#ws if the first 5+ or so will be offered for free ever again.....

[rodem]

had an absoutelhy insane dream last night (obviously dreams do not make sense when you actually try to contextualize all the details and what not, so i will try to reformulate a few things to make smore sense in my mind)

the story is abt a lab of scientists, who also do forensic investigation or something? idkexactly what they dd id and it doesnt matter ebcause dreams are not logicall. the main character has like very low self esteem and a history of being bullied/made fun of (both in the past and in the present by like two coworkers.) this all makes him very insecure an d self conscious he feels like he isnt contributing anything to the lab and is just going to continue being in a menial position/possibly be fired for being so useless (i think he and the two other charas i will mention were actually lab assistants, but like idk what the specifcs of that position are i know nothing abt science). the two other major characters are his two childhood friends who work with him in the same position. they are siblings and the dude is a couple years older than the main character and is sister is ether his twin or a few years younger/closer in age to the main character. the main character looks like a twinkie blonde guy with glasses (basically looks like my still in progress oc who is like the exact same chara but a teacher instead of a scientist. star system bullshit i guess). the dude childhood friend is like very huge and bald and intimidating looking. the girl is basic small blonde cute girl looking type. the mc and chfguy were best buddies back in grade school and the dude always had the mc’s back. but since they got older/separated for a bit due to them being in dif places in life, the dude has become very quiet and so they arent as close but still consider eacther friends. though the dude is like a science genius and he keeps coming up with amazing discoveries and research. which eventually earn him a position as a valued core member of the team. bcuz they arent as close as previously along with dude looking big and scary and being very quiet except for like standard greetings, mc is convinced dude now hates him and is doing all this to get mc fired, or at least dimmish his importance even further. mc is also secretly scared of dude now and since he’s really paranoid about dude secretly hating him, he obviously never brings this up to dude and his sister. the sister is the one who actively tries to reach out to him and talk to him more, but also really admires and loves her brother so of course dude can’t tell her what he really thinks abt him know. 

anyway so the mc does some research/tests abt cancer and boldly exclaims that he has found the cure for cancer (mis-representing the results of the tests he actualy did). no one questions him on the validity of his claim as the rest of the lab staff are too excited thinking abt all the fame and publicity it will bring their lab. and they believe mc is now the shoe in for the noble prize (and yes i was watching bobby broccoli’s utube documentaries recently).

at the same time (i think a bit before he starts the lie) something inside mc just snaps and he kills someone. idr who exactly it was but it might of been one of his past bullies or one of the coworkers who belittled him so much. with his scientific knowledge the guy is able to commit a crime without leaving any traces that would lead back to him. he dumps the guy in the nearby river/creek body of water thing. for some reason he decides to himself that theres point of no return now and that he should continue killing ppl. so now our main character is on e a quest to make a name for himself in two ways: in public he will be known as the genius who cured cancer, and in the darkness he will be an anonymous vigilante serial killer, bringing scum who escaped the law to justice!!! (im p sure now tht he kills the person and starts this quest before he started lying abt curing cancer, cause he wouldnt of snapped like that if all his coworkers were praising his Genius.) 

So the mc continues killing ppl and dumping them in the same body of water. eventually the bodies are discovered and this mysterious vigilante assassin is dubbed... “The Killer.” The Killer’s action inspire fear and debate around the city. Meanwhile the lab staff is preparing the mc’s speech for the noble prize. Mc actually has not published his research yet (cause it like doesn’t exist/leads to a widely different conclusion), and is planning to rely the scientific method not until the event where he receives the award himself, for maximum impact!! Other, “less important” lab members are tasked with writing his acceptance speech, with mc giving the go-ahead and saying that hell check it over and edit it himself once he receives it. Since no one else actually knows the process behind curing cancer that mc supposedly discovered, they mostly just write bullshit fluff. 

Soon the light and darkness of mc’s life intersect, when one of his lab higherups is tasked with doing forensic investigation into the remains of The Killer’s victims. So of course, MC begins expanding his victim criteria and kills the higherup too. When a few fellow lab members begin to question mc’s validity, he kills them too and all their bodies are disposed of the same way. 

So now its like the day before the noble prize ceremony (idk how that shit works at all btw), and mc has crafted a good enough fake logic for how to cure cancer that will fool most ppl who dont know abt science/the more lowly lab members. He has killed everyone in the team who he believes would find the holes in his logic and ruin his grand plan... except.... the dude childhood friend, who is very very intelligent. So mc must kill and dispose of the dude before the ceremony the next day. but whats more important than the actual killing to him, i s figuring out where to dispose the body, since it has to be in a way where no evidence/traces to him remain. it cant be a body of water because he knows it will be discovered quickly and he doesn t want this killing to be connected to The Killer. So he decides to burn it. but since the guy is huge he needs to find a place in the middle of nowhere where he cn set off a huge fire without anyone noticing. Guy spends like all day and night wandering the city and nearby places to find a big field in the middle of nowhere. eventually just walking in circles and making no progress. The remaining lab members are all confused and worried abt where mc disappeared to as he should be practicing his speech, so dude is sent to investigate (and also he goes bcuz he is personally very very worried for his friend). i guess they live in a n industrial city but mc is not even trying he s just wandering around the most populous streets. (but supposedly he just never finds the place he is looking for.) mc also may or may not have realized that dude is following and looking for him, and if he did he was trying to avoid him as well. anyway its the dead of the night, or early morning, mc has went the entire day without eating or sleeping. he lets his guard down and is spotted by dude. so he cant keep up the act of trying to pretend he didnt notice him any longer. i think the excuse mc gives dude for why he was gone all day and spen t the entire night pacing around (even going to the next city or state over and walking all the way back) is that he was just really anxious abt the whole thing and needed time to think by himself and walking helps that. anyway dude is like “you need sleep” so the two rent  a room in the nearby high class hotel (the only place fit for a high class scientist who discovered the cure for cancer.) the ornate hotel room comes with a fire place. 

It is only a few hours until the ceremony and mc is so tired he feels like he’s abt to pass out. So at this point he can either 1. get a t least  a few hours of sleep so he’s not completely out of it during the ceremony. and with that means taking the risk that he will be found out by dude and be made into a global disgrace. option 2 is killing him in the hotel room and burning the body in the fireplace.

Also dude and tire d mc have a chat while sitting on the bed together (mc is like resting his head on dude’s thigh he’s that tired.) here dude confesses that he has been in love with mc this entire time, or at least ever since they reunited at th e same job. and also that him being quiet was just due to his personality changing/experiencing hardships that made him believe it was better to not talk much. and also that he assumed that there bond as childhood friend’s was so close that he really only needed to make small talk for mc to understand him. (a case of awful communication all around). this new revelation adds anything layer to the moral dilemma of mc’s choice. 

Thi s dream had like a bad ending and good ending, like video game. (It was more like “cowardly/giving up” ending and “going through wit h everything” one.) The “bad” ending involved mc confessing everything to dude. not just that the whole curing cancer thing being a huge lie, but also that he’s the one behind te killings. The sleepiness makes MC give up everything and allows dude to decide how to deal with him. (whether he brings him to justice/exposes everything or not.) 

in like these kinds of dreams im usually conscious its a dream so if it ends in a bad/scary way i backtrack and think of a better ending. and also it was one of those dreams where i was both an outside observer watching/reading a story and the mc at the same time, so like ending with being exposed and prob going to prison for life was scary for me. The alt/good/true ending has mc stay awake to continue his killing/burning body plan. I think he succeeds in killing him, either by shoving him in the fireplace alive or by killing him b4 through some method and then burning him alive. but its a big dude and the fireplace is very small in comparison and there’s no tools around to chop up the body so idk what happens after. and idk how it ends in gneeral cause i like always wake up right b4 the actual end. 

ANyway, it was another very fucked up dream but ive had way scarier ones tbh (like this one was mostly fine for me cause like the “outside observer” side was more than the “I’m in the place of the mc” side when its usually the opposite I feel like.) . And with alot of editing/adding and changing things i think this could make an interesting suspense story. 

[aelaer]

[1/2] Now this is an actual ask as in asking for help. 👀 I have a problem with Steve and Tony. I spent too much time too early on reading anti/not-friendly post-CW fics about 'Team Cap', and because of that I have been unable to see Tony as a flawed human or Steve as a good person. It's a pattern I've become too familiar with, and even recent stories are often going into that sense. I have been trying for some time now to do something about it, but either the method was bad, or I couldn't

(I tagged a couple people in this post – if you were tagged, the question directed to you is wayyyy at the bottom! Feel free to ignore of course.)

You really hit me with a doozy with this ask. I might offend someone for not thinking the exact same way as them with… everything this topic entails… Steve, Tony, anti-fics. Followers from last year know what happened last time I talked about poor and OOC characterization in fanfic, lmao. Beware The Easily Offended! This Is A Critical Thinking Of Your Hobby Zone! I Am Being Critical Of Specific Types of MCU Fanfic!

Please don’t click the read more button if you can’t handle an opinion that might not match yours. Really. I’m fine with discussing different opinions in a mature manner but if you have issues with people saying they don’t like a specific type of plot, this post is not for you. (The read more button doesn’t appear on the original post for followers using the mobile app, but it works on desktop and in all reblogs. If you don’t see a cut and don’t want to read, just skip it, please).

Yeah. Okay. Moving on. Can’t say folks weren’t warned.

I’ve had this in my drafts for several weeks because of the abuse I got the last time I wrote something critical about certain plot points used in fanfic. I was definitely a bit reluctant to look at this specific topic from an analytical and critical look as I remembered that, but hey, it’s really easy for a coward to use a sockpuppet account and throw abuse. It’s harder to be a minority voice with stark opinions contrasting the popular trend. I’m okay with having a minority opinion amongst the MCU fandom.

(PS - you’re welcome to disagree with my opinions, so long as you’re respectful about it. Remember there are individuals behind the screens!)

Concerning Character Flaws

So the thing about really well-written characters is that they are flawed in some manner. Anyone who thinks Tony or Steve exist without flaws – and I mean real flaws, like arrogance, believing they’re always right, short tempers, and other *real* character flaws that both of these characters have – well, if they don’t think they exist with these flaws, how well do they know the character?

You don’t have to know a character well to be a fan of said character – there’s no rules about that – but if you’re going to write fanfic, and that fanfic entails the character you love against a character you don’t particularly like, I’d say any writer looking to do anything resembling a good job would do their due diligence in figuring out the strengths and weaknesses of both characters before writing the characters themselves. These mental lists of characteristics should be equal for both characters. No, “good abs” is not a character strength if you have no physical aspects in the other character strength column. You don’t have to like a character to still write them well.

Even professionals don’t follow this rule when, say, shows get new writers or comics get different writers, so you might consider me silly expecting those dabbling in fan fiction. But yeah, if an author wants me to take a story seriously as something with quality, I expect the characters to resemble themselves in some manner.

(This level of resemblance varies when you purposefully choose for the protagonist to be evil, be in a completely different time period, etc, but authors who do this *well* still get core personality traits solid, even if morality is out the window or the profession is entirely different. I have a lot of examples from the Sherlock fandom of total AUs that pull this off well – haven’t read nearly enough AUs in the MCU to have a good collection here).

But a resemblance of character, of capturing the three-dimensionality of a character, is what anti-fics simply fail to achieve. The characters they’re anti against usually suffer cases of Flanderization, if they’re not completely out of character altogether in showing traits that were never displayed in the canon, ever. I don’t know why anyone would be interested in such stories, myself, and remain baffled at their popularity. Is there some sort of enjoyment in seeing such a 2D rendition of a character in what is otherwise meant as a serious work and provides absolutely no sense of proper conflict between two characters? Not for me; it immediately takes me out of the story and when it gets too much, I abandon the story. It’s just not enjoyable for me. Turning a canon protagonist into a strawman is just lazy writing and offers nothing to the writer’s favorite, preferred character.

Concerning Steve’s and Tony’s Flaws

Every real human being has some sort of personality flaw that is decidedly unattractive. Some people are really good at showing it very rarely (and are some of the best human beings), but with these two characters we see them at their greatest heights and lowest of lows. Ironically, they actually share a lot of the same flaws, but display them in different manners in canon:

Both men believe they are the best man for the job and will do it without consulting someone who could actually fight against it - or go completely against them. Tony with Ultron is the easy example here. He’s the smartest man in the world and can tackle the issue of protecting it on its own. Steve, same issue, and his job is “helping Bucky”. *He’s* the one who can handle Bucky, the only one who can handle him - big thing in both WS and CW. If both of them had utilized their friends and allies a lot more, a lot of issues could have been avoided.

Both men are sometimes hypocritical. Steve promotes teamwork in all his speeches but again with the Bucky situation. Just… everything Bucky, man. Tony signs the Accords and immediately goes against them with what he gives to Peter, who most assuredly did not sign them (tangent: if he HAD joined the Avengers at the end of Homecoming, I have no idea how that would have gone since Peter would have had to reveal his identity to the UN and then there’s the whole ‘still a minor’ thing, and yeah, Homecoming’s end scene just makes me go nuts). But anyway, their occasional hypocrisy is one of the most realistic aspects of them because most human beings are hypocritical sometimes.

Both men are sometimes arrogant. Tony’s self-explanatory with his genius-playboy-philanthropist-billionaire. One thing he does not suffer from is low self-esteem in regards to his abilities. His arrogance comes from his genius. Steve’s arrogance lies more in his deep-seeded belief that he is on the moral high ground – and one reason I think a lot of people dislike him so much, because moral superiority is very much a faux pas in this day and age for some millennials and many Gen Z folk. He has a very, very solid sense of what is right and what is wrong, and that rubs some folks the wrong way. Tony is more morally fluid – but he is not by any means immoral.

Both of them have a really solid list of strengths as well. As this ask specifically is looking to find the good in Steve, I specifically Googled pro-Steve articles for you to click at your leisure (and one with both). If you need to go back to canon, I highly recommend rewatching The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier, which introduces Steve brilliantly and then lets Steve grow further in the second film.

(Note: I actually prefer Tony to Steve in terms of personal favoritism, but how a very loud segment of Tony fans have treated other characters has led me to be more vocal about the strengths of others, especially Steve and Wanda. So Tony might be in my top 5, but mean-spirited Tony fans have moved me to be a champion of other characters, if only to show other fans that there are indeed Tony fans that do like the other characters and treat them – and their fans – with respect).

Bringing Balance (to the Universe…) Fanfic-Style

This addresses the second part of your ask in regards to the fanfics. And this is where I started running into trouble, too, mostly because, well, just how many Stephen and Steve fics are there? Yeah, exactly. Stephen’s my main guy. So I did some research, outsourcing, and reading.

Here’s two I knew of before cuz Stephen’s in them in some capacity:

Identity Theft by KitKat992 - it stars Peter and both Tony and Steve play integral parts from what I recall. Good story too, very engaging.

A Dysfunctional Senior Year (series) by ApolloLoki97 - this also stars Peter and has a large Team As Family aspect, so it shows the entire Avengers team as just decent people. My favorite part is naturally part 3 because Stephen comes in that one, haha.

And to find other stories, I went into the Anti-Accords tag. It was nice to find fics that didn’t have such a love of hypocritical authoritarianism. Aannyyyyway.

Making Sense of Chaos by SparkedtoLife - mind the tags. Seriously, it’s heavy duty. Yet another Peter fic because he’s way more popular than my favorite character, qq. Lots of Netflix Marvel characters too! Anyway, deals with not only Tony and Steve really well (and has a different dynamic with Tony that isn’t IronDad, so that was a nice change of pace), it also deals with the Accords situation very realistically. And none of those are even main plot points. If you can handle the very serious, sensitive subject that is the main plot point, I highly recommended it. It’s a very masterfully done work.

Atlas by nanasekei - Stony. Treats all characters with respect and both Tony and Steve as three-dimensional, flawed humans with some serious self doubts. Also highly agree with the author that Thaddeus Ross sucks and is basically one of the biggest people to blame for Everything Going To Shit.

Homecoming by an orphaned account - Some Stucky. This is a lovely one-shot of things I basically wanted to happen when the team got together again but didn’t. Sigggghhh. Everyone is definitely in character in this one, traumas and healing and all. And look, another person realizes that trusting Ross is a really horrible idea.

Locks Not Replaced by Riverdaughter - first this writer has a Tolkien-based username so yay. Anyway, the fic starts off by Tony realizing that he almost killed Steve during the fight with his repulsors, and it was only Bucky that stopped him. Do people seriously think he’d survive a shot to the face with that power? This is one reason the ‘Steve tried to kill Tony’ people piss me the fuck off. What do you think those repulsors shoot, fucking rainbows? Honestly, guys. Anyway, mini rant over. This fic is great. Author comes in with a Cap favoritism but treats Tony well, and honestly Tony turning a blind eye to everything and ignoring Ross is what I like to think happened in canon (he clearly dislikes the guy). And also I love the Robin Hood parallels. Love love love. I think this fic is my favorite of the ones listed in this section.

Meeting Your Heroes by Riverdaughter - naturally after reading that fic I went to explore more and found this gem. She’s not incorrect in saying Tony wasn’t a good mentor at the beginning - I think he had his own growth after Peter’s actions in Homecoming especially (though even through Homecoming he was trying, just… not always successfully lmao). Anyway love these two together. It’s great.

Photograph by slytherclaw420 - A scene we deserved in Endgame and didn’t get. Sigh. Definite IronDad feels here. Hopeful Steve, rebuilding of a friendship.

And uh, an honorable mention of sorts:

Balancing the Scales by MoonFire1 - I’m not recommending this fic for good characterization or plot. It really doesn’t have either. The fic was written in retaliation for the nasty Tony fans completely trashing Steve’s character. You should only read this if you want to see the argument from “the other side” and if you want to see an anti-Tony fic like you’ve seen anti-Steve fics. Don’t harass the author though. This is presented as a counterargument to anti-Steve fiction, for those interested to read the other sides arguments. I don’t like the nature of the fic, but I loathe that “not Steve friendly” has 30 fucking pages of works with tens of thousands of kudos, so one anti-Tony fic (with a comparatively small three pages under that tag) really doesn’t compare. Ugh. I hate the anti culture in this fandom so much. Loathe it. It’s such a nasty energy! Why would you indulge in such negativity? But as I’ve mentioned before, I appreciate authors aware enough to tag it so I can avoid it. I wish that part of fandom culture didn’t exist, but well, can’t change it. Just can criticize the fuck out of it on my blog. Maybe encourage people to think less one-sided in the process if I’m lucky.

But there’s probably more good characterization Steve fics to be found, so I am forcefully recruiting two people via tag:

If you’re looking to dabble into Stony fics with good-guy-Steve, if anyone would know of any, I’d imagine it’d be @babywarg.

You don’t know this person, but @cairistiona7 has actually known me the longest of anyone here on tumblr (half my life! HALF! She even knows my real name :P She betaed a LOTR work of mine a decade ago I ended up never fully publishing… thanks again for all your help there…). Anyway, she’s a big Bucky fan, and Bucky friendships is the best thing. So if anyone would know any wholesome Bucky and Steve stories, it’d be her. (Or really I’d take any of your recs, Cair, as I’ll probably enjoy them as well).

I hope this was helpful to you md, and that I didn’t piss off too many of my followers in the process of answering this lol.

[whimsically-ominously-auspice]

I had 4 Asian Cuisine restaurants in NYC I trusted to send girls home through.

In Iraq we used Mother Teresa.

In NYC I used the Chinese Outlets. So I'm very particular that y'all would abuse them. Most had came to the USA for a better life, made one and found that Americans had it worse thsn they did! And wanted to help. Some were kidnapped themselves, like by Jane's place.

So, anyone ridiculing the Chinese With violence or harassment needs to be arrested and dealt with appropriately.

In Texas I used local news media and lawyers.

In Alabama where i first started. I designed Al Qeada. Then used Mother Teresa to go at a faster pace while Al Qaeda learned the ropes in order to help her get people returned faster to keep all the bunkers empty throughout Iraq, Iran, Isreal, Egypt and all the ones we could reach. Together they acoomplished that.

So it was easy to empty The USSR 3 years later. Our system was fool proof. And good.

Unfortunately the USA and the qE2 teamed up again and imprisoned the real Queen of England you see today from 1991 to 2002. Then off and on until 2008 when Saint Luches "kidnapped her" with permission from then Princes William and Harry and herself and along with my crying pleas to protect her. All part of a sting to help escalate the 31200 factory deals and release some of the Abu from Iraq and Iran and the Chinese from the United States.

In Oklahoma I used the citizens of Okmulgee. The teachers at Preston which then shared information with the state to educate children of stranger,danger and teens of how to get safe jobs

By then I knew it was pointless to evacuate and kill and fight. I had to prevent and protect and work deals and negotiate wkth terrorists.

1. Alabama

2. NYC

3. Texas

4. Florida

5. Oklahoma

6. New Mexico

I wrote out of order. But this was my chronological order of operations.

After NYC i stayed above ground mostly. Those nights with Jane and Lily taught me that may be i was too young. That may be i did have a lot of growing to do.

But my heart craves those streets and the brisk walks In the cold nights.

I know staying off them has kept me alive.

So Jane and Lily stayed in those streets working and helping. And they're alive too. And they had each other and a constant working team

Which i have never had.

But in between living a normal life, and growing up... I had those meetings with terrorists. Being kidnapped in different ways. Being tortured in other ways.

Do i have regrets? Every day.

But what is most important is to keep on working. Keep on fighting. And just keeping on.

One thing that's best for me right now is i found my lifelong goal. I didn't ever know what it was. No job ever seemed right. I was always dissatisfied with options.

Would i be an amazing lawyer or doctor? Hell yes!

But my soul still felt empty with those options.

I remember in high school, graduation... "What's your goal in college?"

What the fuck? Who? What? Why? Such an absurdity that it made me viciously angry, full of hate at the world

Not because I didn't know what i wanted to do or know how but because it wasn't an option

Where was the box that said put a check here for something real like "World Peace" or "Make a difference worth keeping" or anything related to reality.

Sure be rich be a doctor. Save lives. You habe no idea how pointless that made me feel.

Be a lawyer. Sure hate myself and be a hypocrite because I can't remember anything worth a shit in the world that ive ever done. And have all the money in the world. Pointless.

So many options full of shit.

But now I have the ability to give people options. And i guess that's all i ever wanted to do. Free people and make super heroes of regular people in the world.

That's all i ever wanted to do. And it makes me feel safe and warm and cuddled in the corner of the world that is mine.

So i am grateful for all those that care and understand what i am feeling, the frustrations I have felt. Even if you don't feel it yourself but you understand.

I hope you will all be our super heroes of the World.

So stand up for someone that your intuition and intelligence says is being bullied.

Stand up to someone your intuition and intellect is telling you is bullying someone.

And if you can't tell the difference, find an older person in your neighbor hood or a younger person and explain to them fully what your eyes saw and your brain said and why and when.

And you'll both grow to be the greatest suoer heroes of all.

And sometimes you may feel you're not exactly understood. And you may not be. So ask someone else.

Like me, I prefer some one mean to talk to. Because I feel they know a lot. And they are suffering inside. They don't want to let down walls to trust anyone, because they have Seen too much pain and hurt.

And that is the type of person i need to talk to. Someone with real pain.

Like Saint Luches "fuck off I don't want to talk to you" he would always say that in 2008

Because i would make him cry. Everytime. Id ask him very difficult and tough questions. Tell him thank you and have my forehead wrinkled continued to work.

And he would cry. Because I cared. Not pretend to care So I could back stab him. But to help him.

A couple times he thought I was backstabbing him. And he accused me of it. So I would explain to him the web I had been caught in and how I was working to get out of it.

But because they believed what they wanted to, they went running their mouths.

So I let him in my laptop computer. Told him to look at all my documents. How I labeled them and what I would do with them.

And that is when he began to smile

He never took a break like me. Never lived ws a "normal" child.

Since 1985 hes been working everyday to stop human trafficking.

Everyday. Every single day.

I want to say i haven't. But the mental anguish i have suffered and the "normal life" is so that I could help the people coming out now to learn about how the rest of the world works

Although it never had worked for me, I always felt a mysterious place in the world needed m3 that I could never find nor define... I know how it works.

William and Harry have felt they had to leave the Kingdom to see how it is as well.

So while I quit the work and i changed my ways during it.

Its So it could all lead to this point here.

Channel KOAT news camera men being beat up multiple times while trying to document evacuations. (KRQE gave him a coat so he's safer. Yay!)

And that. Just that right there. Competitive news channels helping each other.

I mean world peace? Will it ever exist?

Yes. How can it not?

United We Stand.

Doing different things for the same goal.

Freedom. Sanity. Love. Friendship. Trust.

And more. The military offered him a camouflage jacket. But he understood he was there to be an alternative to the military and police due to their corruption. So he rejected their offer. Although it would saved him from a few more black eyes.

So the military asked KRQE and without hesitation, gave KOAT a jacket to use. Not due to fear, but kindness. And compassion.

[christophertwood]

How to write better blogs faster – without caffeine, outsourcing or robots

You already know that blogging is a powerful tool for promoting your brand.

It’s great for bringing visitors to your website.

What’s more, all those words are superb for SEO.

However, you also know that blogging takes time.

And that’s something often in short supply. Especially when you’re running a business, working to client or agency deadlines. Those ‘ASAP’ requests usually elbow blogs down the to-do list.

Here’s the thing: Once you let your blogs slide, other things start sliding. Your website, for one thing. Straight down the search rankings. Which means your organic traffic will slide down. Resulting in reduced revenue, less engagement and slower growth.

There is another way.

Speed up your blog output.

53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

This doesn’t mean cutting down on quality and churning out rehashed rubbish. Neither does it mean outsourcing to penny-a-word writers or artificially intelligent bots.  And absolutely no caffeine-fuelled all-nighters.

All you need is below. Want to skip to a particular section? Just click the title:

Before writing

3 things to remember

Follow this writing ratio

Buzz off to Buzzsumo

Your first words

Create framework

Brainstorm

Plan intro

What to include

How to be original

The most important word

Words to avoid

How to inject insight

How to finish with a bang

Refer to your intro

Ask a question

Add a call to action

Bonus: How to smash through writer’s block

Before writing

3 things to remember

Write now, edit later (the biggest time saver) Once you’ve started writing, don’t read it back until you’ve finished your first draft

Don’t try to hand in the ‘perfect blog’ Your job is to communicate your ideas – let your editor worry about the grammar and spelling. Don’t have an editor? Ask someone else within your team to proofread your work. Working alone? Make friends with Grammarly and the Hemingway App

Reduce distractions Experiment with closing your Outlook for an hour or more. Disconnect your WiFi, put your phone in your bag, try the Pomodora technique

Follow this writing ratio

For any blog, whether 100 words or 1,000 words, spend:

25% of your time researching

50% writing

25% editing/proofing

When starting out, it’s hard to know your current writing speed. So set aside a set amount of time, say 4 hours and follow the ratio above. Do this a couple of times and you’ll have a good idea of how much time you need for a blog.

Over time, you’ll find that you write more words during the 50% phase. That’s your building up your brain’s writing muscles. Stick to a regular routine and you’ll soon increase your endurance, stamina, and wordcounts.

Buzz off to Buzzsumo

Before starting a blog, it makes sense to check out the competition. And the best way to do that is with Buzzsumo. Plug in your topic, and see which articles have attracted most engagement on social media.

Sharing on social media has dropped by 50% from 2015–2018 (source: http://buzzsumo.com/blog/content-trends-2018)

Have a read, and work out why it’s done so well. Is it the insight? Tone of voice? Is it interactive?

Compare the articles to your framework. Have you covered all the themes? Does your framework have something the other articles don’t? If not, think how you can improve it. Find an original angle. If the most-shared article is ‘100 ways to use artificial intelligence in banking’, make yours ‘101 ways to use artificial intelligence in banking’

Your first words

Create framework

Write down the main themes you want to cover. Don’t worry about writing headlines or copy yet.

Decide on your conclusion. What do you want readers to go away thinking?

Look again at your main themes. Put them in the order you think will work best with your conclusion.

Brainstorm

Congratulations! You have a framework. Now it’s time to let your brain’s neurons and synapses go wild.

Look at your framework. Under each theme, type/write everything you know, think, or want to explore about it. Don’t worry about typos or whether you’re even making sense. Just go with the flow and let everything out.

You should now have plenty of ideas for your blog.

Now you’re ready to plan your intro….

Plan intro

Nobody ever skips a blog intro and starts reading halfway down the page. That’s why, before you tap anywhere on your keyboard, decide on your intro. Not necessarily the exact words, but the angle or hook you plan to take.

Those first few words are where you have the maximum readership. After that, it’s all downhill. Readers lose interest, get distracted, or simply decide they’ve got better things to do.

The classic “5 W” approach, used by journalists and PRs, is ideal:

Who will be the subject of my blog

Where is my target audience, (in terms of their outlook on life and/or career)

What will this blog cover

Why would readers be interested in this blog

When did the idea for this blog come about

Go through each of the Ws. Decide which one (or more) should go into your intro. Make your decision based on what will appeal most to your readers. That’s the only way to reel them in. Show what’s in it for them.

What to include

Have you heard the joke about two people in a forest? One day they come across a tiger. They start running away, and the tiger chases them, Suddenly Person 1 stops, and pulls out a pair of running shoes. ‘What are you doing?’ says Person 1. ‘You’ll never outrun it with those’. Person 2 replies, ‘I don’t need to outrun the tiger. I just need to outrun you.’

Longer posts mean readers stay longer on your page, which is good for climbing up the search results

It’s the same with blogs. You don’t have to make sure your blog is the best out of the 24 posts published in WordPress every second around the world. You just have to make sure yours is first among your competitors. Here’s how:

How to be original

Take an well-known maxim about your blog topic (‘You may have heard that AB testing helps you find a winning landing page’)

Challenge it (‘Here’s the thing: most people don’t know how long to run an AB test for’)

Add your own insight (‘if you don’t have enough traffic for AB testing, you can do user testing and go qualitative instead of quantitative’)

The most important word

Address your reader personally, by sprinkling in lots of ‘you/your’ references.

It makes your blog sound more personal, eg ‘If you’ve ever tried to do a mailmerge’, ‘Here’s a little-known tip you may find useful’, ‘Get this right and you can look forward to digital marketing nirvana’.

If you’re writing your blog in first person (“I, we our”) go for a 4:1 ratio – for every 1 ‘I, we, our’, make sure you have 4 ‘you, us, your’.

Words to avoid

Your reader is giving up part of their life to read your blog. So write as if you’re talking to a friend. That means using conversational  words (‘use’ instead of ‘utilise’, ‘helped’ rather than ‘assisted’, ‘ideas’ rather than ‘blue sky thinking’).

Jargon and technical terms may have their place in your campaigns, but they rarely belong in your blog. That’s where people come to be entertained and informed, not bored out of their minds or feeling like they’re being spoken to by a boss.

How to inject insight

Your opinion is all very well. However, if you want to persuade people of what you’re saying, you need something more. Links to independent, objective, third party research. Cite studies, research bodies, industry publications.

Here are 3 ways:

1) Go authoritative Step 1: Tweak your search engine results to get results within a recent time period. For Google, click on Tools (highlighted)

Step 2: Plug in your search term + the name of a reputable research agency/publisher (good ones to start with include Gartner, Forrester, IDC, Accenture). Imagine you’re writing a blog on machine learning:

Step 3: Find statistics and quotes that back up your opinion. Then insert them into your blog (making sure you link back to the sources).

2) Peer research Here’s a shortcut to getting insight about a topic. You could spend hours reading all the latest industry news. Or you could find out what people on the frontline think. Tap into their experience and insight by visiting websites like www.quora.com.

3) Google Trends Want to show how interest in your topic has evolved over time? Plug in some relevant phrases to Google Trends. This will generate a graph showing how often people have Googled a particular word or phrase. Below shows how interest in marketing automation has grown since 2012:

How to finish with a bang

  Refer to your intro

This is the classic ‘top and tail’ approach. Readers like this technique because it ties up all loose ends. Example: your intro includes the line, ‘By the year 2020, there will be 163 Zettabytes of data created’. Your conclusion could make a reference to the 163 Zettabytes of data.

Ask a question

Want people to comment on your blog? Ask them – don’t sit back and hope. If you get a comment, always reply. Even if it’s just a thank you.

Add a call to action

You’ve got a captive audience, so give them more of what they want. Link to a related blog, offer a free ebook, invite them to contact you to continue the conversation.

Bonus: How to smash through writer’s block

  Write the conclusion first

Write 20 headlines (doesn’t matter how good/bad you think they are)

Read another blog on the same subject and get some ideas on how to improve it

Write 100 words about the topic, doesn’t matter how rubbish you think it is

Forget about it and revisit tomorrow

And finally…

“You never truly finish a blog – you just abandon it”

Don’t hang on to your blogs. Once you’ve done your editing and are happy, let it go. Otherwise you’ll find yourself endlessly tinkering with it.

The post How to write better blogs faster – without caffeine, outsourcing or robots appeared first on Chief Nation.

from Social Media Tips http://www.chiefnation.com/blog/how-write-blogs-faster-better/

[westingwriting]

annoyed by a cheap missing ebay purchase

one of the first times I ever had a bad experience on ebay. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=charlieus2014&iid=-1&de=off&items=25&searchInterval=30&which=negative&interval=30&_trkparms=negative_30

New message to:            

charlieus2014

                                                                                 In the future, rather than implying the customer is dishonest or lazy or dumb and asking them to run errands for you, maybe consider this: if the product isn't valuable enough for the seller to get a delivery confirmation for it, then it's cheap enough to just send another package when it gets lost in the mail. Rather than addressing the last question I sent or admitting you handled this poorly, you just ignored my concern and gave me a refund a month after I needed the product, almost three months after ordering it. Why ask if I'm okay with a refund if that's what you will do regardless? "Thanks for your message...but I'm going to ignore it." It's taken so long that I can't even leave feedback to warn other shoppers. This has been an unpleasant, miserable, stressful experience - all over something worth less than $3. Thanks.                                                                                                                                            

   charlieus2014

  thanks for your message, we have full refunded to you

please let us know if you have reveived the item later

Best regards

billsmithnine:

surely you can check the delivery confirmation and see who received it? if you didn't pay for a delivery confirmation, why not?

   charlieus2014

  We did ship your order just one day after you paid.

I can understand you have been waiting for many days.

But sometimes the package might be stucked on way because of the customs or weather problems.whatever,your satisfaction is the most important to us.

For your case,we could offer the full refund to you first.If the item could turn up in the following days,could you repay the money for us?

Once get your reply,we will handle with it as soon as possible.

Regards,

billsmithnine:

no, i don't leave my house, and I don't talk on the phone. none of that is worth my trouble or time. i'd rather just order it again from someone else.

   charlieus2014

  Thanks for contacting us.

Could you please go to your local post office to check it  first?Or we suggest you could ask your  neighbours whether they have signed the order We did send to you.

If you have any questions,please contact to me.

Best regards,

billsmithnine:

Hello. I did not receive this package. I am sad.

   charlieus2014

  Dear buyer,

Thanks for your purchase in our store and we are so sorry to distrub you.

Your order was shipped about 30 days ago. In normal condition, it takes around 25-35 working days your countries. As our most valued customers, we want to know whether you have received our item or not

If you have received our items and satisfied with our products, could you please leave us a positive feedback with 5 stars?

Otherwise, if you are still waiting for our items, Please don’t worry and feel free to contact us by eBay message

We will check the shipping details for you and give you a fair solution

Please don't leave us the negative/neutral feedback with low star rating or open the case, just write to us. I am sure we will solve the problem in a very friendly way.

Thanks once again for your great purchase. We sincerely hope our item and customer service can give you the BEST BUYING EXPERIENCE on eBay.

>>> 5 STAR POSITIVE FEEDBACK IS YOUR BEST SUPPORT TO US <<<

Yours Sincerely