MAGIC ELIXIR

MuddyUm Essentials for Publication

How to get your article published straight away — unless it sucks, in which case you may have bigger problems

This article is intended to save you considerable time by eliminating the need for a lot of unnecessary back-and-forth with the MuddyUm editorial team. The three items which cause the most delays are the title format, image attribution, and use of parenthesis and ellipses. I will begin with the one which we enforce with absolute rigor, namely,

Title Format

If you are already an old hand when it comes to the creation and formatting of titles, subtitles, and kickers, scroll down to the subheading Display title / subtitle, but only after at least skimming this section.

In order to ensure a uniform look to the MuddyUm publication, all articles must have a properly formatted title, subtitle, and kicker.

You probably know what titles and subtitles are but kicker? What the heck is that?

A kicker is a kind of subtitle that precedes the title rather than following it in the usual way of subtitles. It can provide a kind of hook for your article. If you make it something catchy it will draw potential readers before they even see your title. Many of our writers use “Humor” or “Satire” which are fine but I often find myself encouraging such writers to try to think of something catchier.

For an excellent discussion of kickers see:

The kicker for this article is “MAGIC ELIXIR.” Not super catchy but it will do. Also note that I have it in ALL CAPS. This is optional, as it will be automatically converted to all caps upon publication.

The title of this article is “MuddyUm Essentials for Publication.” Note that all words are capitalized except “for.” That’s how it is with titles. All words are capitalized except little connecting words such as “the,” “to,” “for,” etc.

“How to get your article published straight away — unless it sucks, in which case you may have bigger problems” is the subtitle of this article. Note that it is in sentence case. You can think of a subtitle as a sentence with no period at the end. Let me reiterate: No period at the end. None. Period. OK? Got that? Great!

You would be amazed how many articles are held up by this one little detail, so please: No periods anywhere in the subtitle or the title. If it’s a question put a question mark. If it’s an exclamation then you can put an exclamation mark but we aren’t exactly in love with this. It probably isn’t necessary so we will encourage you to drop it. But a period at the end of a title or subtitle is a non-negotiable no-no.

Now for the how-to-do-it part.

What follows is an illustrated step-by-step guide to the flawless creation of a title, subtitle, and kicker that will pass under even the unblinking eye of Sauron, ehr, Susan Brearley.

In order to create this I will now go back to the top of this article, delete the title, subtitle, and kicker, then put them back in, creating informative screen captures as I go.

For reference, here is what it looks like right now:

In the screen capture below I deleted the title, subtitle, and kicker; then added back the title as plain text and selected it by holding the mouse button down and dragging across it — but you knew that.

Pro Tip: When formatting titles, subtitles, and kickers, you don’t have to select the whole thing. If you select only part of it the change will apply to the all of it.

Note the toolbar. I’ve added an arrow pointing at the larger of the two capital Ts.

I click on that large T as indicated:

I now have a properly formatted title. Next I create a space for the subtitle and add it:

Note that the subtitle differs from my original subtitle in that it doesn’t have the em-dash or the comma. Hold that thought.

I will now select the subtitle and choose the smaller of the two capital Ts:

When I click that smaller T, the result is a properly formatted subtitle:

Now for the fun part — the kicker. I put the cursor to the immediate left of the M in MuddyUm then hit the enter key, creating a space for the kicker:

Note that the Medium story editor has added the cross inside the circle to indicate that I now have a space in which to add text, a picture, or whatever. Because in MuddyUm the picture never precedes the title, I will go with text:

YIKES! What happened to my beautifully formatted title and subtitle? Have no fear! We are about to make magic happen. I will select the kicker then click on the smaller of the two Ts:

Presto! My title, subtitle, and kicker are now perfectly formatted, if not perfectly spelled:

Display title / subtitle

If you already know all about the issue of conflicting display titles and subtitles, scroll down to the subheading Image Attribution.

Remember how the subtitle differs from the original subtitle? Click on the three dots indicated in the modified screen capture above by the circle and arrow.

Then click on “Change display title / subtitle” as indicated by the ellipse:

Notice that the subtitle appearing in this sub window conforms to the original subtitle, not the subtitle as it now stands. In order to make clear why that is important, I will now publish this in MuddyUm, take a screen capture, then immediately remove it from publication.

Note that the display subtitle that everyone would see when they go to the MuddyUm page corresponds to the original subtitle, the one that appeared when I clicked Change display title/subtitle. That’s not what we want. We want the title and the subtitle to be the same inside and out.

Therefore, before you submit an article to MuddyUm, please click on those three magic dots, then click on “Change display title / subtitle.” If what you see doesn’t match the title or subtitle in your article, correct the problem, then click done.

Note: If you are very careful not to disturb the display title and subtitle they will auto-update. They will also auto-update under other circumstances, but depend not on it! Always check.

Image Attribution

This issue has already been addressed much more ably than I could ever hope to by Lucia Siochi. Here is her article:

Parenthesis and Ellipses

This has also been ably addressed by someone more worthy than I, namely Sarah Paris, here:

More recently the edict has come down from on high that the prohibition on parenthesis and ellipses is not to be enforced with the rigor that it once was. However, if we call them to your attention it means you are over-using them, as in, more than once or twice, or, maybe, three times?

If we call your attention to this or any other issue remember: We are here to help.

The worthies of MuddyUm have provided other fine articles wherein you can find help and support. Find them behind the Outlaws tab. This link will take you right there. Of particular importance is this:

In addition to important information it contains links to other informative articles.