Friday, October 26, 2012

My Hundredth Post

If I had a dollar for every post I've written...

Today I've hit my 100th post! Celebration! No, I'm not giving away a hundred dollars (sorry). I just thought that would be an amusing visual. It seems kind of pointless to write a hundredth post about a hundredth post (post-ception, right?), so just for fun, and since I love seeing other blogger's stats, I thought I'd share some of my stats for this blog as of today, October 26, 2012.

Posts:
My all time most viewed posts are:

I Understood That Reference: Avengers, Humor & Nerdiness  - 319 page views

We Shall Gain the Universe: Avengers, Plot - 136 page views

Storyboardishness - 134 page views

 Review: Outside Hollywood - 115 page views

Can You Wipe Out That Much Red: Avengers, Theme - 111 page views

Sort of Like a Team: Avengers, Character & Continuity - 108 page views

It's funny how four of my most viewed posts are part of my Avengers review. The Storyboardishness post surprised me, though. I'm not exactly sure why it's generated the page views that is has.

Traffic sources:
My all time top three referring sites are the A-to-Z Challenge blog, Google search, and Facebook. My top three keywords are:

"word art painting with words"
"painting with words"
"i understood that reference" (which explains my most viewed post).

Audience:
The US is my most viewing audience (no surprise there) but it's followed closely by, for some reason, Russia. Third after that is the UK, and at the bottom of the list is Latvia. 

Fun fact: 5% of my page views were viewed from an iPad. Hopefully that wasn't all me...

And my total page views over time, indiscriminately counting robots, spammers, and the like, is....

11,463 pageviews


Also, as of today, I've reached 104 followers! That makes me very happy. Thank you to all my faithful followers and commenters. You are very much appreciated!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Wanted: One Guest Poster. Alive. Sorry, No Cash Reward.

Today I figured it was high time that I openly solicited guest posts.

It's not that I'm out of ideas. Or that I'm about to give up blogging. Or that I'm going to be super busy (well, I am, but that's not the reason). No, I've had my guest posting page up for a while now, and now it's time to ask you, my followers and readers, if you'd like to be featured on Word Art!

I love promoting other people, blogs, products, and events. I also enjoy guest blogging myself. It's a great way to expand your outreach and your audience. So I want to give my fellow bloggers the opportunity to do this as well. It should be fun!

I'll only be featuring one guest poster a month, and that will be on the third Wednesday. If demand for guest posts increases, I may also increase the supply of guest posters per month. We'll see how it goes.

Okay, I apologize for that last paragraph. I have Macroeconomics on the brain right now. It's what I've been studying for the past couple weeks.

So what do I want to see posts on? Here are some ideas to get you started:
  • Writing
  • Finding time for writing
  • Publishing
  • Self-publishing
  • Blogging
  • Marketing
  • Characters & character development
  • Story structure
  • Stories by writers about writing
  • Humor
  • Movie reviews
  • Book reviews
  • Top ten lists related to films, books, or writing
  • Christianity as it relates to any of the above topics
Despite these preferred topics, I'm pretty much open to all kinds of posts that are either A)well-written or B)make me laugh hard or think hard. If you want to know what kinds of posts I really appreciate, check out the Found Around the Web gadget on my sidebar.

To sign up for a guest post on this blog, go fill out my nifty little form on my guest posting page. Guidelines are on the page as well. Hope to see your response soon!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Storyboardishness II: NaNoWriMo

Remember this project I was working on back in May? I was planning out a novel using a storyboard. Not wanting to just let this beautiful planned-out-story sit on my shelf, I've decided to enter NaNoWriMo 2012. It will be my very first year participating.


I've been reading up a lot on what other writers and bloggers think of NaNoWriMo. I've also read lots of tips for first time NaNoWriMo participants (this one in particular was hilarious). Am I ready for 30 days of intense writing in a mad dash to finish a 50,000 word novel? Probably not. But I'm ready to try.

If you're also doing NaNo this year and would like to be my "buddy" you can find me here. Or if you'd just like to sneak a peek at what novel I'll be working on, you can look at my novel page here. Twenty-four days to go!

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Have you done it a previous year? Any tips to help me survive this November?

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

What Superheroes and Fairy Tales Have in Common

via Fandango
“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
It seems like superheroes and fairy tales are dominating our media. With movies like The Avengers, TV shows like Once Upon a Time, no less than two Snow White adaptations in 2012, and an upcoming Sleeping Beauty film, this trend is going to hang around for a while. Next year we'll see at least two super hero films, and since 2000 we've had over twenty-three Marvel and DC superhero films. 2011 alone saw a total of five superhero films released in theaters.

Why are these stories so popular now? I don't know if I can answer that question, but I do know that they are very similar. In a way, superhero stories are our modern day fairy tales. Here are five things that the two genres have in common.

1. The Princess
via Fandango
Standing for all that is sweet and right and good in the story, the princess (or girlfriend) is sometimes the main object of desire, sometimes the reward, sometimes the voice of reason, and sometimes the heroine of the plot herself. Not always a literal princess, she is nevertheless usually placed in danger by the villain. Mary Jane is kidnapped in every single movie in the Spider-Man trilogy. Sleeping Beauty is put under a spell by the evil queen. Pepper Potts is threatened by the Iron Monger and Justin Hammer (in two separate movies).

With some exceptions, the princess is the one who must be rescued by...

2. The Hero
via Fandango
The hero attempts to do what he knows is right. He may start out selfish and reckless (like Tony Stark or Hal Jordan), but eventually learns to live for others, because that is the burden of a hero. He meets and falls in love with the princess, but his destiny as a hero usually conflicts with his desire to be with her. Peter Parker breaks up with Mary Jane to protect her. Aladdin cannot marry the princess because he's just a beggar. Bruce Banner transforms into the Incredible Hulk. The frog prince is - well, a frog.

The hero's selflessness or initial recklessness leads him to inevitably collide with...

3. The Dragon
via Fandango
The dragon has no moral compass like the hero and lives only for himself. When the hero gets in his way, he will do everything he can to bring the hero down - not only to get what he wants, but also to take pleasure in the hero's suffering. Loki's plan to take down the Avengers is motivated by both ambition, and a sheer love of evil. The evil queen Maleficent was slighted by the king and wants revenge.

Because he hates the hero, the dragon is usually the one who brings...

4. The Temptation
via Seriable
The dragon offers riches, power, fame, revenge, pleasure, comfort. The dragon tempts the hero to do something that he was told he must not do, or places the temptation in the way so that the hero is tempted without the dragon's prompting. Cinderella must not stay past midnight. Peter Parker must not reveal that he's Spider-Man. Finn mac Cumhaill must not eat the salmon of knowledge.

Trouble always follows when the hero succumbs to temptation. When Tony Stark reveals that he's Iron Man,  Ivan Vanko is able to track him down. When Snow White eats the apple she falls into the deathly sleep. When Finn mac Cumhaill accidentally tastes the salmon he must suffer the rage of Finnecces.

But normally the hero is forewarned of temptation by...

5. The Actual Fairy 
via Fandango
How can it be a fairy tale without a fairy? And how can it be a superhero story without superpowers? And none of this can happen without an origin story.

In most fairy tale origins the plucky young hero meets a fairy, witch, sorcerer, or other magical creature that he rescues from a dire situation. In gratitude, the magical being gives the hero one magical gift that will help him defeat the dragon and save the princess - and also delivers a warning against the temptation.

In most superhero stories the plucky young (or young-ish) hero is involved in a freak accident that endows him with a magical power that will help him defeat the dragon and save the princess. Sometimes the power itself is the warning against temptation, like Tony Stark's freak accident involving weapons that he made, or Spider-Man's spider sense. Though superhero stories explain the superpower with science, it really isn't very much more plausible than the magic in fairy tales.

via Fandango
Superhero stories and comic books are our modern take on the classic fairy tale stories. The classics had knights in shining armor and beautiful princesses, or plucky peasant boys and fair-haired maidens. Our stories have knights in technological armor and hard-working secretary girlfriends, or skinny science geeks and redhead model girlfriends. Instead of dragons we have Jokers and Green Goblins. Instead of magic, science. But they follow the same patterns, and that is why we love them.
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