#inserting song lyrics I assigned to this piece just because I can

[mamulgogi]

Redraw of my favourite panel from issue #21 of Posehn & Duggan's run

[deliriumsdelight7]

More questions 😅 lol. 1, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 21, 22 (whichever you think of), 26, 27, 28, 29?

Bestie, you are now keeping me from chopping like 7 cups of veggies for dinner. I love it.

1. When did you start writing? How?

The first thing I ever wrote that made me realize that I loved writing was this short story I had to write in the third grade. I don’t remember much about it, except that it involved aliens and a really nice biker gang. In sixth or seventh grade I started writing (but never posted) Sailor Moon self-insert fan fiction. I was Sailor Sun. I had my own team of Sailor Scouts and we had a rock band. …Yeahhhh.

Later in middle school, I started writing a smutty story about a thinly-veiled self-insert and a sexy long-haired rockstar. It got smutty. My mom found it. The horror lives on to this day.

In high school I started writing Final Fantasy VII fic, and eventually started trying for OC that was basically thinly-veiled FFVII fic. I had this bright green three-ring binder that I wrote in. I took it with me EVERYWHERE - even slept with it - and wouldn’t let anyone look at it.

Then in college, the inspiration just… dried up. Completely. I wrote nothing else until about two years ago, when I started watching Once Upon a Time and fell in love with the chemistry between Robert Carlyle and Emilie De Ravin. I’ve been obsessively writing fic ever since.

8. Have any comments/tags/responses on a fic of yours ever made you laugh, cry or both?

I’ve never had one make me cry, for the simple fact that I don’t believe compliments when they’re thrown my way. If you compliment my fic, you are obviously mistaken or just being nice. That being said, when people yell at me for torturing the characters, I always cackle maniacally.

10. How many unfinished works are in your drafts?

Ugh. Too many. I’d put it at around 20.

13. Multichapter fics or one shots?

Multichapter. WHICH IS EXACTLY MY PROBLEM. I come up with fic ideas quicker than I can finish them.

15. Angst or fluff?

Aaaaaaaangst. Angst is easy. I struggle with fluff.

18. Which is more difficult, the title or the summary?

The summary! For titles, you’re gonna get a random song lyric, and you’re gonna like it.

21. Do you listen to music as you write?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on what I need in that moment.

22. If you had to assign a theme song to [fic title], what would it be?

Um. I dunno. But I’ll give you the source of the title for “One More Time, Steal My Breath. It’s from the song “Kiss and Control” by AFI, off their Decemberunderground album.

26. Is there a specific scene or scenario you’re looking forward to most? (No, you don’t have to give away spoilers!)

Yessssssss. In OMT,SMB, Eddie and Chrissy are going to eventually have reason to return to Hawkins. *rubs hands together with glee*

27. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

Two, yes. One is unhappy endings. Any fic I start will have an eventually happy ending (Y’know, if I ever actually finish it). The other is reader insert. Can’t do it. Reader insert fics pretty much by necessity feature an utterly bland protagonist. Where’s the fun in that? That’s like giving me a Bud Lite when I asked for a microbrew stout, or a Twinkie when I asked for tiramisu.

28. Share a piece from one of your current WIPs!

Mmmmm I’m gonna hold off on this, only because I haven’t done my weekly Six Sentence Sunday snippet yet.

29. Best writing advice for other writers?

Try new things, but don’t be afraid to admit when something doesn’t work for you. Staying in your comfort zone will lead to your writing stagnating, but forcing yourself to write something that you’re not that into isn’t any better. If you’re forcing yourself to write something that isn’t doing it for you, that lack of passion will reflect in your writing.

Thanks for the asks!

[anxiety-banana]

I’m going through my google drive (bc google’s being a butt and telling me i don’t have space-), which I’ve had for five years. Now, for some context, I don’t like just about anything I wrote before 2020. That leaves three years of cringy writing projects, audio files, and old photos. And much, much, more.

(keep in mind, most everything I wrote as a middle schooler I shared with my friends. They got to experience e v e r y t h i n g)

Here’s the running list of freaky things I’ve found:

-A Spiderman fic I wrote before I knew what fanfiction was

-Not one, not two, but three writing assignments where I had to write about my favorite book character. They’re all about Hermione, and they’re all hilariously terrible (I think I gave @ashgryff​ a heart attack when i showed them to her)

-My first self insert/projection story! The main character “Carrie” was discovered for her singing and guitar playing when she was twenty five, by playing in a cafe in her hometown.

-4000 words of an end of the world story where the main character’s love interest was the immortal brother of her adoptive father. don’t ask.

-An audio recording of me, singing Into The Unknown, in the echoey stairway of my old house

-A document titled “Butterfly”, with the only content being a recipe for waffles

-A picture of me and my kindergarten teacher. I look incredibly uncomfortable.

-A legend of Zelda fanfiction my friend wrote (and he tole ME fanfiction was lame. there’s ten thousand words of that thing written, with a full book cover)

-My library’s employee dress code (I worked there over the summer) that I typed up in thirty seconds flat while my supervisor was out of the room because I realized I didn’t have it

-Chords and lyrics to two separate Studio C sketches (and yes i can play and sing the entirety of “Everything Sounds Nicer When You Sing”)

-My weird, confusing version of Kung Fu Panda, but human, and I basically made myself into the main character. I had an obsession with injuring my favorite characters in 2018 too!

-Merlin fanfiction! An unfortunate amount of Merlin fanfiction. I had a celebrity crush on Colin Morgan, what can I say (can’t say i’m completely over it but shhhh 🤫)

-A retelling of the Myth Of King Arthur and Merlin, where Merlin is actually Meril, and a woman??.

-A story I basically mooched off of Pinterest, changed a few things, then showed to my dad to get him off my back about wanting to see what I wrote. He still thinks I wrote it

-2019′s failed NaNoWriMo that has the single best piece of writing I’ve ever done, surrounded by three thousand words of stuff I hate

-The Phoenician alphabet key

-Every photo taken for my sixth grade photography class. Every. Single. Photo.

-A photo I found of someone’s grave who had my name. Loving wife and mother!

-Three installations of the podcast I “was going to start” in seventh grade

-So much bad poetry

-Psalm 150, typed out in that font that makes it easier for someone with dyslexia to read (??? idk either)

-A short story I wrote about me and my friend going on a road trip when we were eighteen. I entered it in a writing contest. It didn’t win.

-A musical I wrote. I didn’t get past page three, but I wrote two songs for it!

-A story with multiple characters telling stories from first person, and each character had a different font. Each time the story switched to a different person, it switched fonts (Characters included Ariel, Georgia, Indie, and Garamond, aka Gary)

-An empty document, titled “Comedy Sketch Idea (don’t forget)”. Well, I forgot, little me

-A few instalments of a show, where my friend and I would record ourselves as if we were these wacky, radio show hosts. We all had different names and they were all hilariously wacky. I’m never getting rid of those files, ever

-A rip off of Death In Paradise, the main detective being a woman in her twenties, blind, with a guide dog. I was obsessed with two things in seventh grade: Murder Mysteries, and Molly Burke.

-A really depressing story I wrote about having an ED

-MORE sixth grade photography

-An untitled document with nothing but the line “What must I do to show this pain”

-An untitled document with nothing but the line “The brunette looked a little dazed walking into” (no, the sentence wasn’t finished)

-An untitled document with nothing but the line “We were tired of being feared.”

-At least three blank, untitled documents.

I deleted SO many things and I still only got less than ten percent more space 

-_-

But this list was fun at least!

[zwei-the-penguin-with-a-pen]

‘Honeybee’

A quick Valentine’s Day fic from your friendly neighborhood Penguin, Zwei!

Fandom: RWBY

One-Shot Fluff

Words: 2115 ish

Ships: Bumbleby with a side of White Rose

Insert Song: ‘Honeybee’ by Steam Powered Giraffe. Listen to it, it jams!

Synopsis: Blake sings Yang a song during a lazy-ish day at the dorm. Bees with suffering Weiss. A hit of White Rose at the end. Was feeling mushy since it’s Heart-Shaped Candy Day. Enjoy?

Blake lay in her bottom bunk, strumming her acoustic guitar with a jazzy rhythm. She plucked and popped the strings in time, the metal vibrating against the wood and projecting the sultry sounds of her mellifluous chords. Her gold eyes gleamed like the beams of a sunset. She swayed to her rhythm, her black hair bouncing as it waved in time. Yang could hardly take her eyes away from the hairpin curve of Blake's grin. She found herself moving to Blake's tunes, her golden mane waving here and there. Yang could see her girlfriend's lips curve further upward at that, almost into a satisfied smirk. "You like my jams, Goldie?" Yang gasped, blushing bright red at Blake's question.

Ah, Blake had the power to turn Yang's face into a tomato. She was pretty good at it, although she didn't have to try. Blake gazed into Yang's eyes, the soft purple irises like lavender flowers. Once she was no longer a tomato, Yang picked her head up and grinned her confident smile back at Blake. The sight of Yang's shimmering teeth and her jawline's sharp curve caused Blake's eyes to turn to stars. She even forgot the chord she was supposed to play next. She cursed under her breath.

"GAY!" Weiss shouted playfully from her desk, where she'd been completing assignment after miserable assignment for hours now. If her hair had not already been whiter than snow, the stress of these classes would have turned it that way. It was almost like every professor at Beacon thought that their class was the only one their students were studying.

It didn't help that Ruby distracted her all the time. The rosy little redhead didn't do it intentionally; she was just too cute for her own good... or Weiss's, for that matter. What with her eyes that shone like precious metal, her perpetually smiling face perfectly framed by her bob of red-tipped brown hair, and her muscles. Good gods, Ruby's arms were shredded. Lugging around a 40 some odd pound gardening tool was no easy task, Weiss figured. Her legs were toned and muscular from ceaseless running, too.

"You would know, wouldn't you, Princess?" Blake nicked. Weiss rolled her icy blues at the remark, continuing her mountain of homework. Blake strummed a new tune, her jangly chords dancing through the room at her command. Yang stood up and danced along, making Blake's face a tomato but failing to break her concentration. Blake's changed tunes abruptly, moving into a softer piece. Yang found it hard to dance to this pattern so she took a seat on the bed next to Blake. The way Blake's fingers moved across the neck of her guitar hypnotized Yang. She almost didn't realize Blake asked her a question.

"So, you want to hear a new jam I'm working on?" Blake had asked. Yang blushed lightly as she came to and nodded.

"I'm always down to hear you, Blakey! What have you got for me?" Yang queried, her lilac eyes shining at the idea. Blake gave a half-smirk as she picked out a few notes and strummed a new beat.

"Well... there's this girl, right?"

"Yeah?" Yang played along. She could hear Weiss making exaggerated gagging noises from her desk, but she paid the Princess no mind. Her Black Cat was talking, and Blake's was the only voice the Golden Dragon cared to hear.

"We've been going kind of steady, and I'm really into her. I think she likes me almost as much, but I know I like her more." Blake's pupils seemed to widen as she looked at Yang again. Yang could get lost in the sunset of Blake's golden eyes. She blushed when one of Blake's cat ears wiggled and twitched.

"Could you two get any gayer?" Weiss casually asked, continuing to throw shade at the two Bees. The couple paid her no attention. Shade was Weiss's second language after all, so everyone in her vicinity hardly noticed it anymore.

"Ooh, did you write a song for your pretty lady friend, Kitty Cat?" Yang asked excitedly. She could feel the stars in her eyes already. Blake smirked her catty smirk again, driving Yang positively bonkers.

"I certainly did. Tell me if you think she'll enjoy it, please?" Blake replied, strumming all the while. She found the beat again once she stopped talking and began her song.

You didn't have to look my way

Your eyes still haunt me to this day

But you did, yes you did

You didn't have to say my name

Ignite my circuits, start a flame

But you DI-I-I-ID

Oh, Turpentine, erase me whole,

Because I don't want to live my life alone.

Well, I was waiting for you all my life

Oh, Why?

Set me free, my Honey-BEE-EE-EE-EE-EE!

Honey BEE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE!

Blake usually didn't look around the room while she was singing or playing the guitar, but this song was just chords so it was simple enough that she had the chance. Yang's eyes were slowly turning into hearts at the lyrics. Blake also swore she saw Weiss lightly bouncing along to her new song. If the resident Snow White enjoyed it, then the song was good. She figured she could sing one more verse and chorus, then.

You didn't have to smile at me

Your grin's the sweetest that I've ever seen

But you did, yes you did

You didn't have to offer your hand

Because since I've kissed it I am at your command

But you DI-I-I-ID

Oh, Turpentine, erase me whole

Because I don't want to live my life alone

Well, I was waiting for you all my life!

Oh, Why?

Set me free, me Honey-BEE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE

Honey-BEE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE

Blake's strumming came to a sudden stop. With her snarkiest grin, she told Yang, "That's all you get for free, Honeybee!" The hearts in Yang's eyes were all the proof Blake needed that her song was perfect.

"Oh, there's more?" Yang pleaded, putting on her best pout for good measure.

"I think I have a bridge that could work with the song... but again, I'll have to charge you to hear that."

"Name your price, my love!" Yang commanded, her voice booming through the dorm room.

"Twenty thousand Lien!" Blake joked. Weiss's face hit the table at that.

"Geez, do you think I'm made of money, Kitty Cat?" Yang replied with more pouting.

"I accept butt rubs, too. You have to match my price, though. One rub equals one Lien. That's my last offer, Honeybee!" Blake replied with a chortle. Yang laughed under her breath but attempted to maintain the conversational shenanigans if only to annoy Weiss Cream. The Princess muttered something about their exchange being 'the gayest thing she had ever heard with her own ears' but neither Blake nor Yang paid that any mind.

"As much as I love rubbing your behind, I think twenty thousand rubs might be a bit excessive..."

"If you use both hands, that would make it only ten thousand." Blake giggled at her girlfriend.

"You drive a hard bargain, Miss Belladonna! I believe I shall accept your terms!" Yang finally replied. She snuggled up close to Blake and ran her hands down Blake's back, resting each one upon one side of Blake's rear end.

"Oh, yeah, there are rules here. Butt only, nowhere lower. At least, not while we still have company..." Blake added. She was certain Weiss would get lost if they kept this up. That way they could be alone together.

"Aww, but what about your thighs? They're so soft! I'm sure Weiss Cream would get jealous, though."

"Oh, thank Gods! Ruby just messaged me! She's done with her extracurriculars, so we're supposed to hang out! I guess that means I'll be going!" Weiss spoke up, standing up from her seat at the desk and grabbing her jacket.

"See? Now she can go touch Ruby's soft thighs so she won't be jealous!" Blake joked as Weiss pulled her jacket over her arms and zipped it halfway up.

"Soft? Lies! Ruby's thighs are rock solid, just like the rest of her body!" Weiss jabbed. Her icy blue eyes widened when she realized what she had just said and to whom she had said it.

"How do you know what my sister's thighs feel like, Weiss Cream?" Yang asked in a fakely interrogating fashion. When she looked to Weiss for an answer, Weiss was no longer there. A dashed white line roughly in the shape of Weiss was all that remained. It blinked three times before disappearing entirely. "Aaaand she's gone!"

"You know those two do stuff, right? They might not do it all, but they definitely mess around a bit," Blake told Yang. She felt a rough squeeze at her left buttock. "OH BABY!" She joked. Yang leaned her head into the nape of Blake's neck and laughed. "Good Gods, don't do that!"

"You're so playful, Kitty Cat!" Yang retorted, lightly nibbling on Blake's shoulder blade and sliding one hand down one of Blake's squishy thighs. "But yes, I know they play around, and I'm good with it. Ruby really likes Weiss, and Weiss really likes her. I trust her to respect Ruby's boundaries, and I'll break her kneecaps if she doesn't. She and I have had this talk already."

"Well, that's good to know." Blake grinned as she strummed some new chords. Yang recognized this tune as a poppy rendition of 'Fly Me To The Moon'.

"Do I seriously have to rub your ass ten thousand times to hear the rest of that song?"

"Absolutely!" Blake smirked, winking one of her golden eyes at Yang. "I'll give you something good afterward, Honeybee!"

"Well, it was a breathtaking song already, Kitty Cat. I can't wait to hear the rest of it." Yang kissed Blake's neck some more, making Blake insane with desire. "I love you!" Yang spoke into Blake's neck.

"I love you too, Honeybee." Blake smiled softly, strumming away as her girlfriend's hands explored her behind.

\/\/\/\/\/

"I swear to the Gods, Ruby, you messaged me at the perfect time!" Weiss bragged to her girlfriend. The little red slayer grinned at the remark as she took a lick from her ice cream cone.

"They must have really been gaying the dorm up, huh?" Ruby replied with a chuckle, earning a laugh from Weiss. Ruby gazed into Weiss's icy blues for a long moment, as it was like staring up at the endless blue sky on a summer day. The curve of Weiss's grin when she laughed sent Ruby on a journey of noticing details about her beautiful girlfriend. There was an eyelash on her cheek, but Ruby was too distracted to say anything.

Weiss's flowing white hair moved in time with her words, waving and bouncing like falling snow in the wind. This led Ruby to Weiss's shoulders, the slim shoulders that had once carried the weight of the world. Her eyes then landed on her chest and midriff. For such a slim girl, Weiss was well put together. The slightest semblance of muscles poked out from her tight arms and washboard abdomen. Ruby loved planting kisses all over those itty bitty abs.

"Remnant to Ruby? Are you still with us?" Weiss asked, snapping Ruby back to reality.

"Sorry, Snowdrop. I was looking at your abs again..." Ruby confessed, her face turning bright red.

"Aww, look at my sweet little tomato..." Weiss teased lightly, making Ruby blush even redder. She was almost the shade she was named for at this point. Ruby's silver eyes glimmered like a piece of precious metal. Weiss caught herself looking down at Ruby's neck, her eyes traveling ever lower to see the red slayer's curves and muscles. Ruby's arms were relentlessly jacked, and her abs just wouldn't quit. She hadn't been completely honest with Yang, though; Ruby's thighs were just soft enough for Weiss to enjoy. "I just got distracted by your muscles, too..." Weiss confessed. It was her turn to become a tomato face now.

"Ha, I've still got it!" Ruby bragged. Weiss scoffed at the remark.

"We've been dating for maybe two months, Flower Pot. You haven't had the time to lose 'it' yet!" The two of them shared a laugh as they finished their ice cream. They stood up, bumping into one another by mistake. They both blushed ten shades of red at that.

"I love you, Snowdrop..." Ruby told her softly, her heart melting at the words like it always did.

"I love you, too, Gemstone..." Weiss replied. Their lips came together in a soft peck, and the two of them held hands as they left the ice cream parlor and began their walk back to the school.

\/\/\/\/\/

\/\/\/\/\/

\/\/\/\/\/

[humanoid-lovers]

In a word:Awesome! I cannot say enough about this book. It is simply the best book I have ever bought. I wish I could give it ten stars! I have been listening to Weird Al and watching his videos (when he started making them) for 30 years! With most singers or bands, I listen for a while I will be a fan but then I get older and it is no longer "cool" to listen to them. Then better music comes on and I listen to that. But Weird Al is different. His music is always up to date, always right on what popular music and culture is about. You listen to any song and it's like seeing a snapshot of that time, but at the same time it's ageless! Back to the book...it is beyond cool! The artwork, Al's random thoughts scattered throughout, the lyrics thrown in there. Plus, of course a look at his history...a timeline of his life and career the good, bad and ugly of it all. The author did a great job in capturing Weird Al and his achievements, losses and life. Wonderful book! The only thing that could ever possibly make it better is an autograph from Weird Al himself and to let him know what a profound influence he has been in my life and the lives of many. Go to Amazon

You Need This Book! This book is a must have for any self-respecting Weird Al fan. It's no literary masterpiece, but hey -- it's about Weird Al! Plenty of photos, lots of info, and all in a fun format. Go to Amazon

Weird Al a Gift to All Nerds of current C.E. and past C.E. Weird Al, the man and the music and the fans who sing along to lyrics about sharing the same piece of dental floss as proof of a true love. If you cannot understand the humor and cunning lyrics of this genius songwriter, you don't deserve to be on the same page as review...you're just a giant loser Go to Amazon

Enjoy this book as a new or old fan...show him the respect Master songwriter, entertainer and the book details his life with many inserts from him...thanks Alfred! Go to Amazon

It was awesome. But afterwards my boyfriend wanted to meet Weird ... Me and my boyfriend went to a Weird Al concert recently. We had just got the cheap sets. It was awesome. But afterwards my boyfriend wanted to meet Weird Al and he can't wait till we see him again so we can get the VIP tickets and meet him. Anyway I bought the book for him for Christmas and I wrapped it immediately so I won't be as tempted to give it to him early. And hopefully we will get the chance to meet him soon so he can get it signed. Go to Amazon

Great Read As a huge Weird Al fan, I was amazed by the amount I learned from this book. Chronicling everything from his childhood all the way to 2012, this was a very fun, informative read. Go to Amazon

Good but could be better Weird Al has had a very long and interesting career, longer than 95% of the people he's parodied over the years, so it only stands to reason that he's have a fairly interesting story to tell. This book isn't that, and if you buy this on a whim hoping to find that, then don't bother. To begin you'll need to separate the books into two parts, the written portion, and the visual portion. The visual portion is top notch, featuring many rare and previously unseen photos spanning Al's career over four decades. The written content however is where this book falls flat. It reads more like a snapshot or synopsis of his career, something you'd expect to see on VH1 or E!, not in a book. It's almost written like a Wikipedia entry, short on details, and heavy on extended metaphors and descriptive paragraphs that add nothing to the book, and only serve to pad out the pages. Now granted, I won't say I didn't learn anything from reading this book, even as a long time Al fan there is a lot of new information here, but there is also a lot that is rehashed. It almost seems as though the written portion was cobbled together from common knowledge, publicly available resources, and maybe a handful of notes provided by Al. This is disappointing, because I know someone who's had as long and distinguished a career as Al has must have more stories to share, more insight to give, and a better and more personal story to tell. Unfortunately Al is blunt about the fact that he has no interest at all in writing an autobiography, so this book may be the closest thing we ever get. So for what it is it's fine, very good even, but I can't help but wonder what could have been. Go to Amazon

It's Weird Al, need I say more? Originally ... It's Weird Al, need I say more? Originally purchased for a homework assignment for my son, but definitely a keeper. Go to Amazon

Five Stars ... was a gift - don't know if it is good or not Five Stars Weird Al Rock N Roll Legend getS personal in bio Five Stars Pretty fly Good packaging Five Stars Five Stars

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: A Lack of Armor

Last week, we held our first AMA in the discord chat with @amberlehcar​, @peregr1ne​ and @thesockswhowearsfox​, where lots of people stopped in to ask about their work on A Lack of Armor! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: Amber, could you take me through your process of conceiving/planning out this fic? What inspired it originally?

AmberLehcar: Oh man okay, so there was a post floating around that was like "I headcanon Soul as trans and here's why" and I just really dug it. 

Peregrine: Wait, was it mine? 

AmberLehcar: I don't remember who it was, but they said things like him being hypermasculine to appear more "manly." 

Peregrine: I did say that in mine. That's crazy. 

AmberLehcar: This was supposed to be for last year's Resbang, so I've kinda forgotten exactly what was all there, but it probably was yours.

Q: So what you are saying is that you and Pere were destined to work together?

AmberLehcar: Pere claimed me last year too! I had to back out after fic claims because life was becoming too much. 

 Peregrine: I mean you did come to me before that. 

AmberLehcar: I did ask Pere a lot of questions. I'm cis/het, so I had a lot to learn and was really lucky that Pere was open and willing to teach me along with being an overall great partner. 

Peregrine: I tried my best ^^; It's not like it was hard, just talking about myself pfft.

AmberLehcar: It was helpful though! 

Peregrine: I'm glad it was. Was there more you wanted to say about the process? 

AmberLehcar: I did a ton of research and was really invested in it. I see a lot of posts about the lack of representation for the LGBT+ community and really felt like I wanted to add. 

Peregrine: Yeah, lack of representation really gets to me, especially because what representation there is is highly fetishized and honestly i'd rather have no rep than fetish rep.

Q: For all parties involved, where/how do you feel like you grew the most during this Resbang?

Peregrine: This was my first event where I did more than one fic, so working through that was hard, but I'm glad I did because I really wanted both. 

AmberLehcar: I think when I've written in the past, I've been really "this happened then this happened" etc. It was a lot more introspective this time around, so I focused a lot more on the feelings of the characters and evoking feelings in the reader. When I tried to enter this last year, I got to like 6k words but really struggled to get there. With a new direction, I got to 30k fairly easily. 

Sox: Well, it was my first Resbang and the first song I'd written since I was....18 I think. Just managing to write and record the song was a lot of growth for me.

Q: Amber, I am always interested in fic titles. Did you come up with the title of your fic beforehand, or did it develop as the story was created?

AmberLehcar: Okay, so I take all my chapter and fic titles from songs or lyrics. But A Lack of Armor made perfect sense to me because of my therapy. A few times in therapy we'd talked about putting on armor that was representative of support and good things in my life. The song "A Lack of Armor" has a line that says "like a knight without his armor I don't know who I am" and this all kinda spoke to me and fit really well with Soul and his depression/anxiety. I came up with the idea pretty much from the start and it's been with me since.

Q: You said it was a Motion City Soundtrack song, right?

AmberLehcar: All the chapter titles are from MCS songs, because I am trash lol. But they sorta go with the mood of each chapter if you go back and look at them. 

Sox: Can confirm Amber is MCS trash.

Q: There's a sick playlist somewhere right?

AmberLehcar: I do have a playlist! https://open.spotify.com/user/1266385830/playlist/3xN37XwvUGsVqZNuhpRtng

Q: Most of the time it seems the usual characterization for the Evans fam is for Soul's father to be the 'worse' parent, either that or both of them being equally bad. (At least that's my view.) So I am wondering: was your decision to make Soul's dad the more accepting one an intentional subversion or did it just happen? 

AmberLehcar: It just sorta happened? I am not a Mama Albarn fan. Aside from Marie, there are no good mamas in the series, so I just kinda went with that. 

Sox: Blair begs your pardon. 

[insert chorus of screaming about everyone's love for Blair] 

AmberLehcar: Blair takes such good care of her kittens. Okay I lied, Blair and Marie are good. But yeah, I didn't want him to have absolutely no support from parents, and someone had to have taught Wes to be a good person. So Papa Evans eventually came around. 

Q: For Pere: was there a scene that you knew immediately you wanted to illustrate and/or was it difficult to choose scenes to draw? 

Peregrine: I definitely wanted to draw the first hug scene when I read it, when Maka was accepting, because the feelies. And then later Amber had mentioned how there was going to be a scene where soul plays his song for Maka, and I knew I really wanted to draw that too, but it wasn't written yet, so I asked her to describe the scene more for me in advance so i could draw it. She didn't have a solid idea though, so some stuff I made up, and she wrote the scene to fit my picture later actually ^^; 

AmberLehcar: Your art definitely helped flesh out the scene there, thank you. 

Sox: I love when Pete draws things. 

Sox: *Pere 

[Lots of people yelling about Pete] 

Sox: God damn it. 

Peregrine: The first pic with the hair I also just thought would be cute to draw, and then just for visual concepts, I wanted to draw the different stages of Soul as a bonus even if they didn't actually ever appear in the story ^^; 

AmberLehcar: That first pic with the hair cutting is probably my favorite. I love them all, but that just made my heart flutter. 

Q: Sox I have sort of the same question for you, did certain scenes inspire certain lyrics? 

Sox: Uhhhh no not so much. I tried to write around the Mood of the fic and I talked to a local Atlanta musician about her experiences being trans with a bad family as a kid and tried to fit those to where Amber had Soul coming from. (Originally I was trying to write a SoMa Romance song but then... it came out as a Self Love Fuck you Mom song). 

AmberLehcar: I'm glad it changed. At some point when writing I realized the fic was more focused on their relationship than him, so I tried to change it up. I'm glad the song evolved that way too. After I got one of the last drafts of the song, I included it in chapter 8 in case people were wondering. 

Q: For Amber: what made you want to put Kim as Soul's neighbor out of any other character? What made you want to do the neighbor sub plot in the first place? 

AmberLehcar: Representation mostly. I love me some JacKim and thought that having a grump next door that Soul ends up kinda befriending and/or helping would be interesting. Kim was kinda a weird facet for me to write through. As someone who feels everything 110%, being in love can be kinda scary sometimes, so her thoughts on love are pretty darn close to my own: wanting to love someone wholeheartedly but being afraid of exactly how deeply you can really love someone. 

Sox: I FEEL. 

Q: There's a scene where they're watching a Youtube video. Is that video significant to you in some way, Amber? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wWBLbQInqk) 

AmberLehcar: Not at all. I was talking with Brian about assignments for the first day of class, and he mentioned he had to do that exact assignment and chose that exact video. The song's not bad and the video is... interesting? 

Q: For Pere: What program do you use and whats your general process for art? 

Peregrine: I use FireAlpaca because it's free lol. I usually do like, a base sketch that's really scribbly and focuses on like motion lines, if that makes sense. And then i decrease the opacity of that one and draw the actual lineart on a different layer on top, and then colour. Very rarely I'll keep drawing on the base sketch and just clean it a little but that's mostly for more actiony gestural stuff, or highly detailed things where I'm not bothered about solid lineart. 

Q: How long-ish did each of your drawings take? Do you tend to draw faster when you're feeling inspired, do you have a creative process or anything? 

Peregrine: Ah, I never know what to say when someone asks how long it takes, because it varies so much. But yeah, usually a drawing will take a few days if it's something average and not like the fricking Pacific Rim art I did way back when, which took like a month. I can do most pieces in a day if i'm properly inspired but it's like: yes, I can get this done in only a few hours, but those are completely straight drawing hours - no food or bathroom breaks or chit chats to be had. Honestly the longest part of the drawing process is actually the sketchy first part because I need to plan it out perfectly until i can see the end product in my head and then i can start actually working, and that can take weeks. 

[insert group yelling about how great Pere's art is] 

AmberLehcar: The boys brought me to literal tears every time they updated me. 

Sox: Lies. 

AmberLehcar: EVERY TIME. 

Peregrine: I spent 5 hours drawing Soul's hair even though I finished the entire rest of the picture in 2. 

Sox: I just had a mental image of Pere screaming the lyrics to Maroon 5's "Misery" while drawing. 

Peregrine: That's me. 

Q: For Amber: what were your easiest/hardest scenes to write & why?? Were there any that were easier/trickier to write than you expected? Bonus: favorite scene to write? 

AmberLehcar: All of chapter 4 is crap and I'll fight anyone who disagrees with me. For some reason writing just general happy, normal life was really hard. The pain though, that was kiddy stuff. The first full scene I wrote was Soul's accidental confession. The idea just messed me up and I couldn't stop writing until it was all done. It's probably my favorite scene too, followed closely by Maka's acceptance. 

Q: You super did not write linearly. That's so cool, I have to go in order. 

AmberLehcar: No, I rarely do. 

Peregrine: Man it was kind of tough reading your drafts, tbh. 

Sox: SAME PERE 

AmberLehcar: I'm so sorry!! 

Sox: "How am I gonna write a song none of this is in order" XD 

AmberLehcar: I need to give people an instruction manual for how to read my WIPs. 

Peregrine: There were so many scenes that were like, great scenes on their own, but then I'm like wait, how did we get from point A to point ? Also, reading updates was hard because everyone else I've fic'd with was like 'oh just scroll down to wear you last read' but in this fic it was like... I know something was added... but where tho... 

Sox: Slide to the left 

Sox: Slide to the right 

AmberLehcar: Never beta for me, it's a nightmare. 

AmberLehcar: (That's a lie, please always beta for me, I need all the help I can get.) 

Sox: Yeah but working with you is a dream tbh. 

AmberLehcar: The nice thing about not writing linearly is that I could really easily work with my partners to add in ideas they had. I don't know that it was easy for them, but making it more of a collab that way was really neat for me. 

Q: Do you outline everything out beforehand? 

AmberLehcar: As much as I can. I derail if I don't.

Q: AmberLehcar, how did you decided where to put scenes/order them? 

AmberLehcar: I have an outline template I wrote up based on a youtuber's outlining method! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eP73LMnphqEUn20mKd78_EB_qPlbXjklvkXLknxl5R0/edit?usp=sharing. This is the outline that I've been using recently, it's been really helpful. You guys are welcome to use it! 

Q: Amber, would you say this outlining method helped? Just in comparison to past fics etc. 

AmberLehcar: Definitely. I have so many incomplete fics simply because I didn't outline or didn't outline enough. 

Q: So was the end planned? That is the hardest part for me. 

AmberLehcar: More or less. It definitely changed a lot. I don't have any versions of the original ending, and there's still stuff from the finished product I don't remember because I literally finished at 3 a.m. the day of posting. I always have a very clear image of how the opening to any chapter or fic goes, but the end is always weird. 

Q: Do you remember anything from the first version? How'd they differ? 

AmberLehcar: I know the first half was a little different at the start of Resbang last year, but I have the worst memory... There was definitely supposed to be more NB Crona. Crona was supposed to be kinda the comic relief, making comments about their computer sciences classes that Soul does not understand. They named their laptop Nora and talk about it like it's a person. "Sometimes when Nora doesn't do what I want, I have to hit her" or something like that, make Soul concerned for this poor child. The "octagonal day" joke made it to the final cut. I think there was a scene at the end where Crona and Soul were supposed to be good friends after the "there's 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't." Because it's a math joke and a binary joke.

Sox: Amber Sox: Is Sox: A Sox: NERD 

Q: What was the funnest part of the fic for you to write, Amber? Or the part you were looking forward to the most? 

AmberLehcar: Writing Black Star was fun. There's a few one liners that I love. My favorite bit is when Maka asks for his name and the next bit is "Nervous. Stupid. Sweating." I needed that smooch like life itself. I played with them kissing when Maka apologizes and they made up, but it didn't feel right. So I saved a sweet normal smooch for the end scene. 

Sox: I literally cackled out loud on a train reading "no party like a floor meeting party because a floor meeting party is MANDATORY." 

AmberLehcar: That was one of my other fave lines. My goals for the fic were representation, make it as realistic as possible, and make people feel things. I like to think I did a good job? 

Sox: You accomplished all. 

Peregrine: Man the parents thing hit me so hard, you did a good job. 

Q: I'd love to hear about your process/writing rituals? 

AmberLehcar: When it was a scene I was particularly excited to write or just suddenly inspired, I can just sit and write. But most of the time it's me sitting at the computer with tea asking myself why I do this to myself and then I just make myself write. 

Q: Is there anything else you wanted to add other than more NB Crona, Amber? 

AmberLehcar: When Pere showed me art of Soul's physical progression, I kinda wanted an epilogue of Soul post surgery, but time and lack of confidence in writing it well... I don't think anyone understands exactly how nervous I was to write this. I waffled a while with "you have no business writing this, you are cis, please stop." 

Peregrine: Nooo it's cool because you asked. I definitely didn't think I could write trans Soul but I hoped someone would, if they asked and did it right. Which you did. 

Sox: One of my close friends is trans, and when I sent him Eden, I thought he was going to tell me he hated me. And then he didn't and I was v relieved. 

AmberLehcar: I definitely wanted to be as respectful and real as possible. Again, representation matters, and I wanted to help create a thing I hadn't seen done in our fandom. 

Sox: You did good. 

AmberLehcar: I'm really glad. I stalked the boys' tags on their work along with my own, and someone had reblogged Pere's art and was really grateful for trans Soul. I was glad to be a part of that. 

Q: Did you make any playlists or anything like that to get into the writing mood? Or headspace of a character? 

AmberLehcar: For headspace, Soul and I are very similar. I too am a bag of anxiety and depression trying to pass as a human. A lot of my college and therapy experience went into the fic. There's little bits of me in pretty much everyone. 

Peregrine: I have my trans boy song i listened to a lot pfft. It's from Treasure Planet. 

Q: Ooo which song Pere? 

Peregrine: I'm Still Here. If you look at it through a trans lens its super fitting. It's like my fave song ever.

Some additional post-AMA discussion: 

Q: Amber, I think that's a sign of a good writer, to take from one's own experiences and such. 

AmberLehcar: Write what you know, right? And what you don't know, you find out. The whole experience definitely gave me a new appreciation for the LGBT+ community, that's for sure. I knew some stuff, but I learned so much. 

AmberLehcar: To go back and slightly change my answer for difficult scene to write, while all of ch4 was like swimming in syrup to get written, Mama Evans outburst was so difficult to write. There was just so much anger and I felt icky writing a lot of that chapter in general. Writing Maka having to purposely misgender him hurt. 

Peregrine: I really liked the parents thing actually even though i hated it. It felt raw and real. 

AmberLehcar: So much pain, the whole time I'm just like "why would I hurt my son like this???" 

Q: Noticed you guys were still talking and guh I loved your collective art/story!!! I now know the gap between dimensions can't be breached because if it could I'd have reached through the screen and force-choked Mama Evans. I was kind of mad at Maka too though like... I can understand that Soul needed some time to himself, away from her, to really figure things out, but ;-; 

AmberLehcar: Yes! Maka was an interesting situation to figure out. 

Peregrine: Yeah I loved what you did there actually, because as much as I wanted her to be perfect, she wasn't perfect. 

AmberLehcar: I didn't want her to just immediately come back like "sorry you startled me, let's get married." 

Peregrine: As much as I want people to immediately accept me, they don't, even if they do eventually. It wasn't fantasy perfect world, it was real world. 

Q: I think... that's good. At first I thought Maka would be more likely to start off rough around the edges and then end the story gracefully. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if you're going to relate realistic stories about trans people/anyone in a similar situation, you probably have to... I don't want to say "break the reader's heart" because that would imply that those stories can't have happy endings, which they can and should at least as often as any other kind of story, but it put me in Soul's shoes and made me accept how likely it is that someone who is trans/lgbt/otherwise oppressed will be badly hurt by someone they think the world of, someone who's hard to leave behind. I dunno if I spoke out of turn there, but i think it was an empathically-written story. In my inexperienced opinion. 

AmberLehcar: That's definitely what I was going for. I wanted Maka to be his closest friend, for his sake and for my shipping heart's sake. But she was just too good to be true when I was writing her, so her running away happened. I was so stuck after I wrote his confession, I didn't know how to have her react. But when I thought about some of the internalized transphobia I know I've been guilty of, it made sense to add for her. It felt real. 

Look out for some more transcripts, coming soon!! Thanks again to Amber, Pere and Sox for their awesome AMA <3

[readersforum]

How to Breathe New Life Into Your Google Search Results With Rich Snippets

New Post has been published on http://www.readersforum.tk/how-to-breathe-new-life-into-your-google-search-results-with-rich-snippets-2/

How to Breathe New Life Into Your Google Search Results With Rich Snippets

Google rich snippets. What the heck are those?

They’re these awesome things that can help you improve your website’s SEO and generate more site traffic from search engine results pages (SERPs), and in this article, I’m going to tell you how to set them up.

Let me first pose a question to you: Have you noticed that when doing a Google search, certain listings just look a little sexier than others? For example, if you were doing a search for “apple pie,” which of these listings when you rather click on?

I’ll bet you chose option #2. If you didn’t, you must really not like apple pie.

Between the thumbnail image and the five-star rating scale, what are these sites doing to make their Google listings include this extra media? The secret to these fancy pieces of information are rich snippets, which these websites have optimized for using the HTML of their website pages.

Google Rich Snippets

Google rich snippets are enhanced search results that produce more details about a website than the average link. This “rich” media can include images, ratings, authors, dates, locations, and more. Publishers can give Google these details by including structured data in the backend of their webpages.

Google rich snippets — also called “rich results” — extract information from your website to display on your site’s listing in the search results, in addition to the typical page title, page URL, and meta description.

Each search result is guaranteed to display these three pieces of information, making up an individual snippet. The thinking is, the more information included in a search result’s snippet, the more likely users are to click on that result. With enough structured data on the page, you can earn a rich snippet.

Rich snippets are often overlooked in businesses’ SEO strategies because they are more difficult to implement than traditional on-page SEO. But with how complex Google search results look today, it would be worth your while to spend a little time learning how to do this. Adding this content-rich information to your Google search listings draws the eye and can increase your listings’ click-through rates, even when you’re not ranking in the #1 position.

There are a few options for how to install rich snippets, but I’m going to show you the easiest method: using microdata.

Keep in mind this process won’t guarantee that you’ll get a rich snippet. But giving these details special treatment can dramatically increase your chances of enhancing the appearance of your search result — and, in turn, the traffic you get from it.

How to Create Rich Snippets

Identify which details you want Google to focus on.

Define your webpage using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

Create microdata for your webpage using your selected data type.

Create new HTML from this microdata.

Tag your content with this microdata.

Test your rich snippet.

Be patient.

1. Identify which details you want Google to focus on.

Your webpage’s topic and format will dictate which types of information you want Google to display in its search results. Are you writing an article? An event page? A book review? A product page? Here are some examples of details included in rich snippets for the several types of snippets available to you:

Article: You can add tags for the article title, author, meta description, publish date, featured image, and more.

Restaurant pages: You can add tags for food items, item prices, item descriptions, item images, item calories, and more.

Product page: You can add tags for product names, product ratings, product prices, product availability, product images, and more.

Event page: You can add tags for the event name, event speakers, event schedule, event dates, and more.

Recipe: You can add tags for recipe rating, ingredients, image of final product, cooking duration, total calories, and more.

2. Define your webpage using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

So, how do you create the tags listed above? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as writing “Here’s the product’s price” in your webpage’s HTML and expecting Google to take the hint. To properly communicate this information to Google, the company offers a handy tool for creating structured datasets based on the type of webpage you’re publishing. It’s called the Structured Data Markup Helper. Use it here, and see it below.

As you can see, above, you’ll start by selecting the attribute that best describes the content you’re creating. Then, at the bottom of this page, enter the existing URL of the webpage to which your content has been published. (Note: To use this tool, you’ll publish your content first, and then retrieve the URL so you can structure your data accordingly.)

3. Create microdata for your webpage using your selected data type.

Microdata is a way to label content to describe what this content represents. An event, for example, has all sorts of information associated with it, including the venue, starting time, name, and category. You can then use a bit of code to basically tell Google, “Here’s my event and the most important information people would need to know about it.”

How Microdata Can Be Used

Microdata wraps your text in very simple HTML tags, such as or

tags, to assign descriptive terms to each bit of information. Here’s an example block of HTML showing some basic information about me — the author of this article — below.

My name is Diana Urban, and I was born and raised in New York. I’m on the marketing team at HubSpot, an all-in-one marketing software company in Cambridge, MA.

See those

tags at the beginning and end of the copy, above? This denotes text that is in standard paragraph style. There’s nothing unique about the text above compared to any other paragraph in this article. This makes it hard for Google to interpret it the way you might want it to be interpreted.

Now, here is the same HTML tagged with microdata:

itemscope itemtype=”http://data-vocabulary.org/Person“> My name is I’m the affiliation“>HubSpot, an all-in-one marketing software company in Cambridge, MA.

Those bold tags in the HTML above tell Google what each piece of my author bio actually is. The “person” tag indicates this is about a person. The “name” tag indicates the following text is my name. The “title” tag indicates the following text is my job title. The “div” tags single out the entire section of HTML so Google knows it can highlight it in my article’s snippet, given the appropriate search term a user might enter.

Creating Your Microdata

Once you’ve selected your data type in the previous step, you’ll be taken to a page where you can automatically associate certain details of your webpage with microdata that describes those details. To create microdata for an article’s author, for example, you’ll highlight the author’s name on the webpage — which Google projects on the lefthand side of the tool — and select “Author” in the dropdown that appears. See how this looks, below.

  4. Create new HTML from this microdata.

Next, you’ll create new strings of HTML from the microdata you created in the previous step. Once you’ve finished assigning each part of your webpage a proper tag, click the red “Create HTML” button on the top-righthand corner of the tool, as shown below.

5. Tag your content with this microdata.

With your HTML successfully created, you’ll see every tag you created in step 3, above, listed in a block of code you can then insert into your article’s HTML. You’ll insert this code in your content management system (CMS).

Google recommends adding the HTML it created for you into the “head section” of your article’s HTML. If you use HubSpot’s CMS, you’ll find separate HTML boxes designed just for this occasion, as shown below.

Learn more about adding HTML to webpages in HubSpot Academy.

Want another way to tag your HTML with various pieces of microdata? Review the different examples of rich snippets below this list of instructions. Each of these rich snippets link to separate Google instructions on how to optimize for each type of rich snippet. (When you load their page, always select the “microdata” approach to get the right instructions.)

6. Test your rich snippet.

Google Webmaster Tools has another nifty feature that lets you test your rich snippet. Click here to use their Structured Data Testing Tool. This will confirm whether or not Google can read your markup data and whether your rich snippets are appearing in their search results.

7. Be patient.

If you don’t see your rich snippets in Google’s search results right away, don’t freak out. It actually takes Google as long as a few weeks to crawl and index this new data. So go to the beach. Sip a margarita. Soak in some sun.

Okay, it’s more likely that you’ll just keep working on other stuff in the meantime, but a girl can dream …

Rich Snippets Examples

Let’s run through some of the different types of rich snippets that are available to use on your website. Each section links to Google’s instructions on how to actually install the rich snippets — remember to select the microdata option for the easiest installation process!

Business and Organization Snippets

A rich snippet about a business or organization can include location information, contact information, price ranges, hours, and customer reviews, if there are any available.

Learn how to create rich snippets for organizations >

Event Snippets

Event snippets include the date, location, and time of the event. If there are more than one option for the events, up to three will be displayed.

Learn how to create rich snippets for events >

Music Album Snippets

Using music album rich snippets will display links to individual songs in an album, or even lyrics to the song if available.

Learn how to create rich snippets for music >

People Snippets

The people snippet displays information such as a person’s job title, the company they work for (a.k.a. affiliation), and location. It can also display a photo, nickname, and more.

People snippets are different than author snippets. Here is the difference, with an example of yours truly.

Learn how to create rich snippets for people >

Product Snippets

Product rich snippets include things like a picture of a product, ratings, and price range of the product.

Learn how to create rich snippets for products >

Recipe Snippets

Recipe rich snippets provide users with additional information about a specific cooking recipe, such as the ratings (1 to 5 stars), cook/prep time, and calorie information.

In order to qualify as a recipe, you must have at least two of the following tags in place:

A photo of the dish

The tag: prepTime, cookTime, totalTime, or ingredients

Calories

Review

  Learn how to create rich snippets for recipes >

Review Snippets

You’ve already seen a bunch of examples of snippets that have 5-star ratings included. But you can also set up a snippet that is just the review portion.

Learn how to create rich snippets for reviews >

Video Snippets

If you want a thumbnail of a video to display next to your search listing, the markup works a little different. Google recognizes the Facebook Share markup code, so you might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Learn how to create rich snippets for videos >

[lindyhunt]

How to Breathe New Life Into Your Google Search Results With Rich Snippets

Google rich snippets. What the heck are those?

They're these awesome things that can help you improve your website's SEO and generate more site traffic from search engine results pages (SERPs), and in this article, I'm going to tell you how to set them up.

Let me first pose a question to you: Have you noticed that when doing a Google search, certain listings just look a little sexier than others? For example, if you were doing a search for "apple pie," which of these listings when you rather click on?

I'll bet you chose option #2. If you didn't, you must really not like apple pie.

Between the thumbnail image and the five-star rating scale, what are these sites doing to make their Google listings include this extra media? The secret to these fancy pieces of information are rich snippets, which these websites have optimized for using the HTML of their website pages.

Google Rich Snippets

Google rich snippets are enhanced search results that produce more details about a website than the average link. This "rich" media can include images, ratings, authors, dates, locations, and more. Publishers can give Google these details by including structured data in the backend of their webpages.

Google rich snippets -- also called "rich results" -- extract information from your website to display on your site's listing in the search results, in addition to the typical page title, page URL, and meta description.

Each search result is guaranteed to display these three pieces of information, making up an individual snippet. The thinking is, the more information included in a search result's snippet, the more likely users are to click on that result. With enough structured data on the page, you can earn a rich snippet.

Rich snippets are often overlooked in businesses' SEO strategies because they are more difficult to implement than traditional on-page SEO. But with how complex Google search results look today, it would be worth your while to spend a little time learning how to do this. Adding this content-rich information to your Google search listings draws the eye and can increase your listings' click-through rates, even when you're not ranking in the #1 position.

There are a few options for how to install rich snippets, but I'm going to show you the easiest method: using microdata.

Keep in mind this process won't guarantee that you'll get a rich snippet. But giving these details special treatment can dramatically increase your chances of enhancing the appearance of your search result -- and, in turn, the traffic you get from it.

How to Create Rich Snippets

Identify which details you want Google to focus on.

Define your webpage using Google's Structured Data Markup Helper.

Create microdata for your webpage using your selected data type.

Create new HTML from this microdata.

Tag your content with this microdata.

Test your rich snippet.

Be patient.

1. Identify which details you want Google to focus on.

Your webpage's topic and format will dictate which types of information you want Google to display in its search results. Are you writing an article? An event page? A book review? A product page? Here are some examples of details included in rich snippets for the several types of snippets available to you:

Article: You can add tags for the article title, author, meta description, publish date, featured image, and more.

Restaurant pages: You can add tags for food items, item prices, item descriptions, item images, item calories, and more.

Product page: You can add tags for product names, product ratings, product prices, product availability, product images, and more.

Event page: You can add tags for the event name, event speakers, event schedule, event dates, and more.

Recipe: You can add tags for recipe rating, ingredients, image of final product, cooking duration, total calories, and more.

2. Define your webpage using Google's Structured Data Markup Helper.

So, how do you create the tags listed above? Unfortunately, it's not as easy as writing "Here's the product's price" in your webpage's HTML and expecting Google to take the hint. To properly communicate this information to Google, the company offers a handy tool for creating structured datasets based on the type of webpage you're publishing. It's called the Structured Data Markup Helper. Use it here, and see it below.

As you can see, above, you'll start by selecting the attribute that best describes the content you're creating. Then, at the bottom of this page, enter the existing URL of the webpage to which your content has been published. (Note: To use this tool, you'll publish your content first, and then retrieve the URL so you can structure your data accordingly.)

3. Create microdata for your webpage using your selected data type.

Microdata is a way to label content to describe what this content represents. An event, for example, has all sorts of information associated with it, including the venue, starting time, name, and category. You can then use a bit of code to basically tell Google, "Here's my event and the most important information people would need to know about it."

How Microdata Can Be Used

Microdata wraps your text in very simple HTML tags, such as <span> or <div> tags, to assign descriptive terms to each bit of information. Here's an example block of HTML showing some basic information about me -- the author of this article -- below.

<p>My name is Diana Urban, and I was born and raised in New York. I'm on the marketing team at HubSpot, an all-in-one marketing software company in Cambridge, MA.</p>

See those <p> tags at the beginning and end of the copy, above? This denotes text that is in standard paragraph style. There's nothing unique about the text above compared to any other paragraph in this article. This makes it hard for Google to interpret it the way you might want it to be interpreted.

Now, here is the same HTML tagged with microdata:

<div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Person"> My name is <span itemprop="name">Diana Urban</span>, and I was born and raised in New York. I'm the <span itemprop="title">Head of Prospect Marketing</span> at <span itemprop="affiliation">HubSpot</span>, an all-in-one marketing software company in Cambridge, MA.</div>

Those bold tags in the HTML above tell Google what each piece of my author bio actually is. The "person" tag indicates this is about a person. The "name" tag indicates the following text is my name. The "title" tag indicates the following text is my job title. The "div" tags single out the entire section of HTML so Google knows it can highlight it in my article's snippet, given the appropriate search term a user might enter.

Creating Your Microdata

Once you've selected your data type in the previous step, you'll be taken to a page where you can automatically associate certain details of your webpage with microdata that describes those details. To create microdata for an article's author, for example, you'll highlight the author's name on the webpage -- which Google projects on the lefthand side of the tool -- and select "Author" in the dropdown that appears. See how this looks, below.

  4. Create new HTML from this microdata.

Next, you'll create new strings of HTML from the microdata you created in the previous step. Once you've finished assigning each part of your webpage a proper tag, click the red "Create HTML" button on the top-righthand corner of the tool, as shown below.

5. Tag your content with this microdata.

With your HTML successfully created, you'll see every tag you created in step 3, above, listed in a block of code you can then insert into your article's HTML. You'll insert this code in your content management system (CMS).

Google recommends adding the HTML it created for you into the "head section" of your article's HTML. If you use HubSpot's CMS, you'll find separate HTML boxes designed just for this occasion, as shown below.

Learn more about adding HTML to webpages in HubSpot Academy.

Want another way to tag your HTML with various pieces of microdata? Review the different examples of rich snippets below this list of instructions. Each of these rich snippets link to separate Google instructions on how to optimize for each type of rich snippet. (When you load their page, always select the "microdata" approach to get the right instructions.)

6. Test your rich snippet.

Google Webmaster Tools has another nifty feature that lets you test your rich snippet. Click here to use their Structured Data Testing Tool. This will confirm whether or not Google can read your markup data and whether your rich snippets are appearing in their search results.

7. Be patient.

If you don't see your rich snippets in Google's search results right away, don't freak out. It actually takes Google as long as a few weeks to crawl and index this new data. So go to the beach. Sip a margarita. Soak in some sun.

Okay, it's more likely that you'll just keep working on other stuff in the meantime, but a girl can dream ...

Rich Snippets Examples

Let's run through some of the different types of rich snippets that are available to use on your website. Each section links to Google's instructions on how to actually install the rich snippets -- remember to select the microdata option for the easiest installation process!

Business and Organization Snippets

A rich snippet about a business or organization can include location information, contact information, price ranges, hours, and customer reviews, if there are any available.

Learn how to create rich snippets for organizations >

Event Snippets

Event snippets include the date, location, and time of the event. If there are more than one option for the events, up to three will be displayed.

Learn how to create rich snippets for events >

Music Album Snippets

Using music album rich snippets will display links to individual songs in an album, or even lyrics to the song if available.

Learn how to create rich snippets for music >

People Snippets

The people snippet displays information such as a person's job title, the company they work for (a.k.a. affiliation), and location. It can also display a photo, nickname, and more.

People snippets are different than author snippets. Here is the difference, with an example of yours truly.

Learn how to create rich snippets for people >

Product Snippets

Product rich snippets include things like a picture of a product, ratings, and price range of the product.

Learn how to create rich snippets for products >

Recipe Snippets

Recipe rich snippets provide users with additional information about a specific cooking recipe, such as the ratings (1 to 5 stars), cook/prep time, and calorie information.

In order to qualify as a recipe, you must have at least two of the following tags in place:

A photo of the dish

The tag: prepTime, cookTime, totalTime, or ingredients

Calories

Review

  Learn how to create rich snippets for recipes >

Review Snippets

You've already seen a bunch of examples of snippets that have 5-star ratings included. But you can also set up a snippet that is just the review portion.

Learn how to create rich snippets for reviews >

Video Snippets

If you want a thumbnail of a video to display next to your search listing, the markup works a little different. Google recognizes the Facebook Share markup code, so you might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Learn how to create rich snippets for videos >

[davidcarner]

Sarah vs REO Speedwagon

A/N: This may come as a shock to some of you, but I REALLY like 80s music. I was listening to a random 80s radio on Spotify when a certain REO Speedwagon song came on and the lyrics really struck home. I was trying to figure out how to make it work for Pump Up the Jam, but it wouldn't and then I got an idea. Now this may also come as a shock…it's fluffy. Also, there is Charah. I know, I'm stretching so far out of my comfort zone (insert eye roll emoji here). I mean if you're here you know what you're getting. Takes place after the 49 B ends in Chuck vs The Broken Heart, and Sarah doesn't have the info on Orion yet. Goes AU from there.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck or fluff…really…

General Beckman's monitor flicked on, and there stood an amused John Casey. "General," he said as a way of greeting. "You may have a….situation."

"Me?" Beckman asked. "I assume this is non-Intersect then?"

"Oh, no," Casey replied, grinning. "It's an Intersect and CIA problem, I'm staying out of it."

"We just did a 49-B, Casey, surely she figured out she can have a relationship with him as long as she doesn't flaunt it. Hell, I really don't care if she does. I don't care if they marry and have children. I just want peace and quiet. What do I have to do, threaten to lock him in a bunker to get her to make a move?" Casey stood there slack-jawed. "Close your mouth Casey, maybe I have some regrets in my life."

"Are you telling me," Casey began through clenched teeth.

"Casey, you're one of the brightest men I know, act like it."

Casey slammed his palm into his face. "Why not just tell the two morons?"

"Because then it will seem like matchmaking, and I can't do that, they might refuse," Beckman answered.

"Obviously, because this way is doing a hum dinger of a job," Casey grumbled. Then he chuckled. "I guess you don't have a problem then."

Beckman leaned forward. "So what has happened…for professional reason of course."

"Of course," Casey replied, rolling his eyes.

-ooooo-

The Incident

"Come on, Chuck, we're almost there," Sarah said, helping him into bed.

"You so pretty," Chuck said, looking at her with a goofy grin on his face. Alcohol waifed off of him. The assignment was simple. A group of gaming nerds were suspected of buying and selling information for Fulcrum. Chuck's assignment was to infiltrate them. He found the group at the bar, overheard them talking about World of Questing or some stupid online game and found out they were talking about literal fulcrums…something to give them leverage about leveling up. Sarah had no idea, but Chuck was smiling and happy while talking to the group. Casey had abandoned the mission, and Sarah told Chuck to have fun, she'd be nearby if he needed anything. That was four hours ago. She played up being the caring, doting girlfriend after she thought he was sloshed enough. She went to retrieve him, earning Chuck high fives from the group, and an invite to join a clan, or guild, or something. She didn't understand it and wasn't going to pretend like she did.

"That's the alcohol talking, Chuck," she said, trying to get him into bed. His hand slipped around her waist as he fell, pulling her on top of him, leaving them in a compromising position.

"No, you're pretty all the time, in here," he said, pointing at her heart. "It's okay Sarah, I know," and he closed his eyes.

"Well," she said, pushing up, and shaking her head, chuckling at the drunk nerd and feeling something swell inside her that she pushed down for the 49th million time. "I appreciate you thinking that, but there's things I've done."

"I know," he said, eyes closed. "I've seen them with my eyes, and in here," he said, pointing to his head. He opened his eyes and looked at her, sadly. "I was wrong." Sarah felt a crushing blow inside. "You're beautiful." She ducked her head and looked away. Damn him, how did he do it? He took her hand and she looked at him. "I also know, and it's okay, I won't be a problem."

"Know what?" Sarah asked.

"I'm gonna take care of it," he said drifting off. "REO Speedwagon helped me figure it out."

"Helped you figure what out, Chuck?" she asked. A snore was her answer. She shook her head. Just like them, the one time she wanted to talk, he was passed out. The 14 million times he wanted to, she didn't want to talk. Chuck and Sarah 101. She looked over at his iPod and then glanced at him. He wouldn't mind her listening to his music, he was her music professor she thought, smirking. She picked it up and search the most recently played songs. There was one on there by REO Speedwagon, Time for Me to Fly. She picked it up and hit play.

I've been around for you

Been up and down for you

But I just can't get any relief

I've swallowed my pride for you

I've lived and lied for you

But you still make me feel like a thief

You got me stealing your love away

'Cause you never give it

Peeling the years away

And we can't relive it

Oh, I make you laugh

And you make me cry

I believe it's time for me to fly

Sarah was crying. It was all true. He had swallowed his pride. What few feelings she let him share he had to almost steal from her. And the lying to his family and friends, all for her. He did make her laugh, and she didn't know how many times she had made him cry. So that was his answer. He was leaving. The question was how? She looked at him. Part of her thought the best idea was to wake him up, but her training kicked in. Spies didn't feel, spies didn't love, and with that, she exited via the Morgan door.

-ooooo-

"Casey," Beckman began, alarmed. "Exactly how does Chuck plan on…well…flying?"

Casey grinned. "I call him the moron, but sometimes Walker makes him look like a Mensa member."

"What are you saying?" Beckman asked.

"That those two could teach a class on all the way NOT to communicate."

-ooooo-

The day after the incident

Casey entered Castle and heard something in the gym. He walked in and saw Sarah going to town on her favorite heavy bag, BL. Casey had a good idea what BL stood for, especially since she never called it that around Chuck.

"The moron, ex-boy toy, or ladyfeelings?" Casey asked. Sarah stopped and turned to him slowly. Casey didn't gulp, but most men would have.

"Why don't you slip on some gloves," she said coolly.

Casey had a million excuses, but he knew that if he didn't handle…well, whatever this was, it was going to blow up in his face. He walked into the locker room, and came out, dressed for action a few minutes later. After the third combo he couldn't dodge and had smacked him silly, he decided to talk before he was looking up at the lights. "Finally mix your chocolate and his peanut butter and it wasn't all you hoped for?" The fourth combo landed, and he shook his head. "He and Morgan aren't actually heterosexual life partners?" The fifth left him seeing stars. "He cried afterwards, didn't he?" A minute later he blinked looking up at the ceiling and seeing Sarah standing over him.

"Do you listen when he plays music?" she asked icely.

Casey grinned. "Ah, REO Speedwagon," he said, sitting up. Sarah squatted down, her elbows on her knees, looking at him intently. "What's wrong, Walker? Spill it?"

"How is he leaving?"

"Bartowski household has been a bit of a mess since Forrest," Casey replied. "Awesome and Ellie have been having…issues." Sarah's face softened. "It's been hard on Chuck." Sarah gave him a look. "What? I do have feelings."

"You didn't before Chuck," she muttered.

"Hid them better, same way you did," Casey replied. Sarah stiffened. "Ellie's been borrowing Chuck's iPod." Sarah's eyes widened. "She likes REO Speedwagon," he said, shrugging. "Her and Chuck have had some…interesting conversations."

"They're both leaving?" she asked in a whisper.

"You know what," Casey said, shaking him head. "This is one of those times you need to talk to him. I mean talk, Walker. Not at him, to him. Quit telling him all the crap, and tell him how you feel, and maybe, just maybe you two can figure this out."

"Casey, that would-"

"What are they gonna do, give you another 49 B and say you're still compromised?"

-ooooo-

"WAIT!" Beckman exploded. "Are you saying, you told her to have a relationship with Bartowski?" "Are you telling me you were playing dumb?"

Casey shrugged. "People think I am, so give them what they think." Casey was grinning.

Beckman shook her head. "It's why you're one of the best," she said chuckling. "So?" Casey grinned.

-ooooo-

"WHY CAN'T YOU STAY IN THE CAR?!" Sarah yelled, as they were pinned down behind a crate by gunfire.

"The car is riddled with bullet holes!" Chuck said, pointing toward it.

"Well at least that's not how you're flying," Sarah grumbled.

"What?!"

"Nothing!" She hit her ear piece. "Casey, we're pinned down."

"Hang on, Walker, I got you," Casey replied. "Guess you haven't talked to him yet."

"I'm being shot at! I don't think it's the time!"

"It's never the time," Casey replied, taking another shot at the box the two were trapped behind.

-ooooo-

"Casey!" Beckman yelled. Casey just shrugged.

-ooooo-

"What's going on?" Chuck asked. "Listen, I know things have been…weird between us, but today in the car you were silenter than usual, which is a feat unto itself….has the shooting stopped?" Another shot hit the box.

"Casey! Can you do something about the shooter?" Sarah hissed.

"On it," Casey said, firing another shot, near but not with any chance of harming Chuck and Sarah.

"Sarah," Chuck began. The tone in his voice made her turn to him. "Did I do something last night?" There was fear in his voice. "Did I…I mean if I did, surely you would have..God I never should have drank, I am so-"

"Chuck," she said, wrapping her fingers around his wrist and feeling heat running from him to her or her to him, did it matter? He looked at her hand and into her eyes. "You did nothing wrong. I may have though."

"Oh?" Chuck asked. He gulped. "Was I…uh…was I bad?" She raised an eyebrow. "I mean…well, let's be honest, I was obviously drunk and out of it, and don't worry I don't think you took advantage of me." Her other eyebrow raised. She knew she should stop him but she couldn't. "Has the shooting stopped?" Another bullet hit the box. "Weird how that keeps happening."

Sarah's eyes narrowed. "Casey," she growled into the mike.

"Got him!" Casey yelled, punching the unconscious thug.

-ooooo-

Beckman was leaning forward, pinching her nose. "Casey," she groaned. "What did I do to deserve this?"

"You?" Casey asked. "Try being in the field with those two."

-ooooo-

Chuck was sitting on his bed, looking at his iPod. He had messed around with it and found out the last time someone had played it and what song it was. Ellie was at work and he was blitzed out of his mind, so there was only one possible person that could have listened to it. His window slid open and he smiled.

"Sarah, you okay?" he asked. She froze. She gained control of her feelings, and shut the window. She turned around and saw him holding the iPod. "I remember something about REO Speedwagon." She looked away. "Ellie's been listening to It's Time for Me to Fly a lot." Sarah looked back at him and he shook his head. "She listened to it, because it's not true of them. They've had a problem, a problem caused by me."

"Then you were just drunk," Sarah said, relief filling her. She looked away, gathering her senses. She was about to tell him how she felt. She had to. It was the only way to keep him there, and damn the consequences, but now, now she didn't have to.

-ooooo-

Beckman was staring at Casey. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!? AGAIN!?" Casey grinned and shook his head.

-ooooo-

"No," Chuck whispered. Sarah whipped her head toward him. He cleared his throat. "No," he said in a regular voice. "There is a REO Speedwagon song that tells the truth about you. It's all about you, but I don't know if it's my place to tell you."

"Why wouldn't it be?" She asked in a whisper, surprised the words came from her. Her heart was pounding in her chest. "You're my music professor, remember?" She gave him a slight grin.

"This goes beyond that," Chuck said. "This…it could change everything, and I…." He handed her the iPod, and she saw a song was loaded up. "It's up to you, Sarah….it always has been."

Her eyes filled with tears. She knew exactly what he was saying. Casey had said it was time, minutes earlier she was prepared to say things to him she never thought she'd say to any man, especially this man, this good man. She didn't even put on earphones. She simply clicked play.

Oh, I can't fight this feeling any longer

And yet I'm still afraid to let it flow

What started out this friendship has grown stronger

I only wish I had the strength to let it show

She stared at him. It was all true. Every. Last. Word. She wished she had the strength to tell him.

I tell myself that I can't hold out forever

I said there is no reason for my fear

'Cause I feel so secure when we're together

You give my life direction

You make everything so clear

She blinked away tears. He helped her know how she didn't need the CIA any longer, she never felt safer, or more secure than being around him. Why was she scared?

And even as I wander

I'm keeping you in sight

You're a candle in the window

On a cold, dark winter's night

And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might

He was always the reason she couldn't leave, and she was, closer than she had ever been in her life to being happy. To being loved. To being able to say she was in love.

And I can't fight this feeling anymore

I've forgotten what I started fighting for

It's time to bring this ship into the shore

And throw away the oars, forever

What was the point? The 49 B had come and gone. Why was she saying nothing? Why? She turned the iPod off and handed it back to Chuck. He took it, nodded, and laid it on the table.

"Like I said, I'm not gonna-"

"I love you," she said softly. Chuck's eyes grew wide like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I don't know how to make this work, I don't know how to be what you need."

"Just be you," he said as softly. "I love you." She nodded, and crawled up on the bed and her lips met his.

-ooooo-

"CASEY! What happened next?" Beckman asked.

Casey shrugged. "I turned of the cameras before I needed brain bleach. He had his protection all over him." He thought for a moment. "Or maybe he needed protection." Beckman slapped her hand to her forehead.

-ooooo-

The next day

"Walker, Bartowski, will you please quit holding hands during the briefing," Beckman said, trying to scowl, but secretly please.

"General, I should tell you-" Sarah began.

"I don't care," Beckman replied looking at the two of them and the shocked look on their faces. "Do us all a favor and convince Ellie and Awesome to have a double wedding with you two."

"Wedding?" Chuck choked out. Sarah looked at him. "I mean, it's a bit fast, don't you think."

"NO!" Casey and Beckman yelled. Chuck and Sarah shared a look, grinned, and shrugged.

A/N: So that was on my brain and now it's taken care of. Hope you liked it. Want to publicly say how thrilled I am with all the stories flooding this site right now! To all you writers, you rock! Take care, see you soon, reviews, PMs, or anything, is always appreciated.

DC

[titushartmann]

Peer Critiques

Titus Hartmann

Feedback on kpach7.tumblr.com

Kamakshi Pachauri’s zine about Tracy Chapman’s song Fast Car is an original take on analysis of the classic song. Kamakshi dissects the piece’s lyrics and assigns value to the words of Tracy Chapman in relation to intersectional and relational ideas. In particular, she focuses on the intersection of race and class and deduces that Chapman, as an African-American woman identifies and comments on the destitute living conditions that many people of color experienced in the 80s with her song. I think an appropriate audience for this zine would be anyone interested in music, in socio-economic history, black culture or generally ethnic studies. I would say that a slight bit of education and analytical thinking is required to receive the full gist of the analysis in Kamakshi’s work but that makes sense for the readers in this class.

Compelling Quotes:

“I thought this beat really made me feel like I needed to help the artist and the audience she wrote this for”

“The influence this hit song had on the lives of many individuals around the world pushes the effect of the circulation of blackness.”

I think the idea of getting people’s opinions on the song is a great idea. I might actually steal this and get peoples’ opinions on jeans because it is also something that anyone can easily have an opinion on. A page with just quotes from actual people that have had mini-interviews would be very compelling and would definitely make the song feel more impactful. The 2nd quote I chose just very effectively encompasses the goal of this entire project and of the course, to identify circulations of difference. Bringing your talking points back to this main idea is a great way to streamline the project and I think should be done even more.

Compelling Anecdotes:

“It is so fascinating to learn about how my mom was a young girl living in India and this song, about the struggle women of color were facing in America, was able to appeal to her as well.”

I very much appreciate that Kamakshi brought her own personal experiences and her mother’s into this zine. Reading a passage like that creates instant connection to the author and makes the whole thing feel more applicable and real. I will definitely do this as well. This anecdote also works especially well for a song like Fast Car as it is meant to be shared, heard, and felt. Therefore, making it personal and inserting one’s own and those close to one’s experiences is definitely a great way to express those feelings in a zine.

Compelling Images:

I think this image with the shackled hands, the road, the key, and the lyrics is compelling as it works and acts as a metaphor on many levels. Due to the inclusion of some of the most important and impactful lines of Fast Car, it is technically not necessary to include the whole song in the final zine. However, this could still be done but probably should not take up a whole page, as some of the lyrics might get repetitive. In addition, I think the road metaphor could be expanded and maybe play a bigger role in the final project. The key, after some consideration, makes sense to me, but unless it is mentioned in analysis it could be a little bit confusing to other readers so I would consider that. Other than that, this is a great image to take up a page of the zine as it lets readers follow the lyrics and read and identify with the ones that stand out to them.

Reword Analysis:

“In a sense this piece represents how people of color are treated as property whereas white people are the owners because people of color are segregated and not given equal rights. I really enjoy this piece because not only is it very catchy as a song, but also holds a lot of meaning and history in each word.”

This passage represents some of Kamakshi’s relational analysis and is effective in portraying Fast Car’s criticism of the socio-economic standing of the majority of people of color in the 80s. I think this analysis works well the way it is written and gets the message across. Still, something could be done to make it even more powerful and have more impact. For example, the first sentence could be split into:

“Chapman expresses the desperation that people of color in the 80s felt due to their classification as property. Seen as segregated objects without equal rights, Fast Car identifies their owners as white Americans. “

This still encompasses the gist of the original sentence but replaces some repetitive words and phrases. I think the idea still works very well and preserves the powerful meaning of the original. The personal feeling in the second sentence then adds a subjective and meaningful analysis that should be kept the same. I think some detailed examples of lyrics and maybe even a discussion of the tempo, harmony, and musical elements of the song would be amazing in completing a wholesome analysis of the piece and connecting it to the themes of this course and of Kamakshi’s zine.

[readersforum]

How to Breathe New Life Into Your Google Search Results With Rich Snippets

New Post has been published on http://www.readersforum.tk/how-to-breathe-new-life-into-your-google-search-results-with-rich-snippets/

How to Breathe New Life Into Your Google Search Results With Rich Snippets

Google rich snippets. What the heck are those?

They’re these awesome things that can help you improve your website’s SEO and generate more site traffic from search engine results pages (SERPs), and in this article, I’m going to tell you how to set them up.

Let me first pose a question to you: Have you noticed that when doing a Google search, certain listings just look a little sexier than others? For example, if you were doing a search for “apple pie,” which of these listings when you rather click on?

I’ll bet you chose option #2. If you didn’t, you must really not like apple pie.

Between the thumbnail image and the five-star rating scale, what are these sites doing to make their Google listings include this extra media? The secret to these fancy pieces of information are rich snippets, which these websites have optimized for using the HTML of their website pages.

Google Rich Snippets

Google rich snippets are enhanced search results that produce more details about a website than the average link. This “rich” media can include images, ratings, authors, dates, locations, and more. Publishers can give Google these details by including structured data in the backend of their webpages.

Google rich snippets — also called “rich results” — extract information from your website to display on your site’s listing in the search results, in addition to the typical page title, page URL, and meta description.

Each search result is guaranteed to display these three pieces of information, making up an individual snippet. The thinking is, the more information included in a search result’s snippet, the more likely users are to click on that result. With enough structured data on the page, you can earn a rich snippet.

Rich snippets are often overlooked in businesses’ SEO strategies because they are more difficult to implement than traditional on-page SEO. But with how complex Google search results look today, it would be worth your while to spend a little time learning how to do this. Adding this content-rich information to your Google search listings draws the eye and can increase your listings’ click-through rates, even when you’re not ranking in the #1 position.

There are a few options for how to install rich snippets, but I’m going to show you the easiest method: using microdata.

Keep in mind this process won’t guarantee that you’ll get a rich snippet. But giving these details special treatment can dramatically increase your chances of enhancing the appearance of your search result — and, in turn, the traffic you get from it.

How to Create Rich Snippets

Identify which details you want Google to focus on.

Define your webpage using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

Create microdata for your webpage using your selected data type.

Create new HTML from this microdata.

Tag your content with this microdata.

Test your rich snippet.

Be patient.

1. Identify which details you want Google to focus on.

Your webpage’s topic and format will dictate which types of information you want Google to display in its search results. Are you writing an article? An event page? A book review? A product page? Here are some examples of details included in rich snippets for the several types of snippets available to you:

Article: You can add tags for the article title, author, meta description, publish date, featured image, and more.

Restaurant pages: You can add tags for food items, item prices, item descriptions, item images, item calories, and more.

Product page: You can add tags for product names, product ratings, product prices, product availability, product images, and more.

Event page: You can add tags for the event name, event speakers, event schedule, event dates, and more.

Recipe: You can add tags for recipe rating, ingredients, image of final product, cooking duration, total calories, and more.

2. Define your webpage using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

So, how do you create the tags listed above? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as writing “Here’s the product’s price” in your webpage’s HTML and expecting Google to take the hint. To properly communicate this information to Google, the company offers a handy tool for creating structured datasets based on the type of webpage you’re publishing. It’s called the Structured Data Markup Helper. Use it here, and see it below.

As you can see, above, you’ll start by selecting the attribute that best describes the content you’re creating. Then, at the bottom of this page, enter the existing URL of the webpage to which your content has been published. (Note: To use this tool, you’ll publish your content first, and then retrieve the URL so you can structure your data accordingly.)

3. Create microdata for your webpage using your selected data type.

Microdata is a way to label content to describe what this content represents. An event, for example, has all sorts of information associated with it, including the venue, starting time, name, and category. You can then use a bit of code to basically tell Google, “Here’s my event and the most important information people would need to know about it.”

How Microdata Can Be Used

Microdata wraps your text in very simple HTML tags, such as or

tags, to assign descriptive terms to each bit of information. Here’s an example block of HTML showing some basic information about me — the author of this article — below.

My name is Diana Urban, and I was born and raised in New York. I’m on the marketing team at HubSpot, an all-in-one marketing software company in Cambridge, MA.

See those

tags at the beginning and end of the copy, above? This denotes text that is in standard paragraph style. There’s nothing unique about the text above compared to any other paragraph in this article. This makes it hard for Google to interpret it the way you might want it to be interpreted.

Now, here is the same HTML tagged with microdata:

itemscope itemtype=”http://data-vocabulary.org/Person“> My name is I’m the affiliation“>HubSpot, an all-in-one marketing software company in Cambridge, MA.

Those bold tags in the HTML above tell Google what each piece of my author bio actually is. The “person” tag indicates this is about a person. The “name” tag indicates the following text is my name. The “title” tag indicates the following text is my job title. The “div” tags single out the entire section of HTML so Google knows it can highlight it in my article’s snippet, given the appropriate search term a user might enter.

Creating Your Microdata

Once you’ve selected your data type in the previous step, you’ll be taken to a page where you can automatically associate certain details of your webpage with microdata that describes those details. To create microdata for an article’s author, for example, you’ll highlight the author’s name on the webpage — which Google projects on the lefthand side of the tool — and select “Author” in the dropdown that appears. See how this looks, below.

  4. Create new HTML from this microdata.

Next, you’ll create new strings of HTML from the microdata you created in the previous step. Once you’ve finished assigning each part of your webpage a proper tag, click the red “Create HTML” button on the top-righthand corner of the tool, as shown below.

5. Tag your content with this microdata.

With your HTML successfully created, you’ll see every tag you created in step 3, above, listed in a block of code you can then insert into your article’s HTML. You’ll insert this code in your content management system (CMS).

Google recommends adding the HTML it created for you into the “head section” of your article’s HTML. If you use HubSpot’s CMS, you’ll find separate HTML boxes designed just for this occasion, as shown below.

Learn more about adding HTML to webpages in HubSpot Academy.

Want another way to tag your HTML with various pieces of microdata? Review the different examples of rich snippets below this list of instructions. Each of these rich snippets link to separate Google instructions on how to optimize for each type of rich snippet. (When you load their page, always select the “microdata” approach to get the right instructions.)

6. Test your rich snippet.

Google Webmaster Tools has another nifty feature that lets you test your rich snippet. Click here to use their Structured Data Testing Tool. This will confirm whether or not Google can read your markup data and whether your rich snippets are appearing in their search results.

7. Be patient.

If you don’t see your rich snippets in Google’s search results right away, don’t freak out. It actually takes Google as long as a few weeks to crawl and index this new data. So go to the beach. Sip a margarita. Soak in some sun.

Okay, it’s more likely that you’ll just keep working on other stuff in the meantime, but a girl can dream …

Rich Snippets Examples

Let’s run through some of the different types of rich snippets that are available to use on your website. Each section links to Google’s instructions on how to actually install the rich snippets — remember to select the microdata option for the easiest installation process!

Business and Organization Snippets

A rich snippet about a business or organization can include location information, contact information, price ranges, hours, and customer reviews, if there are any available.

Learn how to create rich snippets for organizations >

Event Snippets

Event snippets include the date, location, and time of the event. If there are more than one option for the events, up to three will be displayed.

Learn how to create rich snippets for events >

Music Album Snippets

Using music album rich snippets will display links to individual songs in an album, or even lyrics to the song if available.

Learn how to create rich snippets for music >

People Snippets

The people snippet displays information such as a person’s job title, the company they work for (a.k.a. affiliation), and location. It can also display a photo, nickname, and more.

People snippets are different than author snippets. Here is the difference, with an example of yours truly.

Learn how to create rich snippets for people >

Product Snippets

Product rich snippets include things like a picture of a product, ratings, and price range of the product.

Learn how to create rich snippets for products >

Recipe Snippets

Recipe rich snippets provide users with additional information about a specific cooking recipe, such as the ratings (1 to 5 stars), cook/prep time, and calorie information.

In order to qualify as a recipe, you must have at least two of the following tags in place:

A photo of the dish

The tag: prepTime, cookTime, totalTime, or ingredients

Calories

Review

  Learn how to create rich snippets for recipes >

Review Snippets

You’ve already seen a bunch of examples of snippets that have 5-star ratings included. But you can also set up a snippet that is just the review portion.

Learn how to create rich snippets for reviews >

Video Snippets

If you want a thumbnail of a video to display next to your search listing, the markup works a little different. Google recognizes the Facebook Share markup code, so you might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Learn how to create rich snippets for videos >