Atlas Obscura

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!

tipsday2016

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Oct 21-27, 2018

/ Melanie Marttila

This will be the last Tipsday before #NaNoWriMo! Once again, where did the time go?!

Just to be clear, for the month of November, I will be desperately attempting to write 50,000 words of a new novel project. There will be no curation. I have, however, decided to do quick check in posts, once a week, so the blog will not be totally inactive. More on that in this weekend’s next chapter update.

In the meantime, enjoy some informal writerly learnings!

Harrison Demchick stops by Helping Writers Become Authors: four things writers can learn from making a movie.

Kim Bullock wonders, is resurrecting a shelved manuscript a good idea or a waste of time? Writer Unboxed

Barbara O’Neal wants you to identify your core story and values. Writer Unboxed

Kathryn Craft shares some thoughts on originality in fiction. Writers in the Storm

Amy Shojai shares seven steps to publishing success from an accidental writer. Writers in the Storm

Joanna Penn interviews Sherrilyn Kenyon: tips for long-term author success. The Creative Penn

Jami Gold helps you take your readers on a journey with storytelling.

Jenna Moreci shares her top ten fantasy tropes.

 

Aliette de Bodard stops by Terribleminds to discuss cannibalizing a draft (or, the art of rewriting).

Gabriela Pereira interviews Melanie Moyer for DIY MFA radio: the imaginary friend as narrator.

Manuela Williams offers five tips for writing a helpful critique. DIY MFA

Chris Winkle shares six ways you can bluff killing your protagonist. Mythcreants

Kristen Lamb: why you (actually) don’t suck and what to do when the abyss stares back.

Sarah Laskow explains how writers map their imaginary worlds. Atlas Obscura

RL Goldberg plots our steps toward creating a trans literary canon. The Paris Review

The new Outlander season 4 trailer—eeeeee!

 

And that was Tipsday. I know, I’ll be in withdrawal, too, but I’ll have enough NaNo to distract me 🙂

Don’t miss out on the final thoughty Thursday until December. I’m going out (just on a break) with a bang!

Until then, be well, my writerly friends.

tipsday2016

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Dec 18-24, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

The holiday edition of thoughty Thursday will help get your mental corn a-poppin’ after your turkey coma wears off 😉

Was Hildegard of Bingen right about the herbal cures she proposed? Medievalists.net

Sarah Sloat reports on how evolution made really smart people long to be loners. Inverse

Lady Gaga opens up about her PTSD. Good Is

Anna Lovind: avoid the bad and you’ll miss out on the good.

The first female doctor in Britain spent 56 years disguised as a man. Lauren Young for Atlas Obscura.

Nicolas DiDomizio introduces us to the Purple-Red Scale, a new way to understand the sexuality spectrum. Mic

Mike Murphy reports on the world’s first solar panel paved road. Quartz

Las Vegas is now powered entirely by renewable energy. Avery Thompson for Popular Mechanics.

Apparently, there’s a massive metal dragon hiding inside the Earth’s outer core. IFLS

Bob MacDonald reports on climate change, as seen from space. CBC

Phil Plait wishes us a happy solstice with this video of 24 hours of light. Slate

And, for the non-science-y among you, here is the magical history of Yule, the winter solstice celebration.

Enjoy this lovely video by Angie Pickman: the longest night.

I must commend the Welsh for having some of the strangest traditions. A rhyming, skeletal horse comes a-knocking? Allison Meier shares the tale on Hyperallergic.

Hudson, a pup nailed to a rail road tie and abandoned, gets a prosthetic paw.

 

And just to end on a light note, here’s a golden retriever pup playing with a door stop.

 

Come on back on Saturday for my last post of the year. It’s all about class and equality in fantasy and science fiction. Yes, it’s another WordlCon 2016 report 🙂

Be well, be kind, and be loved. Virtual hugs!

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Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, June 5-11, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila

The Stanford rape case was all over the interwebz last week, as were the stunned reactions.

Jessica Valenti remembers her life as a sex object. The Guardian.

The rebel virgins and desert mothers who were written out of early Christian history. Alex Mar for Atlas Obscura.

Mallory Ortberg presents gleeful mobs of women murdering men in western art history. The Toast.

Hazel McCallion says, ageism is getting old. The Globe and Mail.

Adam Grant: unless you’re Oprah, ‘be yourself’ is terrible advice. The New York Times.

Teen suicides in Woodstock, Ontario prompt discussion of the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs. CBC’s The Current.

Iona Sharma: ‘A’gailleann’: on language-learning and the decolonisation of the mind. The Toast.

We learn more about our language by listening to the wolves. Holly Root-Gutteridge for Aeon.

John Beckett shares the reasons why he thinks the otherworld is bleeding through. Patheos.

Wow. Look at this self-sustaining community (Now This):

 

Indigenous communities are teaching scientists about nature. The comment that accompanied this article when shared by a friend: it took them this long to figure it out? Vox.

Gene drive therapy may be used to fight malaria. NPR.

Scientists discover a new cat species roaming Brazil. Monga Bay.

Oh, that’s what those bright spots on Ceres look like. Phil Plait for Slate.

Maryana Kopylova makes these alien toys. Space kittehs! Whatever, they’re cool. Brainberries.

This is Colossal shares Kevin Peterson’s hyperrealistic paintings of children and animals exploring urban remains.

ASAP Thought shares five ways to reduce mental health stigma.

 

Liz Fosslien and Molly West share six illustrations that show what it’s like in an introvert’s head. Susan Cain’s Quiet Revolution blog.

You’ll feel better at work with these two-minute habits. Robin Madell for The Business Insider.

This makes me happy 🙂 Pharrell Williams offers a masterclass to students at the NYU Clive Davis institute.

 

And . . . if you like lovely folk harmonies, you’ll want to watch this documentary of Dala’s tour to Alaska.

 

There is no light without the darkness and no darkness without the light.

Be well until next week.

Thoughty Thursday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, May 15-21, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila

Fact and fun, all rolled into one . . . curation post 😉

K.M. Weiland shares strategies for writing faster (and why maybe you shouldn’t). Helping writers become authors. Later in the week she shares her number one tip for writing books readers can’t put down.

Chuck Wendig explodes more writing myths as he invites us to crotch-punch the creative yeti. Terribleminds.

Kristan Hoffman puts forth an argument for letting your creativity rest. Writer Unboxed.

Kameron Hurley writes about fame, publishing, and breakout books: dancing for dinner.

Jami Gold helps us understand how plot obstacles affect character agency.

Dave King continues to explore historical fiction pitfalls with this post for Writer Unboxed: sympathetic characters in unsympathetic worlds.

Carly Watters shares five secrets to publishing your debut novel.

Porter Anderson looks at book prices and writing value. Should we have been careful what we wished for? Writer Unboxed.

Five signs your novel may be sexist – against men. Chris Winkle brings a little balance to the table for Mythcreants.

The establishment has always hated the new kids. Kameron Hurley.

Monica Alverado Frazier wonders, do you know how to use a curandera?

Modern witches are so much more than Maiden/Mother/Crone. Natalie Zutter for Tor.com

Daniel José Older reads from Half Resurrection Blues. This man reads like a poet. I could listen to him all day 🙂

 

John Mullan explores how plots grip us, from Dickens to Line of Duty. The Guardian.

Women swept the 2015 Nebula Awards. Andrew Liptak for i09.

Five science fiction and fantasy novels that treat mental illness with compassion. Barnes & Noble.

This is COOL. Boston’s sidewalks are covered in secret poems. Atlas Obscura.

Lincoln Michel explains why fairy tales are magic for modern fiction. The Guardian.

Dig at the Curtain theatre unearths a Shakespearean surprise. Jill Lawless for Phys.org

Do overused words lose their meaning? Jonathon Sturgeon for Flavorwire.

CBS passes on Nancy Drew adaptation for testing “too female” for line-up (whatever that means). Carly Lane for The Mary Sue.

The BBC shares nine life lessons from Doctor Who.

Two of the shows I liked got cancelled. Fortunately, the end is only the beginning for Supergirl and Marvel’s Agent Carter. Alisdair Stuart for Tor.com

Honest trailers – Game of Thrones, vol. 1 Bewbs!

 

Come back Thursday for your weekly dose of thoughty!

Tipsday