TA #117: 🍿 Writing inspo from the best thing on Netflix

Hey, you. You're doing great. Click here to read this on the web.

wettest sloppiest sloshy slappin footsteps

Source: Stranger Things, Netflix via Twitter

Welcome to the 117th issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, living your best life. I'm glad you're here. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you need your own: Subscribe here.

Boston, Sunday, July 17, 2022

Scoops ahoy, friend!

Fissure writhing wetly.

Tentacles undulating moistly.

Dissonant gibbering.

Disturbing choral music intensifies.

This week's letter is a celebration of the best thing on Netflix: Stranger Things subtitles.

But more than that, it's a celebration of writing itself! And of you... and me... and the difference a good writer can make to... well, anything.

Especially when the writer has creative free rein.

Which only happens when someone has that writer's back.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's back up...

[ferocious guitar riff]

If you aren't a fan of Netflix's Stranger Things (or you haven't watched it with the closed-captioning turned on), you've missed glorious phrases like those above. And more.

Stranger Things didn't invent subtitles—but did bring them to a new level.

Its subtitles are pulpy and verbose and sometimes a little gross. (Moist, moistly are used a lot.)

The point of subtitles is to give deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers the same immersive experience of slapping tentacles squelching and undulating moistly as hearing viewers.

They've also getting lots of love from people who turn the subtitles on just for the joy of reading them. (Which includes me—I hear shows better that way.) (You, too?)

No one reads anymore... or do they?

Maybe you've never given much thought to subtitles.

Maybe you assumed—like I did—that subtitles are auto-captioned? That behind-the-scenes a generic, bloodless AI tool is auto-generating them with no joy or love in its heart?

Sometimes, yes. But not in this case.

* * *

[tense pause, industrial synth music plays]

The Stranger Things captions are created by a team led by Jeff T, a Netflix subtitles writer. The team views the final cut of each show and hand-selects words and descriptions with the same care that a jeweler selects and polishes a stone before <click!>... perfection!

Jeff and his team caption dialogue. But also they describe sounds, music, silence, feelings... the whole VIBE.

You can feel them having fun. You can sense the playfulness. You imagine the way they make themselves laugh there in the writer's room with a cheeky phrase or occasional Dungeons & Dragons Easter egg.

It's over the top because that's the ethos of Stranger Things, isn't it.

Yet...

[low piano note signals abrupt shift to a more serious tone]

...Jeff and his team layer in all the things that create tension and beauty. All the things that gross you out and drag you into the story so you're a little jumpy when you take your dog out at night. (Did that tree shadow just... move?)

* * *

Here are a few reasons Stranger Things subtitles are worth celebrating today.

▶️ Machines can do this work. Yet writers do it better.

Lemme get salty for a second.

If I had a Dogecoin for every time I heard the Internet say that ROBOTS WILL WRITE EVERYTHING by the year x... (accompanied by someone's hair on fire and everything is on fire and the sound you hear is all the books in the Library of Congress imploding leaving behind a mushroom cloud that blooms in the flat, artless sky...).

If I had a Dogecoin for every time I heard that robots-will-write-for-us mantra... I'd be writing this from a Mediterranean villa wearing a bathrobe stitched with the wistful sighs of Humanities majors.

[small chuckling sound]

Listen, I'm a realist.

Will AI affect writers like you and me? Sure. Of course.

In fact, it already is. I talk about it in the new edition of Everybody Writes, due out this October.

AI will cheerfully and happily whistle its way through all the mundane, data-driven repetitive work most of us don't enjoy anyway.

AI writing tools are house-elf helpers. They are not wholesale replacements booting us out of our jobs, consigning us to passively sit around and watch sit-coms penned by our Roombas.

Let's calm down about this whole robot-writing phenomenon.

You know what robots can easily create? Subtitles.
You know what Netflix is being celebrated for with Stranger Things? Besides Kate Bush? Subtitles written by humans.

That tells us something, doesn't it? Writers matter.

Clever artists like you and me who write with creativity, craft, and care elevate a project from expected to unexpected. From ho-hum to something special. From "monster enters" to "wet tentacles loudly slap the cement floor."

Said another way: Would anyone be talking about Stranger Things subtitles without Jeff T? No. [tender, emotional music swells]

* * *

▶️ Style Guides liberate creativity.

The biggest question I wondered when I read those Stranger Things subtitles was... HOW?

HOW did Jeff T and his team get buy-in on that intense, disturbing, gibberish-ating language that reads like the team was paid by the adverb? HOW did they toss in Easter eggs? HOW did they get away with it?

Take a look at Netflix's subtitles style guide, the fantastically titled English Timed Text Style Guide.

HOW DID JEFF'S TEAM DO IT? Because they had permission to create from a place as wild and lawless as the Upside Down itself.

The guidelines cover the basics (reading speed, line breaks). All the subtitles are reviewed by an editor of sorts, who ensures the clarity, accuracy, relatability of the language. But outside of that, the writers can go absolu-nutty.

My favorite two lines from the English Timed Text Style Guide could represent a section in a writing Master Class—for subtitles or otherwise:

"Be detailed and descriptive, use adverbs where appropriate when describing sounds and music, describe voices, speed of speech, volume of sound."
"Describe the sounds and audio as opposed to visual elements or actions."

The best way to strengthen your writing is always to add a second sense—describe what you hear, taste, feel... not just what you see. (I also talk about this in the second edition of Everybody Writes and you knew I was gonna drop another link there didn't you.) 😉

[sibilant trilling]

▶️ Last point: Opportunity lives where your audience least expects it.

These are subtitles, friends. SUBTITLES. A nothing, throwaway string of writing that most would pay zero attention to.

The only other brand I know of that's paid this kind of attention to the poetry of its subtitles is the BBC in the promotion for Planet Earth 2, from 2016.

That's a screen grab from the Planet Earth promotion. It's titled "Swimming sloth looking for love."

[second salty moment, incoming]

Six years ago, when it was new, I used to share the story of Planet Earth's swimming sloth on stage during speeches.

From stage I'd call out the line in the screen capture—that horny little sloth swimming with un-sloth-like velocity while the caption reads: "He did his best to put on a turn of speed."

Not: "Sloth swims fast."

Not: "Sloth swims with urgency."

But the very BBC-British: "He did his best to put on a turn of speed." Uttered as a lock-jawed aside at a polo match, you imagine.

"Pay attention to the poetry and possibilities!" I used to implore audiences full of marketers. "Don't rely on your auto-generated text! Involve your writers! They will elevate your content!"

What happened?

[crickets trill mournfully]

So now I'm imploring anew... [persistent writer uses pleading voice]

What throwaway bit of content can you give extra love to?

Microcopy, landing pages, email footer, email header, and yes... sometimes, subtitles.

The time is now.

We're got this.

[Fade to black]

* * *

BACK IN BOSTON: 10/12-14

Heyoooooo! The MarketingProfs B2B Forum is back in Boston this October 12-14.

If you have budget for only 1 event a year... this is the one to be at. And not just because I will be there. And not just because I have a sweet discount for you (more in a sec).

But because it's the one event that tells you what you need now and what's next in B2B Marketing. See the agenda. And plan to join us.

This is the sweet discount exclusive to Total Annarchy readers: Code ANNLIKESME saves newsletter subscribers an *additional* $350 off the street price.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Truth in advertising has never felt more... true. (h/t Rob Zaleski)

LOVE LETTERS

Shouts from around the internet.

💌 To Mike Allton for including me in his piece that answers the question: So what exactly makes for a memorable virtual event?

💌 To Kenna Griffin for the book love here and here.

💌 To Semrush, Ayaz Nanji, and MarketingProfs. Thanks for the honor.

💌 To Marian Obiedzinski for including me in her piece on storytelling.

💌 And finally... to the always-generous, always-incredible Lee Odden + Team TopRank for adding my thoughts to this valuable, brand-new report on B2B Influencer Marketing. View a preview here!

* * *

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay sane. Stay healthy. See you again on July 31.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, you can:

1) buy the new book. Or get the OG while you still can.
2) Get yourself some $WORD coin. (Read more about creator coins here.)
3) Forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SPECIAL THANKS to AWeber for being the provider of choice for Total Annarchy. If you are looking to up your email game, I highly recommend.