#this started out as bullet point but I was compelled to write a whole essay. sorry about that

[theywontletmebeprincipal]

ok I am STILL hung up on this unfortunately so here’s a breakdown of why this lyric sucks balls (perhaps even sucks them during a game of grand theft auto)

first off — this goes deeper than “it just sounds clunky”. while “there is no syllabic consistency between phrases” is a criticism I could levy at the bulk of this album, and it’s definitely still an issue here, that’s not actually my problem with this lyric in particular.

to get why this lyric really sucks we have to talk about my good friend the double entendre:

these bad boys are everywhere in every kind of creative writing, as they’re a very fun device to employ. here’s a great example that you’ve probably seen around the internet:

this is a one-liner from the cat in the hat (2003 live action film), spoken directly after the titular cat is hit in the face with a garden hoe. we as an audience fully understand that “dirty hoe” in this context is a disparaging remark directed at an inanimate object, but we also understand that the phrase “dirty ho(e)” isn’t normally used that way — it’s much more commonly used as an insult towards a person who’s alleged to be, well, a ho. the humor here comes from the fact that the cat is saying a funny sex phrase in a completely nonsexual situation.

but this is only half of why the double entendre works. it also works because, and this is absolutely crucial, if the audience only interprets the line in the most literal surface-level way (eg. insulting the garden hoe) it still makes complete sense. there are millions of small children who saw the cat in the hat (2003 live action film) with no idea that the phrase “dirty hoe” could mean anything other than what it was literally presented as on screen. for them, “dirty hoe” was just a throwaway line where the cat expresses his frustration with an everyday object. with double entendre it is essential that if an audience member doesn’t pick up on the secondary meaning, that still doesn’t interfere with the effectiveness of the literal interpretation.

“dirty hoe”, as silly as it is, exemplifies this perfectly. a small child might wonder why a parent/older sibling/cousin/whatever thought the line was funny when they didn’t, but that’s really the extent of the ways that “dirty hoe” could hypothetically break immersion.

with all this clarified, let’s return to taylor swift.

there’s a clear attempt at double entendre in this lyric, with the crux of it being that “heroin” and “heroine”, two VERY different things, sound the same when said out loud. here’s a handy diagram for anyone who might not know the difference:

for now, let’s ignore the clunky phrasing of the actual lyric and pretend travis (I am like 80% sure this song is about travis) had instead said something along the lines of “you’re my heroin(e)”. this is a great double entendre, as it has two clear cut meanings, one innocent and one risqué:

1. “you’re my heroine”, meaning “you’re my hero”.

2. “you’re my heroin”, meaning “you, and our relationship as a whole, is wildly addictive. when I’m with you I feel happier than is normally humanly possible and I don’t know if I can function without you”.

at this point, you might be thinking “sander, you’ve just proven that the the lyric works perfectly fine. what’s your deal?”. in response I would like to highlight the fact that I Had To Fundamentally Change The Lyric For It To Make Sense. because taylor swift — a woman who is incapable of brevity — has not written “you’re my heroin(e)”, she has written “it’s like heroin, but this time with an e”.

in that phrasing, swift has forsaken The Second Rule Of Double Entendre — the saying must still make sense if only one of two meanings is understood. “you’re my heroine” and “you’re my heroin” both stand on their own as lyrics despite their wildly different meanings, and both independently make sense within the context of a song about extreme devotion. “it’s like heroin […] with an e” only works if the listener not only knows both meanings of the word, but also that one is spelled with an e and one without — not to mention the fact that there is a time limit on this pun, as this is something the listener has to extrapolate before the song moves onto its next words lest they get completely lost for the rest of the song or (god forbid) have to break their immersion and pause it.

which is to say a good double entendre should have depth, yes, but it should also just click. in fact here’s an example I’ve been saving for just now of that click happening using, I shit you not, THE EXACT SAME JOKE AS TAYLOR:

I’m not going to bog us down in Saw Lore (today), but I’ll give the necessary context — this character, amanda, is a former heroin addict turned sober serial killer/torture enthusiast. she views herself as a heroine (with an e) for all the torture she’s doing because having a torturous near-death experience is what shocked her back into control of her own life, and she’s now providing the same “service” for other people that she sees her old self in.

when amanda says “I’m your heroin(e)” it’s once again meant in both senses of the word — she’s a “heroine” because she thinks that she’s doing something heroic, but she’s also “heroin” because, in reality, she’s slowly breaking apart and often eventually killing the people she attaches herself to. however, the second meaning is still just an added layer and the lyrics works just as well if you only ever interpret them as saying “hero”. the actual drug heroin is only mentioned once, towards the end, after the heroine/heroin pun has been repeated in the chorus ad nauseam and been given full time to click with the audience. in fact, you can actually hear the pun clicking every time an audience member laughs at a seemingly non-comedic line.

I bring this example up to show that double entendre doesn’t always have to be lighthearted comedy like the cat in the hat (2003 live action film)’s is, and to highlight how “taylor’s work isn’t meant to be funny, so she shouldn’t have to follow proper joke technique” doesn’t make sense as a rebuttal, which will hopefully dissuade anyone from making that claim. it isn’t just proper joke technique to nail a double entendre correctly, it’s proper writing technique. the non-swift examples I’ve shown you simply wouldn’t work as well if the cat had said “you’re a dirty ho, but with an e”, or if amanda had said “I’m your heroin, but with an e” (although unlike swift, she would’ve at least had the proper context in her song to attempt pulling that off).

all of this is of course to say that yes, the lyric is clunky, but more importantly the lyric is confusing. at best it’s a noticeable stumble in the prose, something that makes you go “huh? did I hear that right?”, and at worst it’s completely immersion-shattering.

I’ve noticed that the most common defense of this album (which I’m sure I’ll see in my notes if this post even remotely escapes containment) is “the lyrics aren’t bad, they just make you stop and think”, to which I would ask “think about what?”. there is a major, major difference between stopping to think about a cleverly complicated story, and stopping to think because the thing you just heard made no sense whatsoever. wordiness does not automatically a good piece of writing make, and if brevity is the soul of wit I think we should all stop for a little to question the nature of swift’s.

I think in terms of Dumb Taylor Swift Lyrics we are all really sleeping on “he says it’s like heroin but with an e”

[thejudgingtrash]

Annabeth is a good person,but not a nice or pleasant one,IMO.

YES.

That’s it. That’s the post. Pack it up everybody, we just cracked the case and cleared up one of the most compelling fights in the PJO fandom since forever. Good job everybody, clap it out and there’s the door! Don’t forget ordering the drinks at Starbucks, Mitch! They’re on me!

Okay, but on a more serious note: YES. YES EXACTLY.

And before some of you roll your eyes or grab your pitchforks – put your biases aside and hear me out for once. I like Annabeth. She’s my in my top three characters only second to Percy himself. I love Percabeth. It’s my favorite ship in the entire series and to be frank, the only ship that I care about PJO wise. Hell, I spend my time creating my own headcanons or writing my own fanfics with Percabeth being the star in them.

But that is not to say that I’m unable to see how certain things have developed over the years or where they stand now in regard to Annabeth. I’m not here to ignore things that have been said and/or done due to or in the name of Annabeth and I’m not here to vilify anyone that doesn’t like her. And I’m here to admit that I’m guilty of some of the things that may be addressed in this meta essay that you will read in just a second. However, I try my best to assure you, that I’m for once able to recognize my own bias.

Warning: a monster essay lies right upon you.

This should count as a paper of its own.

Back to the statement on top: I would go out even further to reframe your claim, anon:

Annabeth Chase is a good character but not a nice or pleasant person.

Annabeth is a wonderful character but she isn’t a nice one. Or at least not nice to everyone. She is (construction wise if I dare say) the best character out of the series. She has her positive traits (she’s caring, she’s emotional, she’s encouraged and volunteers, she fights for what she believes in, she forgives (even if doing so begrudgingly)) but she also has her negative traits (she’s stubborn, she’s brash, changing her mind takes forever, she is prejudiced, she baits others). That balances things out. She is branded as the intelligent kid but does irrational things (like I’ve just said a) she’s a kid and b) she’s not a robot). She should probably know better, but we all make mistakes and hopefully grow and learn from them. The clouds in the sky do blur and cover our visions sometimes.

Annabeth had clashes with other characters or was about to have fights due to her stubbornness or jealousy (Rachel, Reyna, etc.) and has of course her problems with the mortal world and her family but she also found new friends, some things cleared up throughout the narration and she was/is quite popular in Camp Half-Blood.

The thing is: she doesn’t have to be nice or pleasant (as a character). Or at least not all the time. Her character is humanized. That is what or who she is. Human. She does stand out as a character, not just because she’s the (future) love interest. She feels like someone you could meet in real life and either adore from the top to the bottom or declare as your biggest enemy. And that’s totally okay if you lean either way – liking or disliking her. Or even feeling indifferent about her. Also great!

To say that she has been the best character that Riordan has crafted is easy to say, because she has been sculpted after Riordan’s wife. He had a model he could rub some of real-life events or traits on. That’s not the problem. The problem truly doesn’t lie on Riordan’s side for the most part for once.

The problem is inherently on the fandom’s side. What the fandom does, how it acts and how it treats Annabeth as a character is the problem. The problems vary but it’s mostly the mischaracterization of Annabeth, starting fights and fan/ship wars, internalized misogyny (in some cases) and how some of the Annabeth stans lash out (ha, got firsthand experience in that field among many of my friends and mutuals!). There is a reason why many people are wary of people that have Annabeth or Percabeth related URLs.

The fact that we see Annabeth mostly through Percy’s lens and (until the Heroes of Olympus saga hits) we never really see her in chill everyday situations is essentially Riordan leaving the back door of the house open, ready for all of you asshats to rob his mansion in Boston. Because a frame on a character means that we don’t get to see the character in its entirety (unlike we do with Percy in PJO for the most part). That means a bunch of stuff is left open for interpretation which is the reason why Annabeth gets so many polarized headcanon and opinions tossed around. I think that is one of the true appeals of Annabeth. You can add on stuff and it necessarily doesn’t have to contradict itself.

We have people calling her abusive due to a (n admittedly stupid and unnecessary) judo flip and we have people that act like she’s never done anything wrong. People sorta use this excuse to form and shape Annabeth however they want and distort her characterization.

People in the fandom act like Annabeth is some weird prized possession. We perceive Annabeth mostly through the eyes of others (Percy, Apollo, etc.) and when we had some sort of insight in her ways (MOA, HOH) it felt… weird? Somewhat? Like Riordan left two bullet points of her characterization and told the ghostwriter: aight, fuck it up, gringo, see you on Tuesday and greet Fred the next time you see him for me. 

There have been many posts lately (by Tharini, Simi, Sawasawako, Jewishpercy and Annie I believe?) that HOO Percabeth felt weird. That they felt weirdly constructed, that there was no conflict, no growth. It felt stagnating, like we’re turning back. We had five books prior where we had Annabeth and Percy slowly shifting from disliking to liking and crushing each other. True development. And when we finally got the cake it felt… dissatisfying. Like the cheap box stuff and not the delicious exquisite taste that we were promised.

I said it previously in my Percabeth ship roast, but let me repeat myself: many Percabeth related things are straight up fanon. Some of it is very old fanon so that’s been unable to distinguish unless you’ve read the books recently and subtract nearly 99,9% of things you see on Tumblr (and occasionally the other shitty parts of the fandom like Reddit, IG, Twitter. Although they mostly steal and recycle tumblr stuff oh well. But back to the topic).

The way people treat Annabeth is so strange. She’s either an innocent fluffy smush baby that’s never harmed a fly and all that she wants for Christmas is being Percy’s lapdog or she’s the devil incarnate, broke into your house, killed your parents Batman style, kicked your puppy and didn’t flush the toilet on the way out. I think this is what mostly makes people hate her or the ship Percabeth. And both extremes are wrong and right at the same time? She is multifaceted so both stereotypes are true and untrue and sorta cancel each other out in the same way.

The true reason why people dislike Annabeth is because the stans are doing the most. (The haters as well, don’t get me wrong, but oh boy. Piss of a stan and you’ll know what I mean). That isn’t inherently new. Are you guys old enough to remember the ship wars that have happened cross platform? Perachel vs. Percabeth? Oh boy, oh boy. I saw some kids on tumblr a few months ago trying to infiltrate both tags and start shit (and also fail). The fact that Rachel still gets used as the bitchy (ex) girlfriend in fanfics? It’s 2020 guys. I know this apocalyptic year is far from perfect and over but I think we can let this trope die, right? Right? I thought we’ve established that Rachel is a pretty chill charcter by now… right?

If you posted your stuff on FFN back in 2010-2013 and it wasn’t the typical cutesy Percabeth story (Goode High, the gods read TLT, punk/prep Percabeth, college AU, etc.) people would’ve come for your fucking throat. Not because the story or the narration was shit. But because the pairing wasn’t Annabeth and Percy (in the sense that Annabeth had to be paired with Percy. I mean Percy gets shipped with everyone and their mother but for Annabeth it was strictly Percy. As annoying as this whole Connabeth thing is – the people behind it actually had a point. She never had a different love interest unless it’s a Percy centered story and he goes off dating Athena, Artemis and Zoe at the same time for some odd reason. Yeah, FFN Percy ships are something). Or it wasn’t the action filled canon compliant story or it wasn’t an AU that was popular.

People were really stubborn, snobbish and wanted their stuff in the four five boxes that were the most popular ones and that’s it. People have been bullied off the site in many fandoms, so it’s not a PJO-only thing but it’s still sad that it happened. (Off-note: most of these FFN tropes are still alive and well and thriving on AO3. Don’t be so snobbish and pretend that every piece you’d find there is a holy grail. There’s a lot of trash you have to waddle through. Same with Wattpad, Tumblr or anywhere else where fanfics get posted. Also had this discussion with Annabeth stans. Sigh).

And Tumblr back then? Forget it, wasn’t much better.

That view has sorta changed (at least for people that have been in the fandom for several years or have managed to find a way to navigate through it) but some of the negative sentiment from back in the day has survived. Be it by new fans coming in or from old fans that never let their stance die. The aggression feels differently and somewhat not. (I don’t know if the anon function had been abused that much back in the day. I was an observer not a participant in the fandom).

Crack a joke at Annabeth’s expense (Kal’s famous “Annabeth is a Republican” post or Dee Dee’s and many others “Annabeth has the education of a second grader, chill with the college plans, girlie” stance) and you have people insulting you, making callout posts, unfollowing and blocking you (based on only that? Okay, honey), making aggressive counter-posts, etc. in a minute. If you respond with “It’s a joke, it’s not real” you have a 50/50 chance of either getting blown off or embarrassing them so that they apologize for once.

This isn’t just about jokes. You can make a headcanon that’s not the cozy cute convenient mainstream saga and people would react the same way. Or art piece (no, not including the whole Tannabeth Blackchase shtick done by Viria and others) or fanfics.

People project so much onto the unfinished canvas that is Annabeth Chase that any form of negative sentiment as little as someone not liking her to straight up criticism, regardless of how tiny it may be, seems like an affront. Like an invitation to a fight. Like an insult to them, their character, everything they believe in. Let me state something:

You are NOT Annabeth Chase. Annabeth Chase IS NOT you. Annabeth Chase is NOT real. Her feeling cannot be hurt. Someone criticizing, disliking, joking about her or even insulting her will not bother her. Someone making a statement about her is not an insult to YOU.

Let me repeat that:

Annabeth Chase isn’t real. Annabeth Chase isn’t you.

So think a little before you act? I get it when you’re a kid and new to fandoms or haven’t been up with fan cultures in the past and are back in the scene. But if you’re in your late teens or even older as an adult and you’re unable to understand that you aren’t what you like – you aren’t the extension of a fictional character – I feel incredibly sorry for you. Because that’s just incredibly sad. Someone disliking something you like isn’t an attack of your character. It shows you that you are you and the other person is a human just like you. That they just have different taste. Disliking something you like isn’t a crime, you know? But me feeling sorry for the way some of y’all act won’t mean that that’s even remotely okay. Especially if you’re no longer in the intended audience for PJO age wise and should know better.

This isn’t a “white stans” only thing. I’ve seen and witnessed firsthand how people of color, mainly women of color, act the same or not even worse when it comes to her character. People have projected their problems and real-life occurring events into her character (I’m sure that she isn’t the only character nor that this is the only fandom where this is happening) and in some cases like I’ve said cannot separate their own personality from the fictional world. Fights with woc happened because of Annabeth fucking Chase. So many things have happened in the fandom the past few months, mostly due to people being forced staying at home because of the quarantine but I’d say it’s 10% on quarantine and 90% on people for acting up like this.

So here’s a little story: There was the act of Riordan blowing the fandom up because of his own stupidity and being unable to apologize for his mischaracterization and lack of research (the whole Piper fiasco) back in June (?) and admits the upset fandom, people on Twitter, Tumblr and Discord legit thought that none of that mattered and that the outcry was destroying Annabeth Chase’s birthday. That’s right. People thought that Annabeth Chase’s non-existing birthday because she’s a fictional character had a higher priority than the rupture and prevalent racism in the fandom. Okay. This isn’t a great look, Annabeth stans. And this of course pissed a lot of people off. I made a post about it and someone not only berated three other people on said post but no, we had a mighty argument which had disrupted many friendships in our circle which haven’t recovered until this very day. We both had our parts in it and no one is innocent. But the cause of this still remains Annabeth Chase or how people prioritize her non-existing well-being. Anyway. I’m getting agitated just thinking about it.

Let’s go back to the characterization thing with Annabeth. Let me remind you:

Annabeth Chase is an asshole. There I’ve said it in a post ages ago (too lazy to look it up, sorry) and I’ll say it again. And that’s not me insulting her. That’s me actually loving that about her. Annabeth is one of the very few unapologetic female characters that really showed all young readers across the world that you can be a girl, a badass, smart, strong, standing up for yourself and what you believe in. You don’t have to be nice. You don’t have to hide your feelings. You don’t need a man in all cases but it’s also okay to accept help and defeat.

A large reason why I think she’s an incredibly important character in children’s literature/YA because many other novels (mostly (sadly)) have the “Oh, I’m a white skinny dark-haired girl that likes unconventional things like READING. I’m not like the other girls, that take care of themselves and pamper themselves by enjoying shopping and wearing make-up. No, I’d rather be one of the boys but a sweet cute little boy and not the jock fuck that drank vodka shots out of a filthy shoe once. Despite me calling myself hideous every man in a 10-kilometer radius falls in love with me and tells me I’m oh so sexy and by the way I’m only 16 years old” shit going on for no goddamn reason.

Yes, I do blame Twilight for this mostly in recent years, but this trope isn’t by any means knew. Pretty sure that you could even use classics as Pride and Prejudice and dissect them in the same manner (Bold statement: Lizzy Bennet is the OG Bella Swan. There. Go fight somewhere in the corner, people). The new wave of YA focuses on girls belittling themselves and only starting to believe in themselves because someone else (mostly the male love interest) tells them they’re worth it. And these books hit the mainstream because they’re incredibly bland and picture perfect white.

With Annabeth it’s different. She shows up for the job and is done with it. (Brie Larson would probably be the perfect in real life version of her. You either like or dislike her. Or you really don’t care). That is what is so refreshing about her. Her unapologetic nature. Can it be off-putting? Yes. Is it annoying? Yes! Hell, every time I read The Lightning Thief, I want to rip her goddamn head off. And it’s just so well written. Her shift from mistrusting Percy but secretly still believing in him to her opening up. Wow, Riordan did something right there.

Annabeth Chase isn’t a young character. She has existed along with PJO for 15 years. She’s on her way to the second decade. I’m pretty sure that with the success of Percy Jackson (and Harry Potter) many lives have been warped and shaped.

But when I say the problem lies mostly in the fandom, it doesn’t mean that Riordan’s completely innocent. The only problem that I have with Annabeth lies not truly with her but the fact that Riordan is only able to produce three variations of female characters:

The sweetheart (Hazel, Silena, Calypso, Hestia)

The strong feminist (Annabeth, Piper, Thalia, Reyna, Artemis)

The bitch (Drew, nearly every female goddess in the goddamn Riordanverse next to every female monster)

And these female characters only know three endings:

End up married with a mortgage, three kids, two dogs and a cat somewhere in Connecticut by the age of twelve

Get dumped into the hunt

Chill on Mount Olympus and only come down to be a nuisance and/or give a cryptic message before going back and doing a godly rave party or something

We know Annabeth as the badass strong female first (or the bitchy character we’re supposed to actually like. Choose your approach), the blueprint so to speak, so some of the other characters feel almost pale in comparison and almost not needed? Doesn’t mean that other characters can’t behave similarly, but it feels kind of redundant especially if their character arcs end in a rather anticlimactic way (Thalia, Reyna). The new additions are the much needed woc as the main story with PJO was inherently white (anyway stan black!Percy and Grover, folks). So it’s not to bash on the new characters, it’s more Riordan’s fault more than anything.

Since Riordan only knows three female character arcs it feels like he tried to copy the formula several ways with different nuances. Some more or less successful. This is where fandom actually comes in handy and helps create more distinguished and fleshed out characters in form of headcanons or fanfiction.

But even in these cases people still make it about Annabeth when it’s time for characters of colors to shine. Remember that whole spiel and discussion that broke out when people (Kal, diver-up, Caitlyn, Bee, reynaisalesbian, etc.) joked about or criticized that Annabeth thinks that she’s having it harder because she’s a blonde? In front of Hazel and Piper? If she would’ve been a real person that’s an invitation for getting decked. And then all hell broke loose because Annabeth stans couldn’t accept the fact that in the real world and/or in fictional worlds the woc/coc have it harder? That the white woman wasn’t the victim that needed the coddling? Yeah, that was mad pathetic.

I hope you people get my point?

Well fuck. I wrote so many things and have the feeling I’ve said nothing. Anyway, I hope I made sense. This is way too long.

TLDR: Chill about Annabeth please. She’s an important character but that doesn’t mean that everyone has to like her, regardless of being a character in the books or a reader/fan of PJO in real life. She isn’t nice or a sweetheart all the time. She also isn’t the monstrous asshole that some try to make out of her.

Peace out.

[sondepoch]

*waves hand* How about 13 and 39? c:

13. What is your planning process?

Ahhh okay so I have two ends of the spectrum - one, where I obsessively plan every second, and the other, where I’m so desperate to write something that I start with only my mind to guide me. 

Since the spontaneous one can’t really be explained, I’ll talk about my usual planning process :D I have a pretty overactive imagination, so most of my fics start off with me visualizing a certain scene. (ex: for All Hail, the trigger was me imagining someone burning at the stake with Diavolo watching) If I feel like the scene is compelling enough to evoke emotion or enjoyable enough to be liked, I’ll run through the possible scenarios that could have led to that point.

Usually, I’ll run through 3-4 scenarios before picking one, and when I do, I start bulleting my every thought. It’s basically me, for one hour, aggressively explaining every single thing I can think of - I usually just do a run-through of the plot from beginning to end, elaborating on scenes (in bullets) that are more clear in my mind. 

Once I have the whole plot fleshed out, I try to figure out if there are any important symbols/motifs/concepts that might make the conclusion more meaningful. After I’ve identified at least one, I make sure to include it throughout the work. At that point, all the planning is complete - and I finally get to begin!

39. Collaborations or working solo?

I’ve collabed with people to work on essays/literary projects/novel drafts in the past, but it usually doesn’t turn out too well because I (and the people I’ve worked with) have a very distinct writing style. On the other hand, I do feel like collaboration is a wonderful way to learn new writing techniques and try out different styles, so while I dislike doing it for major projects, I feel like fanfiction is a perfect place to work with others. I’d probably be open to it in the future :D

Ask me questions about my writing! :D

[smokeybrand]

He Gave Us The Signal

I’ve been giving Batman a lot of sh*t lately and feel like this gives the impression that i actually hate the character. I don’t. I actually really love Batman. His entire mythos is really the only thing i like about DC Comics. I find the way there heroes are represented to be unwieldy and too fantastical for me. I absolutely know how contradictory that sounds because, you know, comic books, but lets be honest; It’s a lot easier identifying with Spider-Man than it is Superman. Marvel characters, from the outset, were grounded in the real world. They were written like real people. I got into comics during the gritty Eighties so all of the comic companies were trying to reintroduce more grounded, grimy, fare. Indeed, my first Batman comic i ever read was the introduction of Killer Croc. The first Bat-book i ever purchased with my own money was The Killing Joke. That version of Bat,an is my batman and, while i have had a roller coaster relationship with the character over the last thirty years, dude remains one of my favorite characters to date. I just wanted to take some time and gush about what i love most in the Bat-verse. Just the comics though. If i included ancillary media like the cartoons, movies, or games, I'd end up writing an entire novel.

Cassandra Cain

I love Cass. Love her. I think she is the best addition to the Bat-Family, period. Aside from injected a bit of Asian representation into a mainstream comic with little to no fuss, her character is the most compelling one since Bruce, himself, to get that shine. Progeny of super-skilled assassin, David Cain, and one of, if not, THE best martial artist in all of DC, Lady Shiva, Cassandra is a one woman wrecking crew. She was hones as a living weapon since birth, for the sole purpose of brutalizing man. Cass is an AR-15 with legs. She is easily the best warrior, including Bruce, among the Bat-fam and yet, the most delicate. Watching Cassandra grow from a violent mute into the woman she was right before the New 52 was a pleasure. And then she was erased for half a decade. That sucked. However, her recent reintroduction as Orphan has been pretty chill. I like the relationship she has with Duke Thomas. I liked how she could feel compassion for someone like Clayface, even if no one else could see the same thing she could. I love Cassandra Cain, man. I loved her as the bet Batgirl. I loved her when she had her title snaked away and became Black Bat. I'm loving her as Orphan. I like what Cass has become so far. Here’s hoping they don’t f*ck her up going forward.

Knightfall

I actually really like Knightfall as a concept. I don’t much care for all of the other sh*t that goes on after the book, Azrael Batman was a mistake only redeemed by his White Knight revamp, but i tend to gravitate toward arcs where Bats is given the full-court press and Knightfall is one of the best. It also introduces Bane, a character i am rather indifferent to but still respect, as a proper force of nature. To this day, his breaking of the Bat has been a defining moment in the Bat-mythos, one that has lingering repercussions like The Killing Joke or No Man’s Land.

Damian Wayne

Damian took a few years to grow on me but i love the little dude. he’s like a mini version of his assault father and i love it. There is so much sass packed in that little kid, it’s ridiculous. That said, he is not to be taken lightly. Damian Wayne is child of Brice and Talia Al Ghul, through what can only be seen as a drugged rape at some point. We’ve seen this idea flirted with a few times, the first i can recall being Ibn Al Xu'ffasch from Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come. When i realized who that character was, i was shocked and intrigued. It felt like there was a ton of potential there and a proper missed opportunity for mainstream DC comics. A decade later, we were properly introduced to one of the best additions to the Bat-Family in decades. Not better than Cass, though. And, before you get at me about that super deepcut, questioning my Bat-cred and everything, yes, i am aware that, technically, a version of Damian exists in the main Bat-contnutity dating back to the Eighties. Son of the Bat is a thing that i acknowledge but that kid as never names and had no character so i prefer to think the 06 introduction is the real origin of Damian. Plus, kid got a pet cow. That sh*t is adorable.

Joker

I wanted to put Joker War here because that was the best Knightfall story I've read in years but then i hesitated because i realized how much i loved Endgame. And then A Death in the Family. And then The Three jokers. And then The War of Jokes and Riddles. And then Emperor Joker. and then White Knight. And then The Killing Joke. And then The Man Who Laughs. And the Mad Love. And so many more that escape me at the moment I'm writing this. I realized that it was Joker, himself, that i loved so much and for good reason. Joker is, quite literally, the best comic book antagonist of all time. He’s so malleable, evolving over the years with the times and trends, lending his distinct clown chaos to some of the best Bat-stories ever written. The ambiguity of his identity coupled with the fact that he knows Batman’s entire history is absolutely horrifying. The fact that he refuses to even assault Bruce on a civilian level because “it’s not fun” is absolutely contradictory and solidifies his position as pure, antagonistic, chaos for the Batman, alone. There is no Joke without the Bat and i love that dynamic so much. I love this character so much!

The Court of Owls

I really enjoyed this whole arc. Thomas Wayne Jr. The Talons. The whole clandestine cabal of elites, poisoning Gotham for their own gain. It tickles my tin hat sensibilities while being something that makes all of the sense for the cesspool that is Gotham City. The Court of Owls was easily one of the best narratives to come out of the overall abortion that was the New 52 and i appreciate Scot Snyder for bringing it to us. This narrative fleshes out a lot of underlying aspects of the mythos, gives a bit more agency to and intrigue to Dick, and allows for a myriad of potential stories where Batman is effectively pitted against Gotham, itself.

Jason Todd

I was never a he fan of Todd as Robin. At that point, it was just him and Dick, and Dick was a MUCH better character. In my opinion. I enjoyed his introduction, though. Snatching the rims of the Batmobile was kind of a brilliant way to differentiate him from goody-goody Grayson. If I was old enough to vote, I definitely would have voted to kill him way back when. Fast forward to his resurrection in Under the Red Hood, and I am hooked. His super edgy, Punisher-esque, vigilante justice is fantastic to see. Todd is understandably brutal, violent, and unforgiving. His solution to crime is a bullet between the eyes and that makes for the most interesting dynamic with his pops. More than that, outside of the Bat-family books, Todd is thriving. I love Red Hood and the Outlaws. The current run, not the original. Mostly his relationship with Artemis but I adore the big brother position he took with Bizarro, too. Jason Todd started out as a ridiculous replacement for a beloved Robin, got beaten with a crowbar then exploded, resurrected decades later to take on the mantle of the man who killed him, raved through Gotham on a one-man mission to destroy everything that was the Bat or Joke, and eventually settled into being the black-ops branch of the Bat-fam. I respect his growth as a character and I love his relation ship with Artemis to bits. That feels super right. That Trinity, the Dark Trinity, is my favorite and it absolutely has everything to do with Jason Todd's utter bad-assery. His new costume his sh*t, tho.

White Knight

I’ve literally wrote an entire essay, gushing about my love for this Elseworlds universe. You can search for that on this blog by looking up Bat Kino or White Knight to bring up my detailed fangasm if you’re curious but, in short, the White Knight universe is the best Bat-anything I've read in years. I really, really, liked Endgame but White Knight is so much more compelling a read, it’s hard not to give it the edge.

Harley Quinn

I’ve written in part about my love for Harley in my post about my disdain for Punchline. I love Harley, man. Watching her growth as a character has been a very real privilege. She’s been handled incredibly well by the writers at DC and watching her popularity grow over the years has been very refreshing. Harley always had the potential to be great. Her introduction in the Timmverse was one that sent ripples throughout the fandom so, when she was moved over to the comics, it made sense she’d be a hit. More than that, comic stories are free from the constraints of television censors and we saw an absolute evolution of Harleen over the next three decades. Harley went from being a lovesick whipping girl, locked in a violently abusive relationship with one of the worst psychopaths in all of DC, to a brilliant vigilante and trusted ally to the Bat-family I love that Harleen has found real love with Ivy, even if DC keeps shenaniganing that relationship. I love that she uses her PhD whenever she can. I love that she is one of the most complete, nuanced, and fun characters in the entirety of the Bat-fam. Harley Quinn is a real gem and one of the best things about modern Batman. Even is I do miss the old jester outfit.

There is, legitimately, SO much more I can reference because Batman has a very LONG history full of content to adore. Off the top of my head, Bat-Cat, Hush, Bluebird, We Are Robin, Year One, Damned, The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween, Signal, Beyond, Gotham Girl, Thomas Wayne; It's like an embarrassment of riches. If I listed everything, I'd be here all day. Just Joker stuff, alone, is more than enough to fill several of these lists. I really, genuinely, love Batman which is why it's so seeing him written so poorly as of late. The climax to Joker War was excellent, I'll admit that, but the lingering issues with that OC Punchline chick taints that triumph for me a little bit. The idea of The Batman Who Laughs and the entirety of the Dark Multiverse is absolutely intriguing, but look what they did to my boy. They massacred my boy with all of this literal godhood nonsense. And don't even get me started on this Ghost Killer guy. I thought Clown Hunter was a little bit of a shark jump but this guy? Word? Batman is a great character with one of the best rouges galleries in comics (Spider-Man give him a run for his money) and one of the deepest, richest, histories to pull from. He is a character that has endured for eighty years and I know he's weather this panicked stunt writing as of late. I just have to remember the stuff I love and try to tolerate the rest. Even after taking the worst kind of hit, Batman always finds a way to stand back up.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Big Idea: Christopher Brown

The opening sentence of Christopher Brown’s Big Idea essay for Tropic of Kansashits awfully close to home these days. Buckle in.

CHRISTOPHER BROWN:

What if the revolutions we watch ripping other countries apart were happening on our own streets?

America as Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela—that core conceit behind Tropic of Kansasdrove almost everything else in the book.  It also taught me hard lessons about how speculative counterfactuals dictate the way you tell their story—and how your characters need to show you the path.

As I began to sketch out the book, my big idea was literally outside my door. The Austin leaders of Occupy had made the neon junkyard across the street into their secret base camp. Every day the news showed uprisings across the world, and increasingly stark political divisions at home. The distance between the peaceful protests here and the violent chaos on screen was nearer than geography would suggest.

You could see narratives of revolution lurking all over our pop culture landscape, from YA dystopias like The Hunger Games to the three movies that came out as I started the first draft about people taking over the White House. I wanted to explore that territory in a way that bit into the copper wire, in a mirror reality built from the mundane details of the observed world and charged with the motive power of the revolutionary creation myths we are taught in school. Done right, it would be the literary equivalent of a Syrian war zone smartphone video transposed to St. Louis.

I thought I had the perfect generic material to pull it off, by repurposing tropes of adventure fiction and political thrillers toward more emancipatory ends.  Rogue heroes and whistleblowers—a Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser for the age of Blackwater, a Glanton gang that rides to Washington instead of the border, a Night Managerundercover in dystopia, with old binaries busted to reflect 21st century diversity.  Those action-oriented archetypes seemed an antidote to the way characters in most post-9/11 fiction verbally defenestrated corrupt power but rarely effected real change.

I looked for the territory between the Nazi-fighting grit of 1960s adventure pulps and the grim memoranda of the Senate Torture Report. I found rich character trajectory rereading Eric Hobsbawm’s Bandits, a cross-cultural study of how thieves sometimes morph into social bandits (think Robin Hood) and then revolutionaries. I found an old button that said “Billy Jack for President” and put it on my desk. I made a note to myself on my Tumblr, a photo of three books next to each other: a Frazetta-covered Conan paperback, a post-financial crisis political manifesto, and a treatise on Anthropocene ecology. The caption: “remix your hypotheses.”

I started the remix, with gusto. And the initial result was kind of like when you are a kid and your mom or dad lets you loose in the kitchen to make your own dish, usually involving a lot of food coloring that substitutes for authentic flavor, the solution to which is more sugar. A compelling postulate does not automatically make a believable world, and a fresh archetype does not necessarily make a character anyone cares about. There’s no recipe—you need to intuit your own, using real ingredients available in the pantry of memory.  It’s not easy, and usually takes a few tries.

J.G. Ballard liked to say that the inverted worlds of his realist science fictions were drawn using the same skills he learned as an anatomy student dissecting human cadavers. I thought I understood what he meant until I tried to find my own way in. You have to take the clay of the real world and turn it inside out more than just one time. You have to see the threads that connect all the different pieces into a whole system. You have to figure out how character defines the world, is defined by it, and how the world of your story functions as a kind of meta-character. Outlines only get you so far—you have to write your way through it, and the harder it feels the closer you probably are.

The post-9/11 story I wanted to tell required a world without 9/11, in which all the dark energy of the war on terror was unleashed inside our own borders. The Sadr Cities needed to be run-down suburbs with rebels holed up in bullet-pocked strip malls. The American Spring required an America that looked a lot more like an oligarchic dictatorship than the civil society I lived in.  And the people that inhabited that world had to be found through their shimmering reflections in the liminal spaces of this one.

The oft-quoted Gibsonian aphorism about the uneven distribution of the immanent future is also true of dystopia. The parts of America turned Third World, the Yankee Gaza and DMZ, are there if you look for them. So are their inhabitants. The guy I met who lives in the abandoned building by the frontage road, the lady I know who called me about the deportation trucks rounding up her neighbors, the in-laws who told me about their college friends who got disappeared in the dirty war back home, and even the people grinding away in the corporate offices downtown could all point to the dark mirrors hiding in plain sight.

The land told the story of its own subjugation to industrial agriculture and petrochemical extraction. By finding the world of my book folded into the world around me, I was able to build a real portal to my imagined postulate. I learned how the coupling of realism and speculation can inadvertently produce worlds that seem prescient. And I learned how the injection of humanism into dystopia can help find the light that lurks on the other side of the unjust worlds we make, whether in the safe laboratory of the novel or in real life.

whatever.scalzi.com/2017/07/13/the-big-idea-christopher-brown/

[silvino32mills]

18 Ways to Create Scannable Content for Your Blog

The post 18 Ways to Create Scannable Content for Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on Episode 176 of the ProBlogger podcast.

You’ve chosen your words with care, and put a lot of thought into them.

But no-one’s even reading your posts, let alone commenting or sharing.

If you want more readers, more engagement, and more sharing of your content (and let’s face it, why doesn’t?) then this post is for you.

Why Readers Won’t Read Every Word – and What You Can Do About It

Only 16% of people read websites word for word. Most people scan, and I expect you’re one of them.

I know I am.

When I arrive at a website or blog, I quickly scan the page to see if it looks relevant to me. If something intrigues me, I might scroll down to see what’s “below the fold”.

People make decisions in seconds. They decide whether your content is relevant to them, and whether it’s worth spending time reading it.

If they can’t see the benefits of reading on, they’ll click away from your site. They won’t read your content. They won’t leave a comment. They won’t share it. And chances are they won’t ever come back.

This means you need to learn to write scannable content. Because people will decide whether or not to read it based on their initial scan.

I’m going to give you eighteen techniques for doing just that.

#1: Write Great Headlines

The first thing people will see is your headline. It should draw their eye. Your blog design should help your headline pop off the screen. (If it doesn’t, you might want to change or tweak your theme.)

In terms of wording, your headline should be compelling and offer the reader a clear benefit if they read the post.

If you want some help with writing great headlines, check out Episode 156 of the ProBlogger podcast, or Seven Easy Ways to Write Better Headlines for Your Blog Posts.

#2: Write a Great Opening Line

Aside from your headline, the most read part of your blog post will be your first line. You want this to communicate a benefit, or create some curiosity. In your first line, you need to give people a good reason to read more.

If you need some help coming up with a strong opening line, check out 10 Tips for Opening Your Next Blog Post.

#3: Keep Your Paragraphs Short

Large slabs of text will turn readers off. If you keep your paragraphs short, it gives readers a visual clue that your content will be easy to read and put into action. If they see huge, daunting chunks of text, it’ll all seem too hard.

Stick to one idea per paragraph, and keep those paragraphs short.

#4: Keep Your Sentences Short

Short, clear sentences help readers feel your content is accessible. If your opening sentence is 40 or 50 words long and confusing to follow, they won’t want to read on.

I once heard a suggestion that you should keep your sentences to no more than 16 words, which sounds like a good rule of thumb.

For more on both short sentences and short paragraphs, check out How to Write Short Sentences and Paragraphs the Right Way (and Why It Matters).

#5: Choose Simple Words

Back in high school, my English teacher once commented on my essay saying that while words with four or more syllables may sound impressive, they make the writing inaccessible to anyone reading it. (I pointed out to her that the word “inaccessible” is a five-syllable word. That didn’t go down too well.)

Aim to write like you speak, and choose words that simply and accurately convey your meaning. Don’t use big words to try and sound impressive.

#6: Use Lists

On both ProBlogger and Digital Photography School, I’ve found that posts written in a list format do much better than essay-style content.

When readers can see your content is structured as a list, they know you’ve broken it down to make it easy for them.

You don’t necessarily have to create your whole post as a list, though. Even using bullet points throughout a post can help people scan your content.

For more on lists, check out How to Create a List Post (a podcast episode) and How to Use Lists Effectively in Your Blog Posts.

#7: Use Subheadings to Break Up Your Post

If people come to your site and just see text (even if it’s broken up into short paragraphs), nothing will stand out to them. This makes it harder for them to figure out what your post actually covers.

You want to break that post into four or five sections and give each a subheading that clearly communicates what the section is about. That way your readers have a visual cue about what’s coming up, and whether there’s a section of your post that’s particularly relevant to them.

For more on subheadings, check out How to Use Subheadings to Add Structure to Your Blog Posts.

#8: Add Other Types of Formatting

Beyond subheadings, there are other types of formatting you can use. You might use bold, italics, or even all-caps to emphasise key points. You might even change the size or colour of the text.

These things can really draw your reader’s eyes to important points in your post.

But show some restraint with this type of formatting. You don’t want your content to become a mismatch of these different techniques, or it’ll just look a mess.

If you’re not sure how to add formatting, check out our post How to Use the WordPress WYSIWYG Toolbar to Format Your Blog Posts Like a Pro.

#9: Use Images

You might already be using a featured image at the top of your posts. But are you using images within the posts?

Research shows that readers’ eyes are drawn to images. So putting images beside your key points – especially when those images closely relate to the content – increases the chance of readers getting to the end of your post.

However, make sure you’re not infringing anyone’s copyright. If you’re not sure how to find images you can legally use, take a look at How to Find Images for Your Blog That Won’t Get You Sued.

#10: Use Image Captions

In WordPress, it’s really easy to insert a caption for your image. Just click on the image to edit it, and type whatever you want into the “Caption” box. The caption will then appear just below the image in your post.

People naturally look at the descriptions below images. I suspect they’re one of the most read parts of your post (after your subheadings). So you could use an image caption that emphasises a point you’re trying to make, or even one that includes a call to action.

#11: Use Other Visual Content

Images are great. But there are other types of visual content you could create. For instance, you might use charts or even tables in your post to show information.

Anything that’s visual and conveys information differently can help draw the eye. It shows readers you’ve got something for them to look at – not just text for them to read.

You could even take a key quote from your post, create a nice image with it layered over a photo, and put in into your content to act like a subheader. This gives readers a reason to read more.

#12: Use Blockquotes

Almost all WordPress themes have a “blockquotes” style. This allows you to highlight a particular part of your content in some way. It’s normally used to highlight a quote, but you can use it in different ways if you want.

With WordPress, you can apply blockquotes formatting by highlighting the paragraph in question and clicking the “Blockquotes” icon in the visual editor.

If you want more help using quotes on your blog, check out The Why, How and When of Using Quotations on Your Blog.

#13: Use Whitespace

You don’t have to fill every inch of the screen. Creating space within and around your content means your readers won’t feel so overwhelmed.

Again, space can draw the reader’s eye down the page. While this is partly affected by design, you can also add more line breaks to create short paragraphs (which we looked at earlier) and space things out a bit more.

#14: Use a Good Design

Often, blogs are difficult to read simply because their design is cluttered. SImplifying things, or even switching to a different theme (template), can really help.

Two key things you can do are:

choose fonts that aren’t too small

add a little distance between the lines of your content.

Getting the advice of a good designer can also help.

If you’d like to dig into blog design, try our podcast episode How to Give Your Blog Design a Spring Clean.

#15: Make Your Main Point(s) Clear

One trap many bloggers fall into is burying their main point deep within their content where it probably won’t be noticed.

If there’s a key point you want your readers to understand or remember, just say it upfront.

If you’re writing a long post (say 2,000–3,000 words), try using summary statements underneath each subheading to help readers see what the point of that section is.

This gives readers an immediate reason to read the rest of that section. It’s like using a title and opening line, but throughout your post rather than just at the start.

#16: Repeat Your Important Points

Hopefully, you’ve got a clear idea of what you want people to get from your content. Repeat it – more than once.

Most people aren’t reading word for word. So you need to emphasise your key point several times throughout your content.

You’ll probably want to have it in your opening, in some of your summary statements, in your conclusion, and maybe in a piece of visual content as well. That way, your readers are much more likely to get that main point or call to action.

#17: Don’t Introduce Too Many Ideas in One Post

If you’ve got a lot of ideas you want to cover, it might be worth breaking them up into a series of posts.

While long pieces of content can work well, they can also be overwhelming for readers. The more points you make within a post, the less likely your readers will actually get all of them.

For more about structuring your content as a series of posts, check out How to Write a Series for Your Blog (and Why You’ll Want To).

#18: Write Like a Human Being

The more human-like your writing is, the better. People are more likely to keep reading if they feel a sense of connection with you.

That means you could tell stories, show readers who you are in some way, and write in a more conversational style.

For help with that, I recommend listening to 10 Writing Tips to Help You Sound More Human, where I interview Beth Dunn, the Product Editor-in-Chief at HubSpot.

We’ve covered a lot of different techniques in this post. You won’t necessarily want to use all of them for every piece of content you write. But using a handful of them could make a huge difference to how scannable your content is, and and how much it gets read.

Here’s the list of techniques again:

Write great headlines

Write a great opening line

Keep your paragraphs short

Keep your sentences short

Choose simple words

Use lists

Use subheadings to break up your post

Add other types of formatting

Use images

Use image captions

Use other visual content

Use blockquotes

Use whitespace

Use a good design

Make your main point(s) clear

Repeat your important points

Don’t introduce too many ideas

Write like a human being

Give some of these a try with your next post. And leave a comment below to tell us how you got on.

The post 18 Ways to Create Scannable Content for Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

       from ProBlogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/b3W9T1zn4bo/

[nrip]

8 ways to generate great blog posts from doctors

A couple of years back, I was asked to help my hometown, big city newspaper build a health and science section on its website—an ambitious project that included recruiting numerous health experts to blog. Researchers. Scientists. Professors. Lawyers. Patients. Doctors. Lots of doctors.

We were pretty excited when we managed to bring on board the team doctors from every major sports team in the city. But the excitement eased a bit when we slammed into a painful reality: Recruiting experts to blog is one challenge. Teaching them to produce readable—even compelling—blog entries is a whole different ballgame.

In the hope of saving you similar pain, here are some tips learned the hard way on how to coax strong content from doctors and other health providers:

Add patient stories.

I remember talking with an adolescent health specialist early on who wanted to write an entry about teen pregnancy. Her draft made good points, but it was only when she added a story about a confused 14-year-old patient that it came to life. Stories are how humans learn and connect. Doctors and nurses spend their days on the front lines and have great stories to share. They often shy away from them, though, to protect privacy. Yes, there are privacy concerns in naming names and providing recognizable details, and you need to take them seriously. But that shouldn’t prevent you from finding a way to use patient stories either by asking for permission or disguising specifics to protect identities.

Take the reader behind the scenes.

There’s a reason why there are so many medical shows on TV. Medicine is a fascinating world, and doctors perform miracles every day. It is routine to them. It isn’t to us. Let us in on it. Share the drama. Take us into the E.R., the surgical suite, the examining room. Talk about emotions. The patient’s family was crying. The nurse was smiling. Offer those little details that bring the scene to life. Give the reader some insight, a glimpse into that world.

  Don’t limit the blog to words.

Blogs are wonderfully flexible tools for communicating. Video, audio, photos—especially photos—can all work in a blog. Use them all, when appropriate. Teach your experts to think about the various assets at their disposal. We spent several hours following a therapy dog on his rounds through a local rehabilitation facility. The resulting photo essay —complete with smiling faces and wagging tails—pulled in a huge audience and told the story much more effectively than text ever could.

Add personality, even humor.

Encourage your writers to provide personal details. One emergency department nurse would send dry entries about the administrative issues she dealt with. Over and over. You work in the ER, I would plead. Share that experience with me. Give me a window into that life as a way of explaining the administrative issues, which are certainly important. Tell me the kind of stories that start with “You would not believe what happened today.” Encourage your expert bloggers to use first person, to talk about themselves, their background, their family. It will strengthen the connection with the reader, which is a major part of the power of social media.

Teach them all the blogging tricks you know.

We wrote a brief email for each new recruit listing all of those lessons that most PR pros already know: Use lists and bullet points because people tend to scan, illustrate your points with examples, write in first person, actively invite comments, don’t lecture—invite conversation, etc. Those tips and more like them helped nudge our fledgling blog writers toward the sort of entries we were hoping to publish.

Share the numbers.

If a blog entry garners impressive traffic, make sure you let the expert bloggers know. It will energize them for next time and will keep them focused on topics that patients want to hear about. Gently let them know when an entry is a dud, as well, all in the interest of building a readership. No one wants to launch their blog entry into the silence of deep space.

Respond to comments.

Let your bloggers know upfront you expect them to respond to comments, when appropriate. Readers will be more engaged if they see the doctor is paying attention to thoughtful comments. Don’t expect the experts to track the comments. That is your job. But alert them when there is something they should respond to. Thoughtful comments are the holy grail of blogging and provide a great way to keep the conversation going. One blog entry we ran on breastfeeding ended by asking readers about the most unusual place they had nursed their child. That led to more blog entries and lots of energetic discussion. A whole series prompted by reader comments.

Know when to quit.

Some experts—a lot of doctors fall into this category—are either not strong writers or don’t have the time it takes to craft engaging blog copy. That’s OK. Their skill is medicine. That’s where we as patients want them focused. Make it easy for them. The best solution is often to interview them, especially if you have a tight deadline. Run it as a Q&A with an expert, a format that is often more readable and interesting than an entry written by an expert. One morning when a local baseball player was sidelined with a knee injury we tracked down our knee expert, interviewed him and had a blog entry up within an hour or two of the news, much quicker than had we waited for him to write a blog entry.

A couple of years into blogging, a patient safety expert took a chance and wrote an entry for us on a young patient who died after swallowing medication patches. It was a harrowing story and well out of the range of items he typically wrote, but it garnered the most traffic he ever received and a featured spot on the main newspaper homepage. Doctors, nurses, researchers can all provide great expert content like that. They just might need some gentle handholding to get there.

[marchagainsttrump]

One Canadian's View on Trump Part 2 - [

Hello Again.

I want to first thank everyone who took the time to respond to my last post (Part 1) with their opinions and a few posting tips.

Just to preface my 2nd installment I would like to say first that I had initially planned to present my thoughts in a somewhat orderly and sequential way, in other words a chronological account of how my opinions on Trump evolved over time. However, the Trump saga is unfolding at such an astonishing pace these days that's it's hard to avoid jumping around a bit in the presentation of my thesis.

Secondly, although I have written countless papers while at University which required proper bibliographies and the referencing of sources, for the purposes of this essay I don’t feel this necessary. The quotes, tweets, news items etc that I refer to are all easily verifiable, with most being available on YouTube. I am presenting the opinions of one fairly average, ordinary Canadian(I think); obviously this is not a formal, fully researched political science paper.

Please excuse grammatical errors and spelling mistakes as I have no time to edit. I really shouldn’t even be devoting my limited free-time to writing this, but feel that the situation is dire and therefore I am compelled to express myself and add my voice to the mix. My hope is that many Americans may be interested in, and perhaps benefit from the observations of one of your neighbours to the North. And of course the consequences of this man’s actions greatly affect Canadians as well.

Who are these people in Trump’s base? The people cheering at his rallies. The people parroting his cries of “fake news”. I understand why people might have felt they were let down by previous administrations, left feeling disenfranchised and wanting a change. I understand why Trump’s heavy-handed policies and forceful campaigning style appealed to a large part of the country, and worked in defeating Hillary.

But that was then and this is now. It completely mystifies how anyone could possibly support this man after what we have witnessed for the past eight months! It should have nothing to do with one’s ideology at this point; not an issue of whether one is a Republican or a Democrat, a Progressive or a Conservative.

My disbelief is because it is blatantly obvious that Trump has proven on an almost daily basis that he is a pathological liar with an extremely distorted perception of reality. This plus his erratic behavior, inability to accept criticism, inability to take responsibility for (or even admit) any failure, constant obsessive/compulsive tendencies lead me to believe that he is quite likely mentally ill. I don’t care who you are...is this the type of person you want leading your country? Do you not see how he has so greatly diminished the office of the president, and by extension diminished your whole nation even if you agree with his extreme ideology? What kind of country is it that you want? What kind of world?

Canada is a peaceful nation. Like the U.S. we value above all liberty and the right to pursue happiness...but we seem to value peace much more than Americans, on both a national and individual level. I get it...you have the responsibility of being the world’s police, (and as with most police agencies there are often abuses of power), but I’m also referring to our more fundamental, individual peace-loving nature. As a Canadian I have been exposed to American culture all of my life...movies, TV etc. and have travelled through the U.S. many times, and it seems clear to me that Americans are always ready to fight, much more so than Canadians. I’ve seen it countless times ...the very quick escalation to violence, from seemingly little provocation.

I remember when I was in university I drove to New York City for a few days with a roommate. After a very long drive we arrived a night and decided to stop at a bar in Manhattan for a beer. We loved the real New York feel of the place...the type of bar that Archie Bunker would have drank at. Before we had finished our beer an argument broke out between a patron and the guy running the place. It got pretty loud, and the guy in the bar finally left, yelling that he was going home to get his gun, and would be back! We were freaked out and got out of there quick.

I remember too growing up watching Irv Weinstein doing the Buffalo local newscast every day, as this was prior to the advent of cable TV, and ABC out of Buffalo was one of the few channels available. We used to laugh in disbelief, calling it the Buffalo fire and murder report. That’s basically all that this newscast was...daily coverage of fires and murders!! And I don’t mean a re-telling, I mean new fires, and new murders(plural!!) every day!! Understand that by comparison Toronto is a city of over 3 million, and it averages one murder per week...and those are big news! Even the stereotype of Canadians that I see expressed in the American media as well as here, includes the trait of being overly polite, forever apologizing. We are definitely not a nation of Rambos.

The world we build around us is an expression of what’s going on inside us, and these expressions of our collective internal state are apparent not just in our art, but in many places including our leadership. That is the theory right?...that our leaders speak as the voice, and carry out the will of the collective. So it doesn’t surprise me that the angry, disenfranchised part of the U.S. population elected a brutish, bellicose leader. By contrast, here in Canada where we all get along quite well, embrace diversity, have few guns, and where issues can be debated civilly, (and btw we can smoke pot)...our leader is Trudeau. Whatever you may think of his politics, he is a decent intelligent man (and btw seems to be loved around the world).

The problem, and cause for my utter dismay is that the truth has been laid out clearly for the whole world to see...that Trump has nothing to bring to the office but the bluster. And after eight months of lies and self-contradictions even the bluster is losing effect. His rhetoric is not being backed up with clear ideology and leadership, and so like the boy that cried “wolf” it seems that people are starting to disregard his message.

Well here we are...faced with the scenario we all feared, and just 8 months in. A world crisis, probably the worst that anyone younger than 55 has ever known, and it’s being handled by a moron. Instead of an intelligent, well-studied leader who understands the complexities of the situation and the importance of choosing his words wisely, we have instead a hot-headed ignoramus in a pissing match with a lunatic(you decide who is who).

I have gone back and watched countless videos of Trump speeches and interviews, and realize that there is no indication that he has ever understood anything but the most fundamental points of any issue. None. Let’s face it...the man is an idiot. He is nothing but a self-promoter, a loudmouth who figured out how to draw media attention and use it to his advantage. That’s it as far as I can see. Even his business acumen is suspect, and I would wager that Mueller’s look into his ill-gotten gains will reveal a net worth far less than he has stated.

So now, 8 months in, he is the one that the world is depending on the steer us clear of disaster. A man who needs the details of the developing catastrophe kept to less than one page, with bullet-points and pictures. He cannot possibly appreciate the intricacies of this complex situation. His wreckless “fire and fury”comments to the press yesterday were just downright stupid, and highlight his ineptitude and incapacity for diplomacy. He only had one or two sentences to get out, and even still he blew it again!! Most thinking is that he went off script by adding the tag “than the world has ever seen”...one of his standard catch-phrases that he has used many times.

Even his language was so characteristically moronic. After warning the N Koreans that any further threats would be met with “fire and fury”, he repeated himself but this time adding three words to his comment... “threats would be met with fire and fury and frankly power”, as though he thought it would add clarity or might to his statement.

I am also reminded of one of Trump’s many hundreds of inappropriate or wreckless comments which rings rather poignant today, and again highlights the need for careful, accurate language especially when it is going on record, and especially when spoken by someone in power. Not long ago Trump made the comment that nukes are made for a reason...to be used!

It’s now several hours after writing the last few paragraphs, and it’s been confirmed that Trump improvised his “fire and fury” ultimatum. I knew it had to be. Now please tell me, is he the only person on this planet that doesn’t realize the importance of delivering a clear, carefully constructed and well deliberated message in a situation this sensitive! How dare he speak so impulsively! But then again that’s how he responds to any threat or criticism; bullying is all he knows, and all he’s got since he doesn’t have the brain-power to compete with the big boys. He is not fit to deal with this situation, or the presidency in general.

It’s now Friday 2:30 am. I would like to keep typing, fueled by my outrage at this man and the cadre of dunces that he brings with him. There is so much more to say, but many much more eloquent than me are saying similar things. Here you can hear Lawrence O’Donnell et. al. say it so well... https://youtu.be/7ZNqCRd9ke0 .

It seems almost futile at this point...certainly from this side of our border. Take to the streets!...your country has a great history of protest. Somehow this man (as well as the fascist alt-right movement) must be stopped from steering the world away from a path of progress and healing. We are now a global community, and unless competition and warring is replaced with a world mindset of co-operation, we are doomed.

I find myself feeling something that is quite foreign to me, and a feeling that I don’t like within me...that of hatred. Every time I see that mealy-mouthed creep lying so easily, knowing that he is jeopardizing my children’s future, my blood boils.

To his base I would say this...

Two important things that I have learned in my life are:

1) that when 10 or 20 people are saying one thing, and I am saying another...I am probably wrong as much as I would like it to be otherwise. That fact is that Trump is strongly disapproved of around the whole world and by the majority of Americans. There must be a reason for that! Please understand that the countless millions who see him as a failure (the overwhelming majority of the planet) should tell you that you cannot be seeing things clearly. I understand that it is hard for any of us to admit that we were wrong, but here the stakes are critically high!...and 2) I would rather have peace than be right!!

That’s all for now. If a couple of nukes hit, come up to Canada...we take in lots of refugees. Just please...leave your guns at home.

Sean

]

[susanhmcdade2]

8 ways to generate great blog posts from doctors

A couple of years back, I was asked to help my hometown, big city newspaper build a health and science section on its website-an ambitious project that included recruiting numerous health experts to blog. Researchers. Scientists. Professors. Lawyers. Patients. Doctors. Lots of doctors.

We were pretty excited when we managed to bring on board the team doctors from every major sports team in the city. But the excitement eased a bit when we slammed into a painful reality: Recruiting experts to blog is one challenge. Teaching them to produce readable-even compelling-blog entries is a whole different ballgame.

In the hope of saving you similar pain, here are some tips learned the hard way on how to coax strong content from doctors and other health providers:

Add patient stories. I remember talking with an adolescent health specialist early on who wanted to write an entry about teen pregnancy. Her draft made good points, but it was only when she added a story about a confused 14-year-old patient that it came to life. Stories are how humans learn and connect. Doctors and nurses spend their days on the front lines and have great stories to share. They often shy away from them, though, to protect privacy. Yes, there are privacy concerns in naming names and providing recognizable details, and you need to take them seriously. But that shouldn't prevent you from finding a way to use patient stories either by asking for permission or disguising specifics to protect identities.

Take the reader behind the scenes. There's a reason why there are so many medical shows on TV. Medicine is a fascinating world, and doctors perform miracles every day. It is routine to them. It isn't to us. Let us in on it. Share the drama. Take us into the E.R., the surgical suite, the examining room. Talk about emotions. The patient's family was crying. The nurse was smiling. Offer those little details that bring the scene to life. Give the reader some insight, a glimpse into that world.

[RELATED: Join us at Microsoft, and learn tactics and strategies to conquer all your biggest communications challenges.]

Don't limit the blog to words. Blogs are wonderfully flexible tools for communicating. Video, audio, photos-especially photos-can all work in a blog. Use them all, when appropriate. Teach your experts to think about the various assets at their disposal. We spent several hours following a therapy dog on his rounds through a local rehabilitation facility. The resulting photo essay-complete with smiling faces and wagging tails-pulled in a huge audience and told the story much more effectively than text ever could.

Add personality, even humor. Encourage your writers to provide personal details. One emergency department nurse would send dry entries about the administrative issues she dealt with. Over and over. You work in the ER, I would plead. Share that experience with me. Give me a window into that life as a way of explaining the administrative issues, which are certainly important. Tell me the kind of stories that start with You would not believe what happened today. Encourage your expert bloggers to use first person, to talk about themselves, their background, their family. It will strengthen the connection with the reader, which is a major part of the power of social media.

Teach them all the blogging tricks you know. We wrote a brief email for each new recruit listing all of those lessons that most PR pros already know: Use lists and bullet points because people tend to scan, illustrate your points with examples, write in first person, actively invite comments, don't lecture-invite conversation, etc. Those tips and more like them helped nudge our fledgling blog writers toward the sort of entries we were hoping to publish.

Share the numbers. If a blog entry garners impressive traffic, make sure you let the expert bloggers know. It will energize them for next time and will keep them focused on topics that patients want to hear about. Gently let them know when an entry is a dud, as well, all in the interest of building a readership. No one wants to launch their blog entry into the silence of deep space.

Respond to comments. Let your bloggers know upfront you expect them to respond to comments, when appropriate. Readers will be more engaged if they see the doctor is paying attention to thoughtful comments. Don't expect the experts to track the comments. That is your job. But alert them when there is something they should respond to. Thoughtful comments are the holy grail of blogging and provide a great way to keep the conversation going. One blog entry we ran on breastfeeding ended by asking readers about the most unusual place they had nursed their child. That led to more blog entries and lots of energetic discussion. A whole series prompted by reader comments.

Know when to quit. Some experts-a lot of doctors fall into this category-are either not strong writers or don't have the time it takes to craft engaging blog copy. That's OK. Their skill is medicine. That's where we as patients want them focused. Make it easy for them. The best solution is often to interview them, especially if you have a tight deadline. Run it as a Q&A with an expert, a format that is often more readable and interesting than an entry written by an expert. One morning when a local baseball player was sidelined with a knee injury we tracked down our knee expert, interviewed him and had a blog entry up within an hour or two of the news, much quicker than had we waited for him to write a blog entry.

A couple of years into blogging, a patient safety expert took a chance and wrote an entry for us on a young patient who died after swallowing medication patches. It was a harrowing story and well out of the range of items he typically wrote, but it garnered the most traffic he ever received and a featured spot on the main newspaper homepage. Doctors, nurses, researchers can all provide great expert content like that. They just might need some gentle handholding to get there.

Larry Blumenthal, a content strategist at Open Road Advisors, helps hospitals and other health-related organizations create digital content that gets read. First published in March 2015.

(Image via)

[richardrobertsimsuccessblog]

PB176: Scannable Content: 19 Techniques to Create it

Techniques to Create Scannable Content for Your Blog

In today’s lesson, I want to share a simple way to write content that is much more likely to be actually read, understood and acted upon by your readers.

We’re going to talk about techniques for creating more scannable content for your blog.

As bloggers, we put a lot of time into carefully choosing the right words for our blog posts but many times what stops people really engaging with our content is the way those words are arranged on the page.

They’re very often presented in a way that is too hard to read and inaccessible to many people. As a result our posts go unread, get no comments and have little chance of being shared on social media.

So if you’re someone who wants more readers, more engagement and more sharing of your content – learning to write more scannable content is a skill that you will want to develop and this episode is for you!

Further Resources on Scannable Content: 19 Techniques to Create it

How to Write Like a Human

5 Google Font Combinations That Will Make Your Blog’s Design Sing

Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view

Hi there and welcome to Episode 176 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com; a blog, podcast, event, job board, and a series of ebooks all designed to help you as a blogger, to start a blog, to grow your audience, and to help make money from that blog. You can find more about ProBlogger at problogger.com.

In today’s lesson, I want to share something really quite simple. It’s a skill that is going to help you with all of the content that you create for your blog. It’s going to help your blog to be more read by the readers who come to it, it’s going to help those readers to understand what you are trying to say to them, and to take action upon the content that you create. It’s also going to help you to get more shares on your content too.

Today we’re talking about techniques for creating scannable content on your blog. As a blogger, you probably put a lot of time into carefully choosing the right words for your blog posts. We all do that. We all really think hard about those words, the things that we’re trying to convey. But many times what stops your readers from actually engaging with the content that you put a lot of time into is the way those words are arranged on your page. They’re very often the right words but they’re just not arranged in the right way and they’re presented in a way that is either hard to read or inaccessible to some of your readers.

As a result, our posts go unread. They get no comments or few comments and they have little chance of being shared because people aren’t actually reading the content, they’re not comprehending it. If you are someone who wants more readers, more engagement, more sharing of your content, then today’s episode is for you because learning to write scannable content is a skill that you will want to develop. Again, let’s get into the techniques for today’s show.

Studies show that the average person only really comprehends about 60% of what they read. That’s a little bit depressing as a blogger. It’s no wonder that this is true because another study that I came across today found that only 16% of people read websites word for word, 16% of people read the content that we write word for word. Most people today simply don’t read every word that is in front of them, they scan what they’re reading. I know this to be a fact because it’s exactly what I do.

When I first arrive on a website or a blog, I tend to do a very quick scan around the page without scrolling whatever I see above the fold. If I see something that interests me, then I might scroll down further. But really, it’s an initial scan of the page to see if the content looks like it is relevant to me and if it’s good enough for me to invest a little bit of time on.

If I see something above the fold that I find interesting, I generally then will scan down further. I’ll scroll and I’ll do another scan of the content. I might even scan to the bottom of the page to see how long it is, whether it’s going to be easy to read, and if I see any benefits of reading. And then I make a decision about whether I want to read it. If I see something in that initial scan that I want to read, then I go right back to the top and I begin to read.

This is how I think most people do it. People are making decisions in those first few seconds on your blog to determine whether they’re going to find your content relevant to them and whether it’s worth spending time reading it. If your content feels hard to read, if they can’t immediately see some benefits of reading it, then they will click away from your site and not actually read it, and never leave a comment, and never share.

Learning to write in a way that is scannable is really important because people are determining whether they’re going to read your content based upon that fact. In today’s episode, what I want to do is present to you 19, and that might sound like a lot but they are very short and simple techniques, that you can use to do just that, create scannable content. Good bloggers keep this in mind as they write. They will employ a variety of techniques to make their post easier to scan and to read. Not all of these will be relevant for every post you write but hopefully as you read through them you’ll begin to develop some techniques that will help your next post be more scannable, read, comprehended, and engaged with. Let’s get through them.

Number one, write great headlines. We talked about this in Episode 156, I’m not going to go into great depth but the first thing people will have their eyes drawn to is the headline of your post. Make it stand out, that comes down to designing your blog in a way where your headline pops off the screen and so people’s eyes are drawn directly to that. That’s what you want people to see when they first come to your site. Make it designed so that people see it and can have their eyes drawn to it but also make sure the headline itself is compelling and gives people a reason to want to read the next line. I do talk about that in Episode 156, I’m not going to go into any more depth on that apart from saying the best thing you can really do in your headline is to communicate a benefit for reading that.

Number two is to write a great opening line. Aside from your headline, the most read part of your blog post will be your first line. Again, you want to be communicating a benefit or creating a little bit of curiosity and intrigue, or making some kind of a promise, or do something in that opening line of your blog post to give people a reason for reading more. That’s a key place where you can help people to know that your content is relevant for them.

Point number three, keep your paragraphs short. Large, unbroken slabs of text will turn many of your readers off. Keep your paragraphs short. This gives your readers a visual cue that reading your content will be achievable. If they just come to your site and see these large slabs of text, unbroken paragraphs, they’re going to go, “This is just too hard.” They might not actually think that but it’s a subconscious type thing. Every paragraph should only have one idea in it and be relatively short.

Point number four is related to this, keep your sentences short as well. In a similar way to keeping your paragraphs short, keeping your sentences short will help your readers feel like your content is accessible. If the first line in your blog post is a sentence that’s 40 or 50 words long and is confusing to comprehend, they’re going to go, “This is just too hard.” I heard one person say that sentences should have no more than 16 words in them. I’m not a big one on rules but that sounds like a fairly achievable type of thing.

Number five, choose simple words. I remember back in high school, my English teacher once told me, she actually wrote this as a comment on one of the essay that I’ve written, that words that have four syllables or more sound impressive but make writing inaccessible to those reading. Anything with more than four syllables in it, four or more syllables, is inaccessible type word for people.

I actually pointed out to my teacher that the word inaccessible which she’d written as a comment was a five syllable word. That may not have gone down too well with that English teacher. I remember her not receiving that comment too well, but I guess her words of advice really did sink in for me.

Write like you speak. Choose words that simply and accurately convey your meaning. The less people need to get out the dictionary to find out what you’re actually talking about, the more they’ll persist with your reading. Big words might sound impressive but they actually make your content a little bit more inaccessible.

Number six point, use lists. Anecdotal evidence here on ProBlogger in the content that I’ve written over the years and on Digital Photography School suggest to me that my post with list type formats do so much better than the more essay like content that I write. Breaking your content down into the format of a list just seems more easy to read for your readers. As they scan through they can go, “Yeah, this is a list.”  “Yeah, this is 20 points, that’s pretty comprehensive but I can see that it’s broken down for me in some way.” I say this time and time again in the content that I create. Using a list to format your whole post can be one way, and even to use bullet points throughout a post can again help people to scan through your content, so using list in that way.

Related to this, headings and subheadings are so important. Large bold words that act as visual cues for what’s happening in the content that you write is one way that you can use to communicate really quickly the main points of your article, but also to draw the eye through your content. Again, if people come to your site and all they see is a large slab of text, it may be broken down into paragraphs but all they see is text and nothing really is standing out to them, then it’s harder for them to actually find out what does this article cover. But if you can break your 2,000 word article or even your 500 word article down into 4 or 5 sections that each have a subheading that communicates what that section is about, it gives your readers a visual cue as to what is coming up, and whether there’s going to be something relevant to them. Using subheadings can really be useful in that way.

Other types of formatting is point number eight. This is where you might use bold, you might use italics, you might even choose to use capitals, all caps or underlining to emphasize points. You want to be really careful with this type of formatting. You don’t want your whole article to be a mismatch of bold, italics, capitals, underlining, because then your content might begin to look a little bit cluttered and messy. Some restrained use of these types of techniques can really draw the eye of your reader to particularly important parts of your content. Even changing the font size or the color of your content might be relevant at certain times. Again, be really restrained on this, you don’t want your content to just be a mismatch of all of these techniques. Formatting is point number eight.

Point number nine is to use pictures. Research shows that reader’s eyes are drawn down the page by pictures. Simply by putting a picture every 200 or 300 words can be one way to add some visual interest, but also to draw the eye of your readers down the page. Placing your pictures cleverly beside your key points, especially when they do relate to the content, increases the chance of people really getting right down to the bottom of your post.

Point number ten is related to this, use image captions. When you’re using a picture, an image in your post, consider putting an image caption. This is pretty easy to do today with WordPress, it’s all built into WordPress. People naturally look at the little descriptions or the words underneath images. I would suspect that they, perhaps apart from your subheadings, are possibly the most read parts of your posts. Actually putting in an image caption in there that emphasizes a point that you’re trying to make, even if it has a call to action, might be a good place to draw the eye.

Number eleven, use other visual content. Using images is great but putting your key points or quotes from the article into a graphic image can be a really great visual cue as well. Using charts can also be good, or even putting tables into your content. Anything that is visual and there’s a different type of conveying of information can really help to draw the eye, to show your readers that it’s not just reading that you want them to do, you’ve got something for them to look at as well. This can really help to get your key points across. Even those graphics that we often use to promote our content on social media, actually putting those into your content, you might take a key quote from your article, put it over a graphic, a beautiful image, and put that into your content. That again acts like a sub header. There’s something that’s going to be relevant later in this article, gives you a reason to read more.

Point number twelve, use blockquotes. This is a formatting tool that you can use. Most WordPress themes have a blockquote. This is where you’re highlighting a particular part of your content in some way. If you don’t know what a blockquote is, do a search on Google for that and you’ll see that WordPress enables you to use those. It really allows you to highlight a particular part of your content. It’s usually designed there to highlight a quote, but you can of course use that in different ways.

Number thirteen is to use white space. Don’t feel you have to fill up every inch of your screen. Rather, creating space in your content can actually help your readers to feel not quite so overwhelmed. Again, space can draw your reader’s eye down into the page. This is partly to do with design which we are to talk about but also you can add in line breaks into your content just to really space them out a little bit more. Thirteen is using white space.

Fourteen, I want to talk just really briefly about using good design. Speaking of using space, a lot of what we’ve actually been talking about really does come down to the design of your site and the template that you use. This episode isn’t the type of episode to talk in depth about blog design. We have had others in the past on that which I’ll link to in the shownotes. Many times, blogs are difficult to read simply because their design is cluttered. Simplifying your design can really help a lot.

Also, choosing fonts that aren’t too small can help to make your content more readable. Adding a little bit of distance between your lines on your content can also help as well. Getting the advice of a good designer can help a lot. We’ll have some further reading in the shownotes on good design.

Point number fifteen is to get to the point. Try to be succinct with your points. One technique that I have tried to use on my own content from time to time is to use summary statements to help to get to the point. If I’m writing a long article, maybe 2,000 or 3,000 words, and I might be using subheadings to break up the text, underneath each subheading I might try to include a summary statement. It’s almost like the opening line of your blog post but it’s the opening line of a section, actually summarizing what is the benefit of reading this particular section of the content. Using those types of summary statements can help to get to the point. Readers see the subheading, they read that opening line of that section, and they immediately have a reason for wanting to read the rest of that particular section. It’s really similar to using a title and opening line but using that technique throughout your posts as well.

Number 16, don’t bury your points. This really does relate to getting to the point there. One trap the many of us fall into is that we bury our main points deep within the content where it’s unlikely to be noticed. If you’ve got a key point that you really want your readers to come away with, you just say it upfront. Use those summary statements and also emphasize it throughout your post which is number seventeen, repeat your important points.

If you’ve got something you want people to get from your content, say it more than once. Don’t rely on the fact that if you say it once they’re going to get that point because as we said right upfront, most people aren’t reading word for word so you do need to emphasize that point numerous times throughout your content. Say it in your opening, say it in some of your summary statements, say it in your conclusion, say it in a visual piece of content as well and you’re much more likely for people to get that main point, to get that main call to action.

Number eighteen, don’t introduce too many new ideas into a single post. Once again, this helps to avoid overwhelming your readers with all the information at once. If you want to cover many ideas in a single blog post, you might want to consider breaking that down into a series of posts. There are pros and cons of having a series of post or having a long piece of content. Both can work but the more points you’re trying to make in a post, the less likely people are to get all of them.

The nineteenth thing that I want to say is to write like a human being, which might sound a little bit obvious there. The more human-like your writing is, the better. People will persist with your content if they feel like they’ve got a connection with you, if they feel like there’s another human being on the other side of the screen that they’re reading. Tell stories, show them who you are, write in a more conversational style.

If there’s one piece of further listening that I would encourage you to take at the end of this particular episode, it is to check out Episode 52 of the ProBlogger podcast where I have a conversation with Beth Dunn who works at HubSpot. We talked through 10 things you can do to make your writing more humanlike and less robotic. That’s Episode 52, which I encourage you to go and listen to.

I hope somewhere in those nineteen points there are some techniques that you can use in your next blog post to make it more scannable. Let me whip through them again really quickly. Write great headlines; write great opening lines; keep your paragraphs short; keep your sentences short; choose simple words; use lists; use headings and subheadings; use formatting tools like bold, caps, italics; use images; use image captions; use other types of visual content like charts; use blockquotes; use white space; use good design; get to the point; don’t bury your points; repeat your most important points; don’t introduce too many new ideas into one post; and write like a human being.

I hope you found that useful. I’d love to hear what you would add to these. You can find some further reading today and comment on these particular episode over at http://ift.tt/2jnpDg0.

Once again, if you do want to listen to a little bit more today on blogging, I encourage you to go over and listen to that interview that I did with Beth Dunn, 10 Things You Can Do To Make Your Writing More Humanlike And Less Robotic. It’s Episode 52 which you can find in iTunes or on the ProBlogger shownotes page at http://ift.tt/2eW9cpC.

How did you go with today’s episode?

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The post PB176: Scannable Content: 19 Techniques to Create it appeared first on ProBlogger Podcast.

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  PB176: Scannable Content: 19 Techniques to Create it

[marchagainsttrump]

One Canadian's View on Trump Part 2 - [

Hello Again.

I want to first thank everyone who took the time to respond to my last post (Part 1) with their opinions and a few posting tips.

Just to preface my 2nd installment I would like to say first that I had initially planned to present my thoughts in a somewhat orderly and sequential way, in other words a chronological account of how my opinions on Trump evolved over time. However, the Trump saga is unfolding at such an astonishing pace these days that's it's hard to avoid jumping around a bit in the presentation of my thesis.

Secondly, although I have written countless papers while at University which required proper bibliographies and the referencing of sources, for the purposes of this essay I don’t feel this necessary. The quotes, tweets, news items etc that I refer to are all easily verifiable, with most being available on YouTube. I am presenting the opinions of one fairly average, ordinary Canadian(I think); obviously this is not a formal, fully researched political science paper.

Please excuse grammatical errors and spelling mistakes as I have no time to edit. I really shouldn’t even be devoting my limited free-time to writing this, but feel that the situation is dire and therefore I am compelled to express myself and add my voice to the mix. My hope is that many Americans may be interested in, and perhaps benefit from the observations of one of your neighbours to the North. And of course the consequences of this man’s actions greatly affect Canadians as well.

Who are these people in Trump’s base? The people cheering at his rallies. The people parroting his cries of “fake news”. I understand why people might have felt they were let down by previous administrations, left feeling disenfranchised and wanting a change. I understand why Trump’s heavy-handed policies and forceful campaigning style appealed to a large part of the country, and worked in defeating Hillary.

But that was then and this is now. It completely mystifies how anyone could possibly support this man after what we have witnessed for the past eight months! It should have nothing to do with one’s ideology at this point; not an issue of whether one is a Republican or a Democrat, a Progressive or a Conservative.

My disbelief is because it is blatantly obvious that Trump has proven on an almost daily basis that he is a pathological liar with an extremely distorted perception of reality. This plus his erratic behavior, inability to accept criticism, inability to take responsibility for (or even admit) any failure, constant obsessive/compulsive tendencies lead me to believe that he is quite likely mentally ill. I don’t care who you are...is this the type of person you want leading your country? Do you not see how he has so greatly diminished the office of the president, and by extension diminished your whole nation even if you agree with his extreme ideology? What kind of country is it that you want? What kind of world?

Canada is a peaceful nation. Like the U.S. we value above all liberty and the right to pursue happiness...but we seem to value peace much more than Americans, on both a national and individual level. I get it...you have the responsibility of being the world’s police, (and as with most police agencies there are often abuses of power), but I’m also referring to our more fundamental, individual peace-loving nature. As a Canadian I have been exposed to American culture all of my life...movies, TV etc. and have travelled through the U.S. many times, and it seems clear to me that Americans are always ready to fight, much more so than Canadians. I’ve seen it countless times ...the very quick escalation to violence, from seemingly little provocation.

I remember when I was in university I drove to New York City for a few days with a roommate. After a very long drive we arrived a night and decided to stop at a bar in Manhattan for a beer. We loved the real New York feel of the place...the type of bar that Archie Bunker would have drank at. Before we had finished our beer an argument broke out between a patron and the guy running the place. It got pretty loud, and the guy in the bar finally left, yelling that he was going home to get his gun, and would be back! We were freaked out and got out of there quick.

I remember too growing up watching Irv Weinstein doing the Buffalo local newscast every day, as this was prior to the advent of cable TV, and ABC out of Buffalo was one of the few channels available. We used to laugh in disbelief, calling it the Buffalo fire and murder report. That’s basically all that this newscast was...daily coverage of fires and murders!! And I don’t mean a re-telling, I mean new fires, and new murders(plural!!) every day!! Understand that by comparison Toronto is a city of over 3 million, and it averages one murder per week...and those are big news! Even the stereotype of Canadians that I see expressed in the American media as well as here, includes the trait of being overly polite, forever apologizing. We are definitely not a nation of Rambos.

The world we build around us is an expression of what’s going on inside us, and these expressions of our collective internal state are apparent not just in our art, but in many places including our leadership. That is the theory right?...that our leaders speak as the voice, and carry out the will of the collective. So it doesn’t surprise me that the angry, disenfranchised part of the U.S. population elected a brutish, bellicose leader. By contrast, here in Canada where we all get along quite well, embrace diversity, have few guns, and where issues can be debated civilly, (and btw we can smoke pot)...our leader is Trudeau. Whatever you may think of his politics, he is a decent intelligent man (and btw seems to be loved around the world).

The problem, and cause for my utter dismay is that the truth has been laid out clearly for the whole world to see...that Trump has nothing to bring to the office but the bluster. And after eight months of lies and self-contradictions even the bluster is losing effect. His rhetoric is not being backed up with clear ideology and leadership, and so like the boy that cried “wolf” it seems that people are starting to disregard his message.

Well here we are...faced with the scenario we all feared, and just 8 months in. A world crisis, probably the worst that anyone younger than 55 has ever known, and it’s being handled by a moron. Instead of an intelligent, well-studied leader who understands the complexities of the situation and the importance of choosing his words wisely, we have instead a hot-headed ignoramus in a pissing match with a lunatic(you decide who is who).

I have gone back and watched countless videos of Trump speeches and interviews, and realize that there is no indication that he has ever understood anything but the most fundamental points of any issue. None. Let’s face it...the man is an idiot. He is nothing but a self-promoter, a loudmouth who figured out how to draw media attention and use it to his advantage. That’s it as far as I can see. Even his business acumen is suspect, and I would wager that Mueller’s look into his ill-gotten gains will reveal a net worth far less than he has stated.

So now, 8 months in, he is the one that the world is depending on the steer us clear of disaster. A man who needs the details of the developing catastrophe kept to less than one page, with bullet-points and pictures. He cannot possibly appreciate the intricacies of this complex situation. His wreckless “fire and fury”comments to the press yesterday were just downright stupid, and highlight his ineptitude and incapacity for diplomacy. He only had one or two sentences to get out, and even still he blew it again!! Most thinking is that he went off script by adding the tag “than the world has ever seen”...one of his standard catch-phrases that he has used many times.

Even his language was so characteristically moronic. After warning the N Koreans that any further threats would be met with “fire and fury”, he repeated himself but this time adding three words to his comment... “threats would be met with fire and fury and frankly power”, as though he thought it would add clarity or might to his statement.

I am also reminded of one of Trump’s many hundreds of inappropriate or wreckless comments which rings rather poignant today, and again highlights the need for careful, accurate language especially when it is going on record, and especially when spoken by someone in power. Not long ago Trump made the comment that nukes are made for a reason...to be used!

It’s now several hours after writing the last few paragraphs, and it’s been confirmed that Trump improvised his “fire and fury” ultimatum. I knew it had to be. Now please tell me, is he the only person on this planet that doesn’t realize the importance of delivering a clear, carefully constructed and well deliberated message in a situation this sensitive! How dare he speak so impulsively! But then again that’s how he responds to any threat or criticism; bullying is all he knows, and all he’s got since he doesn’t have the brain-power to compete with the big boys. He is not fit to deal with this situation, or the presidency in general.

It’s now Friday 2:30 am. I would like to keep typing, fueled by my outrage at this man and the cadre of dunces that he brings with him. There is so much more to say, but many much more eloquent than me are saying similar things. Here you can hear Lawrence O’Donnell et. al. say it so well... https://youtu.be/7ZNqCRd9ke0 .

It seems almost futile at this point...certainly from this side of our border. Take to the streets!...your country has a great history of protest. Somehow this man (as well as the fascist alt-right movement) must be stopped from steering the world away from a path of progress and healing. We are now a global community, and unless competition and warring is replaced with a world mindset of co-operation, we are doomed.

I find myself feeling something that is quite foreign to me, and a feeling that I don’t like within me...that of hatred. Every time I see that mealy-mouthed creep lying so easily, knowing that he is jeopardizing my children’s future, my blood boils.

To his base I would say this...

Two important things that I have learned in my life are:

1) that when 10 or 20 people are saying one thing, and I am saying another...I am probably wrong as much as I would like it to be otherwise. That fact is that Trump is strongly disapproved of around the whole world and by the majority of Americans. There must be a reason for that! Please understand that the countless millions who see him as a failure (the overwhelming majority of the planet) should tell you that you cannot be seeing things clearly. I understand that it is hard for any of us to admit that we were wrong, but here the stakes are critically high!...and 2) I would rather have peace than be right!!

That’s all for now. If a couple of nukes hit, come up to Canada...we take in lots of refugees. Just please...leave your guns at home.

Sean

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[susanhmcdade2]

8 ways to generate great blog posts from doctors

A couple of years back, I was asked to help my hometown, big city newspaper build a health and science section on its website-an ambitious project that included recruiting numerous health experts to blog. Researchers. Scientists. Professors. Lawyers. Patients. Doctors. Lots of doctors.

We were pretty excited when we managed to bring on board the team doctors from every major sports team in the city. But the excitement eased a bit when we slammed into a painful reality: Recruiting experts to blog is one challenge. Teaching them to produce readable-even compelling-blog entries is a whole different ballgame.

In the hope of saving you similar pain, here are some tips learned the hard way on how to coax strong content from doctors and other health providers:

Add patient stories. I remember talking with an adolescent health specialist early on who wanted to write an entry about teen pregnancy. Her draft made good points, but it was only when she added a story about a confused 14-year-old patient that it came to life. Stories are how humans learn and connect. Doctors and nurses spend their days on the front lines and have great stories to share. They often shy away from them, though, to protect privacy. Yes, there are privacy concerns in naming names and providing recognizable details, and you need to take them seriously. But that shouldn't prevent you from finding a way to use patient stories either by asking for permission or disguising specifics to protect identities.

Take the reader behind the scenes. There's a reason why there are so many medical shows on TV. Medicine is a fascinating world, and doctors perform miracles every day. It is routine to them. It isn't to us. Let us in on it. Share the drama. Take us into the E.R., the surgical suite, the examining room. Talk about emotions. The patient's family was crying. The nurse was smiling. Offer those little details that bring the scene to life. Give the reader some insight, a glimpse into that world.

[RELATED: Join us at Microsoft, and learn tactics and strategies to conquer all your biggest communications challenges.]

Don't limit the blog to words. Blogs are wonderfully flexible tools for communicating. Video, audio, photos-especially photos-can all work in a blog. Use them all, when appropriate. Teach your experts to think about the various assets at their disposal. We spent several hours following a therapy dog on his rounds through a local rehabilitation facility. The resulting photo essay-complete with smiling faces and wagging tails-pulled in a huge audience and told the story much more effectively than text ever could.

Add personality, even humor. Encourage your writers to provide personal details. One emergency department nurse would send dry entries about the administrative issues she dealt with. Over and over. You work in the ER, I would plead. Share that experience with me. Give me a window into that life as a way of explaining the administrative issues, which are certainly important. Tell me the kind of stories that start with You would not believe what happened today. Encourage your expert bloggers to use first person, to talk about themselves, their background, their family. It will strengthen the connection with the reader, which is a major part of the power of social media.

Teach them all the blogging tricks you know. We wrote a brief email for each new recruit listing all of those lessons that most PR pros already know: Use lists and bullet points because people tend to scan, illustrate your points with examples, write in first person, actively invite comments, don't lecture-invite conversation, etc. Those tips and more like them helped nudge our fledgling blog writers toward the sort of entries we were hoping to publish.

Share the numbers. If a blog entry garners impressive traffic, make sure you let the expert bloggers know. It will energize them for next time and will keep them focused on topics that patients want to hear about. Gently let them know when an entry is a dud, as well, all in the interest of building a readership. No one wants to launch their blog entry into the silence of deep space.

Respond to comments. Let your bloggers know upfront you expect them to respond to comments, when appropriate. Readers will be more engaged if they see the doctor is paying attention to thoughtful comments. Don't expect the experts to track the comments. That is your job. But alert them when there is something they should respond to. Thoughtful comments are the holy grail of blogging and provide a great way to keep the conversation going. One blog entry we ran on breastfeeding ended by asking readers about the most unusual place they had nursed their child. That led to more blog entries and lots of energetic discussion. A whole series prompted by reader comments.

Know when to quit. Some experts-a lot of doctors fall into this category-are either not strong writers or don't have the time it takes to craft engaging blog copy. That's OK. Their skill is medicine. That's where we as patients want them focused. Make it easy for them. The best solution is often to interview them, especially if you have a tight deadline. Run it as a Q&A with an expert, a format that is often more readable and interesting than an entry written by an expert. One morning when a local baseball player was sidelined with a knee injury we tracked down our knee expert, interviewed him and had a blog entry up within an hour or two of the news, much quicker than had we waited for him to write a blog entry.

A couple of years into blogging, a patient safety expert took a chance and wrote an entry for us on a young patient who died after swallowing medication patches. It was a harrowing story and well out of the range of items he typically wrote, but it garnered the most traffic he ever received and a featured spot on the main newspaper homepage. Doctors, nurses, researchers can all provide great expert content like that. They just might need some gentle handholding to get there.

Larry Blumenthal, a content strategist at Open Road Advisors, helps hospitals and other health-related organizations create digital content that gets read. First published in March 2015.

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