Alchemy Ink

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Feb 17-23, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Thoughty Thursday’s here with a mixed bag of edutainment to get your mental corn popping!

Jamie Shreeve: if life exists beyond Earth, how do we find it? National Geographic

SciShow reveals what scientists have discovered to date about Stonehenge—and how much more remains to be learned.

 

Sharanya Deepak investigates how climate change has put Kashmir’s saffron under threat. Eater

David Roberts looks at the California coalition tackling one of the hardest, unsexist aspects of climate policy. Vox

Messy Nessy Chic profiles the real ice queens: women who conquered the cold wearing corsets.

SciShow Psych looks at the enneagram personality types and the science (or lack thereof) that supports them.

 

Ross Andersen reveals how scientists are totally reconsidering animal cognition. The Atlantic

Last weekend, I shared a picture of two pileated woodpeckers dancing around a tree trunk on social media. This is what they were up to 😉

 

Sarah Zhang figures out why we think cats are psychopaths. It’s just “resting cat face.” The Atlantic

True facts about the lemur. Ze Frank. Man, I’ve missed these!

 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something inspiring in thoughty Thursday.

This weekend, I’ll be posting my monthly next chapter update.

Until then, be well, my friends.

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Feb 17-23, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Good evening, my lovelies! It’s time to peruse your informal writlerly learnings for the week 🙂

Leanne Sowul exposes the battle between time and energy. Later in the week, Bess Cozby shows you four ways to protect your creative brain. And then, Marielle Orff shares five steps to giving an awesome podcast interview. DIY MFA

Vaughn Roycroft: storytelling and stepping beyond the veil. Writer Unboxed

Rachael Stephen explains how to revise your story.

 

Phoebe Wood shares her strategy for turning your first draft into a second draft.

 

Angela Ackerman stops by Writers in the Storm to share the One Stop for Writers Fast Track Tool for character creation. Then, Tasha Seegmiller invites you to sit with your discomfort: negotiating difficult critiques. Later in the week, Laura Drake shows you how to exorcise redundant writing.

Becca Puglisi visits Helping Writers Become Authors: seven things your character is hiding.

Oren Ashkenazi: seven signs of bad media analysis. Mythcreants

Diego Courchay describes how an Italian writer’s fictional garden became a place of literary pilgrimage. Atlas Obscura

And that is tipsday for this week. Be sure to check in on Thursday for your weekly dose of thoughty.

Until then, be well!

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Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Feb 10-16, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

It’s time to get your mental corn popping!

Jessica Stewart shares the unromantic origins of Valentine’s Day. My Modern Met

Kevin Munger: emotional burnout is fueled by envy. It’s focused on Millennial burnout, but I think there’s something for most readers in the social media obsessed age. The Outline

SciShow Psych: you’re probably more likable than you think you are.

 

It’s okay to be smart brings the impossible hugeness of deep time down to (reasonable) size with string.

 

Matt Williams considers how big a generation ship have to be to keep a crew of 500 alive for the journey to another star. Universe Today

Szabolcs Nagy captures an extremely good ISS transit of the moon. Space Station Guys

Kevin Gill posts this fly-by of Europa.

 

Michael Greshko: the Mars Opportunity rover is dead. Here’s what it gave mankind. National Geographic

Charlotte Higgins examines the battle for the future of Stonehenge. The Guardian

Shoshi Parks shares in the quest for Gamalost cheese, Norway’s “Viking Viagra.” Munchies

BBC design looks at the homes of the future. They almost build themselves!

Bryan Armen Graham checks in with Jerry Grymek, dog concierge for the Westminster Dog Show. Then, he profiles the wire fox terrier who won best in show. The Guardian

For your puppy-loving pleasure: Purin, the super beagle.

 

And that was thoughty Thursday.

Until next week, be well, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories 🙂

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Feb 10-16, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Here we are. How is it already the third week of February? Console yourself with some informal writerly learnings *hugs*

Louise Tondeur guest posts on Jane Friedman’s blog: the myth of plan first and write later (or, you never only write one way).

Rheea Mukherjee joins Writer Unboxed: writing characters who are “smarter” than you.

Kathryn Craft: your story’s valentine to the world (AKA, your query, synopsis, and pages). Writer Unboxed

K.M. Weiland critiques a brave writer’s work to show how paragraph breaks guide the reader’s experience. Helping Writers Become Authors

September C. Fawkes says, look forward, not backward, to pull your reader in. Writers Helping Writers

Margie Lawson stops by Writers in the Storm to help you put fresh faces on the page.

Sara Letourneau offers some further reading on the theme of family. DIY MFA

Becca Puglisi visits DIY MFA: five vehicles for showing emotion.

Chris Winkle: optimizing your story ideas for stronger engagement. Then, Oren Ashkenazi reveals six mistakes that can kill a great plot. Mythcreants

Chuck Wendig says, your ideas aren’t that interesting. This is less about making you feel bad than about making sure your ideas don’t take the place of, like, actual writing. Terribleminds

In honour of Valentines, Jenna Moreci offers her top ten tips for writing sex scenes. [Features discussion of sex and sexuality. Yeah. Even so, had to be said.]

 

Krista D. Ball rants: why is AUTHOR NAME taking so long to write their next book? This made me wonder if these impatient readers think they own writers? At the cost of $10 to $20 per book? Really? Gear down, people. Reddit

Later in the week, an 11:45 pm amber alert (and subsequent rescind after midnight) in Ontario resulted in a strange outcry of people who didn’t want their sleep disturbed, even after they learned that the child featured in the alert had been murdered. Seriously? Disturb me all night, every night, if it saves a life.

On that boggling note, I leave you until Thursday, when you can come back for some thoughty.

Until then, be well, my friends.

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Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Feb 3-9, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Another fair number of videos in this week’s gathering of thoughty. I hope it gets your mental corn popping!

Troy Farah steps inside the push to legalize magic mushrooms to treat depression and PTSD. Wired

Sarita Robinson examines the profound effects isolation has on the human mind and body. Science Alert

Veritasium investigates the effects of negative ions. I still like my salt lamps. They’re pretty.

 

Hayden Field of Entrepreneur produced a three-part video series about mental health and entrepreneurship featuring Gabriela Pereira and Michael Phelps (among others). Here’s part 1, part 2, and part 3.

SciShow reveals the real reason it’s so hard to lose weight. This is why I don’t try to lose weight by dieting. I still experience difficulties, but I try not to change my eating behaviours as a way of overcoming a plateau.

 

Matt Richtel shows you how to be creative. The New York Times

Ephrat Livni shares Thich Nhat Hanh’s tips for mindful walking—without looking like a weirdo. Quartz

It’s Okay to be Smart – How can we tell if there’s life on other planets? We look at Earth.

 

SciShow Space looks at the evidence for a new theory about how the universe will end: the big rip.

 

Catherine Zuckerman reveals the hidden world of microscopic life through Jannicke Wiik-Nielsen’s extraordinary photography. ‘Cause microscopy is cool. National Geographic

Phil and I have decided that Torvi has a lot of husky in her … (i.e., T exhibits a lot of these behaviours.)

 

Thanks for stopping by for a little edutainment!

Until next tipsday, be well, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories!

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Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Jan 27-Feb 2, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Time to tickle those neurons and get your mental corn popping!

Ashley Whillans looks at what time poverty is doing to us: time for happiness. The Harvard Business Review

Amanda Kooser reveals how NASA watches the wild polar vortex from space. Cnet

SciShow Space explains how the collision that created the moon could have provided Earth with the elements of life and how stellar occultation can help us figure out how the collisions that originally formed the planets of our solar system happened. Whew!

 

Loren Grush says, better interior design might keep astronauts healthier and happier in deep space. The Verge

Will Meyer: the weather and the wall. Climate change and the border wall are more connected than you might think. Longreads

Emma Taggart shares the colourful chart that traces the evolution of the English alphabet from Egyptian hieroglyphics. My Modern Met

Katarzyna Szymielewicz says, your digital identity has three layers, and you can only control one of them. Quartz

Ryan Gabrielson: the FBI says its photo analysis is scientific evidence, but scientists disagree. ProPublica

Thanks for stopping by for a little inspiration.

Until next tipsday, be well, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories.

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Jan 27-Feb 2, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

And here I am, back with your weekly dose of informal writerly learnings.

Kathryn Craft: the story that holds you back. Hint: it’s the one you tell yourself. Writers in the Storm

Kim Bullock advises you to vanquish emotional overwhelm to increase productivity. Writer Unboxed

Elizabeth Huergo honors Mary Oliver on Writer Unboxed: walk slowly and bow often.

Cathy Yardley guides you from cool idea to premise. Writer Unboxed

Jo Eberhardt mines her (misspent/not misspent) RPG youth: when your characters have minds of their own. Writer Unboxed

K.M. Weiland shares her nine writing goals for 2019. Helping Writers Become Authors

Manuela Williams shares five simple SEO tips for authors. DIY MFA

Pamela Taylor explains how to create authentic details: keeping secrets. DIY MFA

Bess Cozby shares her experience going for six weeks without social media. DIY MFA

Sofia Ashdown shares her top ten editing tips. The Creative Penn

Chuck Wendig explains the story about the story, or, how writers talk about their books. Terribleminds

Becca Puglisi guest posts on Jerry Jenkins’ blog. Got subtext? Writing better dialogue.

Janice Hardy explains what writers need to know about hooks. Fiction University

Chris Winkle shares lessons from The Maze Runner’s point of view disaster. Then, Oren Ashkenazi tackles the problem with oppressed mages. Mythcreants

I post about writer’s grief. WarpWorld

Sangeeta Mehta lists 19 diversity-focused writing conferences and events in 2019. Writer’s Digest

I hope you found something you need to fuel your creative efforts this week.

Come back on Thursday to get your weekly batch of thoughty.

Until then, be well.

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Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Jan 20-26, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

There’s just a little bit of thoughty for you this week. Still, I hope something pops your mental corn.

Rob Dunn shares the microscopic wonders of herbs. National Geographic

Rick Tetzeli reports on a radical new approach to Alzheimer’s that could mean a breakthrough. Fortune

Megan Scudellari: a 3D bioprinter makes a spinal implant in 1.6 seconds. Spectrum

SciShow looks into the uncomfortable phenomena of traveller’s constipation. [I just had to know: how do you deal with this lack of shit?]

 

Filmmakers Audrey Buchanan, Carlos Reyes, and Kaylee Cole explore how skateboarding helps members of the San Carlos Apache tribe reclaim their stories and culture. National Geographic

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next tipsday, be well, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories!

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Jan 20-26, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

And here we go with another week of informal writerly learnings!

Janice Hardy offers this Sunday writing tip: make sure your chapter endings hook your reader. Later in the week, Becca Puglisi explains how to use vocal cues to show hidden emotion. Then, Janice returns with three mistakes to avoid when creating stakes in your story. Fiction University

Leigh Medeiros considers writing and time management: a dispatch from the kitchen sink. Writer Unboxed

Sonja Yoerg praises one of our tools of the trade: whiteboard wonders. Writer Unboxed

Heather Webb shares some truths about the publishing industry you can only learn in the trenches. Writer Unboxed

Keith Cronin: my ongoing feud with Billy Joel. A bit click-bait-y, there. This is really about how to write good dialogue. Writer Unboxed

K.M. Weiland explains how to create your perfect writing process. Helping Writers Become Authors

Angela Ackerman stops by Jane Friedman’s blog. The inner struggle: how to show a character’s repressed emotions.

Anne Pisacano interviews Lori Henriksen on how she uses the tarot in her creative process. Writers in the Storm

Tamar Sloan stops by Writers Helping Writers to explain the key components of a compelling character according to psychology.

Jami Gold wants to help you find your story’s essence.

Mira Singer: making sympathetic antagonists and why Thanos wasn’t one. Then, Oren Ashkenazi covers six more common storytelling problems in new manuscripts. Mythcreants

Andrea J. Johnson shows you the five steps to creating characters of colour. DIY MFA

Why Science Fiction Authors Need to be Writing About Climate Change Right Now. Charlie Jane Anders for Tor.com

And that was tipsday for this week. Come back on Thursday for a little bit of thoughty.

Until then, be well, my friends, and keep writing!

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