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feyariel · 4 years

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I decided to be a bit proactive about my confusion re: the Collective classes, so I sat down with the list of blogs to see which ones I recalled, which ones I’m tangentially familiar with, and which ones I keep forgetting exist. I’ve finally learned about Dread Commando! :D

These are about my impressions about the blog: what I know about the class, how often the blog updates, what my relationship with the blogger is. That sort of thing.

N.B.: A hyphen [-] after a bullet means I would have tabbed inward to show that the class is an archetype/variation on another, but I don’t think Tumblr’s doing nested sub-points anymore.

Crafting/Performance/Profession Classes

Classes that focus on some sort of skill or setting which can be but does not necessarily have to be adventuring-related.

Alchemist (various editions and variations; in Pathfinder, originally a base class that worked somewhat similarly to the Wizard but themed around Brew Potion instead of Scribe Scroll, so ended up with very divergent mechanics. A core class in Pathfinder 2e.)

Artificers (while there were variations on the idea beforehand, the class really took off with its inclusion in the original Eberron Campaign Setting).

-Artillerist (5e subclass of Artificer, focuses on cannons and other kinds of shooting.

-Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tends to post pictures of robots, IIRC. Pretty sure it’s a 5e subclass.)

Bard (was the OG prestige class before that term existed [in 1e], became a base class in 2e. A combination of “generic adventurer/multiclassing to average” with “magical music”.)

-Beguiler (Placed here because Beguiler’s blog is mostly about the art of deception and manipulation. 3.5 “Specialist Sorcerer” base class; focused on Enchantments and Illusions, but also had a sneak-a-spell mechanic, trapfinding, and Rogue skills. Bard in that’s is a Rogue/Sorcerer before Bard had full casting.)

-Skald (Viking Bard, became a base class in Pathfinder, posts a lot of funny/memorable stories, doesn’t burn people)

-Valor Bard (5e subclass, dunno much about it, slightly more active than OG Bard)

Blacksmith (Art blog of awesomesauce!)

Cartographer (Was a map blog, has turned into a miscellaneous adventuring meme/art blog.)

Cook (lovely recipes and food art)

Herbalist (Plant/art/recipe blog veering into kitchen witchery. I could probably group this with the Druid or Cleric classes, honestly.)

Innkeeper (I always forget that they post. Icon is Medieval art of a man in a blue shirt and an almost Santa-ish hat drinking.)

Lawyer (whose blog is mainly pictures of libraries, which is one of my cuppas)

Painter (There is sadly a dearth of visual art-related classes in D&D when “conjuring objects you draw/paint” has been a thing in fantasy for a very long time.)

Princess (Haven’t seen her post in a while...)

Ringmaster (I’ve considered pestering about Cirque du Soleil stuffs... Oh, and House Phiarlan.)

Thread Mage (Grouping here because blog’s about textile crafts. Used to post so much that I had to unfollow to get through my feed.)

Warrior Classes

Barbarian (also runs Samurai!)

-Viking (Asatru! Norse stuff! No raging? Okayyyyy... Posts a metric fuckton on his main. Wonderful person.)

Brawler (hybrid base class in Pathfinder 1e; secular Monk, fisticuffs/low-to-no armor Fighter. Can’t recall how often posts, but I notice often enough to know it’s active.)

-Luchador (Run by Celestial Warlock, one of the few blogs I don’t follow [I just don’t care for masked wrestling; might do so anyway])

Cowboy (A blog about cowboys, which I guess is the elder of the gunslinger-type blogs. One of the few I don’t follow [just not a fan of cowboys is all; might start].)

Fighter (now with more activity!)

-Knight (3.5 base class [mechanically about tanking, thematically a variant Fighter] from the same book as Beguiler; muns of said blogs are married [Knight does HEMA, Beguiler’s an American fairy, they live in England near Lawyer-pants; I like to pretend the three get into RL Hijinks™]. Posts very often, is like halfway between Fighter and Pally.)

-Samurai (for all your Japanese feudal warrior needs)

Gladiator (Fighter-type art blog. Posted infrequently, hasn’t posted since July 2019)

Mercenary/ies (Talks in the plural/about a plurality, tends to write about mass battles and history)

Planar Champion (Now with Admin powers! Might be quasi-paladinic; was a PrC in 3.0. I still feel like I stepped on toes with the -touched post.)

Watchman (Used to post a lot, hasn’t since pandemic and BLM protests kicked off.)

Cleric Classes

Cleric (One of the few I don’t follow.)

Cultist (Anything about religion and horror. Lovecraft, etc. Posted recently, but I don’t recall seeing it.)

Favored Soul (the Sorcerer analog to the Cleric in 3.5, became a Sorcerer subclass-thing in 5e. Putting here because I think of it as the 3.5 version.)

Healer (Yes, there’s a Healer base class: Miniatures Handbook. Not spontaneous for some reason, gets a Unicorn mount and a bunch of healing-related class features. Blog is very peaceful.)

Monk (I’m honestly not sure where I’d put the Monk unless I were to just do core classes with variants and then other. So Monk’s going here. :P)

Oracle (Pathfinder‘s version of the Favored Soul [or Dragonlance Mystic, really]. Sols. Posts more to main blob.)

Paladin-Adjacent Classes

Paladin (Duh)

-Antipaladin (Has existed in one form or another through most editions until 4e made “Paladin” more about championing a deity. Alternate class in Pathfinder. Posts plenty.)

--Hell Knight (Seems to be alluding to certain Golarion antipaladins. I know I’ve seen stuff from them on occasion.)

-Avenger (Turns out to have started as a non-evil palette swap of the Assassin PrC in 3.5 on the WotC website [not indicated as being April Fools’ Day content, but posted on AFD]. DPS version of the Paladin in 4e, subclass in 5e. Character is involved with Inquisitor’s.)

-Dark Knight (Paladin[?] as good person using bad powers.)

-Dusk Knight (Pathfinder archetype for stealthy Paladin; similar idea to Dread Commando, but Pally specific.)

-Redeemer (Paladin focused on...redemption.)

Inquisitor (Inquisimun’s main is somewhat active, haven’t seen much from Inquisitor blog since the pandemic started)

Revolutionary (Putting here because principled fighter. Political blog, obvs. lots of cross-pollination between me and Rev. [Also runs drawn-from-the-ground, I think? I forget.])

Warpriest (Haven’t talked to a lot for a while, feel guilty about that. :( )

Rogue-Adjacent Classes

Rogue! (Swoons in fandom.)

Assassin (Also runs Princess; don’t think I’ve seen many posts of late)

Manipulator (Pretty sure this is a 5e subclass...)

Mastermind (I think this is also a 5e subclass...)

Ninja (Also posts lovely, unrelated art to main blog! AND KITTIES! [My Azcy blog will likely feature 50% reblogs from Ninja])

Pirate (Gets tagged a lot by Rogue.)

-Scarlet Corsair (Prestige class from Stormwrack. Blog is mainly sea imagery and occasional pirate stuff. Mun gets [or used to get] an unfair amount of grief from others for playing an evil character despite the plethora of other evil characters in the Collective; is almost assuredly due to sexism on the Internets.)

Poisoner (I think I see more Venomancer than Poisoner...)

Shadowdancer (I know Shadowdancer escapes my attention. I realize this and yet it still happens. True master of stealth, even when posting.)

Swashbuckler (I considered putting Swashy under Fighter-types because swashbuckling is a fighting style, but the significant overlap with Rogue and especially the piratical blogs screamed “No! With the Rogues!” Fencing/Rapier/Historical Rapier blog.)

Treasure Hunter? (I guess this blog belongs in this category instead of just miscellaneous... Adventurer as seeker of awesome objects. Reblogs artistic items [sculptures and spiffy weapons and jewels and such] and magic item posts.)

Trickster (Whom I love to boop.)

Nature Classes

So Druids and Rangers. Herbalist could go here. Shifter should go here, but I’m putting it with the gishes.

Druid (weare-druids is current; posts, but I think might have strained relationship over previous posts of mine -- the Moving Sand Hill [which was an oversight on my part] and the “lumping vs. splitting classes” posts.)

Shaman (Pathfinder‘s Oracle + Witch hybrid class with Druidic flavor. Don’t recall much about the blog.)

Spore Druid (5e subclass; Mushrooms! Decay! Might be Hag of the Bestiary? Used to talk a lot; kinda stopped after the lumping post. :( )

Ranger (Posts more than I realize)

Beastmaster (Animal memes and such)

Horizon Walker (Was a PrC from 3.5 about getting better bonuses from Favored Terrain. Changed in 5e somehow. Landscapes, mostly.)

Outlander? (Adventurer as traveler/explorer, which fits with Ranger well but I guess could go under miscellaneous... [Not sure where to put.])

Seeker (4e class I remember for being a blonde wood elf in leaf armor with a bow and glowing arrow. I think posts more often than I’m aware.)

Warden (About protecting the wilds, could as easily be Oath of the Ancients Paladin. Lots of animals, landscapes, and fey.)

Magic (Arcane, Psychic, etc.) Classes

Harrower (Pathfinder Tarot reader. Posts sometimes.)

Incarnate (The pure, not-being-something-else Incarnum class [as opposed to Soulborn {+Paladin} and Totemist {~+Druid}]. Takes soulstuff [”essentia”] and binds it to item slots [”chakras”] to get various abilities [”soulmelds”], sometimes like magic items and sometimes at the expense of magic items. [Technically, soulknives could work as soulmelds -- and would probably work better that way.] Mun is trying to convert Incarnum to 5e, which is quite the task but a good idea!)

Mage (I admit, I have to keep reminding myself that Mage is effectively Wizard [because “mage” to me means “spellcaster”], but blog is themed closer to Warlock than Sorcerer anyway. :P Vaste; is Polish, but speaks English and French. Is awesomesauce.)

-Abjurer (Specialist in Abjuration. Used to run Enchanter [and IIRC Transmuter?]. Blog is sporadic, but good. Ih, still good.)

-Illusionist (Does Moxie more than Illusionists tho [or at least I think of her more as Incendiary Anarchist than Illusionists]. Got locked out of OG blog before The Incident™ [with Rogue] or The Other Incident™ [with Witch], so now is plural for iconics.)

-Necromancers (Somehow, I end up tagging them[?] in stuff, yet feel like I barely know them. They post lots.)

-Pyromancer (Turns out that there’s a 5e subclass for Wizard, though I’m pretty sure there’s a sorcerous equivalent. Posts daily. I would reblog from them, but then Sorcerer would become Pyromancer 2 and it’s already too fiery as it is.)

Magical Child (Technically an archetype of the Vigilante class, but Vigilante is a means of being any one class while having a secret identity mechanic, so putting MC Bearbear here.)

Medium (The Medium in Pathfinder is, from what I understand of it, a parallel of the Binder from Tome of Magic. I...can’t recall the last time I saw a Medium post save that I have.)

Occultist (Miscellaneous magic stuffs. I think. I see posts from time to time, but don’t recall much. This is also my attitude about the Pathfinder base class, which I just don’t comprehend. [What does it do? This and that? What?] I’m literal here: every time I look at it, it remains occulted.)

Runecaster (Magic + Vikings! Fairly new, posts plenty. Could easily expand into all forms of magical writing [sigils, symbol spells, Thoth/hieroglyphs, etc.] if they wanted to without treading on anyone’s toes [except maybe Truenamer’s, but even then not so much].)

Shadowcaster (3.5 class from Tome of Magic, learned magic that got less and less like spells over time, which was cool. Unsure on blog stuffs anymore.)

Sorcerer (Has no idea what they’re doing anymore. Feels obligated to post at least once a day and better if at least twice, but feels like they’re only stepping on toes. Torn between the class’s mechanical origins [”Wizard without Vancian preparing!”] as making it a variant on Mage/Wizard and theme [magical talent, aka psychic power] as making it actually relevant. Has gone to shitposting for the sake of contributing something.)

-Mystic (Most recent of the many psionics class blogs that the Collective has had, themed around the 5e playtest class that’s been cast aside in favor of making a full-manifesting psionics go with the Sorcerer class. [I kinda feel guilty about this, especially since when I decided to take the Sorcerer post I had considered being Psion instead.] Posts sporadically. Could do a blog about all the different Mystic classes [BECMI D&D’s Monk, Dragonlance‘s spontaneous divine casters who don’t rely on the gods, the Dragon magazine prestige class, etc.])

Summoner (Pathfinder base class that’s a Sorcerous/Bardic caster with an attack minion? Check. Wizard variant? Also check. Blog? Used to post a lot. I think still does. Can’t recall profile pic, though.)

Truenamer (The third class from Tome of Magic, which was cool in theory but non-functional in practice. Would have benefited from more playtesting, but that wasn’t a thing in 3.x anyway.)

Warlock (Posts sometimes.)

Celestial Warlock (Tends to post more space stuff than I thought would happen, which is kyuul behnz.)

Feylock (Haven’t seen post in ages. Isn’t Collective, IIRC. Needs to exist to counterbalance the others so that I can make them a pact and let them become a magical girl!)

Fiend Warlock (Has eyes on main Warlock blog, which is completely expected. Tiefling header art.)

Soul Binder (Binder from Tome of Magic; Awesome O’Possum class which is themed around the Goetic Demons [but renamed “vestiges” because of D&D’s cosmology...and Christian woes] from The Lesser Key of Solomon, but mechanically a “change your class to match your needs” class.)

Warshaper (Now defunct for the second time. Shifter, but a prestige class for anyone who can shapeshift [Complete Warrior, about changing body parts more than into specific forms -- which is Master of Many Forms from Complete Adventurer, though it should be Divine because that’s a Druid class]. Turns out that Naraku from Inuyasha is totally this, albeit by absorbing other demons into his body.)

Witch (Back! :D)

Multiclasses

Dread Commando (Heroes of Battle prestige class; Stealthy warrior with sneak attack sudden strike and abilities to move/sneak around in armor with reduced penalties. I thought it was going to be a military blog. Mechanically, I have to wonder why you’d spend five levels putting medium/heavy armor [as though it were light/medium armor] on a Complete Adventurer!Ninja when you could just buy mithril armor, but there are enough similar ideas elsewhere that it makes sense as something needing an archetype/PrC and I don’t know of a generic [non-Paladin-specific] alternative for that. Like, I don’t even know how many Fighter/Rogue PrCs there even are that aren’t just “you’re really good with daggers!”)

Gishes (Spellswords)

Blood Hunter (5e class reminiscent of various others I’ve seen over the years [Hexblade, Vampire Hunter, shapeshifters, etc.]. Could conceivably pull a Geralt of Rivia, but I think EK could do that, too.)

Eldritch Knight (reblogs lots of character art of mages, warriors, and magical warriors)

Shifter (Pathfinder base class version of the Warshaper, but Druidic only. Functionally a Monk but with wild shape and natural weapons instead of unarmed strikes. Don’t know how often the blog updates.)

Mystic Theurge (PrC divine/arcane caster, set a tone for multiclassing PrCs. Reblogs plenty from Sorcerer, so I know is active.)

Miscellaneous

Dragon Rider (Haven’t seen posts lately! q.q)

Dungeon Master (New, but I also forgot we had one!)

Guildmaster (I love that hat. Lovelovelovelovelove.)

Investigator (Call of Cthulhu-type blog. Posts sometimes. Cool profile pic. Probably went mildly insane upon low-key departure and return as Cthulhu-type.)

Starfinder (Is this about the spin-off of Pathfinder or something else? I forget.)

Vigilante (As I said before, a class about being another class and having a secret/social identity. Superheroes and such. I...think they post? Sometimes?)

Witch Slayers (Not sure if this should be in Warriors/Paladins/Rangers, don’t see post very often. Pretty sure this is another blog, can’t remember which.)

Long-Defunct Bloggers I Miss/Remember

Swordsage (SWORDSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!!!!! T~T)

OG Pyromancer (Never encountered, but heard about as being horrible and got das boot.)

Psion (There was one once!)

A bazillion others who have come and gone.

...and

OG Sorcerer (How did you do this?!)

Blogs/Muns with Whom I Interact a Lot/Enough to Feel Like There’s Some Kind of Connection

Abjurer (sometimes; also, DISPEL MAGIC!)

Artificers (a long while back)

Avenger (^^)

Beguiler (I’d like to pester more often, but I feel like we’re not as close as, say, me and Knnnnnigght)

Celestial Warlock (One in a while. Not quite a blue moon. ;) )

Dragon Rider (If still around?)

Eldritch Knight

Favored Soul

Fiend Warlock (of late)

Guildmaster (I ‘member him ‘specially ’cuz he told me he followed me and stuff when I was feeling down and I went “q~q Thank you, senpaiiiiiiiiiiiiii!”)

Healer and/or Herbalist (I actually get you two confused. One is a blue hand, the other is a blonde lady [pretty sure it’s respectively], and one of you two is foxes [also pretty sure tha’s Herbalist’s main]. You’re just so serene. I know I get the blue hand confused with a third blog with a similar profile pic [not Sorcerer, ‘cuz this one’s blue on white].)

Horizon Walker

Illusionists/Incendiary Anarchist (^^)

Incarnate (when active; I have a deep respect for the mun because I discarded Magic of Incarnum as probably crap until Incarnate came along and explained it better [it also helped that I saw a picture of a dragon whose limbs were shapeable blue fire, which made the idea click]. Point is, they expanded my views, which I appreciate.)

Inquisitor (but not lately)

Knight (Swoons in shipper.)

Lawyer (when I was on the Discord...)

Mage <3

Magical Child (occasionally)

Monk (with much pestering and annoying, advertent and inadvertent)

Ninja (Also <3)

Oracle (I feel like we have a relaxed like/reblog thing. Maybe one-sided on my part, not good with tracking activity.)

Painter (sometimes)

Paladin (He needs moar support!)

Planar Champion

Revolutionary (Fist of solidarity)

Rogue

Spore Druid for a while

Summoner (or I try to sometimes...)

Swordsage (SWORDSAAAAAAAAAGE!)

Trickster (Gives ear scritches.)

Valor Bard

Viking (I have to admit, we were mutuals and I stopped following because of the frequency of posts and feel bad about because you’re one of my favorite peeps. I want a Facebook “friends but don’t show so much on feed” option on here, dagblammit. [Maybe I follow too many blogs...])

Warpriest (whom I need to glomp more often)

Warshaper (I don’t think I did a good enough job including Warshaper, which is a problem because Warshaper left the Collective the first time thinking they weren’t relevant enough. Once I figured out what Warshapers were, I started noticing them everywhere.)

Watchman (formerly)

I tag Bard and Druid sometimes, but like I said I think we’re strained. :( ‘Course, I never really interacted with either all that much in the first place... Still feels weird when Bard and Druid tend to be the core classes I associate with (when Sorcerer isn’t an option).

I don’t think Cartographer or Scarlet Corsair like me. At least, they don’t respond to me when I tag/ask them stuff (Cartographer doesn’t, but I don’t think Cartographer does that at all; SC might and I have a nagging feeling I tried pestering her a while back and she responded, but I probably did it to the wrong blog). And Cartographer has reblogged stuff with me in threads that have made me look bad before the threads have been been over, then not reblogged when the were concluded and I was vindicated/proven not an idiot in those particular instances.

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rosecorcoranwrites · 5 years

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Editing Advice Part 4: Copyediting

Now that you have checked your WIP for continuity, addressed every plot hole, and finished all rewrites, it's time to put on the final touches by copyediting!

Now, just to be clear, the term "copyediting" usually refers to when an editor, not the writer, reads the manuscript looking for errors, and it actually does include a lot of continuity editing and fact checking. But this series is for writers editing their own work before another soul reads it (regardless of if the work will then be self-published or sent out to agents and editors). It is my belief that, for a writer, continuity editing should come long before the final stage of the editing process. Thus, for our purposes, I'm going to use "copyediting" to refer to correcting errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other such things.

Obviously, this involves going through your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb, on the lookout for misspellings and typos. However, there are a few items to especially watch for, roughly broken down into the categories of spelling; grammar, usage, and style; and punctuation, spacing, and everything else.

Spelling

Spelling of made-up or unusual words: If you write fantasy or sci-fi, odds are you're using at least a few words that don't exist in the regular lexicon. Make sure you use consistent spelling for these. This is especially true for different forms of said words. For example, I chose to spell "Lesse" in Lesse's Moor with and "e" at the end, which is easy to remember. Yet, when spelling the adjectival form of that word, I used either an "e" or "a": Lesserian and Lessarian. I had to choose one to use throughout. This goes for non-made-up words as well. "Empyreal" of the Empyreal Palace is a real word (it means celestial), but it's not like I've known how to spell it from my youth, so I still had to double check it every time I came across it to make sure it was spelled correctly.

British vs American spelling: If you spend a lot of time reading books from across the pond, you might have picked up some foreign spellings. As a child, I would always spell "gray" as "grey", because I liked it better, and to this day, that spelling sneaks into my writing from time to time. There are many such words in the English language that you should watch out for.

Hyphens: Make sure that you know which words are hyphenated, and that they are always hyphenated in your manuscript. Pay attention to height and ages: "six-foot tall", "four-year-old" and so on. Keep consistent for made-up words as well. Will you use "mechano-magical" or "mechanomagical"? Whichever you choose, you have to use that spelling every time.

Homophones and similar words: You might think that this is dumb to mention, since you, of course, know the difference between all the homophones in the world, but that's irrelevant. I know the difference too, yet I mix them up all the time in my writing. Some people picture the spellings of words even as they speak, and I am not one of them. I know the difference between "their", "they're", and "there" like the back of my hand; I still write the wrong one about a third of the time. Why? Because when I write, I'm picturing how the words sound and, moreover, how the scene looks, not how the text will appear on the page. That's what copyediting is for. You can Google lists of commonly misspelled or mixed-up words, or write down your own list if you have certain words you personally get confused.

Grammar, Usage and Style

Subject-verb agreement: By the time you're at this stage of editing, your manuscript is likely a Frankenstein's monster of sewn-together old drafts, and that tends to lead to some weird grammar. Make sure your subjects and verbs agree. That means that if the subject is plural—they, policemen, the dragons, or whatever—the verb has to be one you use on plurals—were, know, have eaten. If the subject is singular—he, a policeman, the dragon—the verbs similarly have to match—was, knows, has eaten. If you're not too keen on grammar, read it out loud and see if it sounds right; even if you don't know all the proper grammatical phraseology, you know English and you'll be able to pick up on errors that you hear.

Writing out numbers or not: Generally speaking, for narrative prose, you should write out the numbers zero through one hundred. For larger numbers, 101 to infinity, you can use numerals, but some guides suggest that numbers ending in two or more zeros should also be written out: two hundred, five million, etc. But I think you can get away with writing out larger numbers as well, like three hundred seventy-three; it looks nicer to me. Whatever you choose to do with larger numbers, stay consistent. Special numbers like years and addresses, however, should be written in numerals: 221 B. Baker Street, 1984, etc.

Capitalization of titles of people: Obviously, if the the title comes right before the persons name, and is thus part of their name, it's capitalized: Queen Delilah, Doctor Mario, Professor Moriarty, President Coolidge. But what about when the title is by itself? Well, it depends on how you're using it. If the title is used to address the person, it's capitalized: "You saved his life, Doctor!" or "Well, Professor, it looks like your theory was wrong." Obviously special title have special addresses which are obviously capitalized: Your Majesty, Mr. President, etc. If, on the other hand, you are talking about the person, or the office in general, it's not (usually) capitalized: "The professor is getting on my nerves!", "That doctor is a quack", "The president has to be an American citizen". However, for certain fancier offices, if you are talking about a particular holder of that office, you do capitalize it. Now, I found a few competing sources on this, but from what I could figure, the only titles that work this way are Pope, King, Queen. Again, you have to be referring to a very specific person to do this: "The Queen has been slain!" "The Pope blessed the travelers". Some sources also said this could be done for the president's of countries, but other said not to, so... I guess pick which way you'll do it an stay consistent.

Punctuation, Spacing, and Everything Else

Extra spaces: Get rid of 'em. This included two spaces after a period (for us old people who learned that that was the correct way to type!) as well as space at the end of paragraphs, between two words, and so on.

Missing punctuation: Don't forget commas after opening phrases like "Well, you see..." or "Of course, I'd never say that," or when separating a name when being addressed: "Are you ok, Constance?". Double check that every paragraph has a period or closing quotation marks; somehow, these seem to disappear on me and I've never figured out why.

Smart quotes, … vs ..., and m-dashes: This is almost getting into formatting territory, but I'm going to include it here anyway. Depending on what word processor you use to write your WIP, there might be some differences in how certain characters are automatically formatted. For example, some programs will turn quotation marks ( " " ) into smart quotes, i.e., one that wrap toward the text and have different opening and closing characters ( “ ” ). Something similar happens to ellipses, which may be typed as three periods (...) but turned into a single character (…). Finally, there is the m-dash, that long dash used in a way similar to a colon. When you type it by itself, it typically looks like two dashes (--), but if you type a letter, then two dashes, then another letter with no spaces between, it turns into a single character (—). I'm in favor of all of these automatic changes, as they look nicer, but depending on where you typed what part of my WIP, they don't always happen. It's a good idea to go though your manuscript and add them in, or set your word processor to change them automatically.

Personal foibles: Finally, know thyself. Are there weird mistakes that you always tend to make? I myself tend not to use question marks (they are a silly punctuation mark and ought not exist!). I have to be careful to check that all of my questions are, in fact, marked as such. Maybe you tend to spell one particular word incorrectly, or are really bad at using commas. Know your weaknesses and make an effort to fix them while writing and catch them while editing.

Tips to Make Life a Little Easier

The greatest tip I can give you is to embrace your Find and Find/Change or Find/Replace functions of your word processor. You'll find these in your edit menu.

Find should be used to check homophones and commonly misspelled words. When editing, I'll Find the word "its" and go through my entire document to check each instance of this word to make sure it should not be "it's". then, I do the reverse, searching every instance of "it's" to make sure it should not be "its". I do this for each of the words that I, personally, confuse. Know thyself; if you never confuse "it's" with "its", don't bother checking it, but if you know that you often confuse "principal" and "principle", use the Find function. You can also use this to Find quotation marks and replace them with smart quotes if your word processor doesn't have the option to replace all quotation marks with smart ones at once.

And then there is my favorite, Find/Change. This should also be found in your edit menu, sometimes with the "Find..." feature and sometimes as a separate "Replace..." option. What Find/Change allows you to do is enter in some word, like, say, "Lessarian" and replace every instance of it with a new word, like "Lesserian". I use this to do a quick fix of made-up words and British to American spellings. I also use this if I have changed character and place names, so that I can replace every instance of, say, "Robert" with "Brother Roberto". It's also useful for catching double spaces, as you can Find " " (two spaces) and Replace them with " " (one space). You can also replace two dashes with an m-dash or the three-character ellipsis with a single character ellipsis.

And with that, you'll have a sparkly new manuscript, ready for the eyes of agents, publishers, or—should you go the self-published route—your readers. Speaking of which, you self-pub peeps out there might need a bit of advice on formatting and proofreading. I just so happen to have some such advice! But it will take some doing (mostly in the form of screen shots), so that post will have to wait for a while. In the meantime, get to work polishing that manuscript! If you come across some weird editing issue and need particular advice, my email, Facebook messenger, and Tumblr asks and messenger are always open. Happy editing!

#copyediting #editing #editing advice #writing advice #writer advice #advice for writers #writing #writeblr #writelr #typos #misspellings #writers #how to edit #author advice #advice for authors

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zcires · 6 years

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Ⅱ. ◈ ROLLING STONE: 1307 ED FT. ZAIRE STONE.

A blue moon of sorts emerges onto the horizon, as a host of happenings occur that no one truly anticipated. Dry, warm Hollywood, California is unseasonably rainy and chilly, and ZAIRE STONE is early for his 8 p.m. call time, milling about the hardwood of a non-descript studio, sifting through a rack of clothing and accessories for his first ROLLING STONE cover shoot. Clad in distressed jeans, a plain white t-shirt, orange Tampa Bay Buccaneers throwback Starter jacket and a pair of highly sought-after white Supreme Jordan's, the music phenom is calm and collected, and his shoulder is outwardly void of chips. No longer a defenseless young’n’, the singer/dancer turned multi-art hyphenate is in command and ready to make amends on his own terms. ( @unrulyrp / @dcnastclla )

“In the past, I don’t think I was able to capitalize fully off of the exposure that was given to me by the media,” he says matter-of-factly. “And I don’t think the direction focused on the road to redemption; it was more so on the controversy and the bulls**t that was going on in my life. Along with blogs and other various different people and other things, I just separated myself from a lot of negative things, or things that I feel that I couldn't be protected under.”

Now, at 28 years old with an impressive eleven-year career under his belt, STONE is in the position to protect himself–literally. Propping open a jewelry box filled with his own diamond-encrusted pieces, including a wildly oversized championship-style “OHB” pinky ring, an iced-out Allen Iverson logo pendant and a host of other blinding chains and bracelets, he incredulously answers an inquiry on the whereabouts of a lock for the case that houses such prized possessions. “A lock? For what? I can fight,” he says, flashing his 1000-watt grin. This is the essence of today’s ZAIRE STONE: confident, comfortable and unapologetically open to life’s lessons. And in order to grasp this updated version of everybody’s favorite crooner to hate, one must forget what they think they know. Dispose of the headlines. Dump the assumptions. Discard the labels. Seeing the sum of Stone’s parts on this Thursday night requires the art of letting go. With pretenses set aside, an objective fly on the wall would be admittedly impressed watching ZAIRE in his milieu as a professional. In a room manned by a stylist, publicist, photographer and myself, he is choosing his own clothes, setting up his own shots and peering at proofs. He’s also holding a rather informed conversation about celebrities’ impact on fashion over the years. And in between setting the stage for the task at hand, ZAIRE is also discussing the upcoming documentary about his personal and professional trials and triumphs as well as plans for STNE ENT, his own record company.

But he doesn’t characterize any of this as exerting creative control. “I think creative control is kind of like the total opposite from me. It’s just freedom,” he says, marking the first of 20 times he would refer to being free. “A lot of my doubts–or a lot of the doubts that are put upon us as people or individuals–I don’t funnel that to make my life move. The way I look at it is, I’m fearless.”

Either f-words–free or fearless–are commendable labels for STONE to have named and claimed. Of the decade-long stretch since his 2007 debut with his old boy band ZODIAC, STONE has spent the last couple years on an uphill climb, from the OVO v. STNE record label divide heard ‘round the world to a few stints in rehab for his alleged drug addiction to reportedly, according to Stone, OVO still owning his masters and unwilling to release them to his control. Free and fearless? The nerve of this guy. Judging by his body language he is, as he squats down on a wooden box next to an open awning-covered window that allows the sound of traffic on Cole Avenue to seep through. ZAIRE STONE is finally at ease with being ZAIRE STONE: good, bad and ugly included. Now, he asserts, his only mission is to inspire, a word that will also come up a number of times. Sixteen to be exact.

At 16 years old, STONE simply wanted to get the girls to like him and buy a Lamborghini. Fast forward to him at 28, and STONE is carving an indelible musical mark similar to the ones left by greats like USHER, whose classic nod to Clockwork Orange in “My Way,” and beanie phase in “U Remind Me” STONE still cites as inspirations, even as the two have become collaborators and friends. Presented with the mind-boggling calculation that he has achieved more Top 75 singles than USHER in half of his career span, STONE shrugs off the numbers and deflects the credit. “If it wasn’t for Usher, then ZAIRE STONE couldn’t exist,” he maintains. “When I would look at USHER, I would be like ‘F**k, he has it.’ The only other guy that I looked at like that was MICHAEL JACKSON.” But truth be told, someone will look at ZAIRE STONE in the same way one day. “I don’t think we’ll see another ZAIRE STONE for a really long time, and when we do, it still won’t be a ZAIRE STONE; it’ll be somebody that was influenced by him,” STNE Creative Director, BRYLEIGH VARGAS says. “The amount of talent in one being, only God can give that to him. As much as he goes through in life, people try to knock him down, they could never take away what God has placed inside of him.”

STONE is not a fan of calling himself a vet, though a decade-long tenure in the music-game trenches is no easy feat, especially given his trials. To him, that word is reserved for the “well off.” He pauses to carefully consider the answer to a final question on what he believes his legacy will be. “Certain people will look at different legacies,” he begins. “Some people might say that ZAIRE STONE is going down in history for being an irresponsible cokehead. Or some might say that ZAIRE STONE might go down as one of the greatest who ever did it. But I’m cool either way.”

“Why?” STELLA’s sudden outburst catching both ZAIRE and herself off guard. Throughout the interview, she had tried her hardest to maintain a level of professionalism and unbiased judgement. But she couldn’t help but question why a man with such God give talent and a genuinely great but often misunderstood heart would be okay with being remember for something as defaming as an ‘irresponsible cokehead.’ As she wait for a response, ZAIRE becomes a bit more subdued, humble even. He’s reluctant to discuss his impact in too much depth, turning his freckled face at the mere idea of what his legacy could be when it’s all said and done. “Because at the end of the day, somebody learned a greater lesson.”

── Stella Moreno.

#❛ work things.┋【 @𝕊𝕀𝔾ℕ𝔼𝔻 𝕊𝕋𝕆ℕ𝔼. 】#❛ tasks.┋【 @𝔸𝕊𝕊𝔾ℕ𝕄𝔼ℕ𝕋𝕊. 】#So sorry for how long this shit is.#And how big my head is.

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csdragon · 3 years

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Weird dream earlier tonight

Writing this all down so I don’t forget, cuz I haven’t had a dream this vivid that changed this often in some time.

Starts off in some stereotypical I want to say school or something setting, where there was a couple bullies that were being empowered by an authority figure nobody could stand up to. What were they being empowered to do? Deny covid of all things.

And so I’m like, “I gotta do something!”, so I grab the authority figure, who has now changed into my aunt, and we start flying. Also now we’re in the house I grew up in, and as we fly out the back door of the house, my old cat (who died in 2015) runs out the back door, and jumps up onto the roof and out into the front yard. I tell my parents to go chase her down cuz I have to do this, and fly over to the nearby giant military complex hospital.

Apparently I’m Danny phantom or something cuz we go invisible and intangible and go into like he 20th floor of the building or something. There’s huge glass windows showing everything so like, idk why we do it that way, but dream logic idk.

I’m showing off all these scientists, like 50 of them in the room all on crazy machines running tests, I’m trying to show off how hard at work the scientists are at finding a cure for covid. My aunt/the authority figure is a non-entity at this point in the dream, just a...thing...that I am carrying, pushed up into my chest spiderman style as I fly around. Probably I was cuddled up to a pillow IRL.

Anyway, we fly through the scientist rooms and try to find some covid patients to show off, when I realize my username is showing Minecraft style, and the military can see it and they’ll know who I am by googling it! Sure enough, I hear over the intercom, “CSDragon, we know who you are, you have 30 seconds to leave this complex or be arrested”, so we fly away, but I still need to prove covid exists so we land at the smaller hospital next door.

I decide I need to make my identity a secret, so I try to make my name into a barcode username (a combination of capital ‘i’s, lowercase ‘L’s and pipes ‘|’ (looks like this |Il|Il|Il|) except I try to do it with hyphens instead somehow and can’t find the other characters to make it work. Then my phone cracks. Then my phone screen splits in two, tearing like a sheet under tension. Speaking of sheet, it’s also now a bedsheet on the ground, though it’s still a phone. Also as the phone ripped it spewed battery acid everywhere so I had to wash my hands cuz it was burning

I ask the lady standing there (whomst??) if she can recover my data from my torn bedsheet phone, she says it’s already recovered from the cloud and transfers me the data (to what???). My dad who’s suddenly there tells me we’ll go get a new phone tomorrow, and I”m annoyed I have to go a full day without my phone, and am just like “whatever, I’ll go buy one myself”

After that I woke up. I’ve never had such a strong memory of a dream in a long time, so I wanted to write it down before I forgot all of it. Hope some of y’all found it entertaining.

#csdragon rambles

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academiix · 7 years

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Please read if you show genuine interest and will not leave rude/racist comments

“Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn't occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice.” ―Maya Lin

What does it mean to be Asian-American? is a question I often ask myself in the rare moments of spare time as a teenager still figuring out my identity. It used to just be a passing thought, a small part of myself that I didn’t care too much about. But the more mature I become, the less I can ignore this blatant label plastered onto my face. Everything I did became “Asian-American,” and I learned to embrace this identity, passion surging through my veins every time I heard the hyphenated word.

The first time I truly stopped to search “Asian-American” on Google Images was for a project in freshman year. We had to create a memoir, and I chose to draw a self-portrait, but ran out of ideas how to portray my “Asian-Americaness.” What I found was typical - the picture-perfect family, a few pictures of the legendary show Fresh Off the Boat, countless students with graduation caps and gear from prestigious universities, Whiz Kids, The Rise of Asian Americans - I know it all.

Asian-Americans are, in my opinion, the most homogenized ethnic group in American society. This quote quite sums it up: “Years ago...they used to think you were Fu Manchu or Charlie Chan. Then they thought you must own a laundry or a restaurant. Now they think all we know how to do is sit in front of a computer” (quote from an Asian-American high school teacher). We’re homogenized because of our relatively low population (5.6% of America) and because of so-called “quiteness” (or in some people’s opinions, “submissive”) that doesn’t draw much attention. This standardization, the unreal, machine-like uniformity is extremely dangerous.

the model minority myth

This phrase is not uncommon when discussing stereotyping of Asian-Americans. I’ll just give a brief explanation: it’s the theory that Asian-Americans are the “best type of minority” and centers around the question, “why can’t other minorities be like Asian-Americans?” The term envelops all Asian-Americans under one certain image of a quiet, studious, math-genius Harvard kid who will probably find an upper-middle class life and not be aggressively engaged in politics.

This, of course, is a myth. And if anything, does more harm than good. The stereotype forces all Asian-American families of different racial groups, socio-economic backgrounds into a single image. It ignores the struggles that low-income Asian-American families face, and instead gives others a false perception of them having a perfect life. The term doesn’t account for the racial groups that statistically don’t have high education degrees, dehumanizes individuals so that they have robotic-like qualities, and creates a social pressure that steers many Asian-Americans away from certain career pathways (i.e. lack of Asian-American representation in media).

The myth also erases other forms of racial discrimination because according to the model minority myth, “Asian-Americans only have good stereotypes.” But these stereotypes, are they really good? How many times have I been pressured to succeed academically and economically to the point where I broke down in tears? How many times did I feel like I was not good enough, not smart enough, not “Asian” enough? Too many to remember. And it’s not just me - Asian-Americans have some of the highest rates of depressive thoughts yet a great number don’t seek help. From my personal experiences, they don’t seek help because they’re scared. They’re supposed to have “perfect lives,” and if they were to tell someone (especially a non-Asian-American), they would not be taken seriously. My counselor even told my best friend (who used to have depression) and I that we probably wouldn’t understand what mental illness are like - and we both think the assumption is based on the model minority myth.

There’s also the debate of affirmative action. Personally I agree that affirmative action is a good idea but with some flaws in the system. There’s the increasing thought that model minority stereotype has made elite universities try to limit the accepted number of Asian-Americans, which causes the modern effort to be “as less Asian as possible” on applications. Affirmative action is supposed to increase diversity, but when there are suddenly too many of the same type of minority, suddenly Asian-Americans are no longer considered as “the diversity.” Did they forget the practical slavery that Asian immigrants faced during the 1800-1900s just because of the myth that Asian-Americans excel? Does my last name truly matter more than my other qualities? (There’s one case where an Indian-American student applied to medical school I believe and pretended to be an African-American. Apparently the change of race helped him in the admissions a lot.) Now I’m not saying that affirmative action is bad, what I’m questioning is, why should my ethnicity, which has been empirically otherized and discriminated against, still harm my educational opportunities?

the bamboo ceiling

Here is where the model minority myth gets cut short. After all the seemingly positive stereotypes, Asian-Americans will inevitably be sub-par in American society because of the “bamboo ceiling.” This is the line between white Americans and Asian-Americans that recreates the racial hierarchy. “Good but not good enough”, “honorary white person”, “good, but not white enough”, “smart, but perhaps your communication skills aren’t that good...oh wait, you can speak English fluently??”

According to statistics in a majority of the fields with a prevalence of Asian-Americans (i.e. medicine, tech industry, even law, etc), a relatively minuscule percentage of Asian-Americans hold upper-management positions. Even in areas where there aren’t many Asian-Americans, the percentage is still less than the average percentage of Asian-Americans in the country (i.e. politics and entertainment). Of course slowly these barriers are breaking away, but I believe the reason why the bamboo ceiling exists is because of the inability for many to differentiate between Asian immigrants and Asian-born Americans. For example, my parents truly have some issues with speaking “perfect English,” but that doesn’t apply to me...yet, in some people’s minds, it does apply to me.

Perhaps the bamboo ceiling is caused by the fear of a reality of the model minority stereotype. Perhaps the barrier is there so that white Americans could still have an advantage in the workforce, because they are afraid that a dominant Asian-American co-worker will take their place. Just leaving the idea out there; you can decide for yourself if my theory is plausible.

The combination of the model minority and the bamboo ceiling puts us in some odd situation - we’re somewhere between revered and disliked, don’t know whether we should feel grateful or disgusted, and that’s where I begin to question my identity.

Jay Kang’s article discusses the Asian-American identity in his recent article:

“‘Asian-American’ is a mostly meaningless term. Nobody grows up speaking Asian-American, nobody sits down to Asian-American food with their Asian-American parents and nobody goes on pilgrimages back to their motherland of Asian-America...We share stereotypes, mostly — tiger moms, music lessons and the unexamined march toward success, however it’s defined...

Discrimination is what really binds Asian-Americans together.”

Thanks for reading! Please I would be honored if you could spare a minute taking this poll!

#social issues #social activism #race #ethnicity #identity #asian american #racism #microaggression #model minority #mine:social

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dogfrostclan · 3 years

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I *think* I may have gotten the Option Presets to work? Will need to test it in the morning, but I likely won’t be deleting my backup from before the overhaul until looong after release. Basically, I just taped on some extra columns to import more values, and Cut-Pasted the old ones around to match the new layout (should work, I’m pretty sure I referenced those cells directly).

I also set up some default values, which will be used if no option is selected...

Oh, and I just realized I forgot to add a functionality I meant to implement. Basically, a “default” preset that’s supposed to override the regular default values if it exists. Gonna see if I can add that tomorrow.

Hard-coded default values are 3-8 length for names, and for a titles a random type, no spaces (or hyphen or apostrophes) and none longer than 16 characters. Basically, making it so that with the core default values, the spreadsheet will never generate a name that cannot be used on Flight Rising for technical reasons. (Note to self - don’t forget the legal disclaimer when sharing this spreadsheet)

Also, fun fact, many years ago when this spreadsheet was just a list of random words I’d shuffle around with an Add-On (aka the first of now three spreadsheets of this nature), it once combined the words “Egg” and “Plant” into “EggPlant”. There were only about 50-ish words or so back then, now there’s 4,412.

#spreadsheet shenanigans

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samuelfields · 4 years

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How to Start a Blog

Key Takeaways

Find a niche and post consistently to see the best results.

Focus on quality, longer-length posts.

Use your content to build authority and monetize services.

If you’ve been daydreaming about creating a blog during yet another endless conference call, an excellent place to start is right here.

In case you haven’t heard, content is king. And there are plenty of full-time bloggers who prove it and make a living writing about hobbies, recipes, or workouts.

Writing with authority on a topic provides serious value in an internet landscape, often filled with subpar information.

With that said, starting up a blog doesn’t mean you can put in your two weeks as soon as you press “Publish” on your first blog post. Monetizing your blog and turning a profit takes hard work and dedication.

Like almost everything else in life, you get what you put in.

A great blog involves research, content strategy, and a fresh perspective.

So, if you have a story to tell or a niche to fill, it’s time to learn how to start a blog and unleash your creativity.

Step 1: Pick Your Blog Niche

Although you can simply start a blog based on broad topics, it’s smarter to narrow your focus. A unique point of view and a distinct voice are essential to building an audience.

There are two main questions you should ask yourself when setting up your blog and choosing your focus. The first is, “Do I enjoy learning about this subject?”

Good writing is infused with the passion of the author. If you’re writing something with thought and care, you’re more likely to benefit from actively engaged, inspired readers while building authority. On the flip side, if you don’t particularly like a topic, it’ll quickly surface in your writing and potentially turn readers off.

It’s important to be intellectually curious about the topic – otherwise, your creativity and ideas for new content might run dry.

Still not sure? Think about what your close friends and family come to you to discuss.

Do you know the best secret hiking spots in your state? Do your vegan recipes on Instagram get the most engagement? Let these answers guide your blog focus.

The second question you should ask is, “Does this already exist?”

You might think that a blog centered around crocheting crafts out of found materials is unique. Lo-and-behold, after a little Googling, you find a blog floating around focused on that exact niche.Although your blog will share space with similar blogs, it needs to be different enough for an audience to seek you out. You need to provide value – especially if you want to monetize your blog down the road.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has you worried about money, check out my free guide on Coronavirus-Proofing your Finances with the CEO approach

Step 2: Choose a Blog Name

Finding a name for your blog might seem intimidating at first, but don’t overthink it. Here are some tips to remember when you’re brainstorming your blog name:

Choose words related to your niche

Keep it simple and stick to one or two words

Don’t pick overly general terms like “travel”

Dotcom domains are preferred

Avoid hyphens or numbers

For a personal blog or branding, consider using a variation of your name

You can keep your domain name as long as you continue to pay your annual fees, which typically run $10 to $15 per year.

Step 3: Choose Your Web Host

So, you’ve chosen a niche around perfecting the art of macramé on a budget and named it. Now, what? The next step is to select your web host.

Web hosting is a service that makes your blog accessible through the web – it has a significant impact on your site’s overall functionality and its performance.

There’s a vast array of web hosts to choose from at all price points, from a few dollars to thousands. Above all, a good web host will walk you through setting up and launching your blog.

Hosted vs. Self-Hosted

You have two options here: hosted (Blogger, WordPress.com) and self-hosted (WordPress.org). “Hosted” blogging platforms, like Wix or Squarespace, offer a hands-off approach to your blog. You deal with one company, and all of your content and files live on the blog platform’s servers. These platforms manage data and web hosting, so you don’t have to.

Unfortunately, hosted platforms can be limiting and slow down the growth of your blog. Some might even put restrictions on how much money you can make from your content. Or you might be prohibited from monetizing at all.

“Self-hosted” platforms require you to install blogging software on your own web server.

Self-hosted platforms like WordPress.org allow you to set up and maintain your blog with a unique domain and web hosting. If you want to sell products, sell a service, or run ads, this is the right choice.

You’ve probably heard of WordPress’s blogging platform already, and there’s a reason for that – it’s easy to use and powerful. WordPress also delivers tons of free plugins you can leverage to customize and optimize your blog.

Step 4: Protect and Secure Your Blog

New bloggers may not realize they should protect their blog by doing some basic security housekeeping tasks.

Backup Your Blog

Backing up your blog should be one of the first things you do after setting up your blog. While it’s rare that a web host will lose or delete your site, it can still happen.

But your site suddenly disappearing isn’t the biggest threat to your blog — hackers are.

Hackers and other cybercriminals can infect your site with malicious code.

If the worst-case scenario occurs, but you have a backup of your blog available, you can restore a clean version of your website.

Be Careful With Copyrights

Copyrights need to be respected, especially when it comes to the visual elements of your blog.

Small-time bloggers are often the victims of what is called “Copyright Trolls.” Well-meaning bloggers might accidentally use copyrighted images to add visual interest to their content.

Copyright lawyers can sue you for damages based on the use of a copyrighted image, even if the lawyer doesn’t own the copyright or represent the entity with the copyright. As a result, bloggers can be bilked out of money.

How do you avoid this? Never use copyrighted images for your blog posts. If you’re not sure, it’s better to be safe than sorry and choose an image you’re confident that you can use.

It’s actually very easy to find images available for free through the public domain or free stock photo sites. And on that note, it’s good practice to credit the website or artist (or both), however. A step above using free images you find on the internet is to use your own graphics. Smartphones offer basic but helpful editing tools, and you can get surprisingly high-quality photos. Websites like Canva offer free tools you can use to create blog header graphics and other visual elements you can insert into your text to make your posts look more attractive.

Opt for Domain Privacy

Besides securing your blog, you should also take steps to protect your personal identity. Your web host should offer a domain privacy service that keeps your personal information private.

Besides domain privacy, avoid sharing identifying details in your blog like where you live, your schedule, names, and other similar details.

Use Hard-to-Guess Passwords for Your Blog Login

Although this might seem like a no-brainer, there’s evidence that millions of people still using passwords like “password,” “abc123,” and other easily-guessed combos.

Here are some basic password tips to keep in mind:

Use 12 characters minimum

Include numbers, capital letters, lower-case letters, and symbols

Don’t use dictionary words

You can use a password manager like Keeper if you’re concerned about forgetting a complex password.

Bonus: Want to turn your dream of working from home into a reality? Download my Ultimate Guide to Working from Home to learn how to make working from home work for YOU.

Step 5: Design and Customize Your Blog

Now for the fun stuff. Installing a theme for your blog is a straightforward task, but it can take time to accomplish since there are thousands of free themes to explore. While it’s essential to ensure that your blog is attractive and user-friendly, it’s equally important that it complements your blog content. If you’re working on a WordPress site, look for themes that say “SEO optimized”, “responsive” or “fast loading” themes. Many free themes can make sites look odd when viewed on a mobile device, or make for increased page speed (aka the time it takes a page to properly load). For users on sites like squarespace or Wix, you shouldn’t have to worry about these potential issues.

For example, if you’re starting an urban photography blog, a theme emphasizing visuals is preferable to text-oriented themes.

To get more relevant results, you can apply filters while searching for themes like designs based around your blog subject, for instance.

Step 6: Add Basic Blog Pages

Before you start posting regularly, it’s smart to add a few basic, standard pages to your blog to boost your website’s credibility.

Create an “About Me” Page

Your “About Me” page should explain who you are and the focus of your blog. Spend time making it interesting and fun.

Readers are often interested in getting to know you and how you started your industry or niche. You don’t have to write an entire autobiography, just describe how you got to the point you’re at now. Over everything else, be relatable.

For example, show your readers that you’re a credible source. Why should they listen to you? What experience do you have that makes you knowledgeable on this specific topic? If you’re writing a finance blog, are you a CPA? If you’re sharing recipes, what do you bring to the table that will make your audience want to listen to you? A coupon-cutter, perhaps? Tell your readers how long you’ve been doing it, how much money you save, and why they can benefit from the information you’re sharing.

Add a Privacy, Disclosure, and Comment Policy Page

If you want to monetize your blog, you’ll need to make sure you comply with all laws regarding data collection, privacy, and advertising. Adding standard disclosure language is an essential step if you want to make money.

You should also note your commenting policy. For example, do you allow anyone to comment? Do you ever delete comments? Are there commenting rules?

Craft a Simple Contact Page

It’s important to make it easy for readers and businesses to contact you. Set up a dedicated page with an embedded contact form or just list out your email — speaking of which…

Step 7: Set Up a Custom Blog Email Address

Another step you should take during the initial phases of your blog set up is registering a customized blog email address. At the outset, this may not seem all that important to you.

But details matter — especially to your readership and people who might reach out to you for partnerships, content writing services, and other reasons.

A professional email that matches your blog looks professional, credible, and helps build up your brand’s authority. An email from an email address with tons of numbers and a mishmash of letters can look spammy. If you’re unlucky enough, any email sent from a suspicious-looking email can be automatically filed to the “junk” category of your recipient’s mailbox.

As a professional blog owner, you don’t want to be confused with a Nigerian prince who needs a one-time investment to set up a new school playground. An email that’s simply [email protected] lends polish to your brand and can help you monetize your blog later. Nobody wants to do business with [email protected].

Step 8: Register Social Media Accounts for Your Blog

When you’ve done all the hard parts on your actual blog, it’s time to branch out to the world of social media. Social media is another channel you can use to alert followers to new posts and attract new visitors and more traffic.

Many social media platforms also allow you to set up ads that you can use to extend your blog’s reach.

Have a post on your blog that is performing well? You may want to consider targeting ads for it to get even more people on the page. Or, maybe you have an underperforming post you revamped — you might consider sending more traffic to that post with social media ads.

Below are some basic social media tips and which platforms to target.

Twitter

Set up a Twitter profile for your blog. Add a Tweet button to all blog posts you publish on your blog so followers can easily retweet them.

Follow other big names within your niche and interact with people in the industry already. Tweet out alerts for new posts.

Facebook

Set up a Facebook page for your blog. Share your content on Facebook, schedule posts, and invite friends and families to like your page.

Instagram

Set up an Instagram page. Find compelling images and use tools that allow for longer, evenly spaced captions to publish snippets of full-length blog posts or even exclusive “mini-blogs.”

Although this is a platform for building a professional network, almost any blog can still be relevant to a professional audience. Obviously, a blog about marketing is going to be more relevant to a wider group of people on LinkedIn, but don’t write it off if your blog is more niche.

LinkedIn provides the ability to connect with other bloggers and thought leaders within your industry.

Bonus: Having more than one stream of income can help you through tough economic times. Learn how to start earning money on the side with my FREE Ultimate Guide to Making Money

Step 9: Optimize Your Blog

SEO or search engine optimization is crucial, especially if you want to monetize your blog. SEO helps improve your site’s chances of appearing high on Google’s rankings for relevant search queries.

Although SEO can be intimidating at the outset, WordPress actually makes it pretty simple – even for beginners.

One of the best ways to get started on your blog’s SEO journey is by downloading a plugin called Yoast SEO. Yoast can give you readability ratings, keyword density, and point out pages on your blog that need a little SEO boost.

If you want to do a deeper dive into SEO, you can also conduct some keyword research. In most cases, you’ll naturally be using keywords as a result of providing valuable content around a particular subject.

But SEO tools like SEMrush, for example, can suggest alternate keywords to incorporate. Just don’t get too hung up on keywords and stuff too many in your posts, because Google can penalize your blog for doing so.

Once you have the keywords you want to target, use them in your title, title tags, first sentence, heading, subheadings, and any anchor text you use (the text you link to related pages on your website).

You can also optimize your images for SEO. When you upload images to your blog, use keywords in the file name, and use the alternate text space to write a keyword-rich description.

Step 10: Choose a Posting Schedule and Write Posts to Build an Audience

In most cases, it’ll take a few years to build an audience. Yes, years.

Here are a few blog tips to help nurture a loyal blog following and audience:

Stay Consistent: Try to post at least once a week and try to avoid skipping weeks. You can write a few posts ahead of time and schedule them out if you wish. In an ideal world, you should aim to post two to three times a week.

Focus on Quality: For every post you write, push for quality. Google tends to rank longer blog posts higher on their results pages, but if you’re writing fluff — that doesn’t help anyone.

Observe Your Competition: What is the focus of other similar blogs? Can you do it better or answer a query more comprehensively?

To Thine Own Self Be True: Find your unique voice – are you funny, heartfelt, honest? Build your brand. Write as if you’re talking to a close friend if you’re unsure of the right tone to adopt.

Get Active in Related Communities: Facebook groups, subreddits, podcast interviews, and speaking engagements can be lucrative opportunities for publicizing your blog.

Tips for Keeping a Strong Content Flow

Not every blog post you write will be award-winning. There might even come a time where you feel like you’ve run out of ideas. To avoid frustration and creative dead ends, consider brainstorming smart blog post content ahead of time.

If inspiration for a new post doesn’t pop into your head and you’re stuck fighting through a severe case of writer’s block, you can choose from that list of vetted topics you’ve created.

Okay, but what if you’re out of topics, and now you need to create new ones from scratch?

Read Books, Forums, and Comments: Reading books about your niche or people within your industry. Forums and your own blog comments can also be useful sources of potential inspiration.

Leverage Google: You can mine Google’s “People Also Ask” sections or query suggestions that pop up when you type in a keyword for blog post ideas.

Travel: Some bloggers also find success in coming up with new ideas by traveling somewhere and getting a fresh perspective. A new physical environment might just open up your brain.

Interview Industry Leaders: Can you reach out to other people who can provide insight on a topic? Or maybe you can join a friend in the industry for a cup of coffee and talk shop.

Crowdsource Topics: Use your readership for new ideas. Ask what your readers would like to see with polls on your social media platforms.

Step 11: Promote Your Blog

So, you’re posting regularly, and everything’s set up. Now, how do you encourage people to visit and read your blog?

Create social media posts immediately after publishing a new post.

Since you’ve already taken the first step of setting up your social media sites, it’s now time to leverage them as the fantastic promotional tools they are.

By publishing immediate social posts promoting your new blog content, you can get immediate follows, shares, likes, and retweets that can build momentum, so your post to go farther.

It’s important to remember that your audience is likely to follow you on a few different social media accounts.

That means you need to customize each snippet or preview text you use when promoting a blog post.

What you don’t want to do is copy and paste the same verbiage repeatedly for each of your accounts — it comes off spammy and uninteresting. Optimize your messaging for each social stream and audience.

Re-promote Successful Content

Did you hit virtual gold with a blog post that went viral? Don’t be shy about promoting it again after some time passes.

Re-promoting content that didn’t do well in the first place might not be the best strategy, but posts that have strong stats initially can do well again in the future.

It’s a good idea to focus your efforts on creating evergreen content that stays relevant over time.

“Evergreen” is just a term that internet marketers use to refer to posts considered timeless. This type of content stays useful years after the initial publication because it tackles a core problem or subject. An evergreen post might be “How to Clean Your Bike Chain.” A non-evergreen post would be “How to Clean Your Bike Chain During a Pandemic.”

Spice Up Your Blog Post Descriptions

Are you only sharing a blog post’s headline through your social media channels and calling it a day? Well, that gets boring very fast. To keep the interest in your blog higher, change up the messaging, and get inspiration from your own content.

State the Main Takeaways: Was there a “moral to the story” that sums up your post? Use that to give potential readers a basic, exciting summary.

Reuse Your Meta Description: Your meta description is the preview snippet that shows up in Google search results. (Yoast, that plugin we talked about earlier, will prompt you to customize yours – if you don’t customize it, Google will simply pull the first line or two from your blog.) Reuse your meta description to sell your blog post.

Use Your Subheadings: Your subheadings help readers navigate through your blog post. You can mine these subheadings for copy that you think might attract traffic to your website.

Pull Interesting Quotes: Did an industry leader, influencer, or celebrity give you a quote in your post? Pull out any interesting, odd, or thoughtful quotes and tag the person who said it in your social promotion post.

Use Images: Posts with visual elements get much more engagement than those without visual elements. Don’t just rely on boring stock images. Overlay images with text, create your own memes or use GIFs to demand attention.

Use Hashtags: For Twitter, you can use trending hashtags to see what people are already talking about or focus on hashtags relevant to your industry. For Instagram and Facebook, you can take advantage of pertinent hashtags to your blog. Don’t be afraid to get super specific with your hashtags.

Use Social Media Regularly: Post at least once a week, engage with commenters, and answer messages.

Guest Post

Guest posting is a way to promote your blog by contributing to another blog within your industry. By providing a guest post to another blogger, you can help build your own website’s credibility.

Guest blogging can accomplish three different goals for your blog: showing others you’re an expert, pushing traffic to your blog, and building backlinks.

Quick Explainer on Backlinks: Backlinks serve as a “vote” for your site. But not all backlinks are created equally. Links from relevant, trusted websites pointing to your website can your site move up in Google’s rankings. But, if spammy websites are giving you backlinks, that’s a red flag that may result in a ranking drop.

To pursue guest blogging, you’ll need to find places to submit a guest post. If your blog is about bikes, you’ll want to search for similar blogs focused on your bikes and make sure the blog owner is active with an engaged audience.

You can also use a simple Google search to find blogs accepting guest posts. Just use a keyword relevant to your niche plus “submit a guest post” or “guest post guidelines” and other similar search terms.

Once you’ve found blogs to guest post for, you’ll need to pitch a few content ideas. Make sure you do your due diligence and research the blog’s tone of voice, type of audience, and other information you need to know. Pay attention to guidelines like the required word count.

Some guest post bloggers allow you to post links to your blog in the content itself, while others will enable you to post your blog link in your byline. Each guest blogging site operates differently.

Step 12: Monetize Your Blog

There are many ways you can monetize your blog, but the two you can most easily leverage are affiliate links and services.

Affiliate programs work through pushing links to products relevant to your audience. When your audience clicks through the link to that recommendation, they get a unique tracking code. If they end up purchasing, you’ll get a portion of the sale.

Another way to monetize your blog is to offer services or intensive information related to your topics of expertise or industry.

Depending on your blog’s focus, you can provide live workshops, one-on-one consulting sessions, or comprehensive online courses. Your blog serves as the jumping-off point, but your audience will only convert into customers if you’ve demonstrated authority and knowledge. Neither of which happens overnight.

Takeaways: Building a Blog, Step by Step

Creating a blog requires patience, strategy, and the desire to develop quality content. You don’t have to be a professional writer to create a successful blog. Plenty of everyday people have created a blog out stemming from a genuine interest that exploded into a successful brand. If you’re ready to try something new, blogging is a great way to flex your creative muscle and potentially earn some money.

FAQs: How to Start a Blog as a Beginner

Still, have a few remaining questions about starting a blog? Get answers to your blogging FAQs below.

Can I Start a Blog for Free?

While it’s true that you can, if your end goal is to monetize your blog and transform it into a lucrative side hustle, it makes more sense to pay to host your blog on your own server with your own domain name. Not only will this make your blog more “legit” from the outset, but it also gives you much more flexibility for monetizing down the line.

Is it Difficult to Start a Blog?

Yes and no. While starting a blog is a reasonably straightforward process, the key to creating a successful one is consistency. Consistency and developing a strong content strategy are going to be the most difficult parts of maintaining your blog, especially if you have other responsibilities demanding your attention like a day job, kids, or other obligations.

With that said, writing regularly for your blog is easy once it’s a habit, and you have a running list of future blog post ideas from which to choose.

How Much Money Can I Realistically Make Blogging?

It’s not unrealistic to make a range from just one cent to ten cents per page view through ads. If you get around 1,000-page views each month, you can earn $10-$100! And depending on the success of your blog, it can go up from there. Not everyone will be able to live off their blog income full-time, but there’s still the potential to make a good chunk of change.

Do People Still Read Blogs Anymore?

Yes! Blogs are still critical in the internet landscape. There are a few things to note about how people read blogs that have changed over time. For example, people are much less likely to read a blog post from beginning to end.

Instead, people tend to skim a post for the information most relevant to them. Keep that information in mind as you’re writing your initial blog posts.

Well-structured blog posts should utilize headings and subheadings so that information is organized efficiently, and readers can find what they need.

How Do I Make My Blog Stand Out?

Ultimately, you’ll need to provide value. Good information on a particular subject is the best way to set your blog apart from others. But a difficult-to-use site with a lot of great information is unlikely to garner much attention. First impressions matter, in real life and in virtual life.

Your site should be user-friendly, easy to navigate, and easy to skim. And don’t forget to integrate enough negative space to give your readers somewhere to “rest.”

Focus on making a site that even an older relative could navigate.

How Do I Stop Spam Comments?

If you allow comments, you need to be prepared for spammers and trolls. One way to deal with this issue is by turning off commenting altogether. Or you can also moderate the comments yourself or install plugins that can help reduce the frequency of spam.

How Do Successful Bloggers Monetize Their Blogs?

Bloggers may use their blogs to increase their authority within a certain niche or industry, sell things like memberships, sell digital products like e-books or courses, use affiliate links, or monetize with CPC or CPM ads.

FYI: CPC and CPM stand for “cost-per-click” and “cost-per-thousand-impressions,” respectively.

What Kind of Blogs Make the Most Money?

Before you get your answer, it needs to be said: don’t let the list of blog types inform the choice of your blog alone.

Why? Well, if you want to start a blog about newborns because that’s a niche that’s historically made money, you can only do so confidently if you’ve had a baby yourself or work with babies.

If you’re an 18-year-old single college student without a kid, it doesn’t make sense to start a blog about newborns. Keep that concept in mind before pursuing a subject simply because it historically makes money in the blogging world.

Top Blogging Niches:

Crafting

Parenting or newborn

Health

Lifestyle or family life

Budgeting

Interior Design or home decor

If your blog doesn’t fall under one of these umbrella categories, don’t panic. Ultimately, these are just basic categories that won’t make or break the success of your blog. Stay authentic to what you’re actually passionate about.

How Can I Better Analyze My Website Traffic For Free?

If you want to know what types of people visit your site, you have a few free tools you can leverage. Two of the best are Google Console and Google Analytics.

Both of these tools are easy to install and offer training so you can learn to use them. GC and GA can reveal interesting insights into visitor behavior, backlinks to your site, and other pertinent information about your site’s ranking for particular keywords.

How Long Should My Blog Posts Be?

While there isn’t a hard and fast rule about content length, if you’re trying to get ranked on Google, longer is better. Blog posts between 1500 and 2000 words seem to be ideal. Again, your posts shouldn’t be full of fluff for the sake of reaching those word count goals. Instead, try to create comprehensive posts that cover a particular subject in rich detail.

Will I Make Money Off My Blog Right Away?

While instantaneous success isn’t unheard of, you will probably need to blog for a few months or closer to a year before you see any revenue. Your initial year operating the blog should focus on analyzing what’s working and what isn’t working. Here are some questions you should ask (and know the answer to!) after your first few months to a year of blogging.

What are the most popular posts? The least popular?

What are the demographics of my blog visitors?

How long are people staying on my page?

Is traffic trending up, down, or is it steady?

Starting a blog isn’t going to be an overnight project, but with time and patience, you can turn it into a real side hustle.

How to Start a Blog is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-start-a-blog/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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andrewdburton · 4 years

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How to Start a Blog

Key Takeaways

Find a niche and post consistently to see the best results.

Focus on quality, longer-length posts.

Use your content to build authority and monetize services.

If you’ve been daydreaming about creating a blog during yet another endless conference call, an excellent place to start is right here.

In case you haven’t heard, content is king. And there are plenty of full-time bloggers who prove it and make a living writing about hobbies, recipes, or workouts.

Writing with authority on a topic provides serious value in an internet landscape, often filled with subpar information.

Like almost everything else in life, you get what you put in.

A great blog involves research, content strategy, and a fresh perspective.

So, if you have a story to tell or a niche to fill, it’s time to learn how to start a blog and unleash your creativity.

Step 1: Pick Your Blog Niche