#it is 1k pages long about a topic i know nothing about. i really am starting from zero but i will read that fucking book even if it kills me
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hi, so.. i'm not really quite sure where to begin, so i'll just paste what i've got from the gofundme.
hi!! so, a little backstory.
my name's londyn lee billington. i'm a 21 year old transgender man from lower alabama. i grew up in a tiny town called samson, famous for what's called the worst mass shooting in alabama history, dubbed "the wiregrass massacre". there's a wikipedia page if you're curious.
i am a maladaptive daydreamer, among many other things!
when me and my cousin were very little, we used to play outside and make believe. LARPing, like all kiddos do.
well, for those almost 15 years, never once did it leave me. i constantly and continuously developed it over those many years, and i've found it's turned into something beautiful.
i've shown it to quite a few people, reception has been absolutely nothing but fantastic, it's more than i could've ever asked for. i'm gonna drop a link.
i'd like to try and hit 1k, but any help we can get would be greatly appreciated!
https://gofund.me/522fe12e
me and some friends are turning it into a webtoon. my mom's facing prison time.
it'll be the 5th time in my life. i don't know how long she's gonna be here, or if i'll see her again.
she's been begging me to write this.
help me make my mom proud of me c:
as a note! there's some really heavy topics in this.
sexual assault, abuse of all kinds, mental health, trauma, war. genocide, et cetera.
this is to raise money for my comic, it's not about world affairs, i've got a novel covering that.
this is just my passion. no real world politics here. we're going to use the money to pay our staff, create a larger team, set up and monetize a discord server, and eventually i'd like to try and pitch it to adult swim!!
i'm super excited to introduce our current team! there's four of us! we have!! (i will update with discord tags soon, i've gotta run it by them first.) imo, a good roleplay buddy of mine, handling editing. my qpr partner bubble, is doing the main art and promotional content, i'm writing the script and setting up the story. then we have my old friend toony, who's going to be drawing the official webcomic!
i'm adopted, my folks are getting older, we live on social security, and have my entire life.
they always told me i could do great things, let's make it happen!
i'm legally blind and disabled, so are my parents. my body nearly shut down from 3 months of not eating on wednesday, we're scrambling to file my taxes, schedule appointments, meet up with my new therapist, etc. bills are due, and i don't even have the money to get my hair cut right now but it's so long it's causing me dysphoria, which is adding to my stress.
please, if you like what you see and are interested in helping out, feel free to dm! my discord is owochi_mawu#2094, dms and pings are totally fine, so is spam.
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Hey, hey! I was wondering what we can and can't request? It seems there are certain things that are open. I couldn't see where. 😅
Hello~.
Oh, nothing in particular is open, but I can see where this gets confusing. X”D
So, basically this is to say what I do in regards to this blog (this isn't everything open, btw, just saying what I do):
9K word fics
love letters
snippets (usually just over 1K)
headcanons
opinions (whenever I'm asked)
Answering comments/ questions as a character like small Rping.
Very, very rarely I'll ask for requests for artwork (usually grayscale only though)
However, as of late because I'm working on a lot of stuff, I usually do the smaller things I can get through:
snippets (usually just over 1K)
headcanons
opinions
answer comments/ questions as a character like small Rping.
Now, there are 2 fics I have out that are drabble collections, and anybody is welcome to ask to put in their thoughts for any chapter or idea in them:
The Tome of Ashurbanipal (Demiurge / Reader fic)
Welcome to the Color Café (Swatch and or Swachlings / Reader fic)
Whenever you offer a thought be it here or in the comments of those fics, I put it into consideration, as I don't really hyper focus on those stories lately outside of reader requests (or I'm bored, but it's rare for me to get that way). If anybody wants to contribute to these fics: If it's through here, you need to specify your ask/request is for them or it won't go into either of these drabble collections.
Keep in mind: these are usually only about 10 pages long or just about 5K words. Depends the idea I'm given as some have been shorter (pure smutty ones) or longer.
I do open love letters at specific times of the year (they might return for December), and when it comes to the 9K word fics, I just tell people requests are open and to hit me with what they got. I do list the fandoms I'll participate in just because it's hard to focus outside of that given my ADHD. Some fandoms will come and go for certain topics, as I do love them but not so passionate about them I can get through them as easily as others. Just depends what I think or know I can get through fast enough, as I don't want people waiting too long even if it's a request.
But, if anybody is ever interested in my goings on, my To-Do List is front and center on my pinned Master list. I have started to move the doing stuff up and done to show what's at the top and what I'm actively doing instead of being scatterbrained like I normally am. The put on hold till I get motivation and will be worked on when able is now moved in 'to-do' with the yellow marker.
I do hope that clears something up, anon, and I am so sorry for the confusion. X3;
#i keep myself busy for a reason so nobody feel bad about 'adding on' lol#if i stop to think about life it gets... dark for me#we'll put it that way to spare some triggering stuff#so don't worry about anything#you're helping me occupy my mind#with better things#requests#mod answers#anon
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♔ MY NAVIGATION ♔
0.5 TYPES OF REQUESTS I WRITE:
One-shots (1k words or more)
Drabbles (below 1k words)
Headcanons (bullet point fics)
Blurbs (below 500 words)
Imagines (gif + a little blurb, around 500 words)
1.0 RULES:
Request via ask.
Always include what type of request you want me to write.
Specify because specification is very important as it helps me make your request as pleasing as possible, but try not to be too specific as I like the element of surprise.
If you want me to write something from my prompt list (click here): include the name of said character, category of the prompt and the prompt’s respective number (e.g. Jay Halstead, fluff 7).
1.1 Note: If you don't include what type of request it is that you want me to cook up, I will choose the type myself so don't come at me if you wanted a 2K worded piece of work and instead got an imagine with 200 words!
1.2 Note: Mixing the prompt with a plot line of your own is allowed, just make sure to follow the rules (1-3).
1.5 THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
Unless asked for, I will be writing with the Female!reader in mind (I like to exclude any gender relation and make it so that both genders could read and enjoy).
I respond to asks when the request has been qued to post and released on Ao3.
The maximum number of request you can send is 2. I know there is an option to send them in anonymously, but I really hope you will stick to this rule. Give others a chance to submit their wishes, and don’t make the line too big with by mass requesting (I close requests after I get around 30 requests).
Requests sent during seasons I have not watched or for characters that have yet to make an appearance in the show will not be written (exceptions exist).
I write one-shots but not a whole series unless I can see/want a continuation.
Themed requests (Christmas, Valentine's Day, New Year etc.) can be only sent during that time. I don’t accept Christmas requests during the month of May. The same goes for the rest.
I have every right to delete every request that does not fit within the rules stated above, or I feel uncomfortable writing. Also, it’s important to note that I don’t have inspiration to write every request that’s sent. It’s normal to not have inspiration, and because I prefer quality to quantity, if I see that I don’t have inspiration for a request then I will not write it.
Requests will be deleted if sent while my request box is closed. I won’t answer them as I feel like there is no need. On almost every informative post (+my bio, and if you’re on PC my theme under ‘blog status’) it will say whether the request box is closed or not.
English is not my first language but without digging myself my own grave this early on I want to say that I'm proud of how much I know, given that I never speak English unless in school.
Be nice because only constructive criticism is allowed. If you spot a grammatical error or a paragraph/sentence/word etc. that doesn't make sense, let me know. But be nice!
2.0 THINGS I DON’T WRITE:
LGBTQ+ topics/relationships (because I feel like I wouldn’t do a good job)
Real people, send only requests for characters in my writing list
Ships or OC, send only reader inserts
NSFW (mature content stories)
Noncon
Dark!fics
Romanticized mental illnesses
S*icide scenes
R*pe scenes
Racism/slurs
2.1 Note: P*dophilia, r*pe, s*icide might be mentioned in my Chicago P.D, Fire, Med shots (or other), but I will never explicitly write about those subjects or write about anything that is about/centered around them.
2.2 Note: Explicitly written smut is a no, I will not write that. Try to refrain from requesting steamy scenes too, as I will only put them in myself were I to deem it necessary for the WIP.
2.5 THINGS I DO WRITE:
Angst
Fluff/ WAFF
Fusion/ Crossover
Daughter/Wife/Sister!Reader
Here is me trying to explain what kind of requests I also take [x]
2.6 Note: It’s hard to list but to make it easier for you guys, I will write about almost anything as long as it’s not on my 2.0 bullet.
3.0 POSTING SCHEDULE:
Posts are usually posted between 01:00 A.M. and 05:00 A.M. CET (Central European Time).
Check schedule to see what's been qued to post.
3.1 Note: This account is NOT my work place. Everything here is written when I have time and I feel like writing. Requests that I find more interesting will most likely be written and qued to post sooner. I advise you to follow my blog, check regularly and sit tight until you see that it's qued. You can always check my navigation page and click on 'schedule'. Or simply click here.
3.2 Note: I am not a doctor nor a firefighter nor a policeman. I research whatever I can before I start writing and sometimes that takes hours. Nothing is 100% accurate (especially for events set in Chicago Med) although I hope it is.
3.5 WRITING LIST:
3.6 Note: Requests are currently OPEN for all fandoms!!!
3.7 Note: Your requests do not have to be strictly romantic (Sibling!Reader or other are also (obviously) allowed).
---More shows and characters will be added through time
✏ TV SHOWS (alphabetical order)
9-1-1 (✓)
Evan Buckley
Eddie Diaz
Bobby Nash
Howard "Chimney" Han
BRIDGERTON (✓)
Simon Basset
Anthony Bridgerton
Benedict Bridgerton
Colin Bridgerton
Prince Friedrich
CHICAGO FIRE (S01-S06)
Kelly Severide
Matt Casey
Peter Mills
Jimmy Borelli
Christopher Herrmann
Brian “Otis” Zvonecek
Joe Cruz
CHICAGO PD (S01-SO2)
Antonio Dawson
Adam Ruzek
Kevin Atwater
Jay Halstead
Hank Voight
Alvin Olinsky
CHICAGO MED (✓)
Connor Rhodes
Will Halstead
Ethan Choi
Noah Sexton
Crockett Marcel
James Lanik
DYNASTY (S01-S02)
Blake Carrington
Jeff Colby
Liam Ridley
Michael Culhane
ELITE (✓)
Guzmán Nunier Osuna
Samuel García Domínguez
Christian Varela Expósito
Leopoldo Benavent Villada (Polo)
PEAKY BLINDERS (✓)
Thomas Shelby
Arthur Shelby
John Shelby
Finn Shelby
Ada Shelby
Polly Gray
Alfie Solomons
Michael Gray (I currently cannot stand this dude)
TEEN WOLF (✓)
Scott Mcall
Stiles Stilinski
Isaac Lahey
Liam Dunbar
Derek Hale
THE ORIGINALS (✓)
Klaus Mikaelson
Elijah Mikaelson
Kol Mikaelson
Finn Mikaelson
Marcel Gerard
Rebekah Mikaelson
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY (✓)
Number Five
Diego Hargreeves
Luther Hargreeves
Klaus Hargreeves
Ben Hargreeves
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (✓)
Stefan Salvatore
Damon Salvatore (hate him)
Alaric Saltzman
Lorenzo St. John
Tyler Lockwood
Matt Donovan
Jeremy Gilbert
Katherine Pierce
Elena Gilbert (hate her even more)
Caroline Forbes
Bonnie Bennett
THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT (✓)
Benny Watts
Townes
Harry Beltik
THE WITCHER (✓)
Geralt of Rivia
Jaskier
WANDAVISION (✓)
See under ‘Marvel Universe’.
✏ MOVIES
HARRY POTTER
Oliver Wood
Harry Potter
Hermione Granger
Draco Malfoy
Ron Weasley
Fred Weasley
George Weasley
Percy Weasley
Bill Weasley
Charlie Weasley
Neville Longbottom
Cedric Diggory
The Marauders era
James Potter
Sirius Black
Peter Pettigrew
Remus Lupin
Severus Snape
MARVEL UNIVERSE
Tony Stark / Iron Man
Bruce Banner / Hulk
Thor
Loki
Steve Rogers / Captain America
Natasha Romanoff
Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Nick Fury
James Rhodes / War Machine / Iron Patriot
Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier / White Wolf
Sam Wilson / Falcon
Vision
Scott Lang / Ant-Man
T'Challa / Black Panther
Peter Parker / Spider-Man
Stephen Strange
Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Pietro Maximoff
TWILIGHT
Edward Cullen
Carlisle Cullen
Emmett Cullen
Alice Cullen
Jasper Hale
Rosalie Hale
Alec
Benjamin
Jacob Black
Seth Clearwater
Embry Call
EXPENDABLES
Lee Christmas
Barney Ross
Billy The Kid
Smilee
Mars
Thorn
Hale Caesar
Yin Yang
Toll Road
Gunnar Jensen
Booker
#imagine requests#Chicago pd#Chicago med#Chicago fire#Peaky blinders#Breaking bad#Fanfiction#Imagines#Drabbles#Fluff#elite#Netflix elite#elite imagine#elite fanfiction#rules#guidelines#masterlist
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a long, meta PSA
Hello, my good readers! Firstly, I’m very glad to see we’re almost reaching 1k followers, and I’m still very determined to finish the next page - I’m nearly done with the whole layout!
Though what I want to talk about today is something I’ve been thinking for a while. As many of you may know, Imaginary Friend was technically going to be a comic adaptation of the original fanfiction I posted a long time ago. Now, I’m not saying I’m going to change the entire plot, yet there’s something in there that’s actually been bothering me, now that I think of it: and that’s about Gaster being a dad before the Void. Please read the whole post before commenting or sending asks!
*SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL STORY
TRIGGER WARNINGS - MENTIONS OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT
Even from the first 23 pages, you know that Gaster is drowning in his sorrows and regrets. He keeps saying how he failed at being the Royal Scientist, for not being able to free everyone, and at being a father to Sans and Papyrus. If anyone has gotten to the fanfiction already, it’s claimed that Gaster used to overwork himself and did not spend a lot of time with his sons, and that “he pushed them away.” I’ll be including some chapter pieces here to prove my points:
LIKE I SAID, I WAS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST. I MARRIED A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN AND HAD TWO CHILDREN. MY WIFE, UNFORTUNATELY, PASSED AWAY... THE ONLY GOOD THINGS I HAD IN MY LIFE THEN WERE SANS AND PAPYRUS. I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING TO GIVE THEM A GOOD LIFE, WHICH MADE ME WORK EVEN HARDER AFTER MY WIFE WAS GONE. BUT THEN I STARTED BEING SO FOCUSED ON WORK THAT I DIDN'T REALLY GIVE THEM MUCH ATTENTION. I BARELY SPENT TIME WITH THEM. WHEN I WAS IN A BAD MOOD, I USUALLY TOLD THEM TO LEAVE ME ALONE... I WASN'T A GOOD FATHER.
(chapter 2)
He let his wife die; nothing he had done to cure her from her disease worked. He neglected Sans and Papyrus, barely spent time with them and... treated them like they were just a burden in his life, when they really weren't. He had failed at freeing monsters, he had broken everyone's trust. He had disappointed everyone. He had had one job, and he failed.
(chapter 7)
It’s even implied that Sans looked after Papyrus on his own, too, which is further confirmed in the sequel I made, You’re Home Now (which contains Grillby x Gaster, just warning you guys).
He was very proud of them, despite Sans being lazy... His elder child did a great job taking care of Papyrus when he was younger (...).
(chapter 1)
The little Sans was home (in their very, very old house, the one located in New Home), watching television with young Papyrus. It was already late, the babysitter hadn't been able to come over, leaving Sans the responsibility of taking care of himself and his little brother, which wasn't that bad. Despite being a kid, Sans was actually responsible enough for his father to trust him at this task, though Papyrus could give some hard work sometimes.
(You’re Home Now, chapter 2)
Maybe this hasn’t crossed in anyone’s minds - if they’ve already read the fic - and well, I’m unsure if I’m overthinking this since I didn’t get that much depth to the original story, but this is my work, after all. I wrote this more than 3 years ago, so I’m looking back at it with a more critical perspective. Thus, this aspect about Gaster’s parenting has been bothering me recently.
I’m aware that many children have gone through this; being forced to look after themselves, their siblings or even their own parents (the latter isn’t quite the case here but anyway), as the adults fail to do what they’re supposed to - of taking care of their family and providing them love, attention and everything else. The lack of any of these things has been normalized in many households, and most of the time kids don’t realize how harmful it might be to them, because their own feelings aren’t validated. Since they’re forced to take in the role of the responsible parent, the adult, they excuse and justify their parents’ misdeeds.
Surely, in the original Imaginary Friend, Gaster acknowledges he wasn’t the best dad, yet now that I come to read it again, it never feels like he’s truly called out for that. Alright, he’s already being punished by the loneliness and helplessness for decades inside the Void, and he does show genuine remorse for his actions. Regardless, I feel like I’ve made excuses for his failures at being a parent. I feel like I used the “but he didn’t mean to!” excuse that so many people adopt when we’re talking about abusive and neglectful parents. I used Frisk, a character who I headcanon to have been abused by their biological parents, to justify that Gaster wasn’t all that bad:
"Don't say that! I think they would be glad to see you again." Frisk assured him. "I mean, you deeply cared about them and did everything to offer them proper conditions and-"
YES, BUT... I HAVE NOT GIVEN THEM ENOUGH LOVE AND AFFECTION. He sighed sadly.
Frisk sighed too. They had a feeling that Sans and Papyrus didn't hate him. They just knew it, but Gaster didn't believe.
"But... they never gave up on you, right?" They asked.
(...)
"I would've really liked to have a father who would do everything to give me a good life."
Gaster, curious, looked at the child. WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
"Toriel is my mom now, and she's the best, but... I've never had a father that cared about me." Frisk admitted. "You know... before I fell into the Underground. My real parents weren't... great. They were very mean to me, specially my father."
(...)
I AM SORRY ABOUT YOUR PARENTS.
"It's okay. At least I found great friends and a fantastic mom." Frisk said, smiling, despite remembering their mean parents. "You are a way better father than my real one. You shouldn't say you're the worst."
Gaster didn't answer.
"You may have not spent much time with them, but I don't think Sans and Papyrus wouldn't be happy to see you." Frisk said.
BUT I MADE THEM FEEL LIKE THEY WERE ANNOYING ME... I SHOULD HAVE NEVER DONE THAT.
"I understand, but, just so you know... I think you already made it clear to them that you cared about them, which is why they were always there for you even if you distanced yourself."
(chapter 2)
Sans and Papyrus don’t hold grudges against their father, either, and yet, now that I realize it, the former presents the same “pushing away” behavior Gaster presumably adopted. In the very least, Sans is called out for it, but I never explicitly connected that to how his father treated them:
"SANS, DID YOU SLEEP WELL?" Papyrus asked.
"i'm okay, pap."
"BUT YOU LOOK AWFUL-"
"papyrus, i'm okay!" Sans interrupted, sounding annoyed.
Papyrus shrunk out of fear. He had never seen Sans in that state before. He knew something was up with him, but for some reason, he was afraid of asking Sans what was wrong. His brother sounded so grumpy, he felt like he would piss him off if he asked that at the time.
(chapter 6)
"DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE THE HOUSE LIKE THAT!" Papyrus said, somehow pissed, but concerned at the same time.
"l-leave me alone." Sans managed to escape, but Papyrus wouldn't let him go.
"I JUST WANT TO TALK TO YOU! PLEASE-"
Sans teleported himself, escaping Papyrus's grip. He groaned loudly.
"SANS, OH MY GOD! STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM ME!" Papyrus yelled.
Turned out that Sans didn't teleport far away. He arrived in the same street, a few meters ahead.
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!" Papyrus yelled.
"i don't want to talk, papyrus."
"BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN JUST... TREAT ME LIKE GARBAGE!"
(chapter 9)
That’s NOT to say Gaster is evil. You could say that Gaster believes he was terrible because of his trauma from the Void. The dark dimension causes him to hallucinate things, alter his physical form and twist reality, and so that may be why Sans and Papyrus don’t hold anything against him. But the point is, I don’t feel like I’ve made that clear. And with Sans technically mirroring his past role model, I feel like the narrative swept Gaster’s bad parenting under the carpet.
This topic is very difficult to discuss, I’m very aware of that. I get that some abusers can make it different, they can change. However, that’s not what usually happens. What does happen is society underestimating and devaluating the effects of abuse on people, especially children and teenagers. Nobody tends to focus on the victims, and thus finds ways to justify the abuse. Like that, I feel like I contributed to that, too. That’s why I’m writing this post.
PLEASE NOTE: I’m very proud of having written Imaginary Friend, and I want to continue with the comic. However, I want to truly emphasize that there will be changes in the comic adaptation, and with this theme in mind, I’ll make sure I don’t unintentionally excuse bad parenting again. At the time I wrote the fic, I had no idea it might come off that way (which doesn’t mean I’m condemning myself for not noticing). I think a lot of other people haven’t had the same impression, either; yet now that I do, I want to change what this fic might have defended.
I’m very sorry for everyone who went through this situation in their childhoods, or might still be. It’s not your fault. Your parent(s)/guardian(s) should have been better, and that’ll never be on you. Maybe they “didn’t mean to”, but that doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. I wish you all the happiness and safety in the world. <3
Stay determined!
#author's posts#meta#abuse tw#neglect tw#abuse mention tw#long post#is this a callout post at myself?#maybe lmao#but still i felt the need to get this out of my chest#i might add this as a new blog page
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6 Things I’ve Learned as a Professional Editor
I usually talk about the writing process on my blog, but today I wanted to talk about the editing side of my life. I also have a little surprise at the bottom of this post, but if you feel like you can’t read through my points to get there, I guess you can scroll down and come back.
I love editing because I love helping writers grow and take their stories to the next level. In middle school and high school, whenever we had to write down our career plans, my plan A was always writing, and my plan B was editing. For over five years, I’ve gotten to live both my plan A and my plan B every day. 😍
I thought it would be helpful for other writers to hear my thoughts as an editor and important points I’ve learned (or that have been validated to me) from that perspective.
1. It’s Your Story, Not Mine
As you probably know, I work for a best-selling author, but he also teaches and does editing too. One of the things I’ve heard him say is that ultimately, it’s the writer who puts in the real work. It’s the writer who came up with the vision for the story. It’s the writer who puts in the hours. It’s the writer who put something on the page. Sure, everyone else in the process may hold a little claim to the development of the project, but it’s small in comparison. A fraction. And while there are editors and other professionals in the industry who may request changes, ultimately it’s the writer’s story.
Your story should reflect your vision, not mine.
I work in freelance editing, not for a publishing company, so my perspective may be a little different than editors of New York, but in my case, I strongly believe that the suggestions I make on a manuscript are just that: editorial suggestions. They may be educated suggestions and experienced suggestions, but they are suggestions nonetheless. It’s up to the writer to decide how he or she shapes the story. My job is to help them see how to make the story better. How to nail their vision for the story and the audience’s experience of it.
But they should write true to themselves, not true to me.
It’s your story. Not mine.
2. Writing can be Learned
If you peruse things other writers have said, especially older famous writers, you won’t go far until you meet the concept that being a good writer is something innate and can’t be learned, let alone taught. This is elitism at its finest. I’ve also seen quotes from writers who portray that no writer (or anyone for that matter) really knows what he or she is doing and why it works.
Both of these ideas are completely ridiculous.
People who say writing can’t be learned, don’t know how to teach it. People who say they don’t know how to do what they do are people who don’t know how to explain it–because for them it’s subconscious and intuitive.
Both these concepts are thwarted daily–by people who do know how to teach writing and by writers, like Brandon Sanderson, who know exactly how to explain what they are doing.
Writing is a tricky topic to teach and a tricky talent to gain because almost everything about it is intangible. But writing can be learned just as anything else. If you want to write a better story, and you have the capacity to read and understand this post, you can become a better writer. Don’t believe any other crap you hear.
3. Everyone Starts at the Beginning
Remember that concept that writers must be born, not made? I hope so, because it was just in the last section. One thing I have learned and know to be true, is that however “naturally” talented you are, we start at the beginning. Everyone needs to learn the basics. And while, I do believe some of us are more “natural” at things than others, even Michelangelo had to learn his colors.
However great of a writer you feel are destined to be, or however horrible you think you are at writing, everyone–everyone–starts at the beginning. And everyone can make progress. Sure, some people may pick up on things intuitively or faster than others, but we all start at the beginning.
If you aren’t a natural, you can still learn how stories work, just as you learned how to do anything else that didn’t come naturally to you. If you are a natural, you should still learn how stories work and function, so that you can write them more intentionally.
The difference between a “natural” and someone who is not, is that the former learns and picks up on things more subconsciously and intuitively while the other learns more consciously and intentionally. In the end, both need to learn and use the mechanics to reach their full potential.
I’ve done editing for all different kinds of people–some with jaw-dropping professions. Trust me when I say we all must learn the basics to become better.
4. The Importance of Positive Feedback
Contrary to some popular beliefs, positive feedback isn’t really a matter of self-esteem or ego-stroking. Can it do those things? Absolutely. But every writer needs positive feedback.
It is just as important for a writer to know what is working as it is to know what’s not working.
Some of the things that are working well in the story may be things the writer did subconsciously. They could be things the author isn’t even fully aware of. These things need to be pointed out so that the author can become aware of them and learn to gain conscious control over them, so they can intentionally use them in future stories, use them to better effect, and take them to the next level.
And even if the author did do them very intentionally, it’s important that they know it had the effect they intended.
5. Rules are Really More Like Guidelines
Every once in a while (haha, who am I kidding? Every ten times in a while … ) you may come across someone who adheres to writing rules more than they adhere to the commandments of God.
There are a lot of great reasons to learn and adhere to the rules (remember how I said everyone starts with the basics?), but as an editor, I’ve seen times where adhering to rules actually hurt the story and writing rather than benefited it. Often the rules that get the ultimate devotion are rules that relate to style. Sorry, not sorry, but style is not the end-all and be-all, of storytelling. It has a place in storytelling, absolutely, but it is not the sum of a good story. It’s only one element. You do not need to sacrifice all the other elements every time to it as if it were a god. You do not need to sacrifice tone in order to please the no-passive-voice rule. There are places where passive voice is exactly what you need.
Same thing can be true of content rules. Some stories really do need that character sitting and doing nothing but thinking for the opening pages (gasp!). Some stories actually do need that flashback desperately. Some stories do need that much telling. Some stories do need that vague passage.
95% of stories don’t.
But some do.
This is why rules are really more like guidelines.
6. Not all Stories are Edited Equally
You would think that the more editing time a story requires the “worse” the submitted story is. And while the quality of the story is absolutely a main, if not leading, factor, this is not always the case.
Some stories are simply more complex than others. They may have a complex, intricate story structure. They may be full of meaningful subtext and undercurrents that need to be perfected. The author may have a grand vision for the story that requires stark precision and specificity to accomplish. Some stories inherently take longer to edit than others.
Likewise, I’ve done editing work for really amazing writers that take far longer than beginning writers–because what the former writers need to hear from me is much more advanced and therefore requires more specificity to explain and teach; it’s not the sort of thing you are going to have pop up in a Google search with 1k results that lead you to everything you want to hear. Because it is advanced and intricate and sometimes personalized to that particular writer or story, I need to be more precise and exact in diagnosing and explaining it.
How long or short of an edit a story needs is not necessarily how “good” or “bad” a story or writer is. A complex story is not automatically better than a simple story. They are just different. They belong in different places. They have different needs and goals.
Not all stories are edited equally.
Fawkes Editing
For years I’ve occasionally been doing some editing for additional projects on the side of my regular work, but now I’m happy to say I have my own website specifically for my freelance editing services. 😍 And I’d love to get some help, if you are willing.
(It’s so shiny!)
You can visit or link to my website at https://www.fawkesediting.com/. But even if you are not interested in my editing, what I do need help with is spreading the word. I’ve put together this Thunderclap campaign, which, if you aren’t familiar with Thunderclap, is a service where people vow to share a link on social media on a specific day.
In order for the campaign to work, I need at least 100 people to vow to share. Thunderclap releases the shares all on the same day (ours is Oct. 13th), like a big social media bomb. But if I don’t get at least 100 people, Thunderclap will not release the shares.
You can also share the website any other time, but I need at least 100 people to help me through Thunderclap.
If everyone reading this post vowed to share, we’d be at the goal in a matter of hours, so please consider it.
Over the years I haven’t asked for much, if really anything, from my followers. I don’t even have products to sell on my website at SeptemberCFawkes.com for you guys to patronize me ;) Everything I’ve done on this site, I’ve done for free, for almost five years. Actually, I even put some of my own money into it.
All in all, thank you for being a part of my writing and editing journey with me.
The Thunderclap link is https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/61809-fawkes-editing
#writing#writer#writing tip#writing tips#writing help#writing helps#author#writing advice#writing tips and tricks#writing lesson#writing lessons#writeblr#writblr#writerblr#writing reference#editing#editor
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How a Non-Native English Speaker Made An Affiliate Website That Earned $847 per Month https://ift.tt/2MeOVdN
Note from Spencer: As a heads up, this is guest post success story. I love a couple of things about this story from Erfan Uddin. First is the fact that he knew nothing about niche websites when he first got started. He shares his journey from total “newbie” to a site that made over $1,000 a month.
Second, he’s from Bangladesh; proving that it doesn’t matter where you live in the world…you can do this! (As a heads up, his English is pretty good, but not perfect. I’m leaving some of his grammatical mistakes in this post because I think the lessons he shares are more valuable than having perfect English). This also proves that a non-native English speaker can write and rank articles in English – Google isn’t concerned with perfect English, as long as you meet the searchers intent.
Finally, I should mention that my team and I over at MotionInvest.com bought Erfan’s site at the beginning of October and we are happy with the purchase! If you are looking to either buy or sell a content site, check us out at MotionInvest.com.
When I first started my niche blog website, two years ago, I had only $135 in my pocket. Believe it or not, it took me a little less than 1.5 years to hit the $1k earning in commissions.
Here’s a quick look at the total sessions of 2019.
And here’s the commission of the year 2019 till September:
Before I share my story let me introduce myself first.
This is Erfan Uddin, a mechanical engineer in the profession, an online enthusiast. I’m currently living in Bangladesh. Also, trying to create some online income stream so that I can quit my 9 to 5 job.
The only reason that pushed me into this industry is to live a comfortable life financially. I was completely broke when I started this website.
Back then I kept searching on Google typing “how to make money online with no money”! This might look hilarious now, but this was what I did. I was looking for a legit income source rather than jumping with a scam.
Somehow, I learned the term “passive income” and later stumbled upon this process of Amazon affiliate. Finally, I decided to take the course of Khalid Farhan as that was legit and affordable for me.
First, I went through the course and started implementing it. From the very beginning, I had a tough time working with the process as I was completely new with this area.
I had to learn keyword research, article writing, WordPress, SEO. Keyword research was the most crucial part and the hardest. In the end, the KW that I choose created this site. If that same KW is shown to me right now, I would leave it. It was hard back then and even harder now.
My suggestion here would be not to go after a keyword that is in the niche you love. Go after a keyword that is quite easy to rank for if only you have a tight budget.
After selecting a keyword I quickly generated some more keywords for supporting articles. On top of that, I found nichepursuits.com and followed their success stories and podcasts regularly. This helped me a lot in generating keyword ideas and article structure.
Right away, I bought a domain on 01 November 2017 from Namecheap and used their hosting as they had a great offer back then. Quickly, I set up WordPress and installed a free theme. Later on, I used a group buy process for the Genesis theme. Genesis themes are truly minimalist and fast.
WordPress setup was done and I ordered my first article to a writer. The quality of the article was not good but acceptable. That article never ranked as I said the keyword was too hard for me.
As the cost of article writing was not affordable for me I started reading about article writing. This cost me some time and the growth of the site came to a halt before it even started!
I quickly learned about the long-tail keyword and wrote a couple of articles based on it. This strategy worked for me. Following this strategy, I quickly published 08 posts within January 2018.
I added a couple of more content over the month of February and March 2018. Till then the traffic was not even mentionable. You can see that in the screenshot of my analytics:
See that? This tiny amount of sessions demotivated me already. I was ranking on the first page only for a couple of very low volume of easy keywords. I was about to lose hope and then came the first sale on Amazon. It was 31 March 2018 when I got the first sale!
This was when I planned for some real strategies. I am going to share those strategies and show you how I scaled it to $1K in commission.
Keyword Strategy
After the first commission, I decided to laser focus on a specific topic. As my domain selection was for an authority website, I niched them down. This was my first approach to building AUTHORITY on a topic.
I could not go after my primary keyword anymore as it was extremely competitive. Having said that, I jumped into long-tail keywords.
I’ll take “rangefinder” as an example here. Suppose, I found a keyword “best rangefinder”. This is super competitive and there’s some big fish on the first page. So, I would go for a keyword like “best rangefinder for hunting” which is way less competitive.
Well, yes, the search volume will be low like 250 p/m. But, normally those big sites do not target these laser-focused long-tail keywords. If you can find 5/6 keywords like this and rank on the 1st or 2nd spot, you can easily manage a minimum of 2000-3000 traffic per month only with these keywords. Believe me, this worked for me like a charm.
And for the informative keywords, I had great affection for these kinds of keywords. I love writing informative contents and most of the cases they are easy to rank for. I used google’s “people also look for” and “search suggestion” for finding these kinds of keywords.
However, you have to go in-depth for finding these kinds of keywords. I sometimes scraped my competitors for finding these keyword ideas.
Content Strategy
I really could not afford to hire a writer back then, in 2018. All the content was written by me. It took some time to get in shape but I put so much effort into learning article writing.
My concept was to fulfill the “searcher intent” of a keyword. I typed a keyword on google and looked at the “people also ask” and the “search suggestion” closely. It is like Google itself is telling you what users are looking for. And I tried to write as detailed as I can on those topics.
I am not going to talk about the format of an article as I really do not agree that there is any specific kind of format for “buying” or “informative” articles. All it matters is to give the user what he/she is looking for.
Going after this method worked well for me. The traffic started picking up from June 2018 till December 2018. You can see that in the screenshot.
And the earnings were like these in the last three month of 2018:
I know I know. The income is poor regarding the traffic. I’ll talk about it later.
Till December 2018, I had only 22 articles. 60% of those were informative content.
I wasn’t happy at all with the site performance. Then I decided to look for keywords that are:
“easy to rank”,
“has a search volume above 1000”,
“missing super informative content on the first page”.
I found some and wrote a super informative and detailed article on those. I was writing more informative articles than money articles. This process brought great traffic and increased my site authority.
For example, A keyword like “best time of the day to hunt deer” is the potential candidate for super information-rich content.
You can see the traffic in the year 2019 until September. It kept rising and was stable.
I published about 2/3 articles each month of the year 2019. As the earning increased I started sourcing articles from freelance writers. The site had a total 40 posts!
The only thing that I focused, was publishing content for the user. I tried to serve a user what he was looking for.
Backlink Strategy
This is the one area I had trouble with progress. Managing good quality backlinks were tough. Moreover, I had to start and learn about SEO from scratch.
I started with blog commenting and social profiles. Made some forum comments too. That did not bring any results at all.
Over the full year of 2018, I only did guest posting. It was hard and I really hated this part. Still, I was super afraid of PBN.
However, I managed to avail of some moderate quality guest posts on some decent sites. Good sites were asking sky-high prices!
In the year 2019, I focused on only two types of backlinks. Forum commenting and niche edits. In my opinion, having a link from an old post is way more effective than a newly published guest post.
Oh, I tried some Web 2.0 also in the middle of 2019. I was inspired by this as my competitors were doing it. And that worked for me too!
On-Page SEO
This was my most favorite part. It was the only place for me where I could play around by my wish. Yes, Google has its own theory. But, I played with the keyword density, H tags, internal linking to find out what works best.
I followed the instructions of famous SEO guys on this. My site had Yoast SEO plugin installed and I never waited for the GREEN signal to light up for on-page SEO. This GREEN signal is the silliest mistake that most newbie makes.
I created some extra notes within the content, like a featured area, targeting the featured snippet. For some it worked, for some, it didn’t.
Final Income Status
I worked hard and prayed. The results were satisfying. The income shot up in April and kept growing. Here’s what my income looked like:
March 2019: $215.81
April 2019: $505.21
May 2019: $1170.59
June: $911.59
July: $855.09
August: $836.66
September: $849.13
I setup Onelink in June 2019 for Canada and UK. UK did not bring anything at all. But, Amazon Canada brought about $100 per month since July 2019.
Final Thoughts
This income might not be even a dime for some people but this was huge for me!
Finally, I sold the site to Motioninvest.com on October 01, 2019. This was a great experience with them. No brokerage fee, super fast deal.
If you want to take something from this story I would say, focus on your content then backlink. Understand what the user is searching for and find the gaps in the top 10 results of the first page. Write content that fills the gap and sneak in that space!
One more thing I must mention, please use a table on your money pages for great conversion. My conversion rate was nearly doubled right after I used a comparison table plugin.
In a nutshell, the best way for achieving a goal is to start working hard right now. Learn and take action.
The post How a Non-Native English Speaker Made An Affiliate Website That Earned $847 per Month appeared first on Niche Pursuits.
from Niche Pursuits
Note from Spencer: As a heads up, this is guest post success story. I love a couple of things about this story from Erfan Uddin. First is the fact that he knew nothing about niche websites when he first got started. He shares his journey from total “newbie” to a site that made over $1,000 a month.
Second, he’s from Bangladesh; proving that it doesn’t matter where you live in the world…you can do this! (As a heads up, his English is pretty good, but not perfect. I’m leaving some of his grammatical mistakes in this post because I think the lessons he shares are more valuable than having perfect English). This also proves that a non-native English speaker can write and rank articles in English – Google isn’t concerned with perfect English, as long as you meet the searchers intent.
Finally, I should mention that my team and I over at MotionInvest.com bought Erfan’s site at the beginning of October and we are happy with the purchase! If you are looking to either buy or sell a content site, check us out at MotionInvest.com.
When I first started my niche blog website, two years ago, I had only $135 in my pocket. Believe it or not, it took me a little less than 1.5 years to hit the $1k earning in commissions.
Here’s a quick look at the total sessions of 2019.
And here’s the commission of the year 2019 till September:
Before I share my story let me introduce myself first.
This is Erfan Uddin, a mechanical engineer in the profession, an online enthusiast. I’m currently living in Bangladesh. Also, trying to create some online income stream so that I can quit my 9 to 5 job.
The only reason that pushed me into this industry is to live a comfortable life financially. I was completely broke when I started this website.
Back then I kept searching on Google typing “how to make money online with no money”! This might look hilarious now, but this was what I did. I was looking for a legit income source rather than jumping with a scam.
Somehow, I learned the term “passive income” and later stumbled upon this process of Amazon affiliate. Finally, I decided to take the course of Khalid Farhan as that was legit and affordable for me.
First, I went through the course and started implementing it. From the very beginning, I had a tough time working with the process as I was completely new with this area.
I had to learn keyword research, article writing, WordPress, SEO. Keyword research was the most crucial part and the hardest. In the end, the KW that I choose created this site. If that same KW is shown to me right now, I would leave it. It was hard back then and even harder now.
My suggestion here would be not to go after a keyword that is in the niche you love. Go after a keyword that is quite easy to rank for if only you have a tight budget.
After selecting a keyword I quickly generated some more keywords for supporting articles. On top of that, I found nichepursuits.com and followed their success stories and podcasts regularly. This helped me a lot in generating keyword ideas and article structure.
Right away, I bought a domain on 01 November 2017 from Namecheap and used their hosting as they had a great offer back then. Quickly, I set up WordPress and installed a free theme. Later on, I used a group buy process for the Genesis theme. Genesis themes are truly minimalist and fast.
WordPress setup was done and I ordered my first article to a writer. The quality of the article was not good but acceptable. That article never ranked as I said the keyword was too hard for me.
As the cost of article writing was not affordable for me I started reading about article writing. This cost me some time and the growth of the site came to a halt before it even started!
I quickly learned about the long-tail keyword and wrote a couple of articles based on it. This strategy worked for me. Following this strategy, I quickly published 08 posts within January 2018.
I added a couple of more content over the month of February and March 2018. Till then the traffic was not even mentionable. You can see that in the screenshot of my analytics:
See that? This tiny amount of sessions demotivated me already. I was ranking on the first page only for a couple of very low volume of easy keywords. I was about to lose hope and then came the first sale on Amazon. It was 31 March 2018 when I got the first sale!
This was when I planned for some real strategies. I am going to share those strategies and show you how I scaled it to $1K in commission.
Keyword Strategy
After the first commission, I decided to laser focus on a specific topic. As my domain selection was for an authority website, I niched them down. This was my first approach to building AUTHORITY on a topic.
I could not go after my primary keyword anymore as it was extremely competitive. Having said that, I jumped into long-tail keywords.
I’ll take “rangefinder” as an example here. Suppose, I found a keyword “best rangefinder”. This is super competitive and there’s some big fish on the first page. So, I would go for a keyword like “best rangefinder for hunting” which is way less competitive.
Well, yes, the search volume will be low like 250 p/m. But, normally those big sites do not target these laser-focused long-tail keywords. If you can find 5/6 keywords like this and rank on the 1st or 2nd spot, you can easily manage a minimum of 2000-3000 traffic per month only with these keywords. Believe me, this worked for me like a charm.
And for the informative keywords, I had great affection for these kinds of keywords. I love writing informative contents and most of the cases they are easy to rank for. I used google’s “people also look for” and “search suggestion” for finding these kinds of keywords.
However, you have to go in-depth for finding these kinds of keywords. I sometimes scraped my competitors for finding these keyword ideas.
Content Strategy
I really could not afford to hire a writer back then, in 2018. All the content was written by me. It took some time to get in shape but I put so much effort into learning article writing.
My concept was to fulfill the “searcher intent” of a keyword. I typed a keyword on google and looked at the “people also ask” and the “search suggestion” closely. It is like Google itself is telling you what users are looking for. And I tried to write as detailed as I can on those topics.
I am not going to talk about the format of an article as I really do not agree that there is any specific kind of format for “buying” or “informative” articles. All it matters is to give the user what he/she is looking for.
Going after this method worked well for me. The traffic started picking up from June 2018 till December 2018. You can see that in the screenshot.
And the earnings were like these in the last three month of 2018:
I know I know. The income is poor regarding the traffic. I’ll talk about it later.
Till December 2018, I had only 22 articles. 60% of those were informative content.
I wasn’t happy at all with the site performance. Then I decided to look for keywords that are:
“easy to rank”,
“has a search volume above 1000”,
“missing super informative content on the first page”.
I found some and wrote a super informative and detailed article on those. I was writing more informative articles than money articles. This process brought great traffic and increased my site authority.
For example, A keyword like “best time of the day to hunt deer” is the potential candidate for super information-rich content.
You can see the traffic in the year 2019 until September. It kept rising and was stable.
I published about 2/3 articles each month of the year 2019. As the earning increased I started sourcing articles from freelance writers. The site had a total 40 posts!
The only thing that I focused, was publishing content for the user. I tried to serve a user what he was looking for.
Backlink Strategy
This is the one area I had trouble with progress. Managing good quality backlinks were tough. Moreover, I had to start and learn about SEO from scratch.
I started with blog commenting and social profiles. Made some forum comments too. That did not bring any results at all.
Over the full year of 2018, I only did guest posting. It was hard and I really hated this part. Still, I was super afraid of PBN.
However, I managed to avail of some moderate quality guest posts on some decent sites. Good sites were asking sky-high prices!
In the year 2019, I focused on only two types of backlinks. Forum commenting and niche edits. In my opinion, having a link from an old post is way more effective than a newly published guest post.
Oh, I tried some Web 2.0 also in the middle of 2019. I was inspired by this as my competitors were doing it. And that worked for me too!
On-Page SEO
This was my most favorite part. It was the only place for me where I could play around by my wish. Yes, Google has its own theory. But, I played with the keyword density, H tags, internal linking to find out what works best.
I followed the instructions of famous SEO guys on this. My site had Yoast SEO plugin installed and I never waited for the GREEN signal to light up for on-page SEO. This GREEN signal is the silliest mistake that most newbie makes.
I created some extra notes within the content, like a featured area, targeting the featured snippet. For some it worked, for some, it didn’t.
Final Income Status
I worked hard and prayed. The results were satisfying. The income shot up in April and kept growing. Here’s what my income looked like:
March 2019: $215.81
April 2019: $505.21
May 2019: $1170.59
June: $911.59
July: $855.09
August: $836.66
September: $849.13
I setup Onelink in June 2019 for Canada and UK. UK did not bring anything at all. But, Amazon Canada brought about $100 per month since July 2019.
Final Thoughts
This income might not be even a dime for some people but this was huge for me!
Finally, I sold the site to Motioninvest.com on October 01, 2019. This was a great experience with them. No brokerage fee, super fast deal.
If you want to take something from this story I would say, focus on your content then backlink. Understand what the user is searching for and find the gaps in the top 10 results of the first page. Write content that fills the gap and sneak in that space!
One more thing I must mention, please use a table on your money pages for great conversion. My conversion rate was nearly doubled right after I used a comparison table plugin.
In a nutshell, the best way for achieving a goal is to start working hard right now. Learn and take action.
The post How a Non-Native English Speaker Made An Affiliate Website That Earned $847 per Month appeared first on Niche Pursuits.
October 14, 2019 at 03:31PMhttps://https://ift.tt/33zd70p https://ift.tt/2Mypzq4
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