#repetitive verbs everywhere you look | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

englishbhashi · 1 year ago

Text

Top Methods for Enhancing Your Understanding of Adverbs

Language is a powerful tool, capable of conveying intricate thoughts, emotions, and ideas. At its core, language consists of words, each with its unique role in crafting meaningful sentences. Among these words, adverbs hold a special place. They are the unsung heroes of language, adding depth, precision, and nuance to our expressions. Yet, understanding adverbs fully can be a challenging task. These versatile words have the power to transform the entire meaning of a sentence, and their usage can often be subtle and complex.

In this essay, we will delve deep into the world of adverbs, exploring the various methods to enhance your understanding of them. Whether you’re a student looking to improve your grammar, a writer seeking to refine your prose, or simply someone intrigued by the nuances of language, this comprehensive guide will provide you with the tools to master adverbs.

1. Basic Adverb Definition

To understand adverbs thoroughly, one must begin with the basics. An adverb is a part of speech that modifies or describes verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs typically provide information about how, when, where, or to what extent an action is performed. For example:

He ran quickly. (How did he run? Quickly.)

She sings beautifully. (How does she sing? Beautifully.)

They arrived here yesterday. (When did they arrive? Yesterday.)

Understanding this fundamental definition is crucial for building a strong foundation in adverb usage.

2. Types of Adverbs

Adverbs come in various forms, each serving a distinct purpose in language. Some common types of adverbs include:

Adverbs of manner: These describe how an action is performed. Examples include quickly, slowly, and carefully.

Adverbs of frequency: These indicate how often an action occurs. Examples include always, often, and rarely.

Adverbs of time: These specify when an action takes place. Examples include today, now, and later.

Adverbs of place: These describe where an action occurs. Examples include here, there, and everywhere.

Adverbs of degree: These modify the intensity or degree of an action. Examples include very, too, and quite.

Understanding the various types of adverbs enables you to use them effectively to convey specific meanings and nuances in your sentences.

3. Adverbial Phrases and Clauses

Adverbs can appear not only as single words but also as phrases or clauses. Adverbial phrases and clauses function in much the same way as single-word adverbs, providing additional information about actions. For instance:

He ran as fast as he could. (Adverbial phrase)

She worked diligently, despite her exhaustion. (Adverbial clause)

Recognizing adverbial phrases and clauses enhances your ability to identify and construct complex sentences with precision.

4. Sentence Adverbs

In addition to modifying verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs within a sentence, adverbs can also modify the entire sentence. These are known as sentence adverbs and often convey the speaker’s attitude, opinion, or evaluation of the entire statement. For example:

Fortunately, we arrived on time.

Sadly, he failed to meet his goal.

Sentence adverbs provide context and tone to the overall message of the sentence, making your communication more nuanced.

5. Adverb Placement

Adverbs can be placed in various positions within a sentence, and their placement can significantly affect the sentence’s meaning. Common positions for adverbs include:

Front of the sentence: Quickly, he finished the race.

Mid-sentence: He quickly finished the race.

End of the sentence: He finished the race quickly.

Understanding how adverb placement influences meaning is vital for precise communication.

6. Avoiding Redundancy

One common mistake in adverb usage is redundancy. Redundant adverbs add unnecessary repetition to a sentence. For example:

She smiled happily. (Redundant because a smile is typically associated with happiness.)

To enhance your understanding of adverbs, learn to recognize and eliminate redundant adverbs in your writing, creating more concise and effective sentences.

7. Context Matters

Adverbs often derive their meaning from the context in which they are used. For instance, the adverb “fast” can have different interpretations in various contexts:

He drives fast. (referring to speed)

He eats fast. (referring to pace)

He is getting better fast. (referring to recovery)

Being attuned to context is crucial for accurately comprehending and using adverbs.

8. Reading Widely

One of the most effective methods for enhancing your understanding of adverbs is to read widely. Exposure to different writing styles, genres, and authors allows you to encounter adverbs in diverse contexts. Pay attention to how skilled writers use adverbs to convey subtle nuances and emotions in their narratives.

9. Practice and Feedback

Like any aspect of language, mastering adverbs requires practice. Write regularly and seek feedback from peers or mentors to identify areas where your adverb usage can be improved. Constructive criticism can be invaluable in your learning journey.

10. Grammar Resources

Utilize grammar resources such as textbooks, online tutorials, and grammar-checking tools to deepen your knowledge of adverbs. These resources often provide detailed explanations and exercises to reinforce your understanding.

You can also try one of our Official Application ENGLISHBHASHI available in Play Store with which you can refine your English Skills we assure you that you will be able to speak English much better in just 30 Days.

Share this post with your friends and family who are eager to enhance their English skills. Let’s inspire and empower each other on this incredible language-learning path. Together, we can achieve greatness! So, what are you waiting for? Visit EnglishBhashi today and embark on an exciting adventure of language learning.

0 notes

behind-the-hood · 5 years ago

Text

I'm so close to just being, like, done with the story. So, so close. But also, like, it's one in the morning--and I have to be up until two regardless--and then I have to get up at like five in the morning, and start getting ready at seven, then leave at nine, and get my injection at ten. But after that. After all that.

I get to sleep for the rest of the day.

#the first three chpters arent that bad #its the last two #those two man #prose is all over the place #spelling errors galore #repetitive verbs everywhere you look #the story line is good #i stand by that statement and will defend it with my life #but itll be a nightmare to edit #thats what i get for not timung things better #im so exhausted #ive got like four hours to finish this if i dont sleep #only one if i do sleep #imma stay up as long as i can #am i adulting right?#probably not #👍👍👍#bhndthhd

5 notes · View notes

adventurebeneaththewords · 5 years ago

Text

New Editing Process for 2020

I’ve been having a really rough time editing my manuscript, so I decided to change up my editing process.

first read-through: focus on changing scenes/editing for consistency, etc. write more or cut things out. focus on the story, plot, characters, etc instead of on technical things

second read-through: look for repetition, paragraphs that go on for too long or sentences that need to be elaborated on, cut out useless adverbs, lackluster verbs and so on, get super nit-picky

(it's recommended to send your novel to a beta-reader around this point)

third read-through: edit like an editor, not a writer. Put red marks everywhere - make your English teacher proud. Spelling, grammar, repetitive words, consistent spelling (pick a type of English and stick with it)

(also recommended that you send your manuscript to a professional editor at this point)

final read-through: make sure all your edits have been implemented, all your feedback from beta-readers and editors are in place

then you're free to format and get it ready for print

Keep in mind that any of these “read-through” steps might be repeated several times, or involve skimming through your manuscript. Alternatively, it might be easier for you to combine some steps. If it is, that’s fantastic! This is just what works for me and hopefully might help you create a system that works for you!

#editing #editing process #editing a novel #editing a book #how to edit #write #writing #writer #writeblr

38 notes · View notes

katsuhera · 4 years ago

Note

'sup, this is a lot HAHAHHAHA:

3,4,7,9,11,25

Also sorrynotsorry for sending cursed eren

you really said: tell me everything

LMFAOOO JK i really do appreciate it 🥺💖 hehe thank u (not for cursed eren tho)

putting my answers under the cut because probs gonna be long:

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

so one of the pieces i have in the works is a bakugou x f!reader cheer squad au, and god i’m just thinking about how much context i would need to include before getting to the good parts

like i’m thinking that it’ll have to be multi-part to fully create all of the necessary emotion & tension between the two (i don’t wanna say too much bc i don’t wanna give the general gist of it away), but like.. imma have to really sit and write out a bunch of scenes at practice or competitions to fully flesh out the kind of dynamic i want the two to have. i hope that makes sense hehe

i will be writing it tho. hopefully soon

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

you looked ethereal, radiant with the soft glow of the sunset reflecting off your skin, bathing you in warm light. if he looked any longer, who knows how long it would have taken him to snap out of his daydream?

from ch20 of my keep it on the low series

maybe i should have read the questions before reblogging it, these questions are so hard HAHA

but i chose this not entirely because i’m proud of the writing or the words i used or w.e, but moreso because i loved imagining the scene as i wrote it

it’s the culmination of months of reader and levi’s pent up feelings towards each other, and levi’s just so enamored by the reader that... UGH i love this scene. like he’s so fixated by you that merely looking at you puts him in a trance

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

i kinda referenced this somewhere else earlier today, but my personal writing style is so heavily influenced by my major - i’m a journalism major, and for four years i’ve been writing mainly in subject + verb and without oxford commas.

i mean, there’s nothing wrong with s+v but it does get boring and repetitive, especially in creative writing. the aim journalistic writing is to make it as accessible for everyone everywhere so that readers can understand the gist of the news quickly and accurately; it’s been kind of hard for me to snap out of that when i try to write more descriptively or creatively.

i also find myself gravitating towards longer/run-on sentences. i feel like others would agree, even reading this/my past works, my sentences feel very repetitive and have similar structures... but i’m trying to improve!!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

definitely more of a longfic writer than a drabble one, plotter more than a pantser (unless what i’m writing is something i thought of and have to get out right away).

i really wish i could write drabbles but it’s SO so hard for me to write short - which is fucking bad of me considering all my journo profs would tell us to write short HAHA

i always just want to describe the context and setting ya know? idk. i enjoy context though i also do enjoy getting right into the scene

i’m more of a plotter, generally speaking, because i procrastinate on my writing so much that if i don’t plan out my writing, i’ll forget my idea altogether 💀

11. What do you envy in other writers?

i follow so many talented writers and i always always envy their word choices or variety in their sentence structures. i mainly look for things that i think i lack in my own writing, so i guess this makes sense

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

living vicariously through my characters

it’s so much fun to imagine myself in the scene and just pretend for a second that it’s me dating levi or flirting with bakugou. i do this when reading other fanfics ofc but i definitely do it so much when i write heh

ask me something about my writing!

#hera's ask games #hera's moots #asterroidd

2 notes · View notes

keykoded · 6 years ago

Photo

I know I should write in here more but it’s really hard, you know, to sit down and put my thoughts down in this neat orderly subject-verb fashion and maybe some adjectives thrown in for spice, sprinkling description over everything like that one viral photo of the guy throwing salt on stuff like he’s a new drag queen with glitter. I love that photo so much. It’s so shameless and nonsensical and I really think we have to cling to the little things right because it’s that or nothing, it’s that or absence.

I’ve just been thinking today. That’s why I’m here. Today I put together some new clips and it was late, dark everywhere on the screen, and this girl across the street stopped in the middle of a pool of light from a streetlamp and started crying. She was walking and staring ahead and seeing and then she just stopped and cried. No sound, of course, but you could see her shoulders heaving. I wanted to reach through the screen and touch her tenderly and I also wanted to skitter back in animal fear of what that kind of grief might mean. I’m bad at knowing what to do in the moment but afterwards I can think it through. That’s why I run the camera. It’s like practice in my head.

A friend of mine, one of the only ones I can call that genuinely, is at the hospital in Rapid City because his father is dying, and today a doctor lurched in except it was this metal pillar on wheels with a little screen on top like some kind of monster and on the screen was the face of the doctor, earphones in, to inform them that he was dying, he was dead, and my friend’s father stared at this metal pillar buzzing and crackling with audio and said I don’t understand because how could he? How can you understand when a stupid column with wheels rolls into your hospital room to tell you that your life is over? Then there was this Tim and Eric moment where the doctor suspended in this little box kept repeating it, and my friend’s dad kept saying what over and over again, back and forth, looping around, going nowhere, what and what and what and I just think that’s what we’re doing to each other, this total miscommunication, this repetition, and I don’t think it’s going to end well.

Here’s something else I’ve been thinking about. My mom has been taking care of her mom ever since I was in high school and she is still doing it despite everyone telling her that she should move out and call whatever state thing takes care of old people who can’t take care of themselves. She’s dedicated almost ten years of her life to a woman whose brain is three-fourths mush and who can’t communicate anymore, who makes sound with no meaning, garbled syllables, and who spends all night moaning and gasping because her brain thinks she’s in pain even though she’s laying peacefully in a bed. People I usually trust tell me that it’s beautiful to watch someone age but it’s not and they’ve never been more wrong. It’s watching someone fall apart slow and then fast, losing the ability to communicate and then every conversation is like mutely watching that girl cry under a streetlamp, raw and blunt but with no context or understanding, an outside observer to someone’s undefinable pain.

Sometimes I feel like these entries are too fractured but it’s how my brain works now. I got too good at fitting together random pieces and now I hold everything together with tape. Now and then I imagine the inside of my skull as fractured but held together with strips of clear adhesive.

The thing about all this is that I’ll never know anyone else but we have to inflict knowing on each other all the time. The doctor thinks that he knows how to console a dying man and his son through a video screen and my mom thinks she can translate every noise my grandmother makes into meaning and I think I know this girl in a red hat who cried across the street for three minutes and we’re all just approximating, every one of us, guesswork and experience and tape.

I looked in the mirror today. I try to do that once per week, a lingering look, no matter how much it makes my skin crawl and then I want to lay down on the bathroom floor to feel the coolness of the tile and imagine my skin sloughing off. My sister once said that it sounded like a butterfly coming out of a chrysalis and that’s, pardon me, absolutely fucking stupid. A caterpillar turns into goo. Then it just becomes a butterfly somehow and frankly that’s the best argument I’ve ever heard for God because who else could come up with that? Nothing like that happens for me. When I lay there on the tile it’s like stripping past skin and getting down to soul except there��s no one else to see me. The bathroom floor seems like as good of a place as any to do that kind of thing.

And then there’s the other other thing. You know the one. I’m still thinking about it.

The thing I saw. The thing I still don’t know if I really saw.

I just don’t know how to handle

#I'LL TAKE COFFEE AND TALK ABOUT NOTHING ( longform. )

3 notes · View notes

roleplayercritiques · 6 years ago

Text

Critique #1

--Mod Renoir

Sample 1:

Whatever anger might have lingered in him was gone the second he picked up the details of X’s state. The puffy eyes and shaky hands, an hoarse edge to his voice that was rare by many standards. A moment’s of concern washed over him but compassion took hold faster. Y wanted to help, like so many times before. Sometimes his abrasive personality and lack of bed-manners helped, but this time…

He wasn’t sure.

“I haven’t seen your face like that in never.” It felt wrong the second it left him. Y grimaced at himself. “Sorry. Not helpful. Coffee sounds great.” Look, a distraction. He walked over to stand nearby, thanking for the coffee as it was given to him. Who was he to say no to coffee.

Taking a sip, he considered why the starbase would limit X’s access. If they thought he would try to run off, they’d done a bad job. Y would bet a peach cobbler that X could MacGyver his way out with just a PADD and a paperclip.

Of course that probably wasn’t it. It was probably the same cowardly ignorance that caused the mere suggestion of kicking the vulcan off the ‘fleet. It was irritating.

Instead, he went backwards in the conversation. “I know ya’ve heard this from me before,” he started, looking to X and simply watching his reaction. “The release of emotions’s what keep us healthy.” Then something new. “And you don’t need to hide it.”

Sample 2:

It’s a small wonder that the hallways isn’t crowded; it’s practically empty, making moving easier. Y knows they have to change paths soon, because no doubt there’ll be security hot in their heels and then he’ll never get any honest answers.

He doesn’t respond his copy at first, still oddly perplexed that he thinks there’s easier ways to get answers. What, interrogation and the agony booth for him? Fat chance. Finally, Y grabs hold of his copy’s uniform, stopping him and pulling him to the wall. There’s the computer terminal he was looking for.

“Jefferies tubes.” It’s an answer, albeit brief. The terminal beeps. “What’s your-” Y stops, having turned to Z, the phaser never wavering. His one eye narrows. It couldn’t be, could it? Without another word he turns to the terminal and inputs his own code and the terminal chirps, accepting it.

Fuck.

No, get away first, answers second.

Two quick commands and he shuts the terminal off, turning to the wall. Almost effortlessly, a panel is removed and Y grabs the scruff of his copy’s uniform, shoving him to the opening of the Jefferies tube. “Get in,” he snaps. The tubes lead everywhere but if he can get them to his usual junction, he can consider himself safe.

Thank you for your submission! We have censored all names. For context, Y is the pseudonym I have given OP’s muse. X and Z are the two different muses that Y-mun is responding to.

Something I noticed right off the bat was the inconsistent tense (past for the first sample and present for the second), but I followed the link for the second reply and realized it was because you were matching your partner’s responses. I think that’s a great thing to do, and it shows your flexibility as a writer. One reason that you might feel less enthusiastic about your second response could be linked to the different tense that you wrote in. Most people write fiction in the past tense, and judging from the first sample, it’s what you’re used to writing too. Changing tenses may have thrown off your internal sense of what’s “good” to you.

One thing that confused me a little bit as someone who isn’t from your fandom was the use of Y’s first and last name interchangeably to refer to him. I figured it out, of course, it was just something I noticed and stumped me in the beginning. It’s not a huge deal, just something I noticed.

In sample 1, I noticed that there was a lot of character depth that was shown to me instead of outright telling me. For example, Y--a doctor--is described as having an “abrasive personality” and a “lack of bed[side]-manners”, which is interesting for a doctor, since doctors are usually portrayed as nurturing and kind. However, contradictory to his outward appearance, he is actually a very thoughtful character, as demonstrated by the fact that he carefully considers X’s feelings and reactions to his instructions. It’s human to have contradictions of character, so I think that’s an interesting touch.

Something I felt was a little confusing was this sentence: “Sometimes his abrasive personality and lack of bed-manners helped, but this time…” I wasn’t sure how the abrasive personality and lack of bed-manners has helped in the past. Perhaps it’s because I lack context due to not being in the fandom, but I felt that the wording and implication of what “helping” has to do with character traits that on a surface level appear unhelpful.

Overall, I think sample 1 is well written and is clear in expressing your muse’s personality and characteristics. I also didn’t notice any grammar mistakes and I felt that it flowed well, considering its structure as a reply.

Sample 2, the one you said you felt a little unsure about, doesn’t have anything particularly glaringly wrong with it. I think that based off of sample 1, Y’s characterization appears consistent. To me, the action sequence is clear and demonstrates a sense of urgency, especially in the character’s thoughts and the bolding of the word “fuck” to further emphasize his distress. There is also an increased number of paragraph breaks, that shows the fragmentation of his thoughts as he tries to focus on a bunch of things at once while staying calm.

One kinda nitpicky thing I noticed was that in the very first sentence, the conjugation is slightly off. It’s correctly written in present tense, but in “It’s a small wonder that the hallways isn’t crowded“, the verb “isn’t” is modifying “the hallways”, which is plural. Therefore, “isn’t” should be “aren’t”. But this is a very nitpicky moment, and I think it’s just an unintentional mistake on your part because your conjugations everywhere else are spot on.

I noticed in a few places, there is a bit of repetition in sentence structure. For example, although these two sentences are different lengths, their internal structure are the same. “Two quick commands and he shuts the terminal off, turning to the wall” and “... a panel is removed and Y grabs the scruff of his copy’s uniform, shoving him to the opening of the Jefferies tube” are both structured in a way where there is a complete sentence and a comma, followed by a fragment starting with an “ing” verb. I only noticed because I have a similar problem with using this particular structure very often. I cut out a piece of the second sentence to fully demonstrate exactly how similar in structure these two sentences really are. They both start with two sentences strung together with ‘and’, then there’s a comma, and there’s a “verb-ing” sentence fragment. If there was one sentence in between to separate them (a short one, perhaps “His eyes quickly skim over the wall”). This may be another reason why you felt a little less satisfied with sample 2 compared to sample 1.

Overall, I think you are a strong writer with a very solid grasp of your character’s personality, motivations, and thought process. I enjoyed reading about Y’s thought processes and how he interacts with the world around him. In terms of general things that could change, I think the replies feel a little bit janky and disconnected at times, but I understand since it’s a reply and your partner may have written some time strange time bending replies. It’s something to look into, especially for improving the flow of your replies in the future.

#critiques #wow im sorry im so late with this!#keep up the good work though on the replies!#i hope this helps you

1 note · View note

americanmysticom · 3 years ago

Photo

THIS SIGNATURE ALONE PROVES THAT EVERY COUNTY IN THE COUNTRY WAS NOT ONLY ELECTRONICALLY MANIPULATED, THE FACT THAT MANIPULATED DATA TALLIES IMPACTED THE COUNT DEMONSTRATE A CENTRAL ‘BRAIN’ THAT DISTRIBUTED APPLICATION OF ITS ALGORITHM

IT IS AN ALGORITHM THAT WAS USED!!!

YOU DON'T NEED ANY MORE EVIDENCE THAN THIS YOU LOUTS LOOKING AT THE FOREST OF DATA - SEE THE FACT THAT THE ELECTION IS NULL AND VOID!!!

- EVERY TALLY WAS EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY CONNECTED TO ONE ALGORITHM THAT MANIPULATED THE COUNT - THE ORIGINATING CENTRAL UNIT OR A LEAD TO IT WAS LIKELY DESTROYED IN THE AT&T NEST BUNKER

- YET THE RESIDUE OF ONE SINGULAR FINGERPRINT, MADE BY A MATHEMATICAL FORMULA AND FOUND EVERYWHERE, COULD NOT BE ERASED!

THE FACT THAT ONE SOLE ENTITY CAN MANIPULATE AN ELECTION MEANS THAT ALL OF THE ELECTION MACHINES, OTHER THAN SCANNERS USED FOR REGULAR AUDITS, NEED TO BE DESTROYED FOR THERE EVER TO BE A VALID ELECTION FROM HERE ON OUT

SEE THAT THE DOMINION PUPPET IN THE WHITE HOUSE HAS STILL UNANSWERED FRAUD WHILE IN OFFICE DURING UKRAINE!!!

JUST WHAT KIND OF WHEELING AND DEALING IS HE DOING NOW?

YOU CAN’T HAVE A MILLION PEOPLE SITTING AT THE COMPUTER IN CHARGE OF THESE THINGS, SO YOU USE AN ALGORITHM

EACH AND EVERY COUNTY WAS HACKED WITH ONE COMPUTER ALGORITHM

THE ALGORITHM USED LEFT BEHIND ITS UNIQUE FINGERPRINT, A MATHEMATICAL FORMULA THAT WAS THEN EASY TO SEE BY REVERSE CALCULATION [EXTRAPOLATION], THAT WAS THEN PRINTED AS A GRAPH

A PATTERN EASILY IDENTIFIABLE IN THE GRAPH, SEEN IN EVERY COUNTY, OF EVERY STATE!

Definition of algorithm

: a procedure for solving a mathematical problem (as of finding the greatest common divisor) in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation broadly : a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end There are several search engines, with Google, Yahoo and Bing being the biggest players. Each search engine has its own proprietary computation (called an "algorithm") that ranks websites for each keyword or combination of keywords. — Julie Brinton … sometimes you solve a problem by coming up with an algorithm of some kind. But sometimes you solve a problem in a very ad hoc sort of way. — William H. Huggins

ABSOLUTE INTERFERENCE [2021-04-20] - MIKE LINDELL (DOCUMENTARY VIDEO)

https://www.bitchute.com/video/KnFx2LWOkRUF/

Extrapolation Method

The process in which you estimate the value of given data beyond its range is called an extrapolation method. In other words, the extrapolation method means the process that is used to estimate a value if the current situation continues for a longer period. Extrapolation Method is a vital component in Mathematics. It also has its branches in Statistics, Sociology, Psychology, and other fields of study too. In this section, we shall discuss what extrapolation means, the definition, extrapolation formula, and have a better understanding of the extrapolation method with the help of a few example problems. In addition to that, you should also know about interpolation. This is the process of estimating the value of the given data.

ex‧trap‧o‧late

▶ verb [with object] extend the application of (a method or conclusion, especially one based on statistics) to an unknown situation by assuming that existing trends will continue or similar methods will be applicable: the results cannot be extrapolated to other patient groups | [no object] it is always dangerous to extrapolate from a sample. • estimate or conclude (something) by extrapolating: attempts to extrapolate likely human cancers from laboratory studies. • Mathematics extend (a graph, curve, or range of values) by inferring unknown values from trends in the known data: (as adjective extrapolated) a set of extrapolated values.

LOUT - Did you know?

Noun - Lout belongs to the large group of words we use to indicate an undesirable person, a boor, a bumpkin, a dolt, a clod. We've used lout in this way since the mid-1500s. As early as the 800s, however, lout functioned as a verb with the meaning "to bow in respect." No one is quite sure how the verb sense developed into a noun meaning "a brutish person." Perhaps the awkward posture of one bowing down led over time to the idea that the person was personally low and awkward as well. [OR SIMPLY BECAME A DUROGATORY WORD FOR SOMEONE WHO STUPIDLY COWTOWED TO ILLIGITIMATE AUTHORITY]

[IT IS UNTOWARD TO EXTRAPOLATE FROM A POSITIVE ALGORITHM WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF NEGATIVE INTENT]

0 notes

katranga · 7 years ago

Text

Disclaimer: Fic is just for fun. Nobody on ao3, or tumblr, or wherever, is expecting perfection. Most of these tips are gonna take a little extra time and effort to implement, and if you don’t feel like doing that, because you just wanna post the darn thing? Go for it! I’m not here to tell you what to do, and I’m certainly not saying that your writing is bad if you don’t follow these tips. These are just suggestions that will hopefully help you improve your work, if that’s what you’re after.

Intro: Why Revise?

To kick things off, I’d like to go over the importance of revision!! This is more of a general writing tip, but it’s a great starting point, because I DON’T want you to be thinking about most of my future tips while you’re writing the first draft.

I want you to get. those. words. on. the. page! That’s all you should be worried about when you’ve got a blank page staring you in the face.

There’s so much pressure to get writing right the first time, but I’m here to tell you that’s pretty much impossible. So, pressure’s off! Just write the basics so you get to know your story first. I

I know it seems like writing it perfectly will save you editing/revising time later on, but you can’t revise—let alone post—what you don’t have written because you’re stuck on one line that doesn’t sound just right. You with me so far? Great!

Honestly, writing gets so much faster when you remind yourself that no one is going to see your first draft!

So I cannot overstate the importance of revision.

Because guess what? Everything you don’t like about your first draft can be fixed in revision!

Okay. What is it?

To clarify, when I say first draft, I don’t mean the stuff you do in high school, where you write out a shitty essay on paper first and then type it up basically the same, just to prove to the teacher you wrote a first draft?? Or whatever.

I mean you just write the absolute basics of your story down, and fill in the rest and perfect it later (I’ll go into detail about how exactly to do that in my motivation post).

Now, grammar, spelling, and overall readability, are all important things to fix before you post. But that’s little stuff, and your word processor will be able to pick up on some of that, and just rewording a few sentences to make them clearer probably won’t take too much effort on your end (though I am gonna have a post about filler words and clarity and stuff like that, so if that tends to be a problem for you, I gotchu).

Besides basic grammar/spelling, most of what I change as my first draft transforms into my second or third is:

Improving the flow of a scene (it can’t all be dialogue, unfortunately)

Pacing throughout the fic (are they falling love too fast? is this scene too long? etc)

Overall clarity (I know why the character did that, but will the reader?)

It may be different for you. Basically, you’re polishing up whatever you didn’t worry about writing the first draft.

My first drafts, for example? They’re 80% dialogue. Because that’s my favourite! And that’s what comes to me when I’m dreaming up fics. But then I go back later and beef up the rest—the characters’ movements in a scene, their inner dialogue, description etc.

Because as much as I love dialogue, scenes feel empty and too-fast with just characters talking. Similarly, scenes can feel bogged down and slow with just characters thinking about things.

But revision isn’t just about adding things! Sometimes you need to take stuff out. Inner dialogue that later gets covered by dialogue? Cut it. (Or vice versa—maybe the detail isn’t important enough for the characters to talk about, and just the mention of it within the narration is enough).

The point is, repetition needs to go. The reader rarely needs to be told the same thing twice.

Quick example from the top of my head:

Lance had lost his jacket. He’d looked over the whole castle for it, but couldn’t find it anywhere. His brother gave him that jacket. One of his last ties to Earth, and it was missing in action.

Maybe Keith took it to spite him, that jerk.

“What’s up, Lance?” Hunk asked when he passed him in the hall.

“I lost my jacket!” Lance said. “My signature jacket, the one Marco gave me! I’ve looked everywhere, but it’s gone. Do you think Keith stole it?”

Same information twice: Lance can’t find his brother’s jacket despite a thorough search, and suspects Keith stole it. No reason to repeat that. Something’s gotta go.

I know cutting stuff isn’t fun. You worked hard on that! You spent hours/days/whatever perfecting a sentence until it gleamed like a diamond, and now just because you thought of a better way to get that information across you have to get rid of it? No way!

I’ve been there, trust me. But hanging on just slows down the whole writing process. Because, for me at least, I know when stuff needs to go, or needs a massive overhaul, or whatever. I’m just digging my heels in because I don’t wanna do any additional work.

Luckily, this is where your shitty first draft comes in handy! If all you did was spit words onto the page as soon as they entered your head, then you didn’t spend a lot of back-breaking effort on whatever you need to cut! And what you need to cut isn’t anything awe-inspiring, it’s just your rough notes, so tossing it aside isn’t nearly as stressful!

Remember, you can always save scenes/dialogue/etc in a separate document! Maybe you’ll be able to salvage some it later. Alternatively, create separate versions of the doc as you edit/revise. If you end up actually needing part of a deleted scene, you’ve still got it somewhere!

And please, never think of the stuff you cut (or fics you never finished) as “wasted time”. Writing time is never wasted! You’re practicing, you’re honing your craft, and even if some bits never see the light of day, you’re still benefitting from all that work you did!

Now, I know I know I know most people edit/revise as they write. Can’t think of the next scene? Reread the previous scene and fiddle with it until something comes to you. That’s great! Revising already written material is loads better than just staring at your screen!

BUT I’ve recently started writing the whole gosh darn diddly thing without looking back and that is so much faster! While I highly recommend it, that’s obviously difficult to do when you don’t know what’s going to happen next in the fic.

Or if you just don’t have the motivation. So! That’ll be our next topic: Getting words on the page!

But for now, I’ve got an example under the cut, as well as additional resources and links if you want to learn more about revision!

Here’s where I take an old embarrassing fic of mine and revise it, hopefully clarifying the points I’ve been making, as well as proving that only practice makes better!

Okay so this is an excerpt of one of my unpublished fics from 2011. I’m just gonna be honest with you here, it was a Twilight human!AU where Edward was a massive nerd.

For background, Bella has been at the new school like a week and is appalled at the bullying happening to Edward, who she barely knows. (It’s first person bc that’s how the books were written. Just deal with it.)

Here we go:

“They gave him a swirly yesterday,” I announced, appalled.

“Who?”

“Edward!”

Jessica shrugged, unaffected. “Nothing new.”

“Well what are they, twelve?” I demanded angrily.

“He kind of needed a hair wash,” Mike muttered.

Snorts of amusement followed.

“Stuffing his head into a toilet is not funny,” I argued.

“Yes it is, Bella,” Alice chuckled.

“Kay, next time we go to the bathroom, I’ll shove your head into a toilet,” I offered. “And we’ll all laugh about it.”

This was a whole scene, I kid you not. Now, this isn’t bad because it’s just dialogue. It’s ten lines. That’s a reasonable amount of space for a quick dialogue exchange. HOWEVER, there’s about four people in this scene, so the dialogue tags are a little sparse. ALSO, this is the first time Bella’s bringing her concerns about Edward to the group, so there should be more inner reflection on that.

Overall, it’s just way too minimalist lol. So this is a good example to beef up.

First of all: where the fuck are we? Notice how no setting was given? Not the greatest habit to get into. If it’s already been established in the fic where people are, and the setting’s not that important, I guess you can skip it, but a quick mention isn’t gonna hurt. You don’t want the reader confused!

Since this a Twilight fic, let’s say they’re in the caf. (In Voltron fics, you’re probably gonna be on the ship, but you can always mention what room they’re in. Or, if it’s a new planet, give a line or two of description).

Explanations for changes I made are in [square brackets]:

I tossed my lunch tray onto the table before throwing myself onto the chair next to Alice. “They gave him a swirly yesterday.”

[Indicated setting. Also implied she was feeling “appalled” using verbs instead of outright stating it. Showing not telling!]

Across from me, Angela looked up from the sandwich she was picking at. “Who?”

[Indicated who was speaking—always important—as well as gave brief description of speaker].

“Edward,” I said like it should be obvious. I scanned the cafeteria for him, but the corner he usually sat in alone was empty.

[Another mention of setting. Also backed up her concern for Edward with action and not just talking about him].

Jessica shrugged, unaffected. “So what?”

“So?” I repeated incredulously.

So I’d never heard of someone actually getting a swirly. In real life. Shitty teen dramas? Yeah. Actual high school? No. It was ridiculous, and gross, and… I hadn’t seen anything to indicate Edward deserved it. (Nobody who’d ever deserved a swirly had ever received one, I was sure).

[The almighty character motivation! Note that you don’t actually have to explicitly state why they’re doing something—obviously we as the reader know the deep-down motivation is because Bella cares for Edward. But characters are not always forthcoming with information, even to themselves. Right now she’s focusing on the unjustness of the situation, and partially trying to convince herself that’s all it is].

Mike slung an arm across the back of Jessica’s chair, snorting a laugh. “He needed to wash his hair, anyway.”

“A toilet’s not gonna do that, Mike!”

[Just a cleverer response. Also, a dialogue tag isn’t needed, because no other speaker at the table is gonna be defending Edward. We know it’s Bella.]

He ignored my glare, choosing instead to steal a fry off my plate. I smacked his hand away.

[Again—action. The characters aren’t just static in their seats.]

“Well, really,” Alice began. “What’s it matter?” She sat up sharply, an idea just now occurring to her. “You haven’t been making friends with him, have you? I told you, Bella, it’s social suicide!”

[Gives Alice a chance to respond to Bella’s outburst—in this AU Alice is very concerned with popularity and does not want Bella associating with Edward. She would definitely have a problem with Bella sympathizing with Edward.]

I rolled my eyes. “No, I just…”

The whole situation was ridiculous. This wasn’t how people should be treated. Was I the only one who realized that? Was I really the only one who cared?

“Whatever,” I grumbled, crunching down on a fry.

[This feels like a more natural resolution to the conversation. Alice directly asks why Bella cares, and Bella reiterates to herself it’s just because. And then decides it’s not worth the argument. This is 2k into an (unfinished) 30k fic. She’ll make a bigger deal out of stuff later.]

Now it looks more like a real scene!

So, to summarize, I added: Description—both setting and character! Character musing! Cleverer comebacks!

These are just some of the things that you can fix with a keen-eyed round of revision.

And that about wraps this up! I didn’t want this to get too long, but it did anyway. (I’m sorry about the graphics I’m a writer, not a graphic designer. But I had to split the post up so it wasn’t one big block of text)

Was any of that helpful? Was it too long? Did the example clarify things? Let me know, I wanna make sure these tips are helpful!

Additional Resources That I Highly Recommend:

DRAFTING: THE THEORY OF SHITTY FIRST DRAFTS -- This post probably explains shitty first drafts better than I ever could! If you still have concerns about it, definitely check it out.

Editing & Revision Answerathon -- Okay, this video is pretty long, but I looove Max Kirin for anything writing-related and especially revision!! They’ve got a tumblr and a Youtube account filled with writing tips! If you like getting your writing info through videos, definitely check out their stuff.

Top 5 Writing Tips: Revision -- Here’s an infographic by Max if you don’t want to watch a 44 minute video lol. Also, you can go through their /tagged/revision for more!

#writing advice #fic writing advice #revision #katranga writes #i mean a lot of these tips are gonna be just general writing tips #but i will focus on issues that commonly crop up in fics #revision was just really important to go over first #idk i hope this is helpful #katranga's fic tips #i guess will be the tag

14 notes · View notes

johnmanciniwrites · 6 years ago

Text

Mod Style

Kinds of Parallel Modifiers, Pt. 2

There are four types of parallel modifiers in the writer’s toolbox. I’ve written about one: the appositive. So what about the other three?

As I mentioned in the post on style and voice, if you “like” a writer you probably like the way they say things more than what they actually say. In other words: the sound of the language, i.e. their voice. The way a writer creates that voice is through their use of stylistic elements, and parallel form is one element that will help a writer achieve a sophisticated style.

Think of modifiers as aftermarket parts for your sentences. They’ll give them a more comfortable ride and make them sound better than your basic factory model.

Repeat a grammatical pattern to create rhythm (parallel structure) and then ratchet up the sophistication of the sentence with an appositive, a resumptive, a summative or free modifier.

Resumptive

A resumptive modifier resumes a thought where you last left off by repeating a word and saying something else about it.

At last I stared upstream where only the deepest violet remained of the cloud, a cloud so high its underbelly still glowed feeble color reflected from a hidden sky lighted in turn by a sun halfway to China.

--Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

What else can be said about that cloud? A lot, evidently. It depends on how far one is willing to push a thought or observation—in this case, all the way to China.

Politicians also love resumptives:

I look forward to a bright future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.

--John F. Kennedy

Public speakers love them because the repetition helps audiences grasp and remember the point. It also helps the speaker remember their speech. Notice the nice series of three parallel phrases that will define JFK’s proposed bright future strength/restraint, wealth/wisdom, power/purpose. They work in tandem with the resumptive, helping to drive home the argument.

They are useful in persuasive writing:

A real danger in this digital revolution is the potential it holds for dividing society, a society that will divide into two camps, the techno-elite and the techno-peasants, a society where a “wired” few will prosper at the expense of the masses.

--From Daniel Kies’ “Some Stylistic Features of Business and Technical Writing”

From literary essays to political speeches to plain old professional writing, resumptive modifiers help emphasize the point you want to make. In this case, to reveal more about this society with a double resumptive modifier.

Here are two more examples of resumptives used in fiction.

She told me all of it, waking me that night when I had gone to sleep listening to the wind in the trees and against the house, a wind so strong that I had to shut all but the lee windows, and still the house cooled; told it to me in such detail and so clearly that now, when she had driven the car to Florida, I remember it all as though I had been a passenger in the front seat, or even at the wheel.

--Andre Dubus, “A Father’s Story”

But God she was beautiful, beautiful beyond anything he had ever seen or thought to see, five feet ten inches tall, a hundred and fifty-five pounds of rock-solid muscle cut to ribbons and perfectly symmetrical: sixteen-and-a-half-inch calves, tiny, almost delicate wrists, knees, and ankles, and a twenty-four-inch waist that had an abdominal wall unlike he had ever seen on any athlete, man or woman, showing as it did six distinct layered rows of muscle under skin utterly without subcutaneous fat, the finely toned rows of muscle starting in her solar plexus and ending where her richly furred pubic hair grew at the base of her belly.

--Harry Crews, Body

By repeating a word you draw attention to it. This adds emphasis to the point you are trying to make, enhances the substance with style. And the great thing about repetition is it is inherently musical. It creates rhythm, and rhythm is seductive.

Summative

Summative modifiers act just as the others do, usually triggered by commas or dashes, sometimes as fragments. The difference is that they tend to summarize the entire clause.

In the last twenty years, the world has moved from the industrial age to the information age, a sociological event that will change forever the way we work and think.

--From Kies’ “Some Stylistic Features of Business and Technical Writing”

One feels that she ought to be sticking round, ministering to her husband, conferring with the cook, feeding the cat, combing and brushing the Pomeranian – in a word, staying put.

--From P.G. Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves

His velour pullover is open to his sternum, and the exposed chest is precisely the complexion of new Play-Doh, the substance from which Gunther sometimes seems to be made.

--From Ralph Lombreglia’s “Men Under Water”

That last one is not a summative modifier. While “the substance from which…” does arrive at the end of the sentence, it doesn’t sum up the entire clause but only modifies “Play-Doh.” It’s technically an appositive, or free modifier. The terms are mainly for professors. The modifiers all behave the same way. They just appear in different forms. That brings up the final type: the free modifier. Free to float—watch it slide. It’s slippery.

Free

Socrates questioned the foundations of political behavior, forcing Athenians to examine duty they owed the state, encouraging youth to question the authority of their elders, claiming all the while that he wanted only to puzzle out the truth.

--From Will Durant’s “Story of Philosophy”

How grateful they were for the coffee, she looking up at him, tremulous, her lips pecking at the cup, he blessing the coffee as it went down her.

– John Updike, Rabbit, Run

Not because we work in the plants ourselves – our work, like God, is everywhere and nowhere – but because this is where reality is, the life and labor of the folk, the source of all art.

-- Ralph Lombreglia, “Men Under Water”

And over the grass at the roadside, a land turtle crawled, turning aside for nothing, dragging his high-domed shell over the grass.

--John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath

To achieve a higher aesthetic and sonic experience in writing, to strengthen the style, rhythm, complexity, and specificity of your sentences, make use of parallel modifiers. Just as the “rule of thirds” applies in photography and pictorial composition, three is the magic number. There is just something pleasant about lists of three. By eliminating linking verbs (is, are, was) as well as relative pronouns (that, which) you can enhance the sophistication and brevity of style.

Here’s one final example. This paragraph from William Least-Heat Moon’s Blue Highways uses a combination of several of the modifiers mentioned. Have a look...

Beware thoughts that come in the night. They aren’t turned properly; they come in askew, free of sense and restriction, deriving from the most remote of sources. Take the idea of February 17, a day of cancelled expectations, the day I learned my job teaching English was finished because of declining enrollment at the college, the day I called my wife from whom I’d been separated for nine months to give her the news, the day she let slip about her “friend” – Rick or Dick or Chick. Something like that.

#parallels #writing style #Writing tips #writing advice #modified #apositivelife #annie dillard #john f. kennedy #john updike #john steinbeck

0 notes

annabelaplit · 8 years ago

Text

Task #4 Post

Hark ye, hark ye, the many readers of Annabel AP Lit. By that I mean you Mrs. Glidden and the four people that have chosen to follow my school English blog for whatever reason. Today we shall dive deeply in the world of literature, examining the tone and mood in three chapters of a A Tale of Two Cities. So, my faithful constituency pull up a chair, and discover my boring, half-developed ideas about the writing tactics of Charles Dickens that double as screams into this empty abyssal corner of the internet.

“The Wine Shop” the fifth chapter of Book 1, and “Knitting” and “Still Knitting” the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of book two have quite a bit in common. All three take place in Saint Antoine, center on the Defarges in their preparations for the Revolution. But even more than that, the two sections manage to convey this image of an impending storm, of a society on the brink of collapse.

In the “Wine-Shop” this foreboding mood primarily comes in a long passage that describes the misery of poor and the anger that seethes inside of them. I spent a lot of time examining this excerpt for one of my passage analyses, but here are a few choice examples of the atmosphere and attitude Dickens manages to create.

It was prevalent everywhere. Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses, in the wretched clothing that hung upon poles and lines; Hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and wood and paper (29)

In the hunted air of the people there was yet some wild-beast thought of the possibility of turning at bay. Depressed and slinking though they were, eyes of fire were not wanting among them; nor compressed lips, white with what they suppressed; nor foreheads knitted into the likeness of the gallows-rope they mused about enduring, or inflicting (29)

Indeed they were at sea, and the ship and crew were in peril of tempest (30)

But, the time was not come yet; and every wind that blew over France shook the rags of the scarecrows in vain, for the birds, fine of song and feather, took no warning (30)

Dickens does a lot work with repetition in the first quote, making hunger and misery seem ever-present, the only thing of abundance in a land of scarcity. The air of repressed anger shines through in the second quote with descriptions of “eyes of fire” and foreheads like “gallows-rope”. Likening these suffering people to a stormy sea only strengthens this impression. Finally after hinting and flashing brief previews of the future Dickens reminds the readers that the Revolution isn’t going to happen yet, but things are building, a critical natural mass of anger is being reached.

Based on that passage and others in the chapter I believe Dicken’s tone to be indignant and cautionary. He wants readers to feel angry at those who neglect these suffering people and to feel the impact their anger can have. His mood, the atmosphere he creates is like being on the edge of a ship that is about to tip over, standing in a calm desert when a sandstorm approaches. Readers feel almost an anxiety, a racing frenzy beneath an atmosphere that seems calm. And there is something almost righteous about all of this. The repressed fury of the citizenry seems natural, whatever their response is will be a justified one.

I think that Chapter 15 and 16 of Book II share a lot tonal and atmospheric similarities. There is that same sense of waiting for chaos, the calm before the rapidly approaching storm. But there is also a key difference in these devices. Some passages to illustrate:

“No vivacious Bacchanalian flame leaped out of the pressed grape of Monsieur Defarge: but, a smouldering fire that burnt in the dark, lay hidden in the dregs of it” (158)

“Madame Defarge herself picked out the pattern on her sleeve with her toothpick, and saw and heard something inaudible and invisible a long way off” (159)

The looks of all of them were dark, repressed, and revengeful, as they listened to the countryman’s story; the manner of all of them, while it was secret, was authoritative too. They had the air of a rough tribunal (163)

“throughout Defarge held him by the collar as if to restrain him from flying at the objects of his brief devotion and tearing them to pieces” (168)

“I tell thee,’...‘that although it is a long time on the road, it is on the road and coming. I tell thee it never retreats, and never stops. I tell thee it is always advancing. Look around and ....consider the rage and discontent to which the Jacquerie addresses itself with more and more of certainty every hour” (172)

They knitted worthless things; but, the mechanical work was a mechanical substitute for eating and drinking; the hands moved for the jaws and the digestive apparatus: if the bony fingers had been still, the stomachs would have been more famine-pinched (178)

“Another darkness was closing in as surely, when the church bells, then ringing pleasantly in many an airy steeple over France, should be melted into thundering cannon; when the military drums should be beating to drown a wretched voice, that night all potent as the voice of Power and Plenty, Freedom and Life. So much was closing in about the women who sat knitting, knitting, that they their very selves were closing in around a structure yet unbuilt, where they were to sit knitting, knitting, counting dropping heads” (179)

In these little excerpts and others you can see Dickens use the same tactics he used in Chapter 5 of Book I. Images of nature, verbs of violence. There is talk of suppression and misery, hunger and famine are both mentioned in the quote on page 128. But even more than that these chapters deal with the future the same way as before. There is talk of “fire that burnt in the dark:, Madame Defarge looks at something, “invisible, a long way off”, there is a mention of a metaphorical “darkness closing in” and talk of the soon-to-be guillotine. While showing us the status quo Dickens is ever quick to remind us that it is all going to change, soon, I swear soon.

So I would characterize the mood and tone much as I did for “The Wine Shop”. The atmosphere still conveys this notion of a tipping point, the smoldering fire, the sheer intensity of the hunger and anger. Dickens’ anger towards the noble class comes through again here, and his warnings about what happens with a class of people are oppressed and given more help.

But I think the tone in these two chapters is less righteous, less full of justified condemnation. In “The Wine Shop” the rebellion seems to belong to the starving people with the fiery eyes and foreheads like gallows. In these two chapters it is being plotted and planned by the middle class, those a bit more well off. The masses of the oppressed seem more the pawns who will fight and follow the leader instead of the drivers of their own fates.

Yes the mood seems darker, the tone more radical. The Revolution doesn’t seem as natural here with the talk of storing lightning and collected earthquakes. The intense devotion of Madame Defarge seems vaguely disturbing instead of hopeful and inspiring. The final image crystallizes all of this, all of these women sitting and knitting around a guillotine as heads are being chopped off. That contrast seems evil, merciless and wrong. Through tone and mood the vision of the Revolution has switched somewhat since “The Wine Shop”. It’s form seems less organic more unjust and terrifying. Signs of this were present in Chapter 5 of course, Defarge showing people Dr. Manette, Madame Defarge’s knitting but I think here a concrete shift seems to happen between the two perspectives.

That’s all I have for today!

1 note · View note

ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

Text

Ween : The Prophecy – Alternative paths and Final Rating

Written by Alfred n the Fettuc

Before submitting WEEN to the PISSED rating, we need to study the alternative paths that you can take through the game. I counted two (but I might also have missed something), one using the fish amulet to breathe underwater, and the other attainable by choosing the second door when you exit the temple, just before the ant garden.

The first hint about an alternative path comes from our friend URM

First alternative path : Sea monsters eating each others.

Restarting the game, I scan once more every screen to see what I could have missed but don’t find anything before the lake itself (I still don’t know if I can do anything with the bolt I found on OHKRAM’s balcony by the way). Turns out that on the first venom/pollen puzzle, there is a very tiny leave hidden in the corner of the screen.

Obvious isn’t it?

Considering all the pixel-hunting I had to do in order to progress later in the game, I’m really surprised I didn’t spot the leaves on my first play-through. I think at this point of the game, I didn’t really need to search every nook and cranny of every place I went. Anyway, I make the monster appear on the bridge, get the feather, use it to make the venom and pollen appear in the chest, and mix a potion of growth out of the two reagents. And what do you know…

More strawberries!!!

I call URM and give him the strawberries. Joyful, he drops a small ingot of gold that fits perfectly with the half-statue to make a complete fish amulet. Guess it means that URM had the amulet since the very beginning and just didn’t give it to me because I didn’t have enough strawberries in my pocket… stupid greedy bat. Using the amulet on the water allows me to enter it and breathe underwater. URM comes back afterwards and get back the Elixir from me, so the hint of an alternative path works whatever path you choose. Nice touch.

Do fishermen dream of electric fish?

Just before arriving on this screen, I witness a little cutscene with a big barracuda-like fish eating some kind of metal pole. When I click on the seaweeds on the left of the screen, a little fish appears and get eaten by the same barracuda-like fish, that WEEN describes as a wurk, a greedy fish that could eat anything. I’m starting to suspect that we’ll have to make him eat the electric fish one way or another. Clicking on the staircase sets a trap where iron bars appear from the wall to stop me from going up. Messing with the electric fish gets me zapped. I spend some time looking around until a little bug appears… it’s our friend the useless mosquito sent by KRAAL!

Hey there little buddy, I thought I would only kick your ass much later in the game…

I catch it pretty easily and feed it to the electric fish… Just when I was wondering if it meant that taking this alternative path would make the mosquito disappear from the rest of the game, another one quietly arrives and lands at the exact same place. I’m guessing KRAAL has an infinite army of mosquitos underlings for some reason. Knowing that the electric fish seems to love mosquitos, I get the other insect and drop it near the hole where the wurk is hidden. It exits and eats the fish, resulting in death by electrocution. I grab the glass piece on the ground and cuts the wurk open.

Gross

I use the steel bar found into the belly of the beast in the small hole near the door, making it bigger. Clicking on the hole now makes another marine monstrosity appear as a moray eel tries to catch me. Messing with the seaweeds on the left make another innocent fish wander around and gets eaten by the moray eel.

Underwater massacre

Inside the fish I find a harpoon point (what do they eat in that lake?) that I combine with my metal bar to make a perfectly fine harpoon. Trying to use it in the moray eel hiding place doesn’t work though. Looking in the seaweed to find another fish, I catch it with my harpoon before it gets eaten and then feed it to the moray eel, hoping it would choke on my harpoon, but no. It just eats the fish and spits back my harpoon. What a nice monstrosity. Pixel-hunting the place once more, I discover a crack on the side of the barred staircase. Destroying a part of the wall with my harpoon, and trying to climb the staircase once again breaks the trap. However, the iron bars are now stuck in the stone.

Not for the marine life around here, that’s for sure.

Using my trusty harpoon, I catch another fish from the seaweed and put it between the iron bars. It works! The moray eel catch the harpoon point and forces the iron bars open with its voracity. Now that’s what I call one hungry fish! Finally, I’m able to exit this horrible place and get to the entrance of the dragon temple with the wasp trap and the snake.

So all in all, this path allows me to avoid the goblin-looking statue with its sword and the Orivor puzzle. I kinda prefer the underwater path as I think the puzzles are more fun. However, I’ll probably never go in a lake again in my life now that I’ve seen what’s in it…

Second alternative path : Laser-eye petrifying dinosaurs

After getting the three grains of sand and exiting the temple (and before the two dimwits lost my haversack), I was presented with two doors. The door on the right, that I chose, brought me to the ant garden puzzle where I had to mix a digitalis meal for the ant queen. Selecting the door on the left brings me to another garden, where some kind of huge laser-eyes dinosaur petrifies URM the second we get in!

We hold the winner in the Coktel Vision teeth contest

PETROY appears and tells me that KOR, the deity that’s pictured on the left, can help URM, but I need to give him offerings. Namingly, the power of thunder, the star of light and the wealth of the tide… Just that. I grab what appears to be a net (probably in order to get the wealth of the tide. I knew I should have brought another dead fish from the underwater segment). Trying to operate the well tells me that I need a handle to work the pulley. The right of the screen allows me to exit to another part of the garden.

A grill? Maybe I’ll be able to barbecue the wealth of the tide…

Getting the grill allows a huge orange crab to exit the trap. I grab a fish from the river with my net. Clicking a second time on the river makes the fairy of the river appear! She tells me that in her river lives a crab with sharp pincers (doh!), and that great riches can be found in the water. Trying to use the grill as a sieve doesn’t work though. Not finding anything else, I go back to the statue of KOR in order to offer him the fish I just caught. No reaction. So I guess the wealth of the tide refers to actual wealth. Pixel-hunting the first screen, I find that I can remove the hoop from the barrel.

You know? For kids!

Using the grill in the hoop, I make an actual sieve. Using it on the river allows me to get a few gold nuggets. Going back to the statue, I can put the nuggets at the feet of the statue but nothing happens. I guess he wants the three elements before doing anything. I realize I still have a fish in my inventory and go back to the river. Putting the fish in the trap next to it makes the big orange crab come back in order to devour this meal. I catch the crab (with my bare hands… WEEN is clearly braver than me). Not finding anything to do with it, I try using my other inventory items everywhere. Putting the sword in the hand of the statue, it attracts lightning! After hitting the sword, the lightning falls on the ground and I can grab it in my hands.

Pretty sure that’s not how lightning works.

Trying to put the lightning on the pedestal to offer KOR the “power of thunder”, WEEN tells me that he’s got far better things to do with this object for the moment… So first, thank you, protagonist, for this hint but could you please do as you’re told? Secondly, ok, what else can I do with a solidified lightning? Use it as a handle for the well of course! I pull up something that looks like a chest from the bottom of the well and I can put the lightning on the pedestal afterwards. Thank you, WEEN! The chest is locked by a heavy metal chain that I use my crab to cut. It still doesn’t open, though, so I get my sword back and use it as a lever to open the chest (swords used as levers during the game : 4). Inside the chest is a key that I use to open the lock under the beast statue. In it I find a sun effigy, which is sure to be “the star of light”. I put it on the pedestal and KOR reanimates URM, who doesn’t take long to be his normal self again!

Ungrateful fruit-eating bastard

And then I arrive at the garden with the view on Volcano Island, the worm and the giant mushrooms. I tend to prefer this path also to the one with the ant queen, if only because I spent way too much time on the ant queen screen turning my copper ball into a pipe and a cauldron and vice-versa…

FINAL RATING

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. I tend to be a bit afraid of the PISSED rating because I know this game is fondly remembered by many, but I’ll try my best to give it a fair trial.

Puzzles and Solvability

The puzzles are pretty fun overall. The game is a nice suite of inventory-based puzzles and there are a lot of them. However, the game is a bit on the easy side and a few of the puzzles are repetitive without enough differences between them. The room with the fireflies comes to mind where you’re supposed to repeat the same tedious steps five times. The other problem is that you stumble a bit too often on the solution instead of wanting to do something and successfully do it. That’s usually the issue with games with a single “action” button (as opposed to a list of verbs or a parser), in my humble opinion, but in this kind of games where things happen because “magic”, I think that clicking on random things and see what happens is a big part of the fun, like a less chaotic version of Gobliins 2.

When the game avoids being too easy, however, it tends to fall pretty quickly in the “obscure” territory. The dragon battle, for example comes to mind, or the potion mixing.

Never forget the mighty battle of the cat and the beagle.

Thorough pixel-hunting is a huge part of the game as well and it can be infuriating at times, especially when you think you have the good solution and can’t make it work. Globally, the game could do with a little more hints, even subtle ones. Too often was I stumbling in the dark just trying to make something happen with no clear objective of my goal.

Having two branching paths (even if it’s for a short period of time) is great though, and adds replayability, which is still rare enough in adventure games to be underlined.

Final Score : 6. Overall, the puzzle design is solid, pleasant and there are a lot of things to do. A few roadblocks are difficult enough without being unsolvable. The fact that you are too often stumbling in the dark is what prevents it to get a 7, but just quite.

Interface and Inventory

As was noted by Ilmari in his playthrough of Gobliins 2, the interface shares some similarities, which is a novelty for a Coktel Vision game. It’s probably because it works. You can combine inventory items, use items on yourself, etc. I think the guys at Coktel were working on something that would be used in all of their games at the time if only because they left the “fast movement” icon in the menu without using it once in the game. It was Coktel’s take on something similar to the SCUMM engine, even if not as brilliant.

There is even a notepad to keep track of whatever seems important (like potion recipes)

The interface is overall pretty functional, but it has a few flaws that really get irritating in the long run. I’ve rambled enough on the transformations of the copper ball/sword/pipe/cauldron. It’s because you do that ALL THE TIME. And what is a charming little animation in the beginning of the game are excruciating when you do that fifteen times in a row because you’re trying to solve a puzzle and don’t know which tool to use. The fact that you have to go through the copper ball transformation every time you want to change the sword into a cauldron is more irritating than it has any right to be.

There are other issues as well. Using the glue on the firefly works but not the other way around. Granted, it makes more sense in this order but when you’re trying to find the solution to an obscure puzzle, you don’t necessarily try the two sides of an item interaction. There is also a little “slugginess” to the whole game (like a few milliseconds too long) that makes the whole thing a little too slow for my taste. But it might also be the emulator I used so I won’t take it into account.

The integrated joker system is a nice touch. In a time before the internet, it was always a solution to make some progress in the game if you’re completely stuck. I tried it here and there after my playthrough, though, and it could beneficiate from a little subtlety by guiding you on the right path instead of telling the solutions outright. But still, it’s always better than throwing the game disks against a wall in frustration.

Final Score : 4. Functional, but a few issues tarnish the whole experience here and there.

Story and Setting

Well… this one is tricky. I’m pretty sure the story as a whole made some kind of sense to someone at Coktel Vision (or they were under a lot of drugs), but after having completed the game, I still have little clues about exactly who is OPALE, what the REVUSS is, what the BORGOL is, why the two stupid twins change their height every five seconds, etc… The whole story comes out as quite a mess, and it’s not a translation issue as I’ve tried the french version and it’s more or less the same thing.

I still want someone to explain to me why my haversack was an owl the whole time…

Then again, the whole “it’s magic” works with this universe and the sense of mystery permeates everything, but that’s something that enters in another category. As a story in and by itself, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’d also love to have some kind of confrontation with KRAAL at the end instead of an over-complicated Bond villain scheme to foil. It’s like if at the end of Legend of Kyrandia, you just had to disarm a trap instead of confronting Malcolm while you’ve spent the whole game chasing him.

The same can be said about the places you’re exploring. Once you exit the cave complex from underneath OHKRAM’s house, you spend your time going in and out of caves and gardens with little coherence. It’s not a big deal in itself, as most of the puzzles are self-contained to one screen, but it doesn’t make you feel like you’re making any progress, more like you’re being lugged around random places.

Final score : 3. The story is serviceable, nothing else. You solve puzzles and sometimes, someone talks to you spouting nonsense.

Sound and Graphics

In the visual department, the game suffers from a strange dichotomy. The places you explore are mostly pretty and nicely detailed. The catacombs and temples are creepy enough and the whole “sunsets and moonlight” ambiance suits the magical atmosphere overall. However, I found the monster and creature design to be quite hideous, to be honest. The dragon, the orivors, the mosquitos… I guess a monster is supposed to be ugly, and it’s also a matter of taste, but I frankly disliked the overall creature design.

The horror… the horror…

And then there are digitized actors in Halloween masks integrated in all this. If you remove UBI and ORBI little dance, all of them are mostly shot in close-ups and there is a little “cheap” feeling about all this, like a bad short-feature horror film. On the other hand, it’s nice enough to have integrated digitized actors in the first place in this day and age.

On the sound department, the whole ambiance is great and the music is pretty nice (even if it could have benefited from a little more tracks because it tends to repeat itself pretty quickly). The sound effects have nice swishes and swooshes that add to the magical theme and all of this is of pretty good quality overall.

Final Score : 5. Pretty good overall but a few hits and misses in the design department. Good music though.

Environment and Atmosphere

Despite the odd design choices and a few elements that I could easily have done without (UKI, ORBI and your little dance, I’m looking at you), if there is something that you can’t reproach Ween : The Prophecy for, is its atmosphere. The whole game is full of magic, weird things and every new screen is an invitation to explore and find what new kinds of surprises the game holds for you. The mysterious statues that are found everywhere, the magical beings you’re encountering… Add to that the whole sunset/moonlight feeling that you have for most of the game and you have the feeling of a magical world ending.

When the sun in the sky looks like this, it’s time to go to the nearest shelter

The use of colors is also to be commended. The whole game is painted in dominant colors (mainly orange and purple) and it really adds to the atmosphere (despite a few clashes here and there).

However (because we always need a however), once again, a few choices go against the whole thing. There is sometimes goofiness that would be more in its place in a Gobliiins game, sometimes alternating immediately with something more mysterious. I think the developers were trying to alternate between mysterious and funny, but it sometimes doesn’t work. Managing a “hot and cold” ambiance (like, let’s say, the early movies of Tim Burton, for example) is something that’s really hard to achieve and I can’t help but feel like the developers should have chosen a direction and stick with it instead of trying to alternate between serious and goofy.

Final Score : 6. Great magical atmosphere, marred sometimes by odd goofy moments. Dialog and Acting

Like I’ve said earlier, a lot of the exposition text and dialog is pretty nonsensical. Sometimes, the ORACLE or the BORGOL (whatever the latter is) appear and tell you a lot of things, much of it not making a lot of sense… Some other times, OHKRAM appears and tells you you’ve gained a grain of sand even if you weren’t really trying to do so… Most of the interactions with the animals and sentient beings you cross path with are nice without being really noteworthy.

The exception to this rule is URM, your vampire buddy, which is the most competently written character. His lines are sometimes funny, especially when you call him for no reason. He’s helping and mocking in equal measures and is a pretty good sidekick.

And he really seems to enjoy doing evil deeds, which is a good thing in my book

The rest of the sidekicks are not that great. PETROY spends most of the time telling you “he can’t tell you anything about that” when you ask him for help, but sometimes, he drops a clue that’s mandatory to understand the puzzles. And I think I’ve rambled enough on UKI and ORBI, but let’s say that every time their ugly mugs appear, you know you’re here for what appears like full minutes listening to their stupid dances and songs. And the fact that you can’t speed up the dialog doesn’t help, especially if you reload to earlier stages of the game you’ve already suffered through.

The acting in itself is mainly digitized people in Halloween masks waving and doing over the top gestures to make their point, so it’s nothing to write home about. At least, the final animation of KRAAL apparently trying to peel his face off is satisfactory enough.

Final Score : 4. Apart for URM, nothing really stands out, and the twins are consistently cringeworthy.

Final Score

So without further ado, the final score equals (6+4+3+5+6+4/0.6) = 47! I’ll add one discretionary point for the fact that, despite all its quirks and errors, the whole experience was overall pretty pleasant and I think it’ll stick with me as a good memory. And I realize now that doing so gives it the exact same score of the first Gobliiins and five points above The Legend of Djel, so kudos to Coktel for upping their game since Bargon Attack and Emmanuelle!

Congrats on your score guess, Lugh, you earn CAPs!

I’m glad I was able to finally play through this game. I had memories of it for a long time ago and being able to make some real progress on it instead of being stuck on the second screen like the stupid kid I was made me feel like an achievement! See you around and thank you all for your attention and your comments!

CAP Distribution

100 CAPs to Alfred n the Fettuc

Blogger Award – 100 CAPs – for playing through Ween for everyone’s enjoyment

115 CAPs to Joe Pranevich

Vohaul Award – 5 CAPs – for letting us know that Infamous Adventures have just released a new version of Space Quest II

Festive Blogger Award – 60 CAPs – for blogging through A Christmas Adventure with a bonus interlude for everyone’s enjoyment

Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – for blogging through Crash Dive for everyone’s enjoyment

105 CAPs to Ilmari Jauhiainen

Djel Historian Award – 5 CAPs – For giving us worrying details about DJEL and AZEULISSE real relationship

Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – for blogging through Growing Pains of Adrian Mole for everyone’s enjoyment

Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – for blogging through The Price of Magik for everyone’s enjoyment

70 CAPs to Will Moczarski

Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – for blogging through The Institute for everyone’s enjoyment

Intermission Award – 20 CAPs – for a 1981 Summary of Med Systems Software

51 CAPs to Vetinari

True Companion Award – 20 CAPs – for playing along

Alternative Award – 6 CAPs – for giving hints about the alternative paths

The Ball and the Cauldron Award – 5 CAPs – for agreeing with my rambling about the copper ball transformation and alerting me about the potion mixing nightmare.

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – for being the closest guesser to the Price of Magic PISSED rating

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – for correctly guessing The Institute’s PISSED rating

32 CAPs to MorpheusKitami

True Companion Award – 20 CAPs – for playing along.

Back Of His Hand Award – 5 CAPs – for sharing his interesting insight on a game that he knows very well

Djel and Azeulisse Award – 5 CAPs – for guessing that Djel and Azeulisse were probably deadbeat parents

Alternative Award – 6 CAPs – for giving hints about the alternative paths

Size Does Matter Award – 5 CAPs – for engaging in a discussion about the two stupid twins real size

Lost Bet Award (Unaward?) – -10 CAPs – For betting against me that I wouldn’t find the answer to the snake puzzle

Ho Ho Oh… Award – 1 CAP – for remembering a Christmas game we could play… but not knowing we’d already played it

20 CAPs to Mr. Sack

What’s Your Story Award – 20 CAPs – for submitting his answers to our What’s Your Story questions

15 CAPs to Lugh

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – for correctly predicting the PISSED rating

Gene and Dean Award – 5 CAPs – for telling us about the Ween band that might have (or not) something to do with the title change

10 CAPs to Rowan Lipkovits

33 and 1/3 Award – 5 CAPs – for the surprising news that games have actually been distributed on vinyl records

Do Androids Dream of Kindle Paperwhites Award – 5 CAPs – for knowing how reading in dreams works

10 CAPs to ShaddamnIVth

Minotaur Award – 5 CAPs – for actually programming a labyrinth while studying

Do Androids Dream of Kindle Paperwhites Award – 5 CAPs – for knowing how reading in dreams works

5 CAPs to Jonathan

The Doctor Is In Award – 5 CAPs – for giving us chilling details about the digitalis and its effect on rats

5 CAPs to Deano

Cold As Balls Award – 5 CAPs – for letting Ilmari know the likely background to the brass monkey puzzle in Price of Magik

5 CAPs to Andy_Panthro

Alchemist Award – 5 CAPs – for finally explaining to me why people bite gold

5 CAPs to Laukku

Pixel Filtering Award – 5 CAPs – for alerting me that my emulation software was filtering pixels

5 CAPs to Mayhaym

Wario Ware Award – 5 CAPs – for appreciating that sometimes you need to pick the nose of a demon dog

5 CAPs to Corey Cole

Rutabaga Award – 5 CAPs – for answering Will’s question, and adding more historical context to a character from The Institute

5 CAPs to Lisa H.

The Shape of Watercraft Award – 5 CAPs – for pointing out that all submarines are long, thin and full of seamen

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/ween-the-prophecy-alternative-paths-and-final-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

0 notes

edwardpotts · 5 years ago

Text

Bye-Bye Banner Blindness: How to Design App Remarketing Ads People Won’t Ignore

“Houston, we have a problem.” “What’s wrong App-ollo 1000?” “We keep broadcasting ads to re-engage user base 597, but nobody is responding.”

In the never-ending battle for consumer attention, brands have turned parts of the modern world into a giant, colorful, kaleidoscopic mess with sky-high billboards, glitzy TV spots, and flashy web ads following people everywhere they go.

After all, hasn’t psychology proven that repetition leads to remembrance?

Yes and no. Boring redundancy leads to banner blindness. Personalized remarketing leads to action. Let’s talk about how this applies to apps.

App Remarketing is About Retention & Upselling

App remarketing (aka. retargeting) is the practice of targeting app users with advertisements outside of your app, based on how they’ve previously engaged with your brand. It’s about showing app users ads for products or services they’ve already demonstrated an interest in so those products and services become “must haves.”

App remarketing can get you a lot of bang for your buck. It’s your golden ticket to maximizing the lifetime value of your existing users. It’s a great way to keep your app top of mind. And it’s also your chance to reach people outside of your app – even if they’ve opted out of push notifications!

The plain and powerful purpose of app remarketing is to retain your valuable users and push them through important conversion funnels.

Getting Noticed in a Noisy World

All right, you get it; app remarketing has great potential to impact your mobile bottom line. But remember, your remarketing ad is going to live in a noisy, cluttered environment and vie for attention alongside a plethora of other content, brands, and ads. For example, one place it might appear is in Facebook’s mobile Newsfeed in the “Suggested Apps” section.

In this scenario, your app remarketing ad is surrounded by trending stories and an ever-changing cascade of social activity.

So, how do you get people to notice your ad? How do you get them to stop scrolling and click back into your app? What separates unmemorable from eye-catching remarketing?

It’s all in the creative.

8 Best Practices of Standout App Remarketing Creatives

Standout app remarketing ads are targeted, well designed, and captivating. They resonate with users. They motivate them to return to your app and do something meaningful. Excellent app remarketing ads are hard to ignore.

Here are the eight best practices you need to follow to make sure your app remarketing creative is as awesome as can be.

1. Set specific retention and nurturing goals

App remarketing is designed to help you retain and nurture your existing users while they are outside of your app. This allows you to set goals that go above and beyond just “getting downloads.” Now, you have the power to drive re-engagement, increase conversions, and reignite awareness. With app remarketing, you can set goals like:

Decrease monthly user churn by X%

Increase average number of articles read in app per week to X

Increase the number of in-app checkouts by X%

Key Takeaway: App remarketing ads should be created with precise objectives in mind, whether that means motivating inactive users to re-launch your app or moving people further down funnels towards an “ultimate” in-app event.

2. Segment your target audience(s)

Once you have some goals laid out, it’s time to divide your users into different audiences. If you want to improve retention, ask yourself, “Do I have a group of users who haven’t engaged with my app in a while and might need a reminder about how awesome my app is?” If your goal is to nurture, ask yourself, “Which users were close to a conversion event, but tripped at the finish line?” And if your goal is to re-engage latent users, think about, “Do I have a group of users who have turned off notifications so I simply can’t reach them via push messages?”

These user segments are a good starting point in developing your target audience for your remarketing initiatives. You can further slice and dice these groups based on in-app behavior or profile information. As a general rule of thumb, smaller remarketing audiences can perform well, but are harder to scale whereas large, more generic audiences can be harder to optimize.

Key Takeaway: Don’t broadcast one generic app remarketing ad to your entire audience. Divide your users into like groups based on goals, in-app activity, and profile data. Then, create personalized ads for each audience depending on how they’ve previously interacted with your app.

3. Incorporate visual branding and use eye-catching colors and imagery

People should be able to look at your remarketing ad and instantly recognize your brand. Your ad should be fresh, but contain elements that are pleasantly familiar. Pick bold, contrasting colors, crisp images, and easy-to-read fonts that reflect your brand identity.

Take a look at this ad from GrubHub. The fiery red background color is part of their consistent palette and it contrasts nicely with the image of a succulent burger. What’s more, GrubHub didn’t cram their creative with tons of food pictures – they picked one really great one and enlarged it for maximum mouthwatering effect. Now that’s how you make the most of size constraints on a small screen!

Key Takeaway: Your brand holds clout and authority. Use it as inspiration for the color scheme, images, and style of your remarketing ad.

4. Carefully choose your offer and highlight something new

At first, this next best practice may seem to clash with the previous one, which states that app remarketing creatives need to adhere to your brand. Yes, their look and feel shouldn’t seem like something out of left field.

But, the actual offer you highlight in your ad should be unique. Your remarketing target audience has interacted with your brand before. They’re likely already knowledgeable about your typical products and services. That’s why you need to show them something new to get their attention – like the latest sale or the next step in the conversion process.

For example, Zipcar used remarketing ads to announce the launch of multiday rates to its members. They artfully designed a creative that maintains their brand identity while also showcasing an enticing new offer.

Key Takeaway: Because your remarketing audience has an existing relationship with your app, you can’t use the same old offer in creatives as you would everywhere else. People will be much more likely to re-engage with your app if you show them something they haven’t seen before or tell them something they didn’t know.

5. Finesse your ad’s copy to be clear, concise, and compelling

Can you convey your app’s value proposition in one to two sentences? Remarketing ads have limited space for text, so you need to write copy that is short, sweet, and super effective. Don’t know what to write about? Remind your users of the biggest (or latest) benefit your app has to offer. And make it punchy.

Here’s a brilliant example of no-fluff, straight-to-point copywriting from Wallapop. In two concise sentences, this remarketing ad reiterates how the app works, how the user is rewarded, and even uses quick verbs to express a sense of urgency.

Key Takeaway: When you’ve only got a few words to convince your audience to take a certain action, clearly and persuasively highlight how the end user gets value. Tell them what they get and what they need to do.

6. Showcase your app’s content/features and deep-link to them

Another best practice to try in your app remarketing campaigns is to design a creative that is less about your app and more about what’s actually inside it – like its content and features. Instead of reminding people why your app is awesome, actually show them a sneak peak. Did you just launch a cool new feature? Preview it in your app remarketing ad. Is there a hot and trending article within your app? Highlight it in your remarketing ad. Then, drive people who click on your these ads to the relevant app feature or screen with deep-linking to complete the experience.

This is exactly the approach that Yahoo takes. Yahoo’s news app showcases recently published stories in its remarketing ads to help users stay up-to-date on what’s happening around them. When somebody wants more information on a particular post, Yahoo’s ad CTAs open the article within its app so people can continue reading seamlessly.

Key Takeaway: Try making your app’s content or features the star of your remarketing ads. Show people what they’re missing inside your app and drive them to specific app sections. This way, people can immediately start interacting with your app versus stumbling through screens searching for what they need.

7. Include a relevant call-to-action

You’re no longer confined to the standard “Install App” CTA. App remarketing creatives allow you to more clearly outline the action you want your users to take. Some of the choices at your disposal include “Open Link,” “Learn More,” “Sign Up,” or “Use App.” Pick the one most relevant to the type of app you have and the campaign you are running.

For example, Amazon is an ecommerce app and its remarketing ads focus on daily deals for selected items. The common “Use App” CTA isn’t strong enough to induce action nor does it tie to what Amazon ultimately wants people do to here (make an in-app purchase). However, the “Shop Now” CTA is much more specific and works nicely with the creative.

Key Takeaway: Earning new users isn’t the goal of app remarketing. Choose a CTA that fits with how people use your app, and correlates with key conversion steps.

8. Measure, test, improve, and optimize

We can’t lay out a list of best practices without mentioning the ever critical stage of measuring your mobile campaigns! How do you know if your app remarketing ads are actually improving user retention or increasing conversions? How do you know if you’re achieving the remarketing goals you outlined from the get-go?

After your app remarketing ads have some time to fly, comb through your app analytics and look at the metrics that matter. Did they change?

Now’s also the time to A/B test your creatives. Freshen up your ads, change the benefit, change the offer, employ a new CTA, tweak the copy, etc. and monitor your ad performance. Use the information from these tests to regularly improve and optimize your app remarketing.

Key Takeaway: Experiment, experiment, experiment! If a certain group of users didn’t re-engage with your app after seeing your ad, all is not lost. Give your ads a makeover and try again until something works.

Personalization is Key

The biggest difference between app marketing and app remarketing is that the latter is built upon rich insights into your existing audiences.

GrubHub’s remarketing ads highlight Bostonian restaurants. Zipcar informs me about new offers I haven’t redeemed yet. Yahoo’s remarketing ads surfaces stories that are similar to the stuff I typically read in-app. Amazon shows me sales for products I’ve browsed, favorited, or purchased in the past.

These apps know me. They know what I like. Their ads show me what I love. That’s why I return and remain a faithful user.

App remarketing is mighty when it is personalized for the individual receiving it.

Bye-Bye Banner Blindness: How to Design App Remarketing Ads People Won’t Ignore published first on https://spyadvice.tumblr.com/

0 notes