#just for fun here’s the list of words I used to ultimately inspire this poem:
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sips of earl grey in gray light,
running on affection fumes,
kissing scrapes with bloody lips
memory, too paper thin:
that first glance as strangers
a leaf still pushes through the stones
#poetry#spilled ink#napowrimo#NaPoWriMo 2023#prompt#Write a series of surrealist answers to ‘what is’ questions based on a list of random words. use your answers to inspire a poem#this prompt was so cool actually#it brought me to a story I never would have written on my own#is it surreal enough? too surreal? idk but it got that creativity flowing#not a haiku#just for fun here’s the list of words I used to ultimately inspire this poem:#fog seaweed thunder river acorn miracle
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Choices March Challenge 2024
I asked and you answered. It seems like flowers and spring are prompts you are interested in for the March Challenge!
I hope you enjoy the prompts I chose. There is a mix of flowers, spring related words, March holidays, dialogue prompts, and visual floral prompts. I also posted some floral dividers that you're welcome to use.
Have Fun + Happy Creating!
Prompts + Guidelines below the cut!
Flowers (these are some possibilities, but all flowers are accepted)
Bleeding Heart Flower
Carnation
Chrysanthemum
Coneflower
Corpse Flower
Daffodil
Daisy
Gladiolus
Hydrangea
Iris
Jade Vine
Lavender
Lilac
Lily
Marigold
Moonflower
Nightshade
Orchid
Pansy
Peony
Poppy
Rose
Snapdragon
Sunflower
Tulip
Wildflowers
Spring
Awakening
Baby animals
Butterflies
Clear skies
Daylight saving
Fresh air
Growth
New Life
Outdoor activities + sports
Picnics
Rain boots
Rainy days
Renewal
Spring cleaning
Sunny weather
Warm temperatures
Longer days
Umbrella
March Holidays (these are some possibilities, but all March Holidays are accepted)
March 01: National Peanut Butter Lover's Day
March 08: International Women's Day
March 09: National Barbie Day + Get over it Day
March 11: National Napping Day
March 15: The Ides of March
March 16: National Panda Day
March 17: St. Patrick's Day
March 18: Awkward Moments Day
March19: First day of spring
March 23: National Puppy Day
March 30: National Take a Walk in the Park Day + Doctors' Day
March 31: Easter
Dialogue Prompts
"The flowers in the park seem to have a secret language, don't they?"
"Why does every spring bring back memories of that garden?"
"I can't believe you kept that secret from me all these years."
"Why do you always have to be so stubborn?"
"I never thought I'd see you again."
"Do you believe in second chances?"
"I thought we were in this together."
"You're not the person I thought you were."
"Sometimes silence speaks louder than words."
"Is it too late to start over?"
"I don't know who I am anymore."
"We're running out of time."
"Why are you really here?"
"Your laughter is my favorite melody."
"If our love story were a book, every page would be filled with the softest words and the sweetest kisses. What chapter are we on now?"
“Will you please shut up”
“Of all the things i love about you, this is my favorite.”
Visual Prompts:
If one of these inspire a creative work from you feel free to use it. You can list the prompt topic + # (ie: Rainbow 3)
Guidelines + Rules
Submitted works will be featured on a weekly masterlist
Every form of creative work can be submitted: fanfiction, drabbles, moodboards, edits, drawings, poems, songs, sketches, and more—all are welcomed.
Work from any book and story from the Choices (and Pixelberry) universe are welcome (new and old alike)!
You can participate as many times as you want during the month
Clearly list the prompt your used
You can combine submissions for this event and others
Please add a cut to avoid long posts and exposing other fans to triggering/disturbing content.
If your work is NS*W please label it as such and use appropriate warnings. Adult content should be hidden under the page break.
You can get creative with the prompts. It can be a variation of the word and/or concept. It doesn’t have to be exact or literal. If the word inspires a train of thought that led you to something different, put that in the notes and send it in! Have fun with it! Make them work for you! The ultimate goal is just to find joy in creating!
Please tag @choicesmonthlychallenge and if you’d like to add me you can do so as well~ @lovealexhunt (feel free to DM me your work too since Tumblr tags are fickle)
Please do not submit work that has been created with AI. Works that contain AI will not be reblogged. If reblogged inadvertently and I find out they have AI, they will be deleted.
Late entries will be accepted through April 5
#choices#choices game#playchoices#choices stories you play#choices monthly challenge#choices march challenge#choices march challenge 2024#choices monthly challenge 2024#march2024
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Choices Monthly Challenge June 2022 Prompt List
Welcome to the June Monthly Challenge!
Please feel free to use one, two, or three of the daily prompts in your creation. The days are just suggestions, you can send your submission anytime during the month of June.
Enjoy and we can't wait to see what you create!
01: interview | sunset | “Is that a new…”
02: eating | introduction | amusement park
03: practice | finish line | sweater
04: break up | new pet | “I got tickets!”
05: notebook | dying | picnic
06: reunited | new neighbor | ice / ice cream
07: baby | we've moved | “I’ve wanted to do this forever!”
08: closing | vacation | “I’d love to go out with you.”
09: date | rejection | “We won (lost).”
10: old journal | kiss | “Here’s my/Lose my number.”
11: youth | change | protest
12: blank canvass | graduation | fireplace/pit
13: Pride | dancing | “We’re all out of vanilla.”
14: last day of school | contract | beach
15: photographs | making out | sneezing
16: work of art | call back | “I can’t believe it’s over…”
17: forgiveness | new crush | swimsuit
18: texting | funeral | blanket
19: parent/father | Juneteenth | “What? Is this a new rule?”
20: wedding | undress | sunburn
21: return | audition | darkness
22: roots | shopping | “Welcome to your new nightmare…”
23: diagnosis | scrapbook | “You’re hired/fired.”
24: breakfast | midnight snack | “Someone left a gift for you.”
25: resignation | proposal | “I’ve never said this before, but…”
26: cuddles | fight | "You should throw that away."
27: birthday | death | "We’re going to be lifelong friends!”
28: application | let go | “That felt so good!”
29: December | welcome | "I’ve never been here before.”
30: opening | the end | “It was good while it lasted.”
Have fun creating! See guidelines below.
Submitted works will be featured on a weekly masterlist on Sundays* (*depending on event participation)
Every form of creative work can be submitted: fanfiction, drabbles, moodboards, edits, drawings, poems, songs, sketches, and more—all are welcomed.
Work from any book and story from the Choices (and Pixelberry) universe are welcome (new and old alike)!
You can participate as many times as you want during the month
You do not need to participate daily or even weekly.
Clearly list the day/prompt your work is for
You can combine submissions for this event and others
Please use warnings to tag content that may be triggering/disturbing to some users.
If your work is NS*W please label it as such and use appropriate warnings. Adult content should be hidden under the page break.
When possible, use page breaks to limit long posts.
You can get creative with the prompts. It can be a variation of the word and/or concept. It doesn’t have to be exact or literal. If the word inspires a train of thought that led you to something different, put that in the notes and send it in! Have fun with it! Make them work for you! The ultimate goal is just to find joy in creating!
If you want to participate in a day that has already past, that is fine, just note that in your post and I will still reblog it and then edit the masterlist for that day to include our post.
Please tag @choicesmonthlychallenge and feel free to DM your work too because Tumblr, is Tumblr. @jerzwriter)
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Good grief, Charlie Brown.
I’ve never owned an electric toothbrush. I’ve never had a dishwasher. I am the dishwasher. I like washing dishes. I never bought an iron. I don’t have a hairdryer. I find it strange that I get advertised these reusable alternatives for things that I never use anyway. Alternatives to cling film. I put another plate over the dish. Alternatives to cotton buds. I use my finger. (Ew, you may say, but surely a finger’s that size to fit in ears and nostrils? Or whatever orifice you please. Wash your hawnds.) Alternatives to cotton wool circles. What? I dont know why these thoughts have come into my head, when I want to write about my youngest child. Really, I’m meant to be working, but an annoying email from my dead daughter’s school sent me down a suicide rabbithole. Perhaps those other thoughts come about as my classic brain avoidance schemes. Like when you hoover instead of doing an essay. Positive procrastination, I used to call it. I wanted to visit some friends last night- a fun thing! but I was feeling all solitary and awkward. I cleaned the bathroom ceiling at first, instead! I had to really talk myself into going to see them. I was looking at my bed and it was saying, “Get into me! and read your book!”
Then I went, and I had a lovely time, of course. I still finished the book I was reading, when I got home at midnight, until three am, making myself ever so tired. I’ve stopped taking the tablets- beta blockers and mirtazapine (more by accident rather than design. They’re still up in the chemist waiting for me. I’m rather disorganised) and so sleep doesn’t come as readily. I have to take deep breaths for ages sometimes, to get over. And I awake in the night hearing things that aren’t there. I heard The Woodcarver calling me, one night, plain and loud as day. Another time, I heard my son knocking my door three times, sharply (or was it a burglar? I said that to someone and they laughed. Burglars don’t knock! Oh, hello there, wake up, I’m robbing you blind!) Bounced out of bed. Heart hammering. Called him. He was fast asleep. Was it her ghost? I don’t believe in ghosts, really. Kind of wish I did. She’d be a mischievous one, no doubt. Is it always 5:57am, when I awake? The same time. Time to find your dead child.
I’m often in the house alone, now. They didn’t want to leave me alone, and there were so many people in the house, for ages. Then all of a sudden, it stopped. And I changed lovers... I changed to the one I’d been in love with for over a year, the one who seemed too young, the one who wasn’t interested. Suddenly he was interested. Well. It wasn’t sudden. It took a few weeks. Seven weeks? The seven week itch? It coincided with when the Scottish lover asked me to stop letting other people come to the house. He wanted me to himself. Which is kind of fair enough, though I knew it wouldn’t last anyway. (People coming to my house, I mean, not the relationship. I really enjoyed having a relationship with him. He is very sweet, funny, intelligent, and kind. The sex was great. He can cook wonderful food and play guitar well. I liked to sing with him. I am ashamed to say I was bothered by his being smaller than me, though. His face tended to itch me, too- he never quite grew a beard long enough to stop that. As he kept shaving it off, not because he couldn’t. That was the first time he kind of annoyed me, though.)
Lockdown doesn’t help, of course. We were all breaking rules in our grief. Covid is cancelled, my mother said. Masks off. Hugs all round. A friend told me you need extra oxytocin when you’re grieving. I was getting plenty of it. Good grief...
Now I am frequently alone, and as my new lover is very busy studying (or perhaps less interested in me again now that he has my attention back? Though his reticence in getting with me stemmed from his concerns about the uneven nature of our interest in each other...) I haven’t seen him all week. I feel myself becoming depressed, and withdrawn, and paranoid, yet I still don't feel particularly sad about my daughter’s death. Which is strange. Isn’t it? Here is the email I received from her school this morning (it had her name and class at the top of the email):
“Good morning
I hope this email finds you all well.
A number of years ago I signed the college up to the campaign against period poverty. I receive and distribute sanitary products to girls, primarily on free school meals, but any who are in need of the products and either can’t afford them or it is difficult to get them. The products are normally distributed by myself, during P.E and games, unfortunately this can’t happen at present.
These products are still available during the school closure. If you wish to avail of them, please contact our school info account (which is only read by one member of office staff) your request will be directed to me and I will contact you directly regarding collection.
These are difficult times for many at present and to quote my favourite supermarket, ‘every little helps’.
Kind regards...”
I was really with her until she quoted Tesco. And said they were her favourite!! Ugh! I mean, it really is a great idea. Though they really should check if the people they are writing about are still capable of bleeding. My heart bleeds....
I replied thus:
“Hello there.
Great idea, but as (my youngest daughter) has died, she won't be needing them any more. I hate Tesco- they ruin many little businesses.
Maybe take me off this mailing list?”
Then I attached one of her seven suicide notes: the one for school. Which I had previously not shown them. I only found it on Christmas Eve. Can I attach it, here? It has no names...
There we are. Is it wrong of me to find her notes amusing? She is so angry, people say. I wonder how much of it is literal, and how much of it is using the school as a big nameless scapegoat. She was funny in the rest of them, too, and very loving. I found them comforting, like a fucked up Christmas present.
Then I started reading articles about suicide, and they were about how we shouldn’t call the people who do it selfish, about how depressed they are, how they need pity, not anger. I’m tired of the pity (though I’m not the suicidal one). I’m not producing enough sadness from myself when people pity me, either. Where is my sadness? Am I too acceptant of it all? We are all going to die. Is suicide like a C-section? Is it cheating death, like I thought my Caesareans cheated birth? Is suicide self euthanasia? Why do I not miss my daughter more? Is it because she had already left? Was she released, happy, free as a bird, swooping away on an Awfully Big Adventure? Trapezing her way into the æther? I googled to see if I could find any positive reactions to suicide. Is this my nature, to try and find the good in everything? To try and make light of the horrific? Is everything a joke to me?
I found this blog post, from Andreas Moser.
I love it. Am I trying to take the blame away from myself? The NHS? The school? Should I be reeling and railing against the systems that let my daughter get into that state? Why am I instead trying to find ways to applaud her behaviour, accept it, even enjoy it?! When I read his words, “I admire their courage (because logical as it may be, it’s not easy) and the determination to make the ultimate decision in life oneself.” I felt a strange sensation of relief, that someone else could think those things. I had been thinking them, but trying not to, because it seemed like such an awful thing to think. But then I think, why does anyone else have to be to blame? It was her decision.
The book I was rereading is called Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson. It’s my favourite book, I have decided, for now. Do favourites stay favourites? I was looking at my old Couchsurfing Profile today (because of Andreas’ blog- he, as a hippy hermit, is, of course, on Couchsurfing). One needs to update these every so often. Explain that you have watched another film in the last twenty years, that there is one less sofa in your living room, one less child on your earth. Even though no-one is allowed to move around, really. No visiting. No exploring. Perhaps she killed herself to escape the boredom.
In Life After Life, the main character, Ursula, lives again and again. (I forgot that to live again and again, she had to die again and again. It's a very sad and graphic book, spanning two wars- read it. It is, ultimately, uplifting.) I wanted to read it again to make my daughter live again, and again. We need to write her alive. Show her drawings and paintings. Listen to her songs (they're hilarious). Read her poems. Admire her photographs. Tell the stories of her antics.
I know that really she was actually depressed and withdrawn. I know it isn’t a glorious escape. That her wee head was broken, and that sometimes it’s just easier to say, it was unfixable, she was determined, this is what she wanted, than to contemplate it as my (or anyone else’s) failure to help her. I know that she used to be confident and gregarious. She would have danced in front of people, inspiring others. She was always upside-down, tumbling, twirling, cartwheeling. She had a dry, cheeky wit, and rather an amusing obsession with poo and wee. She was kind, and wise. She liked to bake vegan treats. She could draw, and paint, and sing so beautifully. She played the ukelele, but by then she was hiding away. She had started to write poems- songs? She wouldn’t show us them. We had to beg her to perform on the trapeze for her Granny’s eightieth, in July. She did so, beautifully, but you could tell she hated the attention. Four months later, she hanged herself on it.
Had we all withdrawn into ourselves, this 2020? Was there really nothing else to do? Yet I remember the start of Lockdown seeming idyllic. All that free time, all that sunshine. Was I just trying to convince myself, as usual? The only people we saw were the Woodcarver and the neighbours. She taught the wee boy next door to ride his unicycle. When she died, he brought in a picture he had drawn, of them on their unicycles, she as an angel above herself, a rainbow arcing over the three figures. His sadness affected me. I felt like I could only be sad through other people. Where is my sadness? Where is my grief? Good grief, bad grief, no grief? Alternatives to grief.
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NaPoWriMo 2020 Day 19: Walking Archive
the black cat follow so chasing the petals on the wind wondering what happened to the bird who lost a few feathers it paws at the seeds you sow with a wish and a dandelion ____ I have mixed feelings about this one. Mostly because I have mixed feelings about the prompt, and that leaks into the poem. The prompt for today was to write a poem based on a "walking archive," which I can't decide if that sounds cooler than what it actually is: Go on a walk and pick things up as you go. Those things are the "walking archive." I think my problem with this prompt is mainly that it requires you to do extraneous things outside of just writing the poem or things you would normally do for that process (looking things up, etc.) And at that point, it starts to feel more like you're doing an oddball homework assignment than something for fun. Perhaps it's best I move on from the given prompt though because I can feel the critical part of my brain waking up and it both can and will rant about "everything wrong" with said prompt if I let it. Frankly, I'd rather spend those extra few minutes playing Animal Crossing if I can, as that's a much more positive experience. All that aside, since because of the way I tackle these prompts (writing the poem as soon as possible after the prompt is posted at 12:01 a.m.) meant that I didn't really have time (or, y'know daylight) to go walk around outside to gather a "fresh" walking archive, I instead thought back to a number of walks outside I have been on and the things I've picked up then. It's actually fairly regular in the springtime that I'll walk outside with one of our cats following me and end up picking up a couple of flower petals (even if it's just to look and I don't keep them), a stray bird feather or two, and plucking a few dandelions to blow the little wispy into the wind and watch them fly like fluffy sparkles. It's also not terribly uncommon for me to find a dead butterfly that I feel the need to take back with me and protect, as some loyal Sparklers that remember my Carousel of Curiosity may have already known/remembered. And that was originally on my "walking archive things list" but I couldn't think of a good way to squeeze it into the poem here without it feeling forced and out of place. So perhaps another time. That does though, I think, explain pretty much all of the poem here. I know a cat probably can't technically be part of a "walking archive," but it was important to me to include and it worked nicely as a vessel to communicate, instead of having to go with a standard "I" or the third-person "she." It's not terribly deep, save for maybe the last two lines that could be read more deeply into than the words at face value, but eh, not every poem can be. The mandala I tried to go for motifs similar to the things mentioned in the poem; a cat-like motif towards the center, a few flower/petal-ish ones, even one that is supposed to vaguely be like feathers, and of course some greens for grass and leaves and all that. The things you really can't avoid when going outside. Fun fact: I almost decided to go for a "walk" in Animal Crossing and use things I picked up in-game as my walking archive, but I ultimately said no because I was pretty sure that was just the part of my brain that didn't want to stop playing to work on this prompt. Though, that wouldn't be a horrible idea to come back to in the future when I have more time. Perhaps I will? ____ Artwork/Poem © me, MysticSparkleWings Inspired by FridgePoetProject ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram
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The Best Anime of the 2010s
Here it is, the third and final installment in our Best of the 2010s series! We’ve gotten manga and video games out of the way, so it’s time for anime.
If you’re just tuning in, here’s how it works: our three contributors (Evan Minto, Ink, and David Estrella) each ranked their top anime series and movies released between 2010 and 2019. We scored them all based on their positions in the three lists, and came up with a single combined list of 10, which you’ll find below. We haven’t seen every anime out there, so there may be some conspicuous omissions, but of all of our lists, this is the one we’re most confident in. That’s mainly because the contributors covered over 120 titles between the three of them! The full lists for anime, manga, and games, including our individual rankings, are now available on the Ani-Gamers Patreon.
Below you’ll find everything from lo-fi comedies to tragic war stories. And befitting the many ways anime is produced and distributed, our list contains TV series, net animations, short films, big-budget feature films, rotoscope animation, and more. It’s been a great decade for anime, and we hope you find something new (er, more like old) to add to your watch list. Enjoy, and feel free to chime in with your own picks in the comments!
10. Tantei Opera Milky Holmes: Act 2 (2012)
David Estrella: No one believes me when I say that Milky Holmes II is an essential anime and frankly, I don’t have the wherewithal to argue with close-minded idiots that have had the bulk of the 2010s to listen to me for once. If you have to ask, it’s already too late for you but in case you’re 14 and your first anime was a post-Bleach shonen thing, Milky Holmes is a comedy that begins as a mildly amusing goofy slapstick magical girl detective cartoon and soon spirals out into an insane spectacle that completely incinerates all the other half-way passable, middle-of-the-road multimedia schlock that used to made before it all became indistinguishable idol gacha crap. Someone went highly off-script on this production and every Milky Holmes afterwards is not even worth mentioning next to these first two seasons. Between this, gdgd Fairies, and Teekyu, the last breaths of creative expression in TV anime were all concentrated in 2012, and before we knew it, it was gone.
9. Flowers of Evil (2013)
Ink: As far as manga adaptations go, hell, as far as film goes, Flowers of Evil is nothing short of a masterwork. Layering animation atop live action (rotoscoping) to emulate the basic premise behind the poetic movement so treasured by the “tortured” protagonist … not to mention actually including relevant, inspirational poems, Director Hiroshi Nagahama takes great risks – from pacing to form and even content – and sticks the landing with technical and emotional force to improve upon the source material (even though the anime only adapts half the manga). It’s an anime that reveals how beautiful ugliness can be and vice-versa.
8. Kill la Kill (2013–2014)
Evan Minto: There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as watching Hiroyuki Imaishi and Kazuki Nakashima go to town on an anime TV series. Kill la Kill is a bonkers ride from start to finish. It’s got superpowered talking school uniforms, nudist secret societies, fanservice so obnoxious it somehow becomes cool, and a never-ending parade of shocking heel-turns. There’s something in there about fascism and the fashion industry and maybe if you squint hard enough you can argue it’s feminist, but the most important F word when it comes to Kill la Kill is “fun.”
7. Kizumonogatari (2016–2017)
David Estrella: I don’t think I’ll ever fly to Japan for the sake of seeing an anime film on opening day again, and fortunately Kizumonogatari was such a peak for cinema that I’m perfectly fine with that. Kizumonogatari left me fulfilled in a way that people with weaker immune systems would pass on to the hereafter upon leaving the theater. It’s not a coincidence that my interest in anime tanked severely once the Kizu trilogy wrapped up since, with a few rare exceptions, very little anime possesses the same ambitious spirit as I found in Kizumonogatari. While Makoto Shinkai is busy making extended Apple commercials under the guise of magical realist teen romance films, I’m really finding it easier and easier to call the anime medium completely and totally solved as early as 2017.
6. From the New World (2012–2013)
David Estrella: Due to circumstances outside of my control, From the New World appears higher on the list over the definitive best anime of the decade and I’m stuck writing about it. I’ll play along if only because From the New World is a great show that deserves another look to appreciate how much it was doing within the boundaries of weekly 24-minute episodes. Adapted from a science-fiction novel that will never be translated and published into English, it’s the rare sort of anime TV show that gets its hooks in early and continues sinking them in until the thought of taking a break before reaching the resolution is unbearable.
5. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012–present)
David Estrella: The loudest JoJo people say that Stardust Crusaders is the best JoJo, then two camps split between Diamond is Unbreakable and Golden Wind say their JoJo is the best JoJo, and then I’m the obnoxious voice in the back that hoots and hollers anytime someone says the phrase “Battle Tendency”. All the other JoJo’s are technically more sophisticated than the first couple of parts, but none of them really match the sheer power of that initial hit, those two amazing openings, and the actual best JoJo, Joseph Joestar, voiced by Tomokazu Sugita giving the performance of a lifetime. At the very least, we will all be haunted by Roundabout memes for as long as JoJo remains relevant.
4. Endless Night (2015)
Ink: Storytelling that relies solely on visuals is seemingly rare in anime these days, and even though Sayo Yamamoto’s Animator Expo figure skating short (which led to the more verbose Yuri!!! on Ice) is backed by a perfectly expressive song by Hiroshi Nakamura, the latter is made superfluous thanks to emotionally soaked movements and settings, laudably implemented surreality, seamless flow, minimalist color palette, and evocative texturing. Seven minutes (if that) lays out, engrossingly, a complete story of inspiration, infatuation, and (ultimately) realization. Ignore the East German judge; the passion and implementation is a 10/10.
3. Inferno Cop (2012–2013)
Evan Minto: “Best of” lists like this one have a tendency toward “high” art, toward stories about Big Ideas and Important Subjects. Inferno Cop is the lowest art of all: a series of nonsensical, lo-fi cutout animated shorts written with the reckless abandon of children playing with action figures. It’s also one of the funniest anime series in a very long time, and certainly one of the best comedies of the decade. It’s only fitting that it served as the world’s introduction to Studio Trigger, who closed out the 2010s with their smash-hit feature film Promare.
2. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)
Ink: The recently late and perpetually bereaved Isao Takahata was, ironically, given the work about which this blurb is written, a realist compared to Ghibli co-founder’s (Miyazaki) escapist tendencies. Why, then, is this retelling of a very familiar folktale in The Tale of Princess Kaguya so powerful? Because the characterizations are as palpable as the animation is expressive; there are few scenes in the all of anime that draw breath like those of the MC’s dashing sequences. The art itself is simultaneously emulative of both a child’s picture book and a depiction of time as age sets in. Fairy tales are forever. RIP and thank you, Takahata.
1. In This Corner of the World (2016)
Evan Minto: This movie handily snagged the #1 spot in our ranking, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a story about the hardships of World War II told not through combat, but through the grueling travails of civilian life. In This Corner of the World’s gut-wrenching tragedy is tempered and amplified by the currents of love and big-hearted, true-to-life comedy that run through it. The film is a beautiful tribute to the innocent souls trampled by war, comparable and even — dare I say — superior to the classic Grave of the Fireflies.
Check out our list of the Best Manga and the Best Video Games of the 2010s!
The Best Anime of the 2010s originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on February 21, 2020 at 8:43 PM.
By: David Estrella
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Your Ultimate Women-Write-The-Best-of-Everything 2019 Reading List
The Voyeurs (Graphic Novel)
"The Voyeurs is the work of a mature writer, if not one of the most sincere voices of her literary generation. It's a fun, honest read that spans continents, relationships and life decisions. I loved it."—Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library
"As she watches other people living life, and watches herself watching them, Bell's pen becomes a kind of laser, first illuminating the surface distractions of the world, then scorching them away to reveal a deeper reality that is almost too painful and too beautiful to bear."— Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
"A master of the exquisite detail, Bell provides a welcome peephole into our lives."—Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker
The Voyeurs, was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and the Atlantic.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
In this brilliant, breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything girl,” might become its first female college graduate.
Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir
Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between “crazy” and “creative” in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers.
Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity.
Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to “cure” an otherwise brilliant mind.
Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney’s memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist’s work, as she shares her own story through bold black-and-white images and evocative prose.
The Woman in Cabin 10
From New York Times bestselling author of the “twisty-mystery” (Vulture) novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, comes The Woman in Cabin 10, an equally suspenseful and haunting novel from Ruth Ware—this time, set at sea. In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…
1222
Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, from Norway’s #1 bestselling female crime writer—a “beguiling” (The Washington Post) “good old-fashioned murder mystery” (The New York Times Book Review) set in an isolated hotel where guests stranded during a monumental snowstorm begin turning up dead. A train on its way to the northern reaches of Norway derails during a massive blizzard, 1,222 meters above sea level. The passengers head for a nearby hotel, centuries old and practically empty. With plenty of food and shelter from the storm, the evacuees think they are safe, until one of them turns up dead. With no sign of rescue and the storm raging, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. Paralyzed by a bullet lodged in her spine, Hanne has no desire to get involved. But when another body turns up, panic takes over. Complicating things is the presence of a mysterious guest, a passenger who traveled in a private rail car and now stays secluded on the top floor of the hotel. No one knows who the guest is, or why armed guards are needed. Hanne has her suspicions. Trapped in her wheelchair, trapped by the storm, and now trapped with a killer, Hanne knows she must act before the killer strikes again.
Robot Dreams
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year A PW Best Book of the Year An ALSC Notable Children’s Book A YALSA Great Graphic Novel
This moving, charming graphic novel about a dog and a robot shows us in poignant detail how powerful and fragile relationships are.
Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa's experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in this volume profoundly challenged, and continue to challenge, how we think about identity. Borderlands / La Frontera remaps our understanding of what a "border" is, presenting it not as a simple divide between here and there, us and them, but as a psychic, social, and cultural terrain that we inhabit, and that inhabits all of us.
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
Now a Netflix series! New York Times Bestseller and Winner of the 2018 James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook and multiple ICAP Cookbook Awards Named one of the Best Books of 2017 by: NPR, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Rachel Ray Every Day, San Francisco Chronicle, Vice Munchies, Elle.com, Glamour, Eater, Newsday, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Seattle Times, Tampa Bay Times, Tasting Table, Modern Farmer, Publishers Weekly, and more. A visionary new master class in cooking that distills decades of professional experience into just four simple elements, from the woman declared “America’s next great cooking teacher” by Alice Waters.
Monstress Volume 1: Awakening
Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers. About the Creators: New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer Marjorie Liu is best known for her fiction and comic books. She teaches comic book writing at MIT, and leads a class on Popular Fiction at the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop.
Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir. Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval.
Nobody Nowhere: The Remarkable Autobiography of an Autistic Girl
Donna Williams was a child with more labels than a jam-jar: deaf, wild disturbed, stupid insane... She lived within herself, her own world her foreground, ours a background she only visited. Isolated from her self and from the outside world, Donna was, in her words, a Nobody Nowhere. She swung violently between these two worlds, battling to join our world and, simultaneously, to keep it out. Abandoned from all connection to the self within her, she lived as a ghost with a body, a patchwork of the images which bombarded her. Intact but detached from the seemingly incomprehensible world around her, she lived in what she called 'a world under glass`.
After twenty-five years of being misunderstood, and unable to understand herself, Donna stumbled upon the word 'autism': a label, but one which held up a mirror and made sense of her life and struggles, and gave her a chance to finally forgive both herself and those around her.
The Ice Princess
The psychological thriller debut of No.1 bestselling Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg.
A small town can hide many secrets
Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems like she’s taken her own life.
Meanwhile, local detective Patrik Hedström is following his own suspicions about the case. It’s only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about a small town with a deeply disturbing past…
The Vampire Chronicles: Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned
In 1976, nearly 80 years after Bram Stoker published Dracula, Anne Rice's bestselling first novel, Interview with the Vampire, breathed new life into the vampire myth. Now, in one chilling volume, here are the first three classic novels of The Vampire Chronicles; Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned.
Adulthood is a Myth: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection
Do you love networking to advance your career? Is adulthood an exciting new challenge for which you feel fully prepared? Ugh. Please go away. 2016 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS! These casually drawn, perfectly on-point comics by the hugely popular young Brooklyn-based artist Sarah Andersen are for the rest of us. They document the wasting of entire beautiful weekends on the internet, the unbearable agony of holding hands on the street with a gorgeous guy, and dreaming all day of getting home and back into pajamas. In other words, the horrors and awkwardnesses of young modern life. Oh and they are totally not autobiographical. At all.
Nimona
Indies Choice Book of the Year * National Book Award Finalist * New York Times Bestseller * New York Times Notable Book * Kirkus Best Book * School Library Journal Best Book * Publishers Weekly Best Book * NPR Best Book * New York Public Library Best Book * Chicago Public Library Best Book
The New York Times bestselling graphic novel sensation from Noelle Stevenson, based on her beloved and critically acclaimed web comic. Kirkus says, “If you’re going to read one graphic novel this year, make it this one.”
Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from Noelle Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel has been hailed by critics and fans alike as the arrival of a “superstar” talent (NPR.org).
Cultural Anthropology Barbara Miller
Cultural Anthropology presents a balanced introduction to the world’s cultures, focusing on how they interact and change. Author Barbara Miller provides many points where readers can interact with the material, and encourages students to think critically about other cultures as well as their own. Featuring the latest research and statistics throughout, the eighth edition has been updated with contemporary examples of anthropology in action, addressing recent newsworthy events such as the Ebola epidemic.
Captain Marvel Volume 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More
Kelly Sue Deconnick
Hero! Pilot! Avenger! Captain Marvel, Earth's Mightiest Hero with an attitude to match, is back and launching headfirst into an all-new ongoing adventure! As Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Carol Danvers, comes to a crossroads with a new life and new romance, she makes a dramatic decision that will alter the course of her life - and the entire Marvel Universe - in the months to come. But as Carol takes on a mission to return an alien girl to her homeworld, she lands in the middle of an uprising against the Galactic Alliance! Investigating the forced resettlement of Rocket Girl's people, Carol discovers that she has a history with the man behind the plot. But when the bad guy tries to blackmail Carol and turn the Avengers against her, it's payback time! Guest-starring the Guardians of the Galaxy!
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The Ultimate Fandom Gift Guide
The “Carry On” Christmas party is coming closer and you’ve got no idea what to make? Well, here’s a list of all the awesome things just about anyone can create! Feel free to add your ideas in the comments!
The “Obvious” One: Fanfiction
“Carry On” is just that: Rainbow Rowell’s fanfiction of the Simon Snow we know from “Fangirl”. (But it isn’t Cath’s fanfiction!) So what if Simon and Baz lived in Rainbow‘ s world (or in Cath‘s for that matter.) Or what if it was the other way around? Could you imagine them in your favourite film or TV show or in just about any alternative universe?
Once the ideas there you can write anything you want: A one-shot, an AU poem, a longer story with several chapters that you post on the days of the party (and beyond), there are no limits and no rules. If you have never written any fanfiction, don’t be afraid and just go for it! (On December 19st I will upload a post with a few tips and tricks for fanfiction writing so if you’re still unsure by that time make sure to drop by and maybe learn something new!)
The “Classic”: Playlist
If you know anything about Rainbow Rowell, you are probably aware of the fact that she LOVES playlists—if not, make sure to check them out on her Spotify! (My personal favourite is the Eleanor&Park soundtrack.) Nonetheless, playlists are a great way of sharing your favourite songs with others—the might even be Snowbaz, Simon Snow or “Carry On” related. Also: There is nothing better than being able to listen to a great, fandom made, soundtrack whilst scrolling through the #carryonchristmas Tumblr feed and enjoying not only the awesome music but also the amazing gifts posted to the Christmas party.
The “Musical” One: Song covers
Creating a playlist of your favourite “Carry On” related songs just isn’t enough? Try recording a cover of one (or all of them) then! Creating your own version of a music piece is not only a lot of fun but also a great way to give it a little twist, instead of a girl suddenly the song might be about a guy and so on. Covering a song is also a great way to show off your musical talent and also to try out new things—maybe it is just about the right time to get out that xylophone you played with as a child and see what you can do with it now.
The Popular One: Drawings/ Illustrations
There is this one scene of “Carry On” that you just can’t get out of your head? Draw it! Sketch it! Even if it’s just a curl of Simon’s luscious hair or one of Baz’s eyes or an entire scene or maybe even an entire comic strip—just let your creativity flow and most importantly, have fun whilst doing so! Don’t be intimidated by all the artists out there you think to be much better—it’s all do to practice and even then they will never have your style or see something the same way you do, a new perspective is always wanted and welcome!
The Rare One: DIYs (Do It Yourself)
For some reason, these aren’t as popular in the “Carry On” fandom or I just didn’t manage to find them yet. If you are part of one of the bigger fandoms you probably know, that there is a bazillion of DIY content you can recreate: from costumes to room décor to school utensils (f.e. the Harry Potter fandom or the Sherlock one) but in our community, there is still this giant lack. I have yet to come across a single “Simon Snow room decor” video or instructions on how to make my very own Sword of Mages pen, so if you are a crafty person please channel your innermost art concepts and enlighten us so that we can all make our own “Carry On” related things.
The “Simon” One: Recipes
“Carry On” is ALL ABOUT FOOD. (For inspiration you can always take a look at my food overview post.) So why don’t you cook or bake something, that Simon would like (let’s be real I don’t think that there is a single edible thing Simon would reject) and then share the recipe with the rest of the fandom? I, for instance, have never ever tasted scones—neither the sour cherry ones nor the plain raisin ones, because I’ve been struggling to find a good recipe, but maybe you know the one that will blow our minds? Sharing it would be an excellent gift for the Christmas party!
The “Old fashioned” One: Christmas cards
Are you a little bit old-fashioned (like me) and still enjoy sending out (Christmas) cards—and maybe even make them yourself? Then this is your time to shine! Share your self-written Christmas cards from or to the characters or instruct everyone on how to make their own (subtle or not so subtle) “Carry On” related Christmas cards. If you don’t know, what to do with them or have no one to send them to, make them anyway: You can still keep them to yourself, hang them on a rope like the British do or give them to your family. (They probably already know about your obsession and will appreciate any Christmas card as long as it contains a few personal words on the inside.)
The “Humbug instead of Humdrum”: Christmas film AUs (alternative universe)
Probably all of you have a favourite Christmas film, be it “The Grinch”, the “Night before Christmas”, “Frosty the Snowman” or “Home Alone”, but what would happen if suddenly Simon and Baz where in the universe of your favourite Christmas film? What characters would they be? How would the plot line be different from the original? You can share your ideas through fanfictions, illustrations, simple text posts in which you state your ideas or in just about anyway. I’d love to read all about “Simon the Snowman” or maybe even “Baz Home Alone”!
The “Last but not Least”: Snowflake appreciation
You don’t feel like any of these things speaks to you and don’t have any other ideas on what you could contribute but don’t want to miss out? Well, why don’t you create a Snowflake appreciation post? In it, you can thank all the awesome friends you’ve made through the fandom and promote their blogs at the same time which will surely be a great gift to them as well. Christmas is the time of spreading love and what better way is there to do so than by telling everyone how amazing your friends are and how much you love them?
I hope that this post could help you with your gift making! Don’t forget that the Christmas party will start December 23rd! I’m excited to see all the things we are going to create!
#carryonchristmas#carry on#christmaswithsimon#christmaswithsimonsnow#rainbow rowell#snowflakes#simon snow#snowbaz#simon oliver snow#simon snow salisbury#baz#basilton pitch#tyrannus basilton grimm pitch#Tyrannus Basilton Pitch#Penelope Bunce#penelope-bunce#penny bunce#agatha wellbelove#Watford School of Magicks#watford school#fangirl#fangirl rowell#grimm family#grimm pitch#grimm#mordelia grimm#ebb#ebb the goatherd#The Mage#the sword of mages
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I would like to thank @leaalda for making these amazing banners.
This is an effort to spread the word about all fan fiction writers in our little fandom. If you would like to be featured or nominate a writer, please contact me. Please reblog this post if you can and check out some of @cheryllclayton work!
1. First things first, if someone wanted to read your stories where can they find them.
On Tumblr under @cheryllclayton and on AO3 under Cherlynne
2. Tell us a little about yourself.
I live in Canada, I am 34, a wife and a mother of 3 boys.
3. What do you never leave home without?
Purse or cell phone
4. Are you an early bird or a night owl?
Definitely a night owl
5. If you could live in any fictional world which one would you choose and why?
Probably the wizarding world of Harry Potter. It’s one of my favorite books/movies and I love everything about their world (minus Voldemort that is ☺).
6. Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met.
I wish I could say it was some huge star but unfortunately there isn’t many hugely famous people residing around me…..so I’d have to say Corb Lund & Ian Tyson?? Donny Parenteau (Canadian Musician), Kelly Taylor (Canadian Comedian)
7. What are some of your favorite movies/TV?
Oh boy, this is a hard one…I am a total TV & Movie freak so there’s sooo many! I’ll list a few of each but keep in mind the list goes on and on lol.
TV: Riverdale, iZombie, Shadowhunters, Veronica Mars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Criminal Minds, The Ranch, Big Bang Theory, The Voice, Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries, Jane the Virgin, The 100, etc, etc, etc lol
Movies: Harry Potter’s of course, anything Marvel pretty much, Lethal Weapon’s, Beverly Hills Cop’s, While You Were Sleeping, Sweet Home Alabama, The Wedding Planner, The Princess Diaries movies, and I’m sure there’s tons I am forgetting….so many comedy’s, action and romance ☺
8. What are some of your favorite bands/musicians?
Ummm, That’s hard too, I have such a wide taste in everything that it makes it hard to narrow them down lol. A few of my fav’s are Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, Alan Jackson, CCR, Garth Brooks, Adele, Maroon 5, even the Biebs lol
9. Favorite Books?
Again Harry Potter’s, the Vampire Academy books, The Last Vampire series, The Woman of the Otherworld series, Sylvia Day’s Crossfire series, anything written by Nora Roberts, Linda Howard or Christie Craig. I also used to really enjoy RL Stine and Christopher Pike when I was younger.
10. Favorite Food?
Chinese, perogies and almost all versions of pasta lol
11. Biggest pet peeve?
Bad drivers….people who chew with their mouth open….ignorant people….crumbs on counter tops lol
12. What did you want to be when you were little? What do you want to be now?
A teacher and I’m 34 so already in a career but I think if I could do it again I would maybe be a Radiologist or something to do with Crime Investigation
13. What are your biggest fears? Do you have any strange fears?
Dying is a huge one lol and I get claustrophobic but my main fears are spiders and tornados
14. When you are on your deathbed what would be the one you’d regret not doing?
Maybe not travelling enough….
Okay… lets talk about your writing!
15. Which is your favorite of the fics you've written for the Bughead fandom?
Well I have so far only written one call Sometimes It’s Not What It Seems, which isn’t your typical ”Bughead” fic, the main relationship currently is FP & Betty (I know, SHOCKER). It started out being a Bughead fic but these two characters just seem to write themselves. As far as if Bughead is endgame in this fic....who knows ;). I am a total Bughead shipper, don’t get me wrong but let’s admit it, Skeet/FP is Hot! So I decided to take on the story no one was telling.
16. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?
I think just where to take things, I usually start with an idea of how the chapter will go and it changes from there, also trying to stick to the timeline I set out in chapter one…wasn’t thinking ahead there lol
17. How do you come up with the ideas for you fic(s)? Do you people watch? Listen to music? Get inspired by TV/movies?
This one just came to me, I have read, I don’t even know how many Bughead fics on Tumblr and AO3 and it was a concept no one had tackled yet that I could see and this story just wove it’s way in my mind to the point where I had to put it down to get it out of my head. This is my first fic I have ever written and it was originally supposed to be a one shot but here I am almost 7 chapters in…
18. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?
Well, since I’ve only done one fic so far I can’t answer that lol
19. Least favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?
The break up between Jug and Betty is always hard but I don’t know if I would say I didn’t like it.
20. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?
Probably chapters 4 to 6, there are so many moments I am happy with in those but one of my favorites is the bar scene on karaoke night ☺
21.Favorite character to write?
I really like writing FP but I also have a lot of fun writing the other Serpents
22. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you've written?
Probably the deeper conversations between FP & Betty, I really like their banter in my current chapter I’m working on
23. Best comment/review you’ve ever received?
Well I’ve received a lot of good reviews and some not so good ones lol, apparently the Bughead fandom is strong and doesn’t like when you mess with it lol. The concept of Betty & FP is definitely a hard one to grasp for a lot of people, especially the younger readers I think but I like to think the writing is good and that I am doing the growth of the relationship justice. My favorite comments have probably been ones on how good the writing is or that I should just write a book lol and I also love it when people comment that they now ship FP & Betty, even if it’s just in my story. That shows that I am doing something right I think.
24. How do you handle bad reviews or comments?
Sometimes I comment, most the time I don’t as I don’t like to let things get to me, plus I am not one to argue online. If I do comment I usually just thank them for reading and for their opinion and answer any questions they may have asked. If they are really rude I just delete them. Like I said above, there are some hard core shippers out there and I knew there would be some backlash on this risky paring.
25. If you could change anything in any of your stories, what would it be?
The timeline, I set it in the first chapter and I am now finding it really hard to stick to since my characters are just running away with themselves lol
26. What is your favorite story you’ve ever written? Any fandom?
So far this one…as it’s my only one. However I did write poetry and short stories when I was young, I even had a few poems published.
27. What are you reading right now? Both fan fiction and general fiction?
Currently reading anything in the Bughead fan fiction. I am also currently reading a Linda Howard book.
28. Do you have an advice for writers that want to get into this fandom but might be scared?
I would say that if you want to do it, just do it. If you love it then write it, don’t worry about any of the haters out there or what people might think. I took a huge risk breaking the Bughead pairing with my first fic but it was something ‘I’ wanted to see. Even some don’t like your story, you were brave to just put it out there, definitely braver than the keyboard warriors sending the bad comments who would never think to put themselves out there. Writing is personal, remember that you are ultimately writing for you, as long as you are happy with it and you enjoy doing it then it really doesn’t matter what the rest of the readers think (unless of course you want to sell it lol). I have a few dedicated readers to my story, definitely not a huge amount but as long as I am having fun writing it and they want to keep reading it then I will keep going ☺.
#bughead author spotlight#fan fiction#fan fiction writers#ao3#Bughead#bughead fanfiction#betty cooper#jughead jones#jughead x betty#betty x jughead#riverdale#cherylclayton#sometimes it's not what it seems#fp jones
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An interview with Dani Lee Pearce
In 1992, when Frank Zappa was described by Nicolas Slonimsky as “the pioneer of the future millennium of music” because of his ground-breaking work with the Synclavier, one of the world's earliest digital audio workstations, Zappa immediately disavowed that title, convinced as he was that this technology would never catch on and would eventually go lost. Today, 25 years later, this way of composing and producing music is utilized by countless talented artists across the world, armed with nothing but a computer. One of the most exciting underground musicians who uses the technology that Zappa once helped popularize is Dani Lee Pearce. Since she started releasing music under her current name in January 2015, she has completed six albums covering a wide variety of genres, and is currently working on a seventh album. Her original album trilogy, consisting of the instrumental albums Dani Lee Pearce, Dépayse and Kelvin, was released in the first half of 2015 and combined elements of chiptune, progressive rock and experimental music. From then on, she has released a number of vocal albums that draw more inspiration from pop and folk music, starting with Notes Of A Nervous Little Pixie in March 2016 and following it up with Petrichor, which was released exactly one year ago today. Her most recent album, Dandilionheart, was originally released in February of this year and was later remastered and re-released in July. As a fan of her work, I was honored to have a chance to speak with Dani about her oeuvre and her plans for the future.
Let's start with a somewhat clichéd question: Which musical artists do you feel your latest three albums have been most influenced by? It's quite difficult to narrow it down to just individual artists in a lot of respects. Music itself, in all the nuances and idioms it contains, tends to influence my work in at least one way or another. A lot of times I suggest or hint towards things that people probably wouldn't expect. Individual artists are there in some places, but I actually find it a lot more fun to have people try to guess what my music could be influenced from. Whatever gets guessed for a particular song is usually correct.
Can I make a guess? Go ahead.
The continuous driving rhythm, slightly droney nature and stream-of-consciousness style vocals on the track "Dandilionheart" (or at least the first part of it) reminded me of Talking Heads. Am I far off? Nope. Pretty much if you say "this reminds me of this" I will go "Yes" every time. I listen to music all the time of all genres and all of it gets worked into my psyche and inevitably comes out into the music somehow when I'm writing it. I may subconsciously be working in things I don't intend at any given time during the process.
From 2016’s Notes Of A Nervous Little Pixie onward, all of your albums have contained vocals. Is making vocal music something you had wanted to do ever since you started releasing music under the Dani Lee Pearce moniker, or did this desire come later? Earlier than that, like, 2013 at least, back when I made music under the name Kansas City 7up. My earliest recorded attempt was a song I never finished called "The Midnight Seer" from 2014, but ultimately shyness and a lack of the right equipment prevented this from happening sooner. After Kelvin I made a solid pledge to myself that my next album would have me singing because it would add an important and essential element to my music, and any new music I made would be saved until I could get that to happen. That's part of why the gap of time between Kelvin and Nervous Little Pixie was as long as it was.
Which do you usually write first: a composition or lyrics? That depends on what I think of first, although generally these days the words come first, in a rough form, since I will usually come up with things I want to say but not yet in any particular order how I want to say them. The music then helps me to establish a metric and pattern for how I will fit my vocals into the song in a way that works, which will in turn help me to revise the song and add things to it to make it gel. I try to work on each element independently because I like the challenge of creating music that surprises me in regards to the words I'm writing it for. Some of the things I've been working on recently are like that. It very much helps to keep my music fresh and unique to me. By contrast, all of my current albums were mostly music first, words second. Some songs took years to write proper words to, like "Tell Me I'm Cute Again Cause I Forgot", which previously existed with 3 different sets of lyrics before I finally settled on the current set. It's a more difficult way of working now but I will occasionally still try making a song that way for fun, since it enables some great creativity.
I'd like to talk about your album Petrichor, which is approaching its first birthday at the time of this interview: When you created the album, did you set out to make a concept album from the start, or was it an idea that came into play while you were working on it? The album came in many embryonic forms when I was first developing it. At first it was going to be an album called The Many Lives of Maypole, and it was going to document the life of a young girl with queer parents and her friendship with a child who later comes out as trans who has much more angry conservative parents. I was going to write a book in addition to an album of music to go along with it, and while only one song ever came out of this incarnation, the idea of an album + accompanying book stayed, and I later wrote "🌙🌙🌙", which I haven't gotten to publishing yet, to go along with Petrichor, containing poetry that elaborated upon the concepts of that album.
After Maypole it was then called The Giving Of Violets, an album which would have been about a capitalism-induced apocalypse that forces society to start over on a much better path, this time fully embracing LGBT rights among other things, as people are now more free to explore their identities gender and sex wise. The title is derived from a lesbian custom in the 50s where women would give each other violets to declare their love for one another, which in the story would be readopted as a gesture of affection. A good chunk of what would eventually be the finished album was written during this time, with early versions of "From Young Unknowing Eyes" "I Hope It Doesn't Rain" "Silver Tree’s Mixtress", "Twig Parade" and "Lute-Bird Calls" being put down in a test sequence, along with "Down In Evergreene", which was already done, and what eventually became "Give You My Earth" on Dandilionheart.
Some time later I had an anxiety-induced epiphany and spent a period of time very withdrawn in a quiet space only listening to quiet music, and I thought of an idea for an album of "whispersongs", very quiet music with whispered spoken word of very simple poems accompanying it. The project would have been called Rest Easy Love, and that's where I came up with "This Tree". This was the beginning of me writing poetry for a period of time, which eventually led to the writing of "Over My Wall" and "The Hill of Mist" as well. The Giving of Violets was dropped since I felt I could make the concept stronger, and later an album called The Scarlet Sky With Anais was developed but never fully finished. The song that eventually became "Monsters and Rainclouds" was listed as the final song of an album that also contained songs that would later become "Periwinkle Death", "Tell Me I'm Cute Again Cause I Forgot" and "Burning Pearls". "Down in Evergreene" was listed again also.
The actual concept began to develop around this time when I met three very important people: The first was a musician named Izzy Unger Weiss who met me for the first time at a birthday picnic, and the first thing we ever did together was sit down and play guitar. They introduced me to more worldly sensibilities both in their music and aesthetic, which began in me a more forthright interest in what I like to call "personal occult", which is essentially like a redefining of monsters, demons, spirituality, magic, the construction of the universe, etc. all on one's own terms, either casually or otherwise. Izzy did that to an extent, at least I could sense it, I'm not entirely sure if she would say the same but that's largely what my brain tends to produce for answers regarding it. Izzy was also overall a big musical influence at the time and made me more interested in learning guitar and writing guitar-based music. I'd later design a couple of album covers for her own music and eventually we may even collaborate on something.
The second person I met was Never Angel North, an agender independent author who was and still is writing an anthology of fiction collectively titled Sea-Witch. At that time the first volume was written but not yet released. Never's writing is unlike anything that's really been written in regards to fiction or poetry, especially in a queer/trans context, as it constructs an entire world inside of a living, breathing, feeling sea monster and the inhabitants who worship a meteor to whom they pray "may she lay us waste". The writing is at once emotional, intimate, sexual, terrifying, harrowing, ecstatic, decadent and mordant, but in all respects is absolutely brilliant and it completely redefines ones view of the world, of life, of gender, of quite possibly everything. It was being introduced to Never's writing and Never hirself that I became more open to the idea of constructing a world of my own in a similar fashion.
The third person, Jade Eklund, I met through Never, and she showed me through her own art how I could make this possible. Here was someone who practically lived and breathed their art which largely revolved around spiders and a recurring central character known as the Spider Queen. You'd enter her room and the walls would be covered in drawings ranging from spiders to seeing eyes to otherworldly presences, and she had filled out several notebooks of things that she had written stream-of-consciousness, and continued to build upon her mythology by doing the same on Facebook. We traded notebooks the first couple times we saw each other to get to know each other a bit, and she would draw/write surreal things in my notebook that inevitably influenced Petrichor's content, specifically the character of YESSAND the Masquerader King. I began writing poetry and concepts stream-of-consciousness in my own right, making up my own mythology taking inspiration from all three of these people and making frequent references to them in the process as I did so. This carried over into the eventual songwriting of Petrichor, and the creation and completion of the remaining songs.
"Monsters and Rainclouds" was at one point a song written specifically for Never, referencing a lot of elements of hir writing, and snippets of things Jade wrote in my notebook, which contained unfinished lyrics for Petrichor's songs, found their way into "Masqueraders" and the background voices of "Lute-Bird Calls".
Well damn, I was planning to ask some more follow-up questions about the story, the role of Jade Eklund (whom you credited in the album's description on Bandcamp) and even the voice samples on "Lute-Bird Calls", but you've already answered everything I could ask about the album. I'll be sure to look into the works of the other artists you mentioned just now.
I’d like to talk about your latest album now: Dandilionheart. In contrast to Petrichor, which is an epic, prog-like concept album, Dandilionheart is a collection of avant-garde pop songs that seem to be only loosely connected thematically, much like Notes Of A Nervous Little Pixie. Was it a relief to be able to write self-contained songs again or is it actually easier for you to write music when you have an overarching concept to work within? Concepts are actually quite difficult because you become restrained within one world of thought, and if you want to make it work you can't stray too far from it. Petrichor is a satisfying work but it was stressful to have to write about one thing for 8 months. Some of Dandilionheart's songs I actually began writing in tandem with that album, just to give me another outlet for other ideas at the time. So I would say that yes, I actually have more fun with individual songs than anything else, and I will probably continue writing in that context. I'm someone whose mind always wanders to different places at different times, so it's important for me to have a variety of ideas going because it feels more free to me. In that respect Dandilionheart was quite nice to make.
There’s another difference I’ve noticed between the two albums: On Petrichor, the vocals are quiet and dreamlike throughout, whereas on Dandilionheart they have a more prominent and more powerful presence. Is this the result of a conscious decision or simply a natural consequence of you becoming more confident about using your voice and getting more familiar with the recording process, et cetera? I was very confident with my voice when it came around to Dandilionheart and in a lot of places I get really into the song and just let loose, try things with it that I hadn't tried before. "Let Me Remind You" is currently home to the highest note I've ever sung for example. In some ways it is conscious as well because I always try to make albums independent from each other, like making films without visuals. I largely let the music decide what my voice will do though, and the music was definitely a departure. The fact that I actually sing loud is another indicator, I had never really done that before this album.
Let’s go back once more to the 13-minute title track of Dandilionheart. As you can probably tell I'm intrigued by the process by which specific music gets developed, and if I’m correct, “Dandilionheart” (the song) is the longest track out of your latest musical trilogy. Did you set out to create a track of such length before writing it, or did it naturally evolve into what it ended up being? The project file name for the song is "something maybe", which indicates that when I started this I didn't even know if it was going to turn into anything substantial. I was largely at the time playing around with the sample from what became the end of "Galaxy Owl" just to see for fun if I could take it anywhere and the more I developed the piece the more it kind of took on a life of its own. Specifically the section right before the lyrics was when I got the first inkling that the song would become what it ended up becoming. I realized three minutes in that it sounded thematically linked to a composition I had written in 2013, so I ended up stringing that (the "let all the rain come down" section) together along with another composition I had written in Sept. 2016 (the "goddexx bless" section) on the basis that they all shared a similar drive and tempo. When I got them all together and listened to it back I was dumbfounded at how perfect all the pieces sounded together, and then I had my song. I knew it was special and I knew I had to make it the title track from then on, and the lyrics were later written to fit the best I could with the sound.
Do most of your songs come into existence through something along the lines of what you just described? Sometimes, yes. "Masqueraders" happened the same way only with one additional section. I don't think I've quite written anything else in exactly this way, but I do still find uses for old unused compositions I have lying around.
What is the biggest challenge you encounter when composing music? I don't really face any incredibly big challenges in the composing bit itself except for sometimes finding uses for a composition, because sometimes I will write something but not have any particular idea what to do with it yet. I think my biggest challenges actually come in producing/mixing a track properly, which I am always very persnickety about.
I think also, at least today, it's trying to figure out how I want to do a song that I have lyrics written for. The number of approaches I could take is very broad and it's hard to find a direction that I think fits my words the best. I'm dealing with that situation presently for one song.
I think you've told me in 2015 that your first three albums were made primarily using FL Studio. Do you still use this or have you switched to a different workstation in the mean time? Dani Lee Pearce was actually also partially made with Ableton Pro when I was in college ("You For You Four Ich", "Every Clock Is 3 Minutes Behind"), and with a Casio Keyboard ("Animated Tattoo"). Otherwise yes, FL Studio is still my weapon of choice. At this point I visualize my songs as project files within that DAW and can make an instrumental up in under an hour at times. I don't anticipate that I'll change from it at any time soon since I'm so familiar with it and can work with it so efficiently.
Like you said, in your original album trilogy from 2015, there were a few tracks that were played on a keyboard, and “Moth Girl” was originally recorded on acoustic guitar but was later rerecorded using a DAW when you reissued your latest album. Do you still use any physical instruments in your recordings, and/or do you plan on using physical instruments in the future? Of my yet-to-be-released work I have one song that does in fact have me playing guitar, and another song in which I have had someone record guitar for me. One of my girlfriends is also going to be contributing guitar to my music eventually, and at some point I plan to record myself playing clarinet for some songs, as that is the one instrument I have proficiency at.
Is there anything else you’re willing to disclose about what we can expect from you in the future? More surprises. And more ways to convey them.
I can’t wait.
I’m nearing the end of my question list now. Can you recommend to anyone who reads this interview two artists who deserve far more attention than they’re getting right now? Rumor Milk is a very good musician friend of mine from Canada who gets very little attention for her work but she has a voice that has made me well up in tears multiple times. She is very talented and it would mean the world to her if more folks would check out and support her music. Chase Milo Reid is one of the first trans musicians I ever met when I came to Portland homeless and I've watched him perform live and develop as a talent in amazing ways. He's another who I think is worth people's attention and he would also very much appreciate additional support.
Finally, if you’ll allow me to ask one more clichéd question: what advice would you give to other aspiring musicians? Don't listen to advice intended for aspiring musicians given by musicians who are no longer aspiring. Let your soul do the talking. Let it dig into itself and find what makes it you, and turn that into art. Allow yourself to be raw and wild. Change it however you wish. Don't change it at all. However you do it, just make something, anything. And most importantly, make a fucking shitload of it.
Thanks immensely for your time; I've thoroughly enjoyed this interview. I'll be sure to check out all the artists you brought up and I'll be sure to use the word "persnickety" as much as possible now that I've been introduced to it. I've very much enjoyed doing this! Thank you very much for your interest in me, it helps me to remember that I'm doing something that reaches people.
_____
Dani’s music can be found here and here. You can read my review of Petrichor here.
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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews
I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.
The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.
Sharon Coleman
Sharon Coleman’s a fifth-generation Northern Californian. She writes for Poetry Flash, co-curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, co-directs the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She’s the author of a chapbook Half Circle and a book of micro-fiction, Paris Blinks. Her recent publications appear in Your Impossible Voice, White Stag, Ambush Review.
She’s been nominated twice for a Pushcart and once for a micro award for blink fiction.
She’s taught composition, poetry writing, creative writing, and college success at Berkeley City College for 15 years and directs their art and literary journal, Milvia Street.
She was a finalist for the Luso-American Fellowship for the Disquiet Literary Conference in Lisbon.
https://bccvoice.net/2016/12/07/sharon-coleman/
The Interview
1. What inspired you to write poetry?
I simply gravitated to it. As a young person, I loved the rhythms and sounds, compactness and surprise. My older siblings and I used to make up all kinds of things to describe our world and make fun of it in the way that many children do until language is more about conforming than inventing. I read a lot of novels as a teen but ultimately found writing fiction a bit boring and predictable, though I’ve more recently picked it up again. There are interesting experiments in fiction to explore and I don’t think that every story has already been told. But I still gravitate to poetry and then creative nonfiction (a popular second love for poets.)
2. Who introduced you to poetry?
I was first introduced through children’s books, most of which are written poetically. One such book was Spooky Rhymes and Riddles published by Scholastic. My older sister used to read that book to me with a different voice for the various poems and characters before I went to sleep. In high school, I was introduced to e.e. cummings and Edgar Allen Poe by my freshman English instructor, who had us memorize a poem and present it in front of the class. I began writing poetry throughout high school on my own.
Poetry also entered my dreams: during an afternoon nap, I dreamed of reading a long poem I had written and woke up remembering only the last line, “When my shadows get up and go good-bye.” It was clear that my poetic task would be to re-create the entire poem in my waking life.
3. How aware were you of the dominating presence of older poets?
Older poets have never had a “dominating” presence for me. Most of the older poets I know and have known have been very encouraging, suggesting books to read and places to send work and other advice. I’ve learned a lot about our local Bay Area poetry history through them. I have become very aware of the dominating arrogance of some poets in academia, of some in-crowd poets outside academia, of careerists, of the poetry industry, of prizes and awards. But I’ve become more acutely aware of how poets who have had an upward battle against sexism and racism and the old guard in the 60s and 70s can replicate similar barriers against the next generation. Our poetry scenes are still marked, even structured, by tokenism and compartmentalisation. I just read a book of poetry by a young white male (nominated for an award and published by Princeton Press) that contains a poem condoning base sexual harassment of women—and those that nominated it either simply didn’t notice or didn’t care. Or maybe because they nominated an otherwise diverse collection of books and authors, they felt this was ok. Fifty years later, it’s still an upward battle.
4. What is your daily writing routine?
I wish I had a daily writing routine. I’ve tried to develop one, but I have too much other work teaching. Mine is a weekly writing routine in which ideas marinate over the week, and Friday or Saturday evenings, I either write a new poem or do a deep revision for my Sunday workshop. I carry a small notebook for ideas that come to me at any time of day.
5. What motivates you to write?
The desire to put into tangible form the insolite of experience. This is a term used by surrealists to express the manifestation of the mystery of the subconscious and of the collective unconscious in daily life. It means being poetically attentive to one’s surroundings at all times, which because I work, I cannot always do, but I try to. I write for coming generations to know what it means to live in this place and time, filtered through my historical perspective. I write to complete projects, to have a book or other publication, to physically hand over to another to experience.
6. What is your work ethic?
I try to not replicate the subtle linguistic constructions of racism, sexism, ethno-centrism, ableism, etc. that linger in our language even when we take a stance against them. This requires never-ending interrogation, learning, deep listening. As George Oppen said, words are never wholly transparent, and this is the heartlessness of words.
7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?
I began reading George Orwell when I was about thirteen, beginning with 1984. My writing engages the political on different fronts. From James Baldwin and Carson McCullers, I look for the psychological depths that form and are formed by social hierarchies. From Hunter S. Thompson, I learned to keep far away from highly entitled drug enthusiasts.
8. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?
There are so many writers today whom I highly admire, most come from demographics that have not had much voice in the literary world. They have a strong understanding of many elements that have made them who they are and have deep multicultural understanding of our communities. I admire writers who don’t stay in one aesthetic or genre, who explore form as much as meaning. In the 90s, there was a huge divide between experimental and more traditional poets. This was not about thinking but rather about waging war. Today on the West Coast, the divide has been crossed many times and is dissolving; on the East Coast, the divide is stronger. In the 90s, I just followed my own way and was not popular on either side, being too narrative for the experimental poets and too elliptical for the traditional ones. I admire the many other poets who have forged their own poetics through these two camps like Brian Teare, John Isles, Mk Chavez, James Cagney, and many others.
9. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?
I write for mental clarity, to somehow put into words the almost inexpressible. I write to explore language(s) and their unexpected capacities. I write for historical understanding. I write for the personal pride of seeing published pieces I’ve worked hard on and believe in. I also do other things that are very fulfilling.
10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”
Read. Write. Learn craft, process, and technique. Really learn craft, process, and technique. Never stop exploring craft, process, and technique. Find or create literary communities. Give to those communities.
11. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.
I am currently finishing a book-length poetic sequence set in the house in which I grew up, the drama within the family, the transformation of the landscape and people of the area. When I was about six, my family moved into a wreck of a house in an otherwise idyllic suburban neighbourhood in a city south of San Francisco. It had been the farmhands’ house when the area had been a dairy farm. And another house had been added to it, forming a two-story house. One of my sisters said it had the “public uglies.” Yet it provided all four siblings with their own small room, and my parents fixed it up very well. Later, my father was told this was the dairy farm he had work at when he was eighteen. The place had changed so much that he didn’t recognize it.
The series is written in ten to eleven sections of four to seven poems. Each poem is nine lines, justified both right and left and with many caesura or spaces within the line. The narratives are multiple and fragmented and flow according to association, braiding in and out of each other. This series has been an exciting and painstaking exploration of form. I am very thankful to my writing group, the Green Heart Collective, for being the literary midwives of this project. Here is an early version of series’ beginning: http://www.yourimpossiblevoice.com/spinning-vinyl/
Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Sharon Coleman Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.
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5 Instagram Poets Who Will Warm Up Your Winter Blues
Blue Monday might have started as a press release to promote travel in January, but whether or not the equation—yes, there’s “math” to this—is total bologna-pseudoscience, it’s hard to deny the blues that come with cold weather. To help you through the chill, we’ve created an updated list of on-the-rise Instagram poets who have embraced the public platform as a way to make their voices heard. If you’re a fan of the insta-poets we’ve showcased in the past (Nikita Gill, Nayyirah Waheed and Yrsa Daley-Ward), these five talented writers are the perfect people to fill your day with sunshine and similes.
Tyler Knott Gregson
Best known for his Typewriter Series and book Chasers of the Light, Knott writes almost exclusively about love. His words are loaded with passion, softness and authenticity. Reading one of his poems feels like unfolding a love letter meant just for you—exposing, yet comforting. He’ll have you tagging your loved ones in the comments in no time, the perfect solution when your own words don’t feel like enough.
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Some days we are earth tones, all greys and greens and we fade into the landscape, into the weather. Some days we are neon, we pop and contrast the world around us. We explode in color and light. Some days all that rain makes one hell of a rainbow. . 📸 by @christinefigs
A post shared by Tyler Knott Gregson (@tylerknott) on Oct 6, 2018 at 7:04am PDT
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Typewriter Series #2441 by Tyler Knott Gregson
A post shared by Tyler Knott Gregson (@tylerknott) on Dec 2, 2018 at 4:58pm PST
Morgan Harper Nichols
Morgan Harper Nichols is the ultimate hype girl. She is the supportive, wisdom filled friend that we all need when the blues begin to weigh us down. Her profile, which she uses as a platform for mental wellness and self-care, is loaded with positivity and empathy. Nichols writes about personal growth, accepting your failures and moving forward. She is happy to share, with templates and phone wallpapers available for free download, so that her reminders are with you always. My own lock screen currently reads, “she does not know what the future holds, but she is grateful for slow and steady growth.”
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“Tell the story of the mountain you climbed. Your words could become a page in someone else’s survival guide.” I wrote these words for someone else, but I need this reminder too. ⠀ I have always naturally been a quieter, more inward type, and for most of life, expressing feelings and emotions was a challenge for me (Enneagram 5, INTJ). Because of that, I often thought that because I did not naturally have certain personality traits, there was no way I could connect with others, even when it came to the things I made. ⠀ I had a great family growing up, but outside of the home, I struggled to figure out where I “fit.” I struggled making friends and often blamed myself for not being more extroverted or “interesting.” This sent me inward: Deep inside my journals where I would say all the things I was never able to say during the day. I would write things for people but never knew how to share it with them. I would fill pages of composition books just to try to understand why I felt unheard and unseen. I started to convince myself that the best way to show up in the world was to not to be myself. Even in an environment where my parents lovingly encouraged my gifts as a writer and artist (I thank God for the encouragement my parents gave and still give me everyday), I still didn’t feel like I fit anywhere in the outside world. But there was this inside world where I could draw and write out all of the things I never figured out how to say during the day. Over time, I have finally begin to see: in the same way I learned to fill my journal page by page, I could learn to connect with others one by one. Showing up in the world does not mean that I have to show up everywhere all at once. Connecting around real people and real stories, in relationships and art is about the one. Impactful things can be said on big stages and in chart topping songs but they can also be said in hospital parking lots and handwritten letters. I have come to believe that in a world that often seems too crowded or busy to notice meaningful things, there is yet still room for each our stories and I just hope that the art I make, page by page, person by person is just one example of that.
A post shared by Morgan Harper Nichols (@morganharpernichols) on May 19, 2018 at 10:25am PDT
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When you start to feel like things should have been better this year, remember the mountains and valleys that brought you here. They are not accidents, and those moments were not in vain. You are not the same. You have grown and you are growing, you are breathing, you are living, you are wrapped in endless, boundless grace. And things will get better, there is more to you than yesterday. — Morgan Harper Nichols And if it happens to be one of these evenings/mornings/afternoons where reading it aloud or writing it down might bring some comfort, this is for you When I start to feel like things should have been better this year, I will remember the mountains and valleys that brought me here. They are not accidents, and those moments were not in vain. I am not the same. I have grown and I am growing, I am breathing, I am living, I am wrapped in endless, boundless grace. And things will get better, there is more to me than yesterday. ♥️🙏✨
A post shared by Morgan Harper Nichols (@morganharpernichols) on Nov 7, 2018 at 8:28pm PST
Mustafa Ahmed
Raised in the public housing of Regent Park (a Canadian boy!), Ahmed, who goes by “Mustafa the Poet” is a proud Muslim songwriter, poet and spoken word artist. He writes about the struggles of mental illness, loss and poverty, but he is full of a hopefulness that is infectious to his audience. You may recognize his name from The Weeknd’s song “Attention,” which he co-wrote and performed, but his fame started at age twelve when he garnered attention from Toronto’s 2009 Hot Docs Festival for his poem “A Single Rose.” Watch Mustafa continue to bloom on his Instagram.
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Live in peace fam, there's no amount of money or pride or success that's worth your peace!! May you rest in it one day too
A post shared by Mustafa (@mustafathepoet) on Sep 11, 2017 at 2:39pm PDT
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Patience 🌥
A post shared by Mustafa (@mustafathepoet) on Feb 4, 2016 at 12:17am PST
Samantha Jayne
Samantha is less about inspiration and more about relatability. Under her handle @quarterlifepoems, she writes about mundane, millennial crises and honestly, it is comedy gold. She writes almost-limericks paired with colourful doodles about accidental double taps on Instagram, social anxiety and financial confusion, all of which make you feel slightly less alone. She uses social media to make a refreshing statement on who twenty-somethings truly are behind all of the perfectly curated profiles. Her work is clearly catching on, her popular poetry being picked up as a television series, which will premiere at Sundance and air on FX this Spring.
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got me a solar earring 💫
A post shared by Samantha Jayne (@samanthajayne) on Sep 6, 2018 at 7:17am PDT
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💁 #longhairdontcare #whatevs #selflove #instagood #me #smile #nyc #la #sunglasses #cute #photooftheday #poetry #quarterlifecrisis #twenties #girl #funny #happy #picoftheday #instadaily #attitude #ink #igers #fun #summer #drawing #bestoftheday #smile #painting #womenirl #instamood
A post shared by Quarter Life Poetry (@quarterlifepoetry) on Mar 24, 2015 at 10:27am PDT
Haley Macleod
Haley’s following isn’t as large as her fellow poets, with 25.5k, but the Calgary-born writer’s voice is genuine, and her fans are loyal. She writes about love, heartbreak and self-respect, advising readers, and likely herself as well, to choose a life of fulfilment and happiness. Her posts are visually stunning as well, with typewritten pages placed over photographs of seasides and city nights. They evoke a sense of peace and calm, the perfect escape from sharp winds and snowfalls.
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• i hope you find a love who always calls back who never shows up late who pulls you closer in the middle of the night who never again makes you question the word stay who touches you so wild you believe again in the hands of fate who does not rob you of your softness or grace who instead renovates the parts of you that you have labelled damage that you keep hidden away who plants flowers in your lungs so the smell of roses awakes you each day who makes the blood in your veins triumphantly rise who only says i will see you later who never has believed in the word goodbye who can see the universe that exists behind your emerald eyes i hope you find a love that makes you feel nothing but alive who will always always always take the time to see your sunrise • haley macLeod ☁️
A post shared by HM ♱ (@haleymacleod) on Sep 5, 2017 at 2:59pm PDT
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who were you before this all – before the hands of grief turned off the lights of hope inside of your heart. before the lust poisoned your veins and made you forget how to love. before you became this person the world told you to be, instead of wearing the flesh of who you really are. who were you – i know, pain changes people, but healing does too. do your soul a favour; let the light in today. let it softly pour into the scars of your darkness. let it set fire to all of your darkness. bathe in the light. it will be the light that is going to save you; when it comes, let it 🌹•
A post shared by HM ♱ (@haleymacleod) on Nov 6, 2018 at 10:59am PST
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Welcome to the May Challenge 2022!
There are three prompts for everyday. Use one, two, or all three in your submission. Prompt days are just guidelines, feel free to submit early or late, as inspiration strikes.
Have fun and get creative 💛💚💛💚💛
01: hurricane | lemonade | it's gonna be may
02: siblings | truffle | "make me"
03: paranormal | garden | "leave me alone"
04: heartfelt | renewal | May the Fourth
05: astronaut | Cinco de Mayo | "give me a reason"
06: honesty | nurses | no pants day
07: courage | scrapbook | “kiss me if I’m wrong”
08: yellow | Mothers | “do you trust me?”
09: sleepover | lost sock | “that wasn’t on the itinerary”
10: breathe | cleaning | “this is… was our song.”
11: twilight | technology | "you can't be here"
12: hanging by a moment | Thursday | “shush, someone will hear.”
13: constellations | apple pie | “Calm down, it’s just a chocolate bar!”
14: tick tock (or TikTok) | miniature golf | “you owe me”
15: blessings | family | “Here, let me just-"
16: curses | mimosa | "You're so drunk"
17: rescue | pack rat | “That tickles!”
18: one word | museum | “Naps are life, okay?”
19: laundry | May Ray Day | “Do you ever think?”
20: unexpected | strawberries | “Are they dead?”
21: water | whiskey | “But it’s my fault right?”
22: trapped | solitaire | "I love to see you smile"
23: turtle | lucky penny | “Maps and I don’t get along.”
24: second chances | scavenger hunt | “Where is your sense of adventure?”
25: invitation | wine | “Stand behind me.”
26: hiking | sorry | “You are a terrible liar.”
27: detective | road trip | “We have to stop.”
28: photographs | hamburger | “I’m ignoring you.”
29: one more | paperclip | “It’s not a date!”
30: creativity | memorial | “It’s cold, you should take my jacket.”
31: smile | macaroons | “This isn’t goodbye.”
Bonus: mermaid for Mermay
Don’t forget to tag @choicesmonthlychallenge !
Guidelines/Rules below the cut
Guidelines
Submitted works will be featured on a weekly masterlist on Sundays* (*depending on event participation)
Every form of creative work can be submitted: fanfiction, drabbles, moodboards, edits, drawings, poems, songs, sketches, and more—all are welcomed.
Work from any book and story from the Choices (and Pixelberry) universe are welcome (new and old alike)!
You can participate as many times as you want during the month
You do not need to participate daily or even weekly.
Clearly list the day/prompt your work is for
You can combine submissions for this event and others
Please use warnings to tag content that may be triggering/disturbing to some users.
If your work is NS*W please label it as such and use appropriate warnings. Adult content should be hidden under the page break.
When possible, use page breaks to limit long posts.
You can get creative with the prompts. It can be a variation of the word and/or concept. It doesn’t have to be exact or literal. If the word inspires a train of thought that led you to something different, put that in the notes and send it in! Have fun with it! Make them work for you! The ultimate goal is just to find joy in creating!
If you want to participate in a day that has already past, that is fine, just note that in your post and I will still reblog it and then edit the masterlist for that day to include our post.
Please tag @choicesmonthlychallenge and if you’d like to add me you can do so as well~ @lovealexhunt (feel free to DM me your work too since Tumblr tags are fickle)
#playchoices#choices#choices monthly challenge#choices game#choices may challenge#may2022#may2022 prompts#prompt list#the royal romance#open heart#wake the dead#choices cop#choices surrender#queen b choices#untameable#the cursed heart#the princess swap#the unexpected heiress#all books welcomed#just tagging a few
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5 Instagram Poets Who Will Warm Up Your Winter Blues
Blue Monday might have started as a press release to promote travel in January, but whether or not the equation—yes, there’s “math” to this—is total bologna-pseudoscience, it’s hard to deny the blues that come with cold weather. To help you through the chill, we’ve created an updated list of on-the-rise Instagram poets who have embraced the public platform as a way to make their voices heard. If you’re a fan of the insta-poets we’ve showcased in the past (Nikita Gill, Nayyirah Waheed and Yrsa Daley-Ward), these five talented writers are the perfect people to fill your day with sunshine and similes.
Tyler Knott Gregson
Best known for his Typewriter Series and book Chasers of the Light, Knott writes almost exclusively about love. His words are loaded with passion, softness and authenticity. Reading one of his poems feels like unfolding a love letter meant just for you—exposing, yet comforting. He’ll have you tagging your loved ones in the comments in no time, the perfect solution when your own words don’t feel like enough.
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Some days we are earth tones, all greys and greens and we fade into the landscape, into the weather. Some days we are neon, we pop and contrast the world around us. We explode in color and light. Some days all that rain makes one hell of a rainbow. . 📸 by @christinefigs
A post shared by Tyler Knott Gregson (@tylerknott) on Oct 6, 2018 at 7:04am PDT
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Typewriter Series #2441 by Tyler Knott Gregson
A post shared by Tyler Knott Gregson (@tylerknott) on Dec 2, 2018 at 4:58pm PST
Morgan Harper Nichols
Morgan Harper Nichols is the ultimate hype girl. She is the supportive, wisdom filled friend that we all need when the blues begin to weigh us down. Her profile, which she uses as a platform for mental wellness and self-care, is loaded with positivity and empathy. Nichols writes about personal growth, accepting your failures and moving forward. She is happy to share, with templates and phone wallpapers available for free download, so that her reminders are with you always. My own lock screen currently reads, “she does not know what the future holds, but she is grateful for slow and steady growth.”
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“Tell the story of the mountain you climbed. Your words could become a page in someone else’s survival guide.” I wrote these words for someone else, but I need this reminder too. ⠀ I have always naturally been a quieter, more inward type, and for most of life, expressing feelings and emotions was a challenge for me (Enneagram 5, INTJ). Because of that, I often thought that because I did not naturally have certain personality traits, there was no way I could connect with others, even when it came to the things I made. ⠀ I had a great family growing up, but outside of the home, I struggled to figure out where I “fit.” I struggled making friends and often blamed myself for not being more extroverted or “interesting.” This sent me inward: Deep inside my journals where I would say all the things I was never able to say during the day. I would write things for people but never knew how to share it with them. I would fill pages of composition books just to try to understand why I felt unheard and unseen. I started to convince myself that the best way to show up in the world was to not to be myself. Even in an environment where my parents lovingly encouraged my gifts as a writer and artist (I thank God for the encouragement my parents gave and still give me everyday), I still didn’t feel like I fit anywhere in the outside world. But there was this inside world where I could draw and write out all of the things I never figured out how to say during the day. Over time, I have finally begin to see: in the same way I learned to fill my journal page by page, I could learn to connect with others one by one. Showing up in the world does not mean that I have to show up everywhere all at once. Connecting around real people and real stories, in relationships and art is about the one. Impactful things can be said on big stages and in chart topping songs but they can also be said in hospital parking lots and handwritten letters. I have come to believe that in a world that often seems too crowded or busy to notice meaningful things, there is yet still room for each our stories and I just hope that the art I make, page by page, person by person is just one example of that.
A post shared by Morgan Harper Nichols (@morganharpernichols) on May 19, 2018 at 10:25am PDT
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When you start to feel like things should have been better this year, remember the mountains and valleys that brought you here. They are not accidents, and those moments were not in vain. You are not the same. You have grown and you are growing, you are breathing, you are living, you are wrapped in endless, boundless grace. And things will get better, there is more to you than yesterday. — Morgan Harper Nichols And if it happens to be one of these evenings/mornings/afternoons where reading it aloud or writing it down might bring some comfort, this is for you When I start to feel like things should have been better this year, I will remember the mountains and valleys that brought me here. They are not accidents, and those moments were not in vain. I am not the same. I have grown and I am growing, I am breathing, I am living, I am wrapped in endless, boundless grace. And things will get better, there is more to me than yesterday. ♥️🙏✨
A post shared by Morgan Harper Nichols (@morganharpernichols) on Nov 7, 2018 at 8:28pm PST
Mustafa Ahmed
Raised in the public housing of Regent Park (a Canadian boy!), Ahmed, who goes by “Mustafa the Poet” is a proud Muslim songwriter, poet and spoken word artist. He writes about the struggles of mental illness, loss and poverty, but he is full of a hopefulness that is infectious to his audience. You may recognize his name from The Weeknd’s song “Attention,” which he co-wrote and performed, but his fame started at age twelve when he garnered attention from Toronto’s 2009 Hot Docs Festival for his poem “A Single Rose.” Watch Mustafa continue to bloom on his Instagram.
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Live in peace fam, there's no amount of money or pride or success that's worth your peace!! May you rest in it one day too
A post shared by Mustafa (@mustafathepoet) on Sep 11, 2017 at 2:39pm PDT
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Patience 🌥
A post shared by Mustafa (@mustafathepoet) on Feb 4, 2016 at 12:17am PST
Samantha Jayne
Samantha is less about inspiration and more about relatability. Under her handle @quarterlifepoems, she writes about mundane, millennial crises and honestly, it is comedy gold. She writes almost-limericks paired with colourful doodles about accidental double taps on Instagram, social anxiety and financial confusion, all of which make you feel slightly less alone. She uses social media to make a refreshing statement on who twenty-somethings truly are behind all of the perfectly curated profiles. Her work is clearly catching on, her popular poetry being picked up as a television series, which will premiere at Sundance and air on FX this Spring.
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got me a solar earring 💫
A post shared by Samantha Jayne (@samanthajayne) on Sep 6, 2018 at 7:17am PDT
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💁 #longhairdontcare #whatevs #selflove #instagood #me #smile #nyc #la #sunglasses #cute #photooftheday #poetry #quarterlifecrisis #twenties #girl #funny #happy #picoftheday #instadaily #attitude #ink #igers #fun #summer #drawing #bestoftheday #smile #painting #womenirl #instamood
A post shared by Quarter Life Poetry (@quarterlifepoetry) on Mar 24, 2015 at 10:27am PDT
Haley Macleod
Haley’s following isn’t as large as her fellow poets, with 25.5k, but the Calgary-born writer’s voice is genuine, and her fans are loyal. She writes about love, heartbreak and self-respect, advising readers, and likely herself as well, to choose a life of fulfilment and happiness. Her posts are visually stunning as well, with typewritten pages placed over photographs of seasides and city nights. They evoke a sense of peace and calm, the perfect escape from sharp winds and snowfalls.
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• i hope you find a love who always calls back who never shows up late who pulls you closer in the middle of the night who never again makes you question the word stay who touches you so wild you believe again in the hands of fate who does not rob you of your softness or grace who instead renovates the parts of you that you have labelled damage that you keep hidden away who plants flowers in your lungs so the smell of roses awakes you each day who makes the blood in your veins triumphantly rise who only says i will see you later who never has believed in the word goodbye who can see the universe that exists behind your emerald eyes i hope you find a love that makes you feel nothing but alive who will always always always take the time to see your sunrise • haley macLeod ☁️
A post shared by HM ♱ (@haleymacleod) on Sep 5, 2017 at 2:59pm PDT
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who were you before this all – before the hands of grief turned off the lights of hope inside of your heart. before the lust poisoned your veins and made you forget how to love. before you became this person the world told you to be, instead of wearing the flesh of who you really are. who were you – i know, pain changes people, but healing does too. do your soul a favour; let the light in today. let it softly pour into the scars of your darkness. let it set fire to all of your darkness. bathe in the light. it will be the light that is going to save you; when it comes, let it 🌹•
A post shared by HM ♱ (@haleymacleod) on Nov 6, 2018 at 10:59am PST
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How to Craft A Compelling Social Selling Persona: 5 Key Considerations
“You never get a second chance to make a great first impression.”
Whether you’re an avid social media user or simply check the box by having a profile on your favorite social channels, you’re visible.
Your friends and family have visibility into what you like, share, and comment on, and it’s no different for your current and prospective clients.
Social media is no longer just a place to connect with old friends and family. It has become a key platform and tool for businesses to engage with their target audience and reach more relevant customers.
An integral part of the sales process is getting to know your prospects and establishing relationships—and it turns out that social media can help you accomplish this quickly and easily.
Not only will it help you generate new leads, but it allows you to build deeper relationships with existing clients that drives them to purchase again and again.
When you’re in sales, your social media persona and presence influences your overall reputation, ultimately, swaying your prospect’s perception of you as well as their decision to work with you or not.
The Power of Social Selling
Maybe you’ve only dipped your toes in the social media waters and are wondering, “how will this improve your sales results?”
Consider these three key benefits:
Connect with decision makers more effectively - 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level or vice-president level executives use social media to make purchasing decisions. (International Data Corporation)
Build better business relationships - 31% of B2B professionals said that social selling allowed them to build deeper relationships with their clients. (CSO Insights and Seismic)
Become a top-performing sales professional - 90% of top performing salespeople now use social media as part of their sales strategy. And sales reps with high social network activity achieve 45% more sales opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit their sales quotas. (LinkedIn)
Social selling is important to your success as a sales professional, but with the constant changes and additions to the social landscape it can be challenging to create a social persona that moves the needle on your sales performance.
To help you improve your social presence and persona as a sales professional, take these 5 things into consideration in the new year.
1. Be Authentic
Now, authentic is a word that everyone and their mothers are throwing around these days, but it’s not just a trend.
By definition, authenticity is being real, or genuine. This is definitely what you should be trying for on social.
Get honest and real about your product or service whenever you can. Go behind the scenes and humanize your brand.
If you sell a product, share stories about how you make it. Tell people where the materials come from, how you manufacture, or how you design the things you want them to buy.
If you’re a service, share the work that goes into creating your customer experience or the people behind the service. Who are they and what do they care about?
This also works on a personal level by sharing content you’ve created that includes thoughts, perspectives, or opinions of your own about an important industry trend or issue. Or maybe it’s a look into your day-to-day work experience and career journey.
Authenticity is about showing the real, down to earth side of yourself, your business, and your solutions.
While opening up in this way may leave you vulnerable to critic, it’s also what will encourage your audience and community of customers to view you as trustworthy, credible, and passionate.
As sales professionals, we spend hours of time and whole lot of effort trying to establish a certain level of trust. When you incorporate authenticity into your social selling persona, your prospects and customers view you as being sincere and honest. They believe you genuinely want to help them because you’re not focused on selling, you’re focused on helping.
2. Get Personal
To be clear, I’m not suggesting you share all of the nitty-gritty details of your personal life, but I am suggesting that you share some personal information as it relates to the solution you sell and the audience you’re going after.
Keep a balance between professional sharing and things that are interesting, useful, or humorous.
For example, perhaps you’ve been struggling with an issue at work and you want to ask for advice. Throw it out on social media.
While it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one experiencing a certain challenge, you’re very likely not the first and certainly not the last who will go through this challenge or try to solve a particular problem.
Or maybe you found something laugh-out-loud funny and want to share the fun with your followers. Do it! Humor is a great way to connect on a more personal level.
Your sense of humor is a part of who you are, so sharing what makes you laugh or puts a smile on your face can be a bonding experience between you and your prospects.
Using humor can also help you be perceived as less formal and more friendly or approachable. In sales, this is always a good thing because we want to ensure our prospects and customers want to talk to us and enjoy it.
3. Share Your Unique Insight
Don’t just be another person sharing the same content and adding noise to everyone’s newsfeed. Stand out by sharing your unique perspective and point-of-view.
Add a comment with your own thoughts about what you read or watched. Why should it matter to your audience? What do you want them to do with the information?
In the book Steal like an Artist, author Austin Kleon explores the idea of juxtaposing different ideas together to create an entirely new idea.
Here’s a quote Kleon shares in the book from Jim Jarmusch that helps bring this principle to light:
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent.”
- Jim Jarmusch
You can apply this idea to your social selling approach and persona by mixing and matching ideas from other industries that may or may not be relevant to your exact business, but the point is you can take an idea from another industry and make it your own by incorporating it into a new context or different application.
An example I often share from my own experience is incorporating IMPROV acting into sales training. While some people may not connect the dots between these two things, further explanation proves these two things are very much related.
IMPROV is all about the ability to think quickly and creatively on your feet. Sales requires much of the same abilities.
When you’re in a sales meeting, you need to actively listen and respond to what your prospect is saying or asking.
You may have walked into the meeting with a set of preconceived notions about what this prospect needs or wants, but then they say something that turns those ideas on its head and makes you switch gears completely. This ability to adjust and think creatively in the moment will allow you to drive the meeting in a different direction without panicking.
Another example might be if you’re in the manufacturing business.
Perhaps you would benefit from looking at the successes of a digital media company. What type of efficiencies exist? Are there ideas or principles that you can apply to your own business or the business of your clients?
Adding your own unique voice to an already crowded social landscape is not only challenging but can be frustrating if you’re not getting the attention or engagement you want.
Don’t be afraid to go outside of your own circle and comfort zone, you’ll be amazed at the fresh perspective you’ll gain.
Be unique by sharing insight, not just information.
This will not only help you stand out among your social network, it will help you establish yourself as a thought leader and subject matter expert that people want to do business with.
4. Be Omnipresent
The idea of being omnipresent comes from the marketing world and typically refers to an omni-channel experience. HubSpot shares this definition:
Omni-channel experience is a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling, and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated and cohesive customer experience no matter how or where a customer reaches out.
As social media becomes a bigger influence on our lives and behaviors, sales professionals need to think more holistically when it comes to which platforms they use and how to engage with current and prospective customers.
In other words, you can’t think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc. as separate. You need to think about how you can integrate each platform into a comprehensive social media marketing strategy.
While each platform certainly has its similarities and differences, a consistent voice and style across each platform will help you build awareness among your target audience while being able to reach and engage with them on their favorite platform.
But how do you stay on top of it all? Luckily, there are tools for just this reason.
While a lot of salespeople use social media sites directly, others use social listening and publishing software like HubSpot’s social monitoring and publishing, Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Buffer.
These tools can help salespeople sort relevant messages from noise, tune into only what their leads are sharing, monitor social activity, and publish messages to multiple networks.
Buffer shares a list of the very best social media management tools, which includes their picks for the top 25 tools to use to be as efficient and effective as possible when managing and monitoring your social media platforms.
But sellers beware! Don’t become a robot who automates every comment, post, or “like.” Be yourself (refer back to #1 and #2 on this list) and remember that the purpose of social selling is to build relationships.
5. Be a Listener
To create a compelling social selling persona, you cannot simply share and interact, you must listen to what your audience is telling you.
What are they reacting to? Can you leverage it to increase engagement? Or to more effectively position your product, service, or solution?
It may sound crazy, but your customers and prospects are basically telling you exactly what they want, need or desire.
You have a plethora of information at your fingertips. You just have to stop and strategically listen. Utilize this free information to learn and discover, then implement what you learn to your sales strategy and communication efforts.
With the right tools (see #4), you can immediately know what’s being said, whether positive or negative, and then respond accordingly.
Social listening allows you to prioritize and evaluate feedback. It’s an opportunity to create new content based on what people are already searching for and engaging with. It also provides a valuable opportunity to learn what your intended audience is saying about you compared to your competitors.
Digital conversations about you, your company, and current trends in the industry are already happening. Why not use social media as a way of tapping into this wealth of knowledge?
But remember: listening isn’t just about gathering or tracking information, it’s about gaining real insights into what your customers and potential customers want from you, and how you can better address those needs.
Why It Matters
Generating new leads can be a struggle. Understanding how buyers make decisions is complicated (to say the least). And trying to combat the status quo can be exhausting.
It’s no secret. Selling in today’s world is becoming increasingly more complex and competitive.
Given these challenges, carefully considering your social presence can help you sell more effectively:
Establishing a professional brand
Positioning subject matter expertise and thought leadership
Finding and targeting the right prospects
Engaging with those prospects through valuable insights
Taking the time to build new relationships and develop existing ones
Social media is becoming a foundation for interactions between buyers and sellers. But remember that the goal of social selling is not to get a sale on first contact; It exists to build meaningful relationships.
To do that, you have to consider the impression you’re making on your professional network and strive to be authentic, personal, and unique, while also being omnipresent across platforms and keeping an ear to the “social” ground for intel about your prospects, customers, industry trends, and competitors.
Building a compelling social persona and presence will help you gain influence, establish your credibility, sell ideas, attract customers, and ultimately increase revenue.
from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/how-to-social-selling-persona
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Effective ways to Always keep Plant kingdom Alive
The look for significance as well as function in your life is at times described as Spirituality considering that it'ses a good idea focus on your internal lifestyle. Progressively, nurses are actually pointing out that purposeful use is actually having purposeful time far from essential person treatment and call. You 'd probably be shocked to understand that he was additionally among the craziest men I've ever before met, and that his artistic capacity was actually enormous. Thus, the contiguity as well as regularity rules take advantage of purposeful spatial and temporal connections to form the situation within which ideas link. Making EHRs extra care-friendly is a meaningful must for nurses and the entire health care group. Financiers should impress after prospects that they count on purposeful improvement throughout the income tax code, which a second term merely will not happen without it. 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Obviously, this presupposes that happiness is actually somehow totally connected with rendering one's life meaningful. Relevant Charm's 30-day initial deal is actually $29.99 with a cash back guarantee. There are actually pair of major components of relevant interaction: the stage as well as communication. It is useless to mention at the start, I need to certainly not create more than 300 terms on this subject", due to the fact that 500 phrases may be the minimum important. One more example would certainly remain in memorizing the verses of the tracks or even in bearing in mind tales that you might possess read through before. Whatever kind of job you do-whether you are actually independent, working with other people, or one thing in between-if liberty, complication, as well as a connection between initiative and benefit exist, it's my idea you possess a better odds of making your work meaningful. But he never ever revealed that. I know several of you were given art works through him as gifts. Human beings are actually unique and complicated and also is actually wonderful; having said that, when our experts develop a better understanding from ourselves, our company are a lot better prepared to take pleasure in a purposeful everyday life. I order to have a prosperous cinquain, not unlike other verse, the artist has to select his phrases properly and also design a significant and genuine poem. Speaking about purposeful food items opens up a door that lets people in, as well as seeing these accounts is just an advantage. One more concept is to give your bridesmaids a wonderful choker as well as earring readied to match their outfit, as well as to add the matching bangle to the gift for your house maid of respect. Cheryl Salto really loves aiding to earn parties meaningful and personal as the proprietor from focusing on delivering an extensive online option from Communion and Occasion chooses forever's unique celebrations. Thus every time time you are actually trying to find some ideas from affection, you can simply take a look at your beloved compilation of motivating and also meaningful quotes. Really ur post provides enough durability to any individual to boost their life i am delivering a lovely smile to u also. Thus to decide on an infant name that is actually relevant in a genuine way, its ideal to link the name to one thing the child will come to worth as she or he matures. That is why providing your little one the name of a revered grandparent or even someone from family tree is really meaningful. Of course, there are actually much more stunning names to pick from featuring Alpana (Stunning), Bimala (Sheer), Chahna (Love), Devanshi (Magnificent), Fulki (Fire), Grishma (Warmth), Ipsita (Desire), Kala (Fine art), Lalima (Appeal), Mitali (Helpful), Nirali (Other), Panchali (Little princess), Sarayu (Wind), Usha (Sunrise), and Venya (Adorable). After you are actually ended up as well as your mind appears to become ultimately empty without new ideas, you may evaluate your listing of enchanting quotes and decide on the most effective ones. They are actually extra earnest, and also have the tendency to look for relevant relationships compared to men. It is crucial that our team locate opportunity for significant communication along with our young people. Products with Direct Messaging abilities can easily use this as a style for delivering CCDAs to clients for the functions of Meaningful Use VDT requirements. The timetables of purposeful use specify a collection of purposes and also procedures to make certain remodeling from populace wellness in the years to coming. Several find that as a doctors' problem since they are the targeted group behind meeting purposeful make use of requirements. This provides our tattoos an added significance, because our team will think about our wedding event every single time our experts look at that. Significant usage looks all about documenting that the medical professional is performing every thing important to ensure the patient is actually being managed as a whole individual and also not merely for his/her presenting problem. Quotes intended for demeaning, or making fun of a person's physical qualities, vantages or even views need to never be made use of, as they produce the quoter look intolerant and little rather than entertaining. However when they appeared within, neither could possibly find just what was actually purposeful for them. However the fact is, if you want to have significant partnerships, you have actually reached be willing to permit go from your agenda and also definitely focus know yet another. When pair of people love one another they experience the absolute most stunning feeling on earth. What is certainly not significant use digital medical record keeping are the discussions, alarms, as well as hands pointing at those recommending the upcoming regulations. Purposeful advertising and marketing hooks up companies along with a beneficial purpose to improve the quality of life. If you are actually participating in the Medicaid system, you may Adopt, Implement, or Upgrade (AIU) a licensed EHR or illustrate meaningful use one in your very first year to make motivations. There is not a well-known rulebook on just how you discover your significant work as well as resulting results. 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Your lifestyle is actually no different; the electricity you are actually squandering on attempting to develop purposeful relationship with hundreds of individuals through your a variety of social networks platforms is actually squandered. Some males may feel humiliated about this, but having a culinary skill-set is a fantastic advantage.
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