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Outlaw’s Guide to MuddyUm: The Editor Fairy Tips Edition
Story collection + tips hitchhiking in the Guide

🦜 This is an Index story 🦜️
Its content appears in a guide I drafted obsessively as a newbie Mudditor before lists were available. It’s a perpetual work in process. Lists and stories are cross-pollinating.
New in Summer 2022: MuddyUm brand click-pics at the bottom of each Muddy story! Find click-pic options and How-To here. Don’t forget the last step — it makes the image clickable.
I feel like I’m inside a Möbius strip, and this is only my second G2MU Edition story. MuddyUm house — err, ship-keeping isn’t as much fun as Wordle stories.
Susan Brearley is a hardbutt when it comes to piratical ship-keeping. It’s my turn for careening. Careening — as all good pirates who didn’t know before are about to find out, including me, is
content removed by editor for fear of copyright infringement … when this happened before, BOFace was my editor⚈⚈⚈ so, suffice it to say stock phrase, The Captain has many reasons to detest teredo navalis, the common shipworm.
Psst — for New Mudditors Only
Here’s how to find THE QUEUE — credit: Anu Anniah
Once you are added as a Mudditor, go to the MuddyUm pub. Look for the MuddyUm thumbnail to the right of your profile pic. Click on it. Click on Stories. You will see the Drafts and Submissions tab with all submitted stories waiting to be accepted.
Did your status change from writer to MuddyUm Editor?
Pip pip! Ahoy! Fair winds! Have you read the ATTN Mudditors subsection?
Editor Fairy Tips from The Guide
Private notes
I didn’t understand this as a newbie — if a private note pertains to specific text, the text is highlighted. To see highlighting on your monitor, click on the asterisk and hover your cursor over the note.
Don’t delete private notes, please! Editors use them throughout the editing process and beyond.
Topic Tags
Tags created for specific uses on muddy articles are Muddyum — handy if you need a fifth tag, Muddyumprompt — to respond to MuddyUm prompts, Muddyprompt for the prompt itself (populates Prompts tab), and Muddyumtips — advice for OUTLAWS under that tab.
- Captain Obvious says eponymous topic tags will display your darling article under these MuddyUm tabs: Advice, Cats | Dogs, Comics, MuddyTech, Poetry, Politics, & This Happened to Me.
Kickers & Lists
Do you write multiple-part articles? Kickers can indicate series, and placement in series, to make it easier for related articles to be found and read in order. Before you publish the third, consider creating a list to embed at the end of each related article to avoid repeated updates.
Story headlines: some “little words” ARE capitalized
Here’s where I thank an English teacher for making me memorize the 23 auxiliary — “helping” — verbs:
is am are was were be being been has have had do does did shall will should would may might must can could
Some people learn them as a song to the tune of Jingle Bells. Capitalize each, regardless of length because, being verbs, they’re essential to the meaning of your title. In subtitles, capitalize only the first word + proper nouns.

Featured image with a white background
Titles have white lettering. After publication, go to Muddy’s home page ASAP to check title legibility. If applicable, and if it matters to you, edit the image’s background to a complementary darker color and add language such as “edited” to its caption. Or pick a different photo.
If the thumbnail isn’t to your liking,
change its focal point! It’s easy:

Advice & Opinions — Stories
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