a literal fart joke, and season 1 is really episodic and cute, and then over the course of season 2, things get much heavier and more serious, and in season 3, they deal pretty directly with disability and a sort of mental illness, and not like a Very Special Episode thing. There's the nuance of a newly blinded character being infantilized and coddled excessively, and finding the balance between his friends respecting he can still do stuff and him accepting that he does need more help than he used to. There's a character with chronic pain and anger regulation problems dependent on medication to function (yes I'm serious) and the struggle that comes with building too much tolerance over time for it to work anymore, and the nuance of his friends understanding this isn't his fault and that he needs support vs trying to maintain boundaries and remember they also still have needs. In the end, the blinded character gets a treatment that restores his vision but has to accept it will never be nearly as good as it was before, and the other character's treatment is literally therapy. This is a Lion King spinoff.

BLUEY deals with topics like miscarriages, fertility struggles, the lasting traumatic effects that a seemingly minor incident can have on the psyche of a young child when at the time it was the most afraid they'd ever been. There's an episode where the parents are hungover as shit after a New Year's Eve party and it never SAYS that and the kids in the show don't really question this brand of 'sleepy', but it's very much played for laughs for the adult viewers. There's an episode where Bluey helps try to save a wild bird and after it dies she gets her mom and sister to immediately help re-enact the incident like a PTSD response????????? Most episodes are 6 minutes, and the single 28-minute special is incredibly deeply moving.

And that's all looking at KID-kid shows. Move up slightly to something like The Owl House or Amphibia or Gravity Falls or Steven Universe, and like...... Miraculous Ladybug is not a unique level of offense deserving of some kind of crusade.

Kids can handle some dark themes, I promise. There's some stuff that it's better to imply than to show, like the death example earlier, or like how the show can go to crazy lengths with more fantastical destruction but never shows blood. But studies have actually shown most kids develop deeper understanding of other people's struggles, more interest in learning why people act the way they do instead of assuming, and more willingness to forgive and to offer help to others when they are exposed to stories (books, tv, or otherwise) with some darker, heavier, sadder themes sometimes.

Like the world is crumbling around us and I don't think it's good for anyone to spend too long spiraling into nihilistically grimdark media (not bad to exist, just in excess), and I think some levity is good for everyone, especially kids. But overly sheltering anyone is provenly actively harmful. Hardship, struggle, and failure build various forms of empathy. Conversely, when people have minimal struggles, minimal consequences, minimal exposure to the struggles of others in a meaningful and personal way, you end up with, well, people like Chloe, with impossibly high standards and entitlement and having so little experience dealing with pain or frustration in a healthy way that they're prone to redirecting blame and doubling down on "why should I care anyway" because they can and that's easier. It's never too late to change that, even in old age, let alone as a teen, but it gets harder the older one gets.

Stories allow one to experience and understand struggles faced by characters alongside them, and develop in similar ways more safely than firsthand experience. That ability to build understanding and connection is one of the greatest powers OF stories.

What exactly is inappropriate about showing kids that sometimes things get really hard, sometimes things are really complicated, there aren't always just Good Guys and Bad Guys, and sometimes the people you trust most will hurt you, but you can still find people who love you unconditionally? With saying that even the strongest heroes will crumble under pressure, will make huge mistakes, and will endure hard times, but the greatest power any of us have is strength in numbers and community? With saying that it's everyone's responsibility to look out for each other, even if you can't get everyone around you to realize the same or join you, and even if you don't think you have anything special to offer? What's too dark or heavy about saying that sometimes things get really bad, but it never means you have to give up?

Because Miraculous isn't grimdark, it's not sad for the sake of being sad. It's hopeful. It's about being up to the test when things go wrong and the power of love-- romantic, platonic, familial, for country and community and life itself-- always being so strong. And idk but I feel like a lot of people of all ages could use more of that, actually.

[chaoschild-hideout]

PRACTICAL CHANGES - Chaos Child [online presence]

I decided to share my journey as an artist because I realized we all face the same struggles and for some of them I’m finding valuable answers that might be helpful to other people as well. I’m not a professional but that doesn’t mean I cannot treat myself and my work as valuable.

I’m still at the beginning but I already desire to start acting in a way that I admire others when they do the same.

I want you to know what to expect from me, even if I call myself chaos child, it doesn’t mean that as an artist and as a content creator I can lack clarity, after all I decided to share my art with you for a reason.

Here is a list of the things I am focusing on making/changing that relates to all the content I’ll bring from now on, on my social media!

my social medias: TUMBLR (main + BLOG), Twitter, Instagram, Deviantart, Patreon, Pinterest, Youtube (I’ll do video contents when I’ll have a new laptop and drawing tablet), Artistree (preparing my commission sheets)

my working system - sharing how I made it, how others can make it to work in harmony with creativity and discipline

youtube/social media - artist helpful mentality/planning methods/art related mental health

studying art - sharing sketchbook/studies/art progress etc

making original art, that has meaning to me

commissions - commission sheet/portfolio with current skills + long term improving art

social media management, how to transform being a content creator into a fun endeavor

WEBTOON - main income project

patreon (WEBTOON + generic content)

FINAL GOAL (longterm): creating original stories, artworks, visual novels, writing books etc (I would love to have physical works like illustrated books etc with original stories)

social media consistency: posting 2 written blogs per week, posting 2 art related posts per week + patreon content monthly (behind the scenes)

For me, sharing all of this makes me feel really vulnerable. I feel like sharing my intentions puts me up to failure because people start expecting something from me and if I cannot show up then I’d be labeled as who knows what.

Maybe that’s why we all try to keep our dreams secret. It gives us the illusion of control. I don’t have control over what others think of me, and I might fail so hard at my ambitions but I want to try at least in this life.

My goals might change in time, I try to remain flexible in everything I do and learn what works and what doesn’t. If you’ll keep on following me then you’ll get to see with me where we’ll go because I have no idea. I won’t stay fixated on things that don’t work and I will not avoid harder ones just because I might fail.

I hope my journey might let others know how much of a roller coaster this journey can be and how it is perfectly fine to have ups and downs. You have not signed up to this life to arrive as safely as possible to your deathbed. You are here to live.

Let’s live our lives!

chaoschild

[imaginarybestie]

Ongoing Goals with C

Dear P,

Another thing that I would write about with imaginary friend C is our ongoing goals for our life. It's more than just what I want to teach her. It includes other things like habits to develop, and practices to help us to develop those habits. Mindsets to develop and instill over time, and practices and resources to help with that. Big, longterm repeated challenges that we must strive to overcome.

Forming really healthy eating habits, and consistent good exercise habits too. Forming good life skills (which is something that I haven't learned sufficiently myself, and simultaneously have to try to teach her too). Forming a spiritual practice and the connection to God, grace, guidance, and keeping that strong. Working gradually through all the steps to attain a good future for ourselves, in all the ways that we need to do that: social skills, self-image and self-love, manners and etiquette (again, I feel maybe I never learned certain stuff and neurodivergence makes me set apart even further, in this way, and it causes numerous obstacles in life and great disadvantages until or unless it can be overcome).

Philosophy and worldview, the bigger picture, and our place in it, and how to make sense of that and find a real, true and believable way to see and deal with all that. Creativity and inner childlike nature, joy, play, innocence, humility, and othe virtues that must be cultivated, over long, repeated exercise. Those virtues especially which seem to be under-emphasized these days, I think, certain values which can make so much impact on your life and how well you cope or thrive, or not.

Mental health habits. Sick house syndrome. Food allergies. Chronic illnesses. Extreme introversion and all the challenges of that. Learning to cope and thrive the best we can despite all of those things, again habits to develop over long practice and repetition and deepening over time.

Preparing for trying to get a career, and finding what will let us thrive as far as making a living, since we might not be well able to adapt to most jobs. Most workplace environments or just most types of work itself aren't a good match for my mental and physical health limitations, and it seems like my daughter may have many similar issues as me too. But it's not like I can just get help from the government for this, because my issues fall outside of what they will cover or help with. Oh well.

Finding a place where we can get housing and live in an environment that won't trigger our health issues, and also be safe, and something that we can afford. It might mean having to live in another, cheaper country somewhere. Maybe also finding somewhere that we don't have to drive a car to get around, because I can't drive for the life of me, I'm truly a danger on the road, because of some weird thing in my brain, it seems. It also seems like my daughter might be very similar to me in the things that make my own brain weird, and so it seems likely that she might not be able to drive.

And there's all these things that we need to try to work towards gradually over time. So many things. Probably some really important ones that I'm forgetting at the moment, but they'll come to me over time. And some less important but still vital ones too, that will help round things out and make them more balanced. If I have time and energy to get around to those things.

So in a way, all these things are actually stuff that I do want to teach C, yes, but in another way, it's more than just that. Because it's things we have to act on now, and on and on over time throughout our lives into the future. It's not just like a book that I can write, and then give her, and that will be enough. It's habits, mindsets, practices, and deep, gradual changes and big challenges that will need help, participation. We'll need to be really immersed in some of these things, to learn or develop or change in all the right ways, to change enough, and really make it stick.

So that's the difference between all these things I am talking about here and the other things that I mentioned that I want to teach C about. There's a lot of overlap between these things, it's true, but I wanted to mention all this stuff separately, and to draw attention to how it needs to be addressed very differently than just only writing a book or blog or whatever and giving her that. I can write her about all these habits and gradual changes in letters, in a very ongoing, and likely very repetitive way, because these kinds of things really do need a whole lot of repetition and that can be reflected in the letters that I write her.

Anyway, P, so that's some more stuff I want to write about here, that will hopefully come alive and feel supported and vivid and vital and alive once I can share these things with you, and share them with imaginary friend C, and maybe other imaginary friends who care about these things or who have similar issues they might need or like to face in life. Maybe, K, for instance, and perhaps some others. Anyway, thanks for listening and caring again.

Love,

C

[mr-entj]

Brain-Based Descriptions of the 8 Jungian “Types”

A piece my former professor published on MBTI, cognitive functions, and his study I participated in 10 years ago.

____________________

By Dario Nardi

This is based on the blue “Brain Basics” foldout by Radiance House. (Www.RadianceHouse.com)

In his seminal work, Psychological Types, Dr. C.G. Jung described 2 attitudes (Extraverting and Introverting) and 4 “mental functions”: Sensing, Intuiting, Thinking, and Feeling. Together, they give what he called 8 “Types”. Today, we can use more appropriate terms like functional patterns or cognitive processes. Notice the terms are verbs. His is a process model, not a trait model. Since then, people have offered many variant definitions and created assessments, most of which are peculiar to the creator, speculative, and not research based. In my own work since 2006, I have correlated the Jungian processes to biases and patterns in neocortical (brain) activity using EEG technology. Subjects complete a 1-hour protocol of 20 diverse tasks (meditating, math, memory, etc) while monitored by EEG. And of course, we do our best to confirm their best-fit personality profile using common definitions. Here is an overview of the neocortex and definitions of the 8 cognitive processes.

BRAIN BASICS

Your brain consists of many small modules linked in networks. Each module is a neural circuit that helps you do a task. Some tasks are concrete, such as recognizing faces, hearing voice tone, and moving a hand. Other tasks are abstract, such as evaluating ethics, adjusting to others’ feedback, and mentally rehearsing a future action. There are easily five-dozen modules just in the neocortex, which is the brain’s outermost, thick layer and seat of consciousness. The big figure below is a bird’s eye view of the neocortex. It highlights key modules. We each prefer some modules over others. We differ by the tasks we enjoy and how well we do them. You might take a moment to explore the big figure to identify aspects of yourself.

We enjoy different competencies. For each of us, modules activate with a different degree of stimulus, competence, motivation, and energy level. If we look at the average brain activity of two people over an hour, you may see that their favorite modules are similar, near opposites, or somewhere in between! When different, those people’s personality profile, behaviors, and self-experience differ greatly too. In fact, we can dig deeper to look at underlying brain networks (using computer-aided analysis of EEG data), and confirm the biases are longterm rather than a result of just a 1-hour protocol.

In addition to favorite brain regions and networks, there are whole-brain patterns. For example, the brain can get into a state of “flow” where all modules are in synch. Or it might show  a chaotic brainstorm. There are more patterns, and we human beings are pretty diverse. Situations may prompt everyone’s brain differently. Take a moment to reflect, when do you get into your “zone”? What is it like when you are at your most creative and productive?

To meet our needs, the brain’s elements work in concert. As an analogy, if a module is a musical instrument, then the brain is a symphony orchestra that affords complex performances. Research suggests eight ways the brain (specifically, the neocortex) works in concert. These eight are highly effective and sustainable, though we necessarily come to rely on some more than others. You will find descriptions of these 8 below.

FOUR EXECUTIVE STYLES

Before we get into details about all 8 cognitive processes, let’s break things down more simply into 4 executive styles. 

Two Processing Circuits: To start, there are 2 circuits in the brain to process incoming stimuli. One circuit is faster. It sends sensory data directly to the front of the brain, our executive centers, to quickly act on the data. This is a more extroverted style. A second circuit is slower. It sends sensory data to the back of the brain, to link with memory and information processing centers, to compare, contemplate, and collate the data before moving it on to the executives. This is a more introverted style. There are other ways extroverts and introverts different, such as high versus low gain: Given a certain environment, an extrovert may easily find it too quiet and want to “dial up” the stimuli, whereas an introvert may easily find it too noisy and want to “dial down” the stimuli. Suffice to say, everyone uses both fast and slow circuits, and Jung himself described each person has having 2 functions in awareness, one for extroverting and a second for introverting, to make a well-rounded adult.

Two Executive Centers: We have 2 main executive centers: a “goal-focused” left pre-frontal cortex and an “open-ended” right pre-frontal cortex. Different activities light up these regions. For example, when you make a decision, craft an explanation, or focus to shut out distractions, the left goal-focused executive gets active. Or, when you engage in brainstorming, monitor a process, or reflect on yourself, the right open-ended executive gets active. Very nicely, these two executives correlate well to Jung’s functions. Jung described Thinking and Feeling as “rational” or “judging” functions, which definitionally fit well with our left goal-focused executive. And Jung described Sensing and Intuiting (aka “iNtuiting”) as “a-rational” or “perceiving” functions that definitionally fit well with our right open-ended executive. In his framework, Jung viewed balanced adults as having both kinds of functions, just as all people use both their left and right pre-frontal cortex, and their left and right hands, but invariably with some bias for one over the other.

Now we can bring together Extraverting-Introverting and Left-Right pre-frontal bias to get 4 executive styles:

Expedite Decision-making: Proactively meet goals. Often look sure and confident. Organize and fix to get positive results soon. (More goal-focused, more extraverting.)

Refine Decision-making: Clarify what’s universal, true or worthwhile. Often look quietly receptive. Trust their own judgments. (More goal-focused, more introverting.)

Energize the Process: Seek out stimuli. Often look random, emergent, and enthusiastic. Attend to the here and now. (More open-ended, more extraverting.)

Monitor the Process: Reflect on data and perceptions. Often look focused and preoccupied. Attend to reference points. (More open-ended, more introverting.)

You might take a moment to consider which style is more like you, and more like a spouse, colleague, or boss. Remember these are about habitual biases, not boxes, so feel free RANK the styles 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rather than pick one.

EIGHT COGNITIVE PROCESSES

We can get more detailed. People’s brains tend to differ in two more ways: people versus thing preference, and abstract versus concrete preference. These are not absolute, simply biases.

For example, there is a module that aids us in identifying stuff in our environment. Some people invest more in identifying lots of people’s faces and emotional expressions, whereas other people invest more in identifying makes and models of cars, computers, or other objects. Of course, everyone does both. But like handedness, where we use both hands, there is bias and have a preferred hand that plays a lead role in many activities like writing.

For as a second example, there is a module that is home to lots of “mirror neurons”. This module tends to get active when we do something concrete like observe and mimic a person’s actions, perhaps to learn a skill. It also can get active when we do get abstract and imagine if we were another creature in a galaxy far far away. Everyone can do both, but we have biases that are likely do due a combination of genetic tendency and habits from culture and physical environment.

There are many other examples. We don’t need to go into them here. Suffice to say, there is evidence to support the kinds of variations and biases that Jung observed among people. 

Without further ado, let’s look at the 8 processes. As you explore, keep in mind you likely have preferred one or two from an early age, and may now be reasonably proficient with as many as 5 or 6 as an adult, at least enough to keep up in society, in relationships, and on the job. I have numbered the processes for convenient reference. They do not actually come in any particular order! Each comes with a name like “Active Adapting” and a broad cognitive process such as “Immersing in the present context”. Finally, each comes with a code such as “Se” (meaning extroverted Sensing) that links to Jung’s framework in Psychological Types.

1. Active Adapting (“Se”): Immerse in the present context.

Act quickly and smoothly to handle whatever comes up in the moment. Excited by motion, action, and nature. Adept at physical multitasking with a video game-like mind primed for action. Often in touch with body sensations. Trust your senses and gut instincts. Bored when sitting with a mental/rote task. Good memory for relevant details. Tend to be relaxed, varying things a little and scanning the environment, until an urgent situation or exciting option pops up. Then you quickly get “in the zone” and use your whole mind to handle whatever is happening. Tend to test limits and take risks for big rewards. May be impatient to finish.

2. Cautious Protecting (“Si”): Stabilize with a predictable standard.

Review and practice to specialize and meet group needs. Constant practice “burns in” how-to knowledge and helps build your storehouse. Specialization helps you reliably fill roles and tasks. Improve when following a role-model or example. Easily track where you are in a task. Often review the past and can relive events as if you are there again. Carefully compare a situation to the customary ways you’ve come to rely. In touch with body sensations. Strong memory for kinship and details. Rely on repetition. Check what’s familiar, comforting, and useful. Tend to stabilize a situation and invest for future security. May over-rely on authority for guidance.

3. Timely Building (“Te”): Measure and construct for progress.

Make decisions objectively based on measures and the evidence before you. Focus on word content, figures, clock units, and visual data. Find that “facts speak for themselves”. Tend to check whether things are functioning properly. Can usually provide convincing, decisive explanations. Value time, and highly efficient at managing resources. Tend to utilize mental resources only when extra thinking is truly demanded. Otherwise, use what’s at hand for a “good enough” result that works. Easily compartmentalize problems. Like to apply procedures to control events and achieve goals. May display high confidence even when wrong.

4. Skillful Sleuthing (“Ti”): Gain leverage using a framework.

Study a situation from different angles and fit it to a theory, framework, or principle. This often involves reasoning multiple ways to objectively and accurately analyze problems. Rely on complex/subtle logical reasoning. Adept at deductive thinking, defining and categorizing, weighing odds and risks, and/or naming and navigating. Notice points to apply leverage and subtle influence. Value consistency of thought. Can shut out the senses and “go deep” to think, and separate body from mind to become objective when arguing or analyzing. Tend to backtrack to clarify thoughts and withhold deciding in favor of thorough examination. May quickly stop listening.

5. Friendly Hosting (“Fe”): Nurture trust in giving relationships.

Evaluate and communicate values to build trust and enhance relationships. Like to promote social / interpersonal cohesion. Attend keenly to how others judge you. Quickly adjust your behavior for social harmony. Often rely on a favorite way to reason, with an emphasis on words. Prefer to stay positive, supportive, and optimistic. Empathically respond to others’ needs and feelings, and may take on others’ needs as your own. Need respect and trust. Easily embarrassed. Like using adjectives to convey values. Enjoy hosting. May hold back the true degree of your emotional response about morals/ethics, regarding talk as more effective. May try too hard to please.

6. Quiet Crusading (“Fi”): Stay true to who you really are.

Listen with your whole self to locate and support what’s important. Often evaluate importance along a spectrum from love/like to dislike/hate. Patient and good at listening for identity, values, and what resonates, though may tune out when “done” listening. Value loyalty and belief in oneself and others. Attentive and curious for what is not said. Focus on word choice, voice tone, and facial expressions to detect intent. Check with your conscience before acting. Choose behavior congruent with what’s important, your personal identity, and beliefs. Hard to embarrass. Can respond strongly to specific, high-value words or false data. May not utilize feedback.

7. Excited Brainstorming ("Ne"): Explore the emerging patterns.

Perceive and play with ideas and relationships. Wonder about patterns of interaction across various situations. Keep up a high-energy mode that helps you notice and engage potential possibilities. Think analogically: Stimuli are springboards to generate inferences, analogies, metaphors, jokes, and more new ideas. Easily guess details. Adept at “what if?” scenarios, mirroring others, and even role-playing. Can shift a situation’s dynamics and trust what emerges. Mental activity tends to feel chaotic, with many highs and lows at once, like an ever-changing “Christmas tree” of flashing lights. Often entertain multiple meanings at once. May find it hard to stay on-task.

8. Keen Foreseeing (Ni): Transform with a meta-perspective.

Withdraw from the world and tap your whole mind to receive an insight. Can enter a brief trance to respond to a challenge, foresee the future, or answer a philosophical issue. Avoid specializing and rely instead on timely “ah-ha” moments or a holistic “zen state” to tackle novel tasks, which may look like creative expertise. Manage your own mental processes and stay aware of where you are in an open-ended task. May use an action or symbol to focus. Sensitive to the unknown. Ruminate on ways to improve. Look for synergy. Might try out a realization to transform yourself or how you think. May over-rely on the unconscious.

Further Exploration

You can read more in the following references: “Neuroscience of Personality: Brain-Savvy Insights for All Types of People”, “Our Brains in Color”, and “8 Keys to Self-Leadership”. Or if you prefer a free online 1-hour video, you can find it here:

https://vimeo.com/user40810588/review/143815719/c69a1060ef

Here is an assessment built around the Jungian functions, validated on 3000 people:

http://www.keys2cognition.com/explore.htm

You can find a complete list of references to my neuroscience of personality work here:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/dario-nardi/neuroscience-of-personality-resources/10155730683011216/

[bigskydreaming]

Young Justice Season Three spoilers

YJ Producers: We have a Muslim superhero this season, look how great she is and how progressive we are!

Actual YJ episodes: Okay so Muslim superhero might be a bit of a stretch since well, if you wanna get technical, she’s actually a sentient piece of alien technology whose soul went into the body of a dead Muslim girl when her original alien tech got smushed. But even though she continually insists that she is not Gabrielle Daou, the Muslim girl whose body this was originally, and that’s the entire reason she chose a new name for herself, she is a completely different person aka a non Muslim, not even human person - she still wears a hijab! Totally counts!

YJ Producers: We always wanted to portray LGBTQ+ superheroes, we’ve actually had one the whole time and you just didn’t know it because mean old Cartoon Network wouldn’t let us show it, now that we’re on our own we can and will be showing LGBTQ+ characters this season!

Actual YJ episodes thirteen episodes into the season: Error 404 Content Not Found

YJ Producers: We’re finally gonna include Cyborg! Victor Stone is in the house, we love and appreciate that character so much, we really wanted to wait until we could do his story justice!

Actual YJ episodes: So see, after getting gruesomely almost-deaded after a huge blowout fight in which we showed Vic has a lot of rage cuz Black Teenage Boys Are Just Like That, that was all aimed at his dad for not showing any interest in his life and for never showing his son he cared until now cuz Black Dads Are Just Like That, well okay, yeah that sucks, but what happened NEXT is really cool - so his dad saved his life, right? Even if it was by using alien tech that every single person he came in contact with kept telling him wasn’t like normal tech, it was sentient and thus yes COULD be bad, which was further demonstrated through the fact that said life-saving tech kept like...hijacking Vic’s own body and turning him into a rage-monster that we could totally show being a Stereotype of Black Teenage Boy Aggression as he remorselessly hunted a terrified Violet but it wasn’t his fault, he was totally powerless to control his own actions cuz of the Evil Alien Tech in his body and like wait, whats bad about that, I forget the question??? Oh right! But stop WORRYING, its all good, see, as long as he stayed around Violet and never went too far from her ever, the woman of color had magic rage-pacifying skills that existed solely to calm down the Stereotypical Angry Black Teen when he couldn’t control himself because Reasons. LOL WHY ARE YOU UPSET, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT, THIS IS A GOOD VICTOR STORY, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED???

YJ Producers: We love and value our characters of color and would never hurt them, we’ve actually taken steps to make sure of that!

Actual YJ Episodes: Violet and Vic are both practically unkillable, see? As proof, watch us violently murder Violet in every single episode in new and creatively gruesome ways, with bonus Vic near-death experiences that allow us to show him just utterly wrecked in ways we’ve never shown a single white character, even in this season when we’re all about showing off how much creative freedom we have now without CENSORSHIP! 

YJ Producers: This season is also going to focus on the stress and mental health issues that go along with life as a superhero, and who better to demonstrate this by suffering from superhero-related PTSD than Jefferson Pierce? The guy whose divorce already showed the stress and relationship issues that go along with life as a superhero (since all our white heroes in relationships are still going strong)!

Actual YJ Episodes: Oh, nothing say about this one huh, PUNK? That’s right, we actually did exactly what we said we’d do, see? Just look at how much time we spend talking about how traumatized Jefferson is and how miserable he is after killing a kid, and that’s nothing we’ve ever done (or would ever do - SHH THEY DONT NEED TO KNOW THAT) to a white hero! PLUS, like, he’s definitely getting better though, thanks to the support of the much younger character he’s surrounded by, instead of y’know, turning to his established friends and colleagues his own age for support! AND AND AND don’t forget about his growing relationship with the white doctor lady who is definitely NOT super creepy and NOT likely to betray him and break his heart and/or force him to make painful decisions when choosing between her and the kids he’s vowed to protect at some climactic point later in the season that all of that is super clearly not building towards!

YJ Producers: And don’t forget about Jaime Reyes and Virgil Hawkins and Mal Duncan and Raquel and Karen! They’re all still here too!

Actual YJ Episodes: We’ve definitely forgotten that Jaime Reyes and Virgil Hawkins and Mal Duncan and Raquel and Karen are all still here too.

YJ Producers: Major life events have happened to these heroes offscreen in the time we’ve been away from them, stuff that’s really shaped who they are and who they’ve become by now. All this stuff really matters, its how we’re different from other shows, we don’t pretend these characters stop existing the second they’re off your screens! Looks, Barbara Gordon is in a wheelchair! She’s Oracle now!

Actual YJ Episodes: Why would we bother to explain when or how this happened with even a single line of dialogue when The Killing Joke exists and is available on our streaming service? You sound dumb.

YJ Producers: Kaldur is our proof of how important our characters are to our over-all universe, look how far he’s come! He’s not Aqualad anymore, he’s AquaMAN, he’s one of the co-chairs of the Justice League, right up there with Wonder Woman who he definitely doesn’t need to turn to for approval or oversight of his actual decisions!

Actual YJ Episodes: We’re pretty sure we covered all this in the two minutes of screen time Kaldur’s had all season!

YJ Producers: Look, bottom line, this season, being away from Cartoon Network really allowed us to stretch our wings and flex creatively, we’re doing a lot of stuff with this story that just wouldn’t have been possible before, when we were on a network like CN and had overseers restricting our every move! This season gets a lot darker, a lot more mature, a lot more everything cuz freedom of speech baby! That’s what its all about!

Actual YJ Episodes: In support of our thesis, watch us up the graphically violent content of every single episode and kill lots of people instead of just cartoonishly knocking them out and carting them away to jail! That’s it, that’s everything we wanted to do that CN wouldn’t let us, that now we have total freedom to prove in a myriad of ways! What do you mean, what about *looks at smudged writing on hand* LGB - look we can’t be expected to read what that says when we have graphic violence to depict, fuck yeah!

YJ Producers: Besides, in happier news, its not all doom and gloom this season! Connor and M’Gann got engaged! Now that we’ve completely moved past all the stuff M’Gann did in S2 and don’t consider it worth mentioning, Superboy and Miss Martian are back together, and SB is totally gonna marry the woman who betrayed him in the one highly specific way that goes back to the very source of every trust issue he has and reason he has so many walls pushing people away!

Actual YJ Episodes: Yeah this is definitely happening. Suck my dick, Connor fans and fans who relate to and identify with SB and his story and think its maybe just not the healthiest to wave a wand and go “Happily ever after!” With, y’know, the guy whose greatest canon fear and paranoia is the sanctity of his mind being violated and being unable to trust that his own thoughts are really his and not just being spoon fed to him in a pod at Project Cadmus or by his telepathic girlfriend when she doesn’t like his opinion or his criticism of her actions and just doesn’t want to fight about it anymore. Look, she said she was sorry, get over it. What more do you want? For Connor to move on and have a healthy romantic relationship with someone who he doesn’t ever have to wonder if his trust in her and second chance is real and valid and not just her making him say and do what she wanted, like the way she definitely has before? For him and M’Gann to rebuild their trust over time, gradually, as friends, with the understanding they can be close again but romantic intimacy between them specifically probably isn’t in the best interests of the guy who will always have to wonder now if his thoughts are really his, no matter whether or not that’s true? Yeah, no, that sounds like a lot of work tbh, and really, we just like Miss Martian and Superboy together, they’re just cute, you know? Sides, we killed Wally and we don’t actually wanna talk about why Barbara’s paralyzed now and like, focus on her as a character, so what other longterm pairings do we really have? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE ARE ALL OUR OWN CHOICES AND IF WE WANT BETTER FOUNDATIONS FOR OUR CHARACTER DYNAMICS WE SHOULD MAKE BETTER CHOICES? UGH GET OFF MY BALLS, MAN.

YJ Producers: We’ve got Terra this season, and we’re doing some really cool, brand new things there.

Actual YJ Episodes: Slade’s Apprentice arc from Teen Titans the show and The Judas Contract in the comics, but really aren’t they the same thing? If you think about it, is it even possible to do that in a new way? Look, its not like we could do anything MORE original than that, like what, did you want us to have Tara genuinely be the good and loving sister she was when she reunited with her brother and expressed how traumatized she was by the things she did when she was supposedly being mind-controlled, actually invested in saving other trafficked meta-kids from being used and hurt the way she had been? Like, the way it seemed she was being written before we revealed it was a fake-out and she was actually working for Slade exactly like those other times we swore we were gonna be more original than that? Ugh why are you so unrealistic, dude, you have such weird expectations.

Me: Like dear YJ, you’ve still got me watching, because like a) I’m weak and I need this, b) nostalgia, c) Dick, Artemis, Connor, Jefferson and the chance of Jason and also Violet, Brion and Vic are all still enjoyable as characters even though your treatment of them and your narrative choices are all extremely suspect and also craptastic and also I really wanna punch you for a lot of this.

But goddamn, this was NOT your best work, and after years of waiting only to get this? Like.....so not crash, dudes. Not even a little bit.

[atomicfirefarmathlete]

12 Best Websites to Make Money Online

If you want to earn extra cash, turn to these moneymaking websites.

12 Best Websites to Makem oney Online

More

I want to share this photo on social networks! Handsome concentrated bearded with stylish hairdo cabinet maker is taking a picture of his wooden diy using his smartphone

Whether you`re trying to sell products or gift cards, consider these top resources to make money online.(GETTY IMAGES)

You don`t always have to spend money to make money. If you want to launch a side gig to generate regular parttime income, or if you're looking for some quick extra cash, there are websites that can help you do it.

12 MoneySaving Challenges to Try

These creative challenges can help you spend less and save more.  Geoff WilliamsApril 28, 2021

Consider these top resources to make money online:

Upwork.com

Fiverr.com

Etsy.com

TaskRabbit.com

Wonder.com

ThredUp.com

Swap.com

Gazelle.com

CardSell.com

OfferUp.com

Neighbor.com

Merch by Amazon

Depending on whether you're looking to earn extra money quickly or build a longterm income stream, each of the following websites offers unique advantages (and sometimes disadvantages) tailored to different needs and interests. Read on for more information on each site.

Upwork

How it works: Upwork is essentially a meeting site where businesses and freelancers throughout the world can connect and collaborate on certain projects. Businesses hire freelancers for a variety of different services, including writing, web design, running SEO campaigns and pretty much any work that can be done on a computer.

Highlights: Upwork takes a commission from 5% to 20%, but the more money you make, the less the commission is.

Drawbacks: Upwork has been so successful that there is a lot of competition on the website, and that can be a real drawback for people who are new to the site, says Sacha Darosa, owner of a digital marketing agency in Toronto called The Shirtless Web Guy.

“Before starting my  web design business, I created a profile on a website like Upwork. At first, the competition was so fierce that it was difficult to attract buyers' attention  on this platform. And most of the competition is from foreign countries. Competing with others on price was impossible.”

So Darosa lowered the price and did almost nothing for a while. However, the positive reviews made his profile better and Darosa started taking more.

"A platform like Upwork can help build a portfolio and an initial customer base, but I'm outside of them and I'm happy with myself," Darosa says.  [ SEE: 12 Ways to Save Money Without Trying. ]

Fiverr

How it works: This is also a popular website that can be helpful for freelancers. Know something about digital animation? You can work for someone who doesn't have these skills and pick up some extra cash. Even better, you can offer to compile web research for someone for fast cash. Highlights

: This site can make a lot of money, says Dan Bocicchio, a web designer and digital strategist in Albany, New York, who runs the two-man company  Bocain Designs. He says  his company makes between $3,000 and $5,000 a month on Fiverr. “To stay ahead of the competition, I write a good Fiverr profile and performance description and communicate the value of the services I provide. When someone contacts me, I  reply as soon as possible and respond to requests by asking good questions. A quick but carefully crafted answer will greatly increase your chances of getting hired,” says Bochichio.

Cons: Apart from Bochichio's success, Fiverr got its name  from the fact that many people worked for $5 per job. You can ask for more (and you probably should), but many of your prospects expect you to do very little work. Etsy

How it works: Anyone who is artistic and  can make custom jewelry or fridge magnets is where Etsy can sell their products.

 Act Now For a $500 Wayfair Gift Card!

Features: Navigating the site and creating a store is easy.

Weaknesses: There is a lot of competition on the site. On the one hand, the branding is big and many people know  Etsy. However, if you list your items, as is the case with Upwork and Fiverr, you will be one in a million people selling items on Etsy. This may seem a bit overwhelming. working rabbit

How it works: Ready to get your hands dirty? People come to this site to find people who want to complete a variety of tasks, such as organizing bookshelves, cleaning the garage, or running errands. It can be a part-time (or full-time) job as long as you do as many jobs as you want.

Highlights: You can apply for a job, but you can also create a profile that describes what you are capable of and are good at. Then people can eventually find work.

Weaknesses: Many of the tasks you can find in TaskRabbit are, as mentioned, physical tasks such as arranging furniture. Of course, if this is your jam, that's a plus. surprised

How it works: People come to this site when they need to do research. Miracle doesn't hire  anyone, but you can apply. According to the website, the process takes about 5 minutes. And once Wonder decides he has the skills to do the research, he'll be able to access the dashboard. You can then  answer questions from  business executives or writers who are writing books.

Highlights: Researchers report earning an average of $8 to $16 per detailed answer, and job search sites suggest that researchers can earn an average of around $20 per hour. In short, Wonder offers the perfect job for people who don't just want to make money, but who really love the research process.

[meganfirthmafashion]

TERM 2 WEEK 1:

CREATIVE ROAD MAP REFLECTION

The creative road map provided an opportunity to take a step back from my practice and reflect on my existing achievements, goals and ambitions moving forward. As a creative practitioner, I feel it can be very easy to become lost within the work at hand resulting in lack of clarity on the bigger picture, whether this be the overarching goal and intention behind a project itself, or thinking even bigger in regards to where I exist currently within the industry and what steps must be taken to move forward successfully throughout my career within the creative world.

Although to most it may seem obvious what skills one possesses, I believe it was beneficial to highlight these in writing followed by areas I would like to develop in, as this not only provides almost a checklist of skills to gain overtime to keep one on track and reminded of their intended goals, but also provides a bank of skills to refer to in future opportunities, giving one the ability to express their talents; it can be easy to forget or overlook your own skills therefore having a reference point allows for this to be avoided. As I was able to highlight areas I intend to improve my skills within- for example gain knowledge on affective social media marketing skills to result in optimum engagement between brand and consumer- this allowed me to imagine what steps must to be taken in order to achieve such. In this example this may involve market research into existing successful brands- more specifically sustainable fashion brands- and what key techniques stand out as a viewer/ consumer of the information myself; what methods entice me into exploring the brand further or even consider a purchase. This approach could also be used from the contrasting angle of less successful brands and what techniques do not work. To gain more concise, in depth answers, it could be an option to contact brands directly to discuss the possibility to ask such questions surrounding marketing techniques they’ve found add to their successes, to then take inspiration from.

Another area I had the opportunity to consider was the constraints I may experience moving forward through this module; addressing what these may be now at this early stage has allowed me to pinpoint areas that may affect the quality of my work and steps I can take to avoid such. One example of this is time management; I believe it is more important than ever to be on top of work as when working in a group all participants must be well organised with their time as to not affect the overall quality or grade on others’ behalf’s. Saying this, it is equally important to balance this time with my own independent study- to do so I will ensure to use methods such as a Gantt chart to throughly plan my time day by day, giving myself a reference point keeping me on track.

Overall this task has been a very insightful experience to review my current place within the industry as a practitioner, skilled I have gained along my journey so far and my future goals and plans. I anticipate this is a document I will refer back to regularly to remind me of such and will most likely update as time passes to document my progression moving throughout not only this module, but also my desired career longterm.

[kuriquinn]

Recovery & Patreon & Other Stuff

Hey everyone!

So, I’ve been having a good day today (much better than yesterday!) and thought I’d catch up with you guys.

I’m still dealing with the anxiety stuff. When I get into potentially stressful situations I still burst into tears and get shaky and a lump in my stomach, but I don’t get too bad left to my own devices anymore. I’m going to start going back to live on my own as opposed to bunking with family soon, which is nice. I’ve always been very independent and I loved living on my own, so getting back to that will be nice. 

Anything work-related still triggers me, so I’ve had to completely disassociate from that (no work alerts, no answering emails, no lesson planning). That’s been hard, because I’m so used to doing something constructive that not doing it stresses me out. While I hate being stressed, I like to be buysy. More on that below. 

I’m productive and almost functional between 10am and 12pm, and if it’s a really good day I get to 1:30. After that there’s no point to even trying because I just get a brain full of fuzz and can’t think through it. 

Therapy has been helping A LOT, but I don’t know how long I can keep going to this therapist as it’s rather expensive. Again, big thanks to all of you who have been using my ko-fi jar this past year, you’re the reason I could pay for yesterday’s session. 

Slowly, I’m working through all of this, and I couldn’t do it without you guys. Special shout out to those of you who have been checking in with my almost daily. If I didn’t have you, I don’t know how I’d be coping, to be honest... 

I love you guys!

PATREON

I have been considering launching a patreon page for months now, and there’s never been the time to really work on it. And since everything in my life started to get really complicated, so many of you have reached out wanting to know how you can help support me so I can get back on my feet, back to my best self and back to writing stories!

Since I’ve been put off work for a few weeks to recover, I thought an interesting creative project for myself would be to start setting up my patreon in earnest (and my therapist says I need a non-workplace related, non-stressful activity that I can work on at my own pace).

After much thought, I decided not to offer fanfiction on patreon, because I’m really uncertain and uncomfortable with the legalities of it all. And added stress and anxiety is probably not a good idea right now. I may set up a different page later offering my own original fiction and short stories for a small fee, but I’m not yet at that point. That’s an entirely different project, but I’ll keep you in the know about it (especially those of you who said you wanted to read my original work!)

My patreon page that I’m constructing now will be dedicated to offering writing tips & tricks, video tutorials, writing prompts, personalised critiques and editing of patron creative writing content (this could be something as simple as cursory proof-reading to in-depth content editing, depending on the reward tier chosen). Original creative content and transformative works will be welcome, but I will not be looking at academic writing because honestly, I’m sick of correcting academic work.

I’m hoping this will give me the ability to build my resume to transition from the field of education into something more writing/editing/journalistic based. Or, possibly even start my own proofreading/editing/content creation service. 

At the moment, I don’t have any major rewards up as I’m in the process of creating them - at my own pace and when I have the energy to do so. But for anyone who would like to start supporting me now while I get things up and running, I have enabled the general support incentive of $1 per month on the site. And I’m trying to come up with better goals, but as mentioned, this whole thing is a work in progress. ^_^

ORIGINAL FICTION

A little while back I mentioned waking up utterly inspired for an original story/novel and I’ve mostly been working on that when I’m in the writing mood and not feeling too stressed.

As mentioned, it’s a romance/mystery/comedy novel, kind of in the style of Naruto Gaiden, Tanya Huff’s Vicki Nelson series (go read it now if you haven’t!) and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mysteries, but in my own style. I’m basing the main characters heavily on our favourite SSS family, so hopefully that’s of interest to you guys. 

I’m currently in research mode for it, which is always a really cathartic part of the writing process for me. It involves a lot of reading of books/novels that I draw inspiration from and fact-checking (I know, I’m weird, but looking up/researching information is calming to me. I don’t know why...)

I’ve also been fleshing out the characters. Some of them even have names already *gasp*. Once I’m more sure of them, I’m going to exercise my creative muscles and try to create some concept art of the characters. I may make these available for you guys to look at here or on a different platform. Again, this will probably be for a small fee as it is original content.

We’ll see how all of this goes. It’s longterm goals right now, nothing concrete, but I feel like you guys have been so involved with me for so long you should know my plans.

FANFICTION

I work a little on my stories every day according to my energy and inspiration. 

I’m currently editing Samsara as it’s been a while since I looked at it and it could use some improvement. Also, I’m thinking of using it as a means of showcasing my editing/proofreading skills, so it’s both a labour of love and serves a greater purpose. 

Mostly I’ve been jotting down a few paragraphs here and there on some upcoming Indra/Shachi companion pieces and working on outlining my Tales of the Uchiha stories. Occasionally I’ll take a look at Never Tell Me The Odds and try to get back to it, as I know there’s a lot of interest in me finishing it, as well as You Are Cordially Invited. 

I hope I can come back to fanfiction soon, but of course, I’m not going to rush anything unless I’m feeling particularly inspired.

Anyhow, I just wanted to catch up with you guys and let you know what’s going on in my life right now. And I’m getting kind of tired now so I’m going to sign off for today.

I’ll check in with you guys again soon.

Lots of love!

Kriss

[so-caffeinated]

You are the first and only writer I have read for this fandom. I love your work so much, I've re read all your Arrow stories twice (even the Firefly one even though I've never watched it). Do you have any favorite Olicity fics to recommend to keep me from going crazy my first hiatus? (I binged the first 4 seasons last year)

This is awesome!! Thank you! I’m super honored. And do I have recs? Oh yes, I have recs. 

First rec isn’t actually a fic, it’s a resource… @theolicitylibrary. If you want recs, they’ve got ‘em. If you want a specific trope or rating or genre, they’ve got that, too. Have a hankering for a fic where Oliver and Felicity are business rivals? There’s a link for that. Where she’s the vigilante instead? There’s a link for that, too. Where one of them is a werewolf? Yup. They’re an amazing resource and you can lose days (and weeks and months) going through lists of alpha/omega tropes and rockstar AUs and friends-to-lovers fics. 

But more specifically… how about I rec some authors, too? I haven’t been reading much lately - I spend all my time writing - so I’m more comfortable reccing authors I know are amazing and whose works I’m looking forward to catching up on. They’re all consistently excellent. This is by no means an all inclusive list.

@dust2dust34 - My co-writer for FiCoN and personal fav (though I admit to no small amount of bias). If you want smut and you want details and mining a scene for feelings, Bre is your girl. She has plenty of oneshots to choose from as well as some multichapter fics.  

@machawicket - Look, I can’t overstate Danielle’s skills as a writer. My husband doesn’t even read my fic but he likes hers. Her writing is funny, sweet, sexy and heartbreaking in turn but it’ll never leave you unsatisfied. She’s a master. 

@anthfan - Nikki is one of those writers that’s so good she makes you forget you’re reading a story, because it’s just something you’re living. It’s an experience. Her characterization is spot-on and her plots are super engaging. She writes both one-shots and longer stories. They’re all worth your time.

@hannasus - Susannah’s writing is the perfect balance of detailed exposition and tight narrative that lets you feel like you’ve experienced the whole setting in just a few lines. Add to that fully in-character characterization and interesting plots that keep you reading and you really can’t go wrong. I recommend reading her Something Like Fate series ASAP as she’s adapted it into the basis for an original novel (which she’s publishing later this year) and it may not be up on AO3 a whole lot longer. 

@rosietwiggs - I can always tell Rosie’s work in just a few lines. Her narrative voice is so very distinctive and so gripping that it pulls me in effortlessly. I don’t believe she’s writing for Arrow anymore, but even her unfinished works are worth a read. I especially recommend The New Normal, Lengths and How The Mighty Fall In Love.

@supersillyanddorky06 - I’d be surprised if you hadn’t heard around about Matty’s writing because she’s right at the core of the Olicity fandom’s best known fanfics. With good reason. She’s prolific, plotty, smutty and evocative. If you have a weakness for Bratva!Oliver, I’d start here. 

@jsevick - I first met Jaimie after reading her Jurassic Park AU (really!) and being both delighted and amazed that she could make it work. I’m extremely lucky to have had her help as my beta pretty much ever since. If you like my writing, she’s a big part of it (along with @alizziebyanyothername). While she hasn’t posted in a while, her stories are just fun and if you like Gilmore Girls, her Arrow AU for Gilmore Girls is a treat!

@realityisoverrated-fic - I have no idea how you would feel about Smoaking Billionaires, Anon (I personally love it), but I’ve got to very highly recommend her Infinite Love series. At 110 parts and counting, it deals extensively with Oliver, Felicity and Tommy’s family longterm, including their kids. It’s alternately hot, sweet, and heartbreaking. But, most of all, it’s just well-written and interesting. If you’re willing to read them as a triad, I cannot recommend this strongly enough.

@geneeste - I would pay for more of Caught a Long Wind. Quite literally. But, that aside, Genie is a top notch writer. Whether her one-shots, WiPs or brilliant, ongoing epic co-written work with @machawicket, everything she writes should be devoured. 

@juliesioux - Julie uses the setting in a story as another character. There’s so much life to the world she puts her characters in that it practically breathes. Above that, she doesn’t shy away from hard topics. She will rush in head-first and dig deep to explore what her characters are going through. When you read her work, take her warnings seriously, but if you’re looking for a rich story to read that challenges you, she’s the perfect option to turn to.

@thatmasquedgirl - One of the most prolific Olicity fic authors (with 110 fics, including the absolute opus Technical Assistance). She’s consistently excellent, creative and she gives us as a fandom a whole lot to read. You can probably spent a huge chunk of hiatus happily buried in her work.

@entersomethingcleverhere - As a rule, I do not read first person stories. Not even when they’re published books sitting on shelves at my bookstore. I will break that rule for her writing. I like it that much. It’s heartfelt, moving, well-paced, and the connections between her characters are both real and evolving as you go. 

@arrow-through-my-writers-block - Shelby is… well, she’s just fun! She’s a solid writer who never disappoints. She’s got quite a few one-shots and a few ongoing multi-chapters. She’s probably best known for Starstruck, but all of her work is worth reading.  

@wagamiller - I just really love wagamiller’s work. Like a lot. There are very few authors I have on alert, but wagamiller is. Stories that make me laugh out loud are few and far between, but the 35B series surely did (as did @machawicket‘s Unbearable Hotness of Being, btw). Strong, sharp, witty writing that will leave you with a grin on your face.

@callistawolf - When I think of Callie’s work, I think of the fanfic version of sitting down with some hot cocoa and curling up with a warm blanket to watch a Hallmark Christmas special. She’s consistently excellent about finishing her work, which is lovely, and you can pretty much always count on a feel-good romantic ending. 

@hopedreamlovepray - Writing one-shots that stick with your reader is hard. Keeping a story to 1-2k and still being impactful is even harder. She absolutely manages it every time. Hope27 (as she’s known on AO3, so you can find her) has something like a hundred Olicity fics. These are, in my opinion, absolutely perfect if you want to lose yourself in a story on the train to work or during your lunch hour. 

@dettiot - Mel has a lot of great stories (like really great). My favorite is probably the “ink in my pen ran dry” series, but that’s a really tough call. Core Curriculum is super hot. The Felicity Stark series (crossover with Avengers-verse) is brilliant and fun and made me giddy while reading it. Beauty in the Breakdown is excellent. Jerry the EA series features one of the best takes on a relative OC I’ve read in fics. Love is Red made me squeal like a teenager with excitement (I’m not ashamed; it was warranted). And Two Men, Same Name (written with @melsanfo) is one of those that I am absolutely dying for the time to catch up on. While I’m at it, let’s rec Mel Sanfo, too. Her Masquerade is another novel-length fic absolutely worth a read. You really can’t go wrong with either of these ladies. 

@ash818 - Ash is freaking awesome. So, here’s the thing. Her Legacy series is mind-blowingly good. I have to admit, I’ve only read The Man Under The Hood in the series (this is intentional, for a reason you’ll see in a moment, but you need to read all of her work ASAP, okay? You do). This series… you’ve got future, married Olicity with teenage children as they continue their mission. There’s action, plot, heartbreak, angst, love, everything you could want. It’s in first person from their son’s perspective which is something I would probably never have clicked on in the first place had it not come highly recommended, but good lord is it amazing. All of her characters have life. All of them have depth. Her OCs are fully formed and vital to the story without overshadowing characters you already know. I haven’t read the later stories because after I decided to continue on with FiCoN verse, I didn’t want to inadvertently shade my views on Olicity’s growing family and continuing mission with anything she did in her series. If anything I do happens to run parallel to her work, I want to know beyond any doubt that it’s 100% coincidence. But her stories are something I’m absolutely itching to get to read… eventually. Her writing is excellent.  

@tinaday3w - I’m tempted to say “JUST READ IT” but that’s probably not enough… But really, just read it. No one does slow burn like Tina. Victorian era AU with pirate!Oliver? Yes, please. Hello. I’ll take two.

@emmilynestill - She’s just so good. And sooooo hot. I don’t know if you know this, Anon, but writing a good sex scene is hard. You don’t want your reader pulled out of the scene by wondering if a position is actually possible or when underwear came off (or if it did) or how gravity isn’t making them collapse. Like… smut is difficult. But it reads so effortlessly with Emmilyne’s writing. And, beyond that, she weaves it in beautifully with plot that keeps you wondering what’s next and emotion that builds and grows in an organic way. Orgasms and organic feelings. Honestly, what else could anyone really want?

@ruwithmeguys - Jess will gut you and leave you asking her to do it again. Indecent Proposal… just… read the warnings and be ready and read it with a lot of time on your hands and probably in chunks because ouch. But still… read it.

@academyofshipping - Sarah has this dry sense of humor that comes out in her fics that’s as clever as it is fun. Fluffy, funny, smart, cute and rich with feeling, Sarah’s writing is consistently strong. 

@someonesaidcake - Felice is fantastic for completed, multichapter AU fics. She has quite a few and I’m pretty sure every single one included smut at some point (if that’s your thing) as well as plot. 

And… I’ve spent like an hour and a half on this which was a lovely diversion for my day. I know I’m forgetting amazing people but I have to stop here. When in doubt, take the title of a fic you like, google that name in quotes along with “rec list” and find someone’s list where that story was included, then explore the others. Or, check the bookmarks on AO3 of an author you like, that’s a great place to mine for fics, too. And, again, I can’t rec @theolicitylibrary enough. That said… happy reading, Anon! We’ll get through this hiatus together… through fic and sheer force of will. ;-)

[amewinterswriting]

Life, the universe and a personal update on what’s going on

I’ve always been a bit quiet on my personal life on here. I regret that in some ways, kinda thankful for it in others. But here’s the short version of my last who knows how long.

I was working in a retail job and got fired for making a light-hearted comment that a customer took seriously. Middle management took her side (mostly because they were looking to reduce the number of staff for the off-season, and this was a convenient excuse). I did a lot of research into taking them to tribunal over it, but since I had been working there for less than 2 years there was little chance it would get to that stage, and I would need to pay costs upfront and deal with the stress and energy of doing so. Anyway, this isn’t a sob story, I just wanted to set the scene. Since then, I’ve moved out of the place I shared in London with friends (I miss you guys, if you’re reading. Not gonna tag you unless you want me to) because we all were having financial issues and have moved in with my Grandmother. I’ve been intermittently looking for jobs, working on my mental health issues (longterm depression, plus anxiety and stress caused mostly by losing my job and the financial problems that incurs) and trying to do productive things with my time and skills. I’m still looking for jobs, but it’s hard-going up here. I need to rely on public transport (at least until I learn to drive and get a car, which needs money, which needs work...), which means I have limited locations I can get to, and limited shift patterns I can practically take. I’d like to avoid retail (due to physical and mental stress), but I’m well aware that I don’t have that luxury, as I have no work experience in any other background, and ‘entry level’ jobs want around two years experience and (often) a driver’s license.  I suppose all this is leading up to the fact that while I’ve been unemployed, I’ve been trying to earn money through my creative endeavours. Which is hard as nails when you’re reluctant to put yourself out there. So, this is me, putting myself out there. I’m going to be promoting my writing and art on this blog a lot more, and also over on my twitter (@amewinters). There is one big issue - since Tumblr doesn’t allow posts with outside links to appear in searched tags, I am really really relying on word of mouth to people to see, reblog and spread the word that way. 

So yeah, you’re likely to see a lot more self-promotional stuff from me in the upcoming weeks. If you like it, I would be very grateful if you can reblog it, or if you know someone else who’d like my content, send it their way via the messenger. Thank you for reading!

[denverdigitalco]

Top Tips for Creating Web Content That Converts

Content is everything for a small business these days. Whether it's written content, video, or social media posting, your content is how you build your customer base and let them get to know you. It helps you create a reputable brand and makes the digital marketing side of your business run. But, how do you know if your content strategy is actually working? In this post, we're going to give you a short guide for creating web content that converts. After all, if your content isn't bringing in customers, then what are you putting all of that effort in for?

Build a Content Team

The days of running content with one or two people doing it part-time are gone. To truly succeed with your strategy, you need a dedicated team of folks analyzing trends and formulating plans. Content is a 24/7 thing now. You want creative people that have multi-faceted skill sets. People that can write engaging copy with an understanding of SEO, shoot and edit videos, and understand the ins and outs of social media are more in demand than ever.

Come Up With Short Term and Long Term Goals

Sit down with your content team and write down longterm goals, then pepper in short-term ones to hit along the way. Maybe a major goal is that you're trying to double your conversion rates from your blog posts. You can do that and also hit smaller goals, like broadening your range of topics, at the same time. Being able to tick off little achievements every week will boost morale and turn the culture into a winning one. That way, it won't be so surprising when you start to achieve those more grandiose goals.

Understand Your Audience (And Your Desired Audience)

The best way to bring in qualified leads is by understanding who your current customers are and who your desired customer base is. The more you know about them, the more you can do to appeal to them on a regular basis. Keep an eye on social media engagement and don't be afraid to ask your customers if they like what they're seeing. It's the best and quickest way to do more of what works and get rid of what doesn't.

Vary the Content

Don't be afraid of using multiple content streams. Your blog might be working just fine, but it'll be a whole lot more successful when it's working in conjunction with your YouTube channel and your Instagram account. Content comes from many different places these days and people like to see a company they like from different angles. Use what's available to you and start converting customers from many platforms instead of just one.

Reassess Your Web Content Constantly

Creating web content that works and drives sales isn't easy. If you allocate the proper resources, however, you can bring in a ton of leads and increase your conversion rates in ways you never thought possible. A little creativity goes a long way. At Denver Digital, we understand the importance of web design, SEO, and content marketing. Contact us today to find out how we can help your business make more out of your web content. Read the full article

[oliverphisher]

Hazel Edwards

Hazel Edwards writes quirky, thought-provoking fiction and fact for adults and children. Coping successfully with being different is a common theme. Co-written ‘junior novel ‘Hijabi Girl’ explores cultural diversity and is to be a Larrikin Puppets’ musical in 2020.

Best known for ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’ series, recently touring as a musical, Hazel has grandkids for whom she writes a story each birthday. ‘Outback Ferals’ her YA novel set in Darwin, is a sequel to ‘Antarctica’s Frozen Chosen’, researched during her 2001 Antarctic expedition. 

Hazel runs book-linked workshops on ‘Authorpreneurship’ and ‘Writing a Non Boring Family History’. ‘Complete Your Book in a Year’ is run at PROV (Public Records Office) and all finish their memoirs or history based books.

A National Reading Ambassador, in 2013 Hazel was awarded an OAM for Literature. Her memoir ‘Not Just a Piece of Cake-Being an Author’ explores longterm creativity.

Also on Audible, ‘Celebrant Sleuth; I do or die’ an adult mystery with Quinn her innovative sleuth who continues in ‘Wed, Then Dead on the Ghan’ mini sequel. ‘Almost a Crime’, short crimelettes are also available on Kindle.

‘Ho! Ho! Ho There’s a Hippopotamus on Out Roof Eating Christmas Cake (Penguin) is the seventh and last in the classic picture book series. 2020 is the 40th anniversary celebration of the cake-eating hippo.

2012 Ambassador for National Year of Reading, and three times (2010, 2011, and 2012) nominee ALMA award, Hazel, received Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for literature in 2013. Hazel became the Soceity of Women Writers' Patron in 2013.

In the two years, since you were last interviewed, the genre in which you write has changed from children to adult mystery/crime.  Formats have changed too. And some earlier works have moved into new mediums like comic graphic novels. Why was that?  

Although my cake-eating hippo character is celebrating 40 years of being constantly in print and three generations have loved him, I wanted a new plotting challenge which could use varied settings.  I always wrote across genres, but the hippo picture books were the best known.

Quinn, my sleuth character works as a celebrant, and this enables her to move into different cultures and geographic settings for each story which is a self contained chapter in the original longer work. She’s a quirky problem solver and murder isn’t always on the agenda. 

Originally I wrote her with a series in mind, and thought she would adapt well to television.  That hasn’t happened, YET. But she has travelled onto AUDIBLE via my voice.

Learning to audio record such a long novel work was a new experience although I had recorded shorter picture books and junior novels like ‘Hijabi Girl’.  Just the sheer length of 9 hours finished audio story indicates much longer rehearsal/recording time. Took about four months, with studio visits twice weekly. Spring Studio producer Harry Williamson was very patient with me. But having an author record their own story in studio gives special nuances and having a female Australian voice was vital as my Quinn character is of diverse gender and most AUDIBLE actor voices are American.

As an author I’m an intellectual risk-taker and hope  my innovations will be seen as strengths not weaknesses. But sometimes, the timing is wrong.

‘Wed, Then Dead on The Ghan’ is a mini- sequel to ‘Celebrant Sleuth; I Do or Die’ and I had qualms about its brevity as a stand-alone but the story actually matched the length of earlier chapters of complete stories in the original book which I had designed as possible TV episodes. 

My working methods have changed too. I write 6am-8 am on original fiction as mysteries are the most challenging to plot and I need to be mentally fresh. As a fulltime writer with a big backlist, the literary administivia seems to be growing. Other authors have also commented on this escalation too because with new formats which require clarification of rights, copyright issues or pirates pinching stuff, the legal aspects and form filling and filing of authors’ work is more complicated and takes time from new work.

So although ‘Wed, Then Dead on The Ghan’ is only 7,000 words and a mini sequel in e book and a cute, small format, I know exactly how long it took. After a research trip on the Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin in late January, I wrote 2 hours every morning, until late June. Then it was edited, the cover designed and published by October.  Earlier I had taken over a year to write the original Quinn ‘Celebrant Sleuth’ but for that initial concept , characters had to be developed and a country town scenario which was used in subsequent stories. With ‘The Ghan’ story I had to check facts about the real train but also it was an experiment in writing ‘short’ for e-format. And of experimenting with a tiny book format which sells at 99 cents on Amazon

Having a versatile character like a celebrant enables me to utilize different settings and include my travel research.  So I live more intensively by looking at what might go wrong. Tends to worry the OH&S people.

What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? 

Probably the first one I was able to read by myself influenced me the most. There was a joy in cracking the code of the words. And I can remember Blyton’s ‘The Land of Far Beyond’ which was my first experience of a book with subtext which was a kind of quest and not just a ‘what happens next’ story for kids. Although I had a Grandma who read me lots of stories, and who taught me to read, I didn’t know Blyton’s book was a children’s version of ‘Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress,’ but I liked the ‘journey with a purpose’ structure. That’s what writers do in real life travel-research: travel with a purpose. (But didn’t know then I’d go to Antarctica etc to write).

George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ influenced me as a student when I realized it wasn’t just about animals taking over the farm, it was a political and historical allegory. So although I am not religious nor political in adulthood, I’m drawn to books which have layers of thought as well as a good story and insight into another world. Possible why I take cultural risks in some of the subjects about which I’ve co-written, such as ‘Hijabi Girl’ and  ‘f2m; the boy within’ about trans youth and my asexual sleuth Quinn in adult mystery ‘Celebrant Sleuth: I do or Die’. 

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? 

Most writers struggle to survive financially. They are short of time, money and get little recognition at the beginning. Add to that family responsibilities and there’s not much slack. I coined the term ‘Authorpreneur’ where a writer becomes a solo practitioner in the small business of ideas. Being an author requires a portfolio of skills, but you also need to retain a quirky enjoyment in your subjects.

And it’s part of seeing yourself as a business, not a victim of rejection. So you pitch ideas, have a business plan and keep to deadlines. You also choose your projects with a specific audience in mind.  And if you get rejected, you recycle in another format or to another publisher.

But occasionally your subjects may be ahead of current interests. We got 41 rejections on ‘Hijabi Girl’ and now it has been reprinted several times as social issues and perceptions have changed. Larrikin Puppets have created a musical puppetry show for 2020 Book Week and were oversubscribed when they used crowdfunding to help with puppet development. Society now wants works to explore tolerance, not hate, especially after the NZ Christchurch terrorist bombing.

The concept of coping successfully with being different has always intrigued and this had meant some risky cultural research in gender areas. And physical research in places like Antarctica where I was an expeditioner with the Australian Antarctic Division in 2001.

As a teenager I worked in my family country general store before and after school and at weekends. Although I wasn’t keen at the time, it gave me exposure to gossip (research for a writer), ability to say ‘No’, handling maths via money and a work ethic of the self employed. I knew a 9-5 occupation was not for me. Neither was a routine job. 

Often when things have gone wrong, that provides drama for writing. The best stories come from things going wrong like our leaking roof which lead to the children classic picture book series ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’. Everybody has ‘failures’, it’s what you do about them afterwards that matters.  A writer can utilize the feelings in their characters to create more realistic drama.

Are there any quotes you live your life by?

Persist.  Read widely.  Choose others with a similar work ethic. Have fun.  Do participant-observation research where you ‘go and do’ in order to write realistically afterwards. I’ve been hot air ballooning, trekked in Nepal, visited a funeral parlour behind the scenes and experienced ‘a working day in the life of a ‘fireworks expert’ (pyrotechnician), oil rig engineer and even a chopper pilot.

I tend to decide in the general direction in which I want to go, such as children’s theatre or learning to audio record and then look for opportunities to acquire the skills by collaborating with others, or taking on small projects. Or I might get interested in subjects such as celebrants (prior to my adult mystery ‘Celebrant Sleuth I do or Die’ ) and immerse myself in their workstyle. I collect anecdotes which are mini stories.

Now I’m officially ‘old’ (you can tell the age of authors by checking their year of birth on the publisher’s page at the front of the book) I’m continuing to work on creative projects as writers never retire. That’s a bonus.

Child-like enthusiasm is the answer for a longterm career as a writer, so you continually to be enthused and write fresh material for your readers. Not the same book ten times. Be wary of the thinly disguised memoir of a writer not being able to write and blaming on writers’ block.

What is one of the best investment in a writing resource you’ve ever made? 

The Iphone has enabled me to take photos at literary events and use them immediately on social media. I’m not visual nor a good photographer, but have learnt to crop and get one generic photo of me holding the relevant book against a relevant background, which can be used many times. e.g. Our co-creators photo of Hijabi Girl launch.

As an author speaker, the IPad is the most useful device. Fewer props to carry as I can have dot points in the size font I can read on a speakers’ platform. Instead of actual books I can carry covers only. And I now use the ‘notes’ via the Cloud, to transfer between my devices. That saves repetition.

For exercise I listen to audio books as I walk and these run from my IPad now that airlines permit you to use this device inflight. So I can work on existing files which I have preloaded. I’m answering these interview questions while at the hairdresser prior to a photo shoot as an author

I also have my generic talks on a usb which can go into my hosts’ computer and show via data projector. Also carry a backup on a brightly colored cord in case usb gets lost or forgotten. My usb talks are mainly quirky and versatile visuals which can be used with different aged and types of audiences. The aim is generic props.

I’m not a digital native but I aim to learn one tiny digital skill per day, it might be as small as how to attach a hashtag to a Tweet. My marketing manager daughter overhauled me digitally with an updated author website about ten years ago. She also taught me to think and write for a visual generation via Twitter etc and learn to use photos whereas I think in abstract.

So writers need to continue to learn. Currently I’ve enrolled for a forensic DNA weekend course, to improve my knowledge of police procedures and to ensure I don’t make factual mistakes in plots.

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love? 

I’ve been doing Belly Dancing 101 on Monday nights 6.30-7.30 for 13 years. It’s my therapy. I meet women who lead very different lives from me and we all listen to each other.

In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life? 

It’s impossible to fit in everything and life can become stuffed with ‘should do’ things. So just do part of one tiny task towards the ‘big project’. Start with jotted notes. Or just answer ONE question in a blog interview like this, even if you have to leave in 10 minutes. Instead of keeping a ‘To Do’ list, I write DONE.  DETOUR or USELESS. Detour, means to have another go later. Aware that I need to de-clutter my literary files. So I try one small area late in the day when I tend to be braindead.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author? What advice should they ignore? 

Teach your family to cook. I object to the use of ‘writers’ block’ as an excuse for not producing.  A disciplined writer can produce to a deadline, but not all the experience may be euphoric.  In my memoir ‘Not Just a Piece of Cake: Being a Writer’ (Brolga) I explore the ‘Plateau of Boredom’.  Collaborating with digitally skilled, younger co-creators helps you learn new formats for stories, and there’s a purpose in the learning by doing.

Recently our ‘f2m;the boy within’ inspired the development of a graphic comic novel ‘The Boy Within’. This concept is still in progress with the two transguys who are familiar with the constantly changing gender language and issues. So acknowledge when you need to delegate or seek expert help. Getting the language right for your audience is vital. Extract: The Plateau of Boredom 

The Process of Creativity: or the Writer’s Block You’re Not Having! Creativity is a map.  I have to reach a plateau of boredom, a feeling that everything is flat and monotonous. To avoid the ‘nothing- ness’, I put two things together that have never been in that combination before, which become a new idea for a story. 

To avoid being stuck on that plateau forever, I write an alternative mental world which provides the terrain of variety. Rivers of thoughts. Occasional peaks. Rocky stretches of plotting when I have to find alternative routes. And glimpses of characters. (Now I could have added ‘in the fog’ but that would have been stretching the analogy).

This morning I woke up with that map image.  I hadn’t thought of creativity quite in that way before. Early mornings are when I have my best ideas, before the minutia of domesticity takes over. That’s why when my children were younger; I did my best snatched writing before they woke or when I was away alone in motels on author tours. 

On reflection, perhaps weekly family orienteering on Sundays provided the map image. Trying to find an elusive control on a bush map when you’re tired, knowing it’s there somewhere, but you have to stop, and rest for a moment. And then I’d go back and try to find the route, like plotting a novel. Using an existing map is one challenge. Creating the map is another.

What marketing tactics should authors avoid?

Ego.  There’s a difference between marketing the subject of a book, and trying to play ‘celebrity’.  Always consider what your audience wants to know. And craft it for them.

What new realizations helped you achieve your goals? 

Co-write if you intend to be a long term author, so you will continue to learn in new areas. Be willing to constantly learn new skills as the means and format of conveying ideas and stories changes.

And if you are writing of another culture, having a co-author from that culture ensures your work is authentic.  You also feel morally obliged to finish your share before your next meeting, so it’s a great way to overcome procrastination.

Recently my 20 year old YA novel ‘Fake I.D.’ was translated into Tamil and launched in Chennai, India.  It was a thrill to realise a story had not dated and was moving into a new culture.

The developments in multi-media have meant that ‘old’ stories can be adapted into new mediums. ‘Hippo Hippo the Musical’ the Garry Ginivin production has toured nationally and was inspired by the cake eating series of hippo picture books. Sitting in the audience, watching the actors AND the audience gave me great creative satisfaction.

Any other tips?

Stop reading ‘How To Write’ articles and actually start producing.

________

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[iservice16-blog]

SEO Tips to Dominate the Competition in Your Niche Market

Search engine optimization is very tricky because each year Google is making changes to their algorithm. The old fashion techniques are no longer working as well, and bloggers are trying to find creative ways to rank their content. It essentially comes down to the following: If you can rank your content higher than your competition, you’ll be able to drive a lot of traffic to your website. With the popularity of social media, this targeted traffic can double or even triple within a short time. With that said, I’ll be exploring 7 ways which bloggers can increase their rankings in 2017. I’ll visit what expert bloggers are saying about linking building, and what strategies they have been using to get an edge on their competition. Let’s get started. 1 – Focus on Web Analyzer tools These are tools that provide you with a lot of interesting data. We are now in a time where you shouldn’t be wasting time building links that don’t add value. This means you should know who your competition and what they are doing to outrank you in the SERP’s. Many new web analyzer tools will provide you with loads of great information like: Who links to your competition The value of each link The referring domain The referring anchor text Current keyword rank in search engines And much more. What all this information does is help you focus your attention on the data that matters. This will help you put your time, effort and skills where they matter most. But, it’s important you use only the best web analyzer tools so do your research online and start to research some of them. 2 – Optimize Your Website It’s important to optimize your website for performance because other factors matter when it comes to ranking. There are now over 200 ranking factors and load time, mobile compatibility, clean design, and reduced clutter are all included. If your site is lacking in one of these areas, it can quickly pull down the rankings of your site as a result of it. With a very high performing site, you are increasing the user experience, and this means a lot to search engines. This is especially true with mobile speed and responsiveness as well. Companies like Google are in business because they provide people with information in an organized fashion. Not only that, they provide people with the best information available online. The next time you are skimming through your website, look for ways you can optimize your blog it going forward by either changing the content font, color, and making it mobile compatible. You also want to test the current load speed which must fall below 3 seconds. 3 – SEO Traffic, Remarketing and Emails With so much emphasis on ranking higher in the search results and getting as much free organic traffic to your site as possible, site owners should want to take as much opportunity of this high-quality traffic as possible. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by setting up a remarketing campaign through Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, or any other remarketing platform. When moving forward with a remarketing campaign, it’s important to make sure you have ad creative for all sizes and ad spots possible. Digital Monopoly Perth has a great article on their site that shows all of the sizes and image formats that are currently being used for Google Adwords. The best way to rebrand and remarket to an audience is to have your ad banners display your logo, site colors, and also a call to action that will remind them on why they were previously at your site in the first place. At the same time, while we are talking about the importance and value of search traffic, it’s key to get these users on your mailing list as well. You can see a perfect example of how this is being used at TerritorySupply.com. This site ranks very well for a wide range of products they have listed on their site. While the average person is going to visit the search from a search they did in Google, it’s likely most of them won’t make a purchase the first time around. The best way to turn this organic visitor into a longterm visitor and potential customer, is to offer them a free 20% discount coupon and getting them onto their mailing list. This is a tactic that is being used by millions of sites, but only a small portion of those sites are doing it correctly. Take advantage of what popup tools like OptinMonster have to offer, by creating different popups and call to actions based on the pages your audiences are visiting, and also where they are coming from. Remember, most SEO visitors to your website will leave and never come back after the first visit. It doesn’t have a lot to do with your content, but instead that there are simply too many sites and distractions out there already. 4 – On-Page SEO Many bloggers spend too much time building external links but fail to optimize their own website. There is no point in building links with strategic anchor text if your website doesn’t have the same keywords in the title, description, and URL. You should spend a lot of time with on-page SEO and understand what keywords work best at ranking your website. Personally, I think you should be focusing on the title, URL, description, and body. In the body, you should include not only targeted keywords but some which are related to the main keyword you are trying to rank for. It’s stated, 75% of your ranking has to do with on-page SEO so you should work very hard on optimizing your site, and content. When it comes to On-Page SEO and ranking factors, there are always going to be debates and discussions on which methods work best. Fortunately, there are now more reports out than ever before, showcasing which factors are likely working best. You can see a preview of these ranking factors in the graphic below from SearchMetrics.com. 5 – SkyScraper Technique For you to outrank your competition, you’ll have to get creative, and nothing is more creative than the skyscraper technique. It involves finding related content to yours which has been published and looking for broken backlinks within the content. When you locate them, you need to first figure out what you can do to replace this link. Since your searching on a relevant blog, you know you can write content which is better, and up to date. After, you simply contact the blog owner letting them know about your content, then asking them to link to it as a replacement. Many blog owners don’t have a problem replacing low-quality content with higher quality content. If the link is broken, then you’ve increased your chance of securing that link. However, just make sure you focus on quality when writing content, and you find a blog which is related to your niche. The last thing you want to do is ask for a link for a non-relevant blog. When it comes to using any type of SEO or ‘working strategies’, it’s important that you are still relying on new and working SEO methods, and not old ones. A good way to stay updated with these changing trends is to keep an eye on what your competition is doing, while also looking at the most recent infographics, case studies and SEO reports from different agencies, especially like the one below. 6 – YouTube Traffic This platform has changed the way people interact online so make sure you make use of it. With the right type of videos, you can generate a lot of traffic to your blog within a short time. However, for you to benefit, you’ll have to start creating videos which are not hard at all. You can use affordable software, and many of the operating systems come built-in with a video recorder, camera, etc. Do some research on YouTube looking at what others have created in terms of video, and try to create something better. Here’s the trick, Once you go live, you want to make sure you optimize your video by adding the right keywords in the title of the video, description, and you add a link to your blog. You can add links to your social media accounts too. Again, create high-quality videos offering a lot of great value, and you’ll increase your brand awareness within a short time. 7) Social Media Traffic The biggest networks are Facebook, Twitter and Google+ so use them to build an audience. Imagine having 100,000 Twitter followers, and what this can do for your traffic when you share a valuable post with them. Top bloggers generate 5,000 visitors within minutes after sharing their recent content with their followers. You can also build your brand by taking advantage of Facebook Ads which is great to promote an event, brand, post or even take a survey. Social media is able to connect and engage readers quickly so don’t let this avenue slip out of your hands. Here’s the great thing, to join these networks doesn’t cost any money, and all it takes to increase traffic is a retweet from a power blogger in your niche. It’s important to network with other bloggers within your niche because they’ll be more than happy to share your content with their followers. Whenever you decide to share your content on social media, it’s important to make sure you optimize your title and add keywords within the description before sharing. This helps build engagement too. Getting the Most Out of Your SEO Efforts in 2018 As you can imagine, with more websites and blogs on the internet than ever before, it’s going to be tough to rank your site on the first page of Google — however, it still is possible. Bloggers, brands, and businesses that want to rank higher in Google, need to put in the time and effort to make sure each of the factors above are implemented and live on their sites asap. Follow these SEO tips, implement them into your site, and then watch and see as your SEO and site traffic continue to improve. https://own-webpage.eu/loos-weights/2018/07/27/seo-tips-to-dominate-the-competition-in-your-niche-market-2/

[flawedconqueror]

Your editorial experience : research, fact checking for stories

working in school newspaper go on site to write stories, helping with student papers, consulting students for intended meaning of stories, my own articles 

research papers, using primary, secondary sources 

as an editorial assistant on docs n’ dots, finding leads, managing media lists, pitching stories, veryfiying places

for annual reports, newsletters, often entails research

Your experience with the entire Adobe Creative Suite

Photoshop creating graphics, flyers and signage for the lobby screen

Religious observances, schedule updates

Publisher was is simialr to Adobe (create reports, newsletters etc.) , I am currently learning online about other adobe softwar

Your portfolio - evidence of published work and articles. I did send over the links you shared with me which definitely caught their interest so they might want to discuss that piece.

Finally, why you would be interested in a temp to perm role with their team – what will help you stay motivated and engaged through the assignment

the abiliy to grow, technology is always changing and this role will keep me engaged and focus

dairy farmers encompasses many topics from technology, mental health, world trade, you are not limited to singular tasks

i believe it would provide longterm fulfillment and engagement in a constantly evolving industry, further growth and development to take on larger roles

the role is predominantly focused on writing and research, which is something i do in my freetime. doing a role that is interesting to me will keep me engaged and focused. i can work independently and i am quite resourceful

Research, writing and editing will be 70-80% of the role

writing ggrant proposals, referring to records, and data to compile stats

Opportunity to support team with some of their event prep.

i assist with set up and take down of events

Strong writing, editing, researching and fact-checking skills, and evidence of published articles (news and feature-length).

Strong ability to transform complex subject matter into plain language

it is crucial where i work that text is simple and not complicated due to the senior audience, i also adhere to aoda standards

Eye for detail when it comes to writing, editing and layout design

Basic photography and interviewing skills

3rd annual ghanian canadian youth summit, weddings, funerals, toronto challenge, bbqs, plays ( interviewed building first rocketship to mars, nat geo vet...time magazine photographer_

Experience and proficiency writing headlines, decks, photo captions

newsletter that published 3 times, work with contributing writers, edit stories, make formatting/editorial revisions, provide decks for articles i write

Ability to work with contributing writers, edit articles, source photos (including photo caption and credit), and see assignments through to the end

usually 4-6 for any given writing project, must be flexible, organized, compotent and adapatable to conflicting projects, the ability to prioritize tasks

Needs to be independent and resourceful when researching and reporting on stories

what are the 6 months, what inspire you to work here, what 

Mission Statement

“To provide leadership and excellence in the production and marketing of Canadian milk”.

Vision Statement

“A dynamic profitable growing Canadian dairy industry”.

DFO Core Values

At DFO, we also have a set of core values that guide our behaviour, underpin our operational activity and focus us as an organization.  They include:

Leadership – We lead by committing to continuous personal and organizational development.

Trust - We create, build and maintain trust by being honest, open and transparent.

Respect – We listen, accept differences and work together.

Integrity – We are consistent in our actions and values.

Teamwork– We help each other succeed through collaboration.

Fairness - We ensure equitable application of rules and benefits.

Accountability – We hold ourselves and each other responsible for delivering results.

dairy farmers