I KNOW I READ IT SOMEWHERE

The Outlaw’s Guide to the MuddyUm Galaxy

>42 guidelines, tutorials, & other piratical nuts & bolts

Ahoy, Outlaws!

Here’s your one-stop MuddyUm index with friend links, up to date as of 2/12/2024. Articles mostly live under our Outlaws tab.

At the MuddyUm 201 level, don’t miss the Captain’s distribution advice in the Images & Photos section and Maryan’s article under What Is SEO & Why Should I Care? If you’re an editor, check out “The Mudditor Checklist” under ATTN Mudditors — Anu Anniah coined that term.

If you last looked here before the current year, search “New in” to find articles added in 2024.

⚓︎ Like lists?

Find featured articles — grouped by topic — in my Outlaw’s Guide to MuddyUm list.

⚓︎ Appreciate prompting?

Visit Muddy’s Prompts tab! Most prompts are ETERNAL. If you play your topics right, your response populates our We Felt Prompted tab.

⚓︎ Tweety, engaging?

If you haven’t already, join Muddy’s email list & check out our PORTAL. We curate and distribute our writers’ stories on social media and via regularly scheduled newsletters. MuddyUm also has a private Facebook group — Outlaws — and numerous Slack channels, including #askgrannymary.

Click ABOUT to meet the Good Ship MuddyUm’s crew. Search “treasure map” herein to find their hidden Feature pages.

First Things First

Please read Writing With Us by Cap’n Susan Brearley

TIP: If your status changed from writer to MuddyUm Editor, read ATTN Mudditors below.

Newbie Onboarding

• Helping Funny People Write Funny, by Nanci Arvizu.
• Writing for MuddyUm — The 101 Outlaw’s Guide by Holly J See

MuddyUm Guidelines for Publication

Overviews With Multiple Topics & Links

• The MuddyUm Elements of Style by Susan
• MuddyUm Essentials for Publication by BOFace
• Must-Read MuddyUm How-To-Torial by Rachael Ann Sand — valuable info for writers and new Mudditors alike; links therein are included here also

Kickers

• What the Kick Is a Kicker? by Susan
• Create Kickin’ Kickers by Rachael
• Kickers That Suck by BOFace

TIP: 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.

Titles & Subtitles

• Formatting Title and Subtitle Made Simple & What Not to Do — don’t omit a formatted subtitle and kicker, both by Rachael, who says “Remember, you can edit past stories with your new and improved skills, too!”
• What’s in a Name? Weighing the Importance of a Clear, Powerful Title by Sarah Paris
• New in 2024-->Make Sure Your Title/Subtitle Are The Same In Both Places — Yes, they exist in two places, by Anu

TIP: Some “little words” ARE capitalized in titles. Here’s where I thank an English teacher for making me memorize the 23 “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 verbs are essential to your title. In subtitles, capitalize only the first word + proper nouns.

Images & Photos

In 2023, MuddyUm simplified branding at the bottom of each story. Andrew’s AI automagically adds our click-pic at the end of draft submissions.

• →Getting the Attention of the Curators← by Susan — a MuddyUm 201 must-read
• Your Go-to Guide for Quick and Easy Image Attribution, with Samples by Lucia Siochi
• How to Choose and Insert Images by Rachael
• How to Place That Clickable Image We’ve Been Pestering You About by BOFace
• What’s a Click-Pic? Rhymes with Dick Pic by Holly

TIP: You may want to go to MuddyUm ASAP after publication to check your article’s appearance. If the thumbnail isn’t to your liking, change its focal point! It’s easy:

What Is SEO & Why Should I Care?

MuddyUm 201

• The Secret Way to Boost Medium Stories — Why you need alt text on every image — and other SEO secrets by Maryan Pelland OnText.com
• In Search of the Meaning of “SEO” and Why Optimizing Matters: A ‘How-To’ Guide by Sarah Paris
• Still Fiddling With Your New Publication? by Susan

Topic Tags & Feature Pages, aka Tabs

Cap’n Susan weighed in twice⤵︎

Why Having a Top Writer Badge Matters【&】Tagging Your Medium Articles

So did BOFace⤵︎

1. Git That Tag Blanket Offa Me — just say no to wholesale tagging of other writers
2. Tag Like a Boss — want to pick the most popular tags?

Marie & Sarah spoke up too⤵︎

• Tag Your Stories but Godammit Make Them Useful by reformed subeditor for MuddyUm Marie T Smith. This oldie but goodie was written before we had an Outlaws tab.
• How to Utilize and Master Topic Tags: Tag, You’re It! by Sarah Paris

All MuddyUm articles should be tagged Humor or Satire. Other topic tags place articles under specific MuddyUm tabs, aka feature pages.

TIP: 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.

Find your favorite humoristas at any time here⤵︎

• A treasure map Amy Sea to Toni Crowe — Clickable Access to Feature Pages by Holly

Private Notes

• The Mystery of The Missing Private Note by Anu
• More About Those Private Notes by BOFace — from an editor’s standpoint
• Crickets Versus Piranhas: MuddyUm’s Editorial Difference by Holly

TIP: 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.

MuddyUm Self-Editing Advice

BOFace gave us two pieces of his mind⤵︎

1. Since Brevity Is the Soul of Wit — three simple suggestions on how to improve your writing
2. This MuddyUm Editor Is Holding Up Your Article — what writers should consider before clicking Submit

Rachael wrote 3 editorial advisories⤵︎

1. I Noticed That You’re Overusing That【&】Write Less Stories and Earn Fewer Money
2. Most-Missed Editing and Formatting List — overview with tutorial links. №10 on her list of “things to check before submitting or publishing” is so helpful:

Whenever possible, take time to view your draft on both a phone screen and a computer screen before finalizing.

Other Mudditors weighed in too⤵︎

• Get These Words Right, or Else by Carol Lennox
• Self-Editing Tips for Grammarphobes by Holly — let’s make confusing words clear again
• Why Outlaws Hate Parentheses (and Ellipses)…and a Lack of Conclusion by Sarah Paris
• ASK GRANNY MARY: How, Do You Punctuate? She’s dead (and she is wise) by Gary Chapin

Tips, Tricks, & Techie Stuff

• Tip-Top Advice for the Timorous Yet Ballsy Writer by Holly — nix the prolixity, don’t bury your story, and work on that later
• When In Doubt? Ask Medium Support by Roz Warren — answers that burning question, “You’ve clapped for my story without reading it. Does that “count?”
• Quickies in Quick Keys and Other Juicy Tips by Aimée Gramblin — shortcuts from “an Apple gal, an original Eve, devouring the tempting bytes from my Mac. These quicky techniques may be different when you’re with a PC”

The Cap’n provided basic info, plus a heads-up for preppers⤵︎

1. How Do I Submit to a Medium Publication?
2. What Happens When Medium Publications Go Away? — how to back up your life-on-Medium via Settings/Account/Download your information

As of 1/8/24, the following articles don’t yet reflect the Friend of Medium tier and Medium’s changes that made the box links we used to require optional.

• Add 3 Box Links to Your MuddyUm Posts Please by Anu
• Breaking Down the Paywall by Rachael — about friend links

Find all my tips from this Guide collected here⤵︎

MuddyTech

Clicking the heading takes you to that MuddyUm tab, but in the meantime⤵︎

• If all you have is a 🔨, everything looks like a 🖥️ by Andrew Rodwin— how to do cool stuff with text in Medium stories. Unicode? Text effects? Whaa? Editor Fairy says: It’s a scary yet intriguing article.

Life Aboard the Good Ship MuddyUm

A Hearty Welcome from Cap’n Susan Brearley

• MuddyUm. Where Everybody Knows Your Name — and reads! and claps! and laughs!
• Earning My First Thousand Dollars Writing — tips that could have you laughing all the way to the bank
• Keeping an Eye Out On the Metrics — A State of the Publication Report from November 2019 — including the Captain’s historic writing manifesto. MuddyUm was but 2 months old

✳️ATTN Mudditors✳️

Your first assignment is — review Anu’s two articles ASAP

New Mudditor Me didn’t know how to find the queue and was afraid to ask. Were they hazing me? Was it a test? In short:

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. — Anu Anniah

• The Mudditor Checklist
• Gotta Appreciate Editors Who Publish and Clap

Here’s a pro Mudditor tip from Rachael — on Slack, about Slack:

I recommend peeking in here prior to working in the queue so you know if a piece in the queue is being discussed or worked on before you blindly jump into the queue.

Mudditors love newsletters — 2 how-tos by Anu

• How to Create a Newsletter on Medium — don’t forget the final step! which is

After you have published your newsletter and checked that it looks ok as an email, turn on the meter settings for the newsletter. It is off by default. I know, that’s quite offul! A wicked move by the newsletter designers.

• New in 2024-->MuddyUm’s Monthly Top 3 + 1 Newsletter — The Process — How to create the newsletter for the 1st Monday of the month

Mudditor Zooms are each Monday at 11 a.m. Eastern USA time, which Mudditors sometimes publicize after the fact.⤵︎

Meta Muddy Humor

The Captain’s Advice for Publications

• 1 of 3. So You’re Starting a Medium Publication — bwahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
• 2 of 3. So You Have a New Medium Publication — more tips on weird questions that nobody knows the answer to
• 3 of 3. So You Are Still Working on Your New Medium Publication — maybe you are tech challenged and that’s perfectly okay

Cap’n Susan’s Sister Publications

• My Publications and Why I Started Them — In Answer To This Frequently Asked Question

1. Contemplate “A Home for the Mindful”
2. To The Summit “What Peak Will You Climb Next?”
3. Law of Connections “Elevating Our Connections to Each Other and the Mother”
4. Garden of Neuro “Wisdom Seekers Meet Wisdom Keepers”

• A Family Reunion of Sorts — Meet Susan Brearley’s five sister publications by Rachael

If it’s deemed a better fit, your darling MuddyUm submittal may be referred to a sister pub.

Yes, there’s repetition in our how-to-torials, but as “they” say:

Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment. — Zig Ziglar

Last Things Last

MuddyUm is a non-profit pirate ship crewed by hoping-their-writing-makes-money Outlaws. Money from Bootyque and Anthology sales supports our internship program and other humor-worthy endeavors.

Does *your* Medium pub have interns?

We do! Stories by and about them are here⤵︎