Cathy Yardley

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, July 29-Aug 4, 2018

/ Melanie Marttila

Here is your weekly dose of informal writerly learnings.

Linda Yezak shares two simple pacing techniques that grab reader emotions. Helping Writers Become Authors

Susan Donovan offers some tips on writing through life catastrophe. Writers in the Storm

Kim Bullock says that changed perceptions equal character growth. Writer Unboxed

Donald Maass: words when there are no words. Writer Unboxed

Cathy Yardley explains how to write fiction that’s fresh. Writer Unboxed

Jo Eberhardt explains why writers are like magic. Writer Unboxed

Editor Ellen Brock explains how authors hook readers with tasty examples from three books in different genres.

 

Elisabeth Kauffman answers another ask the editor question: five reasons your revision process may have stalled. DIY MFA

Robin Lovett explains how to balance author voice with writing modes. DIY MFA

C.S. Lakin covers Michael Hauge’s six stages of the hero’s character arc. Writers Helping Writers

Oren Ashkenazi reviews eight absurdities we force on female characters. Mythcreants

Tom Jacobs says that fantasy and science fiction readers make good romantic partners. Pacific Standard

And speaking of good romantic partners, here’s a season 4 teaser for Outlander.

 

Alison Flood reports on the “spectacular” ancient public library discovered in Germany. The Guardian

Fun with words time! Erika Berlin lists 50 collective nouns for your favourite groups of animals. Mental Floss

Be well until Thursday, when you can come back for some thoughty 🙂

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Jan 28-Feb 3, 2018

/ Melanie Marttila

Looking for your informal writerly learnings? Why, they’re right here 🙂

K.M. Weiland shows you four ways to become a better reader. Helping Writers Become Authors

Bryn Greenwood: sometimes it’s just business. Writer Unboxed

Steven James goes from 2000 to 300—why you’re writing too much. I might argue the headline. It’s not that we’re writing too much, but that we’ve lost sight of the reason we’re writing in the first place. The seductive “ding” of gamification has hit writers square in the forehead. Writer Unboxed

Tracy Hahn-Burkett explains what to do when your creativity hits the wall. Writer Unboxed

Catherine McKenzie asks, can I jump on the bandwagon? More importantly, if you can, should you? Writer Unboxed

Cathy Yardley wants you to think about what really matters to your audience. Writer Unboxed

Jo Eberhardt: foreshadowing vs. callbacks. Writer Unboxed

Angela Quarles is evaluating sexual tension on the sentence level. Writers in the Storm

Jenny Hansen shares five writing lessons from Groundhog Day. Writers in the Storm

A.K. Perry helps you write an exciting first chapter. DIY MFA

Angela Ackerman explains the role of emotional wounds within character arc. Writers Helping Writers

Janice Hardy wonders, is your novel all premise and no plot? Fiction University

Kristen Lamb says that goofing off is good for you. Then, she helps you build great stories to endure the ages.

Chris Winkle is creating a compelling romance. Mythcreants

Mary Robinette Kowal’s Ask a Puppet, episode 3.

 

Diana Gabaldon demonstrates how she crafts a sentence.

 

Jerry Jenkins compiles a list of 41 tips experts wish they’d known as beginners.

Neil Gaiman presents the lifetime achievement award to Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards.

Julie Beck: why we forget most of the books we read. The Atlantic

Alberto Manguel elucidates on the art of unpacking a library. The Paris Review

Annika Burgess introduces us to a new literary map exhibit: charting the geography of classic literature. Atlas Obscura

Alexander Zawacki looks at how a library handles a rare and deadly book of wallpaper samples. Atlas Obscura

20 historical words we might want to revive.

 

Hope you found something that tickled.

See you Thursday for some thoughtiness 🙂

Be well until then.

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Jan 29-Feb 4, 2017

/ Melanie Marttila

It was another fantabulous week of writerly goodness 🙂

K.M. Weiland helps you find the exact right story hook. Helping Writers Become Authors

Nina Munteanu helps you make your opening count.

Over on Writers Helping Writers, Angela Ackerman writes about describing your character: making every detail count.

Jessica Stawser is acting out of character. Writers in the Storm

Cathy Yardley: writer, know thyself. Writer Unboxed

Donald Maass bid us add a touch of romance to our stories. Writer Unboxed

Susan Spann explains how to evaluate a publishing contest. Writer Unboxed

Porter Anderson: “… when authors hunker together to kvetch about “writing is so hard,” they’re romancing the career in a profoundly counter-productive way.” Writer Unboxed

Jo Eberhardt: be the encouragement you want to see in the world. Writer Unboxed

Janice Hardy: how to write a teen voice. Fiction University

Fae Rowan invites us to use the energies of 2017 to jumpstart our writing careers. Writers in the Storm

Naomi Hughes returns to Jami Gold’s blog with her top three scene issues.

Becca Puglisi delves into overcoming mental illness for the character motivation thesaurus. Writers Helping Writers

Gabriela Pereira interviews Shanthi Sekaran about capturing diverse experiences on the page. DIYMFA

Bess Cozby: three questions you should ask before committing to a revise and resubmit. DIYMFA

Michelle Chalkey lists five benefits of the writer-editor relationship. DIYMFA

Brandon Taylor helps you escape the slush pile. Electric Lit

Blake Atwood launches his new column, editorially speaking, with this post: how to find a book editor you can trust. The Write Life

David Robson introduces us to the untranslatable emotions we never knew we had. BBC

Chris Saylor reminds us how to use apostrophes properly. Marcy Kennedy’s blog

Meet the 2017 Canada Reads contenders. CBC

Ursula K. Le Guin writes a letter to the editor, responding to a comparison between “alternative facts” and fiction. Oregon Live

Andrew Postman’s father, Neil, in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, posited Brave New World as our probable dystopic future as opposed to Nineteen Eighty-Four. It turns out, he was right. The Guardian

David Tennant, the eleventh Doctor himself, tells us everything will be all right.

 

Alisdair Stuart believes it’s time for Doctor Who to change television history for the better. Tor.com

And that was your informal writerly learnings for the week!

Stay strong until Thursday!

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Nov 27-Dec 3, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

And it’s the triumphant return of Tipsday!

K.M. Weiland continues her how to outline for NaNoWriMo series with this instalment: how to write a scene outline you can use. Not to worry, links to all previous posts in this series are included. Helping Writers Become Authors

A.E. Siraki guest posts on Jami Gold’s blog. NaNoWriMo: good or bad, let’s move forward.

Jane Friedman asks, do you know what you’re capable of? Writer Unboxed

Julia Munroe Martin shares one of her takeaways from the Writer Unboxed Unconference: how do you want your novel to change the world?

Anne Greenwood Brown examines the pinch point in this post for Writer Unboxed.

Cathy Yardley helps us write when life sucks. Writer Unboxed

Juliet Marillier shares her struggle following the review of her latest series proposal at the Writer Unboxed Unconference: when bad news is good news.

Jo Eberhardt explores intertextuality: stories within stories (within stories). Writer Unboxed

Roz Morris offers three ways to get maximum impact from a story. Nail Your Novel

Oren Ashkenazi examines five characters with too much spinach, and offers advice on how you can avoid the same pitfalls. Mythcreants

Chris Saylor explains the proper use of ellipses and dashes on Marcy Kennedy’s blog.

Heidi Ulrichsen reports on Greater Sudbury Poet Laureate, Kim Fahner’s project to bring poetic grafiti to storefronts downtown. The Northern Life/Sudbury.com

Amanda Michalopoulou looks at how literature teaches us to understand “the other” in these divided times. The Guardian

Ian Failes explains how designers created the stunning alien language in Arrival. Thrill List

Aimee Bender shares her thoughts on why fairy tales still inspire modern female writers. Wired

Bryan Washington wonders why there aren’t more famous black science fiction authors. The Awl

Beth Elderkin (and the whole i09 crew) is hooked on the latest Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 trailer. Baby Groot is ADORBS!

Referring back to Jo Eberhardt’s piece on intertextuality, Tom Blunt parses Westworld’s literary references. Signature

That’s it for your informal writerly learnings this week. Come back next week for moar. MOAR, I tell you!

By the way, what do you think of my new graphic (keep in mind that I’m not a professional graphic artist)?

Be well until Thursday, when I’ll have a little thoughty for you 😉

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Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Oct 2-8, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 1 Comment

This week was just yummy 🙂

The Wordstock Sudbury 2016 schedule is up 🙂

Prism International interviews George Elliott Clarke, one of our Wordstock guests of honour.

Your #NaNoWriMo prep posts for the week:

Nina Amir guest posts on K.M. Weiland’s Helping writers become authors: how to get up close with your characters.

Chris Saylor guest posts on Marcy Kennedy’s blog: how to punctuate dialogue.

Roz Morris shares her insights on how to write emotions. Nail your novel

Donald Maass looks at four kinds of pace. Writer Unboxed

Joanna Penn: how to find and capture ideas for your novel. The Creative Penn

Janice Hardy guest posts on Writer Unboxed: a ten step guide to plotting a practice novel.

Therese Walsh explores dehumanization in fiction using one of my favourite movies, The Shawshank Redemption. Writer Unboxed

Cathy Yardley: just say yes. Writer Unboxed

Chris Winkle thinks the surprise kiss must go. Why? It’s a matter of consent. Mythcreants

Chuck Wendig offers some good writing (and life) advice: control what you can control. Terribleminds

Later in the week, he shares ten quick story tips to use or discard at your leisure.

Kameron Hurley shares her experience: five years a novelist.

Sarah Waters shares her ten rules of writing fiction. Aerogramme Writing Studio

Last Sunday I spent the day online in a short fiction intensive with Mary Robinette Kowal (!) Here’s one of the resources she shared on critiquing:

 

Carly Watters offers ten ways to personalize your query letter.

Kristen Lamb: what the dreaded synopsis reveals about our writing.

Anna Davis: how to prepare your submission package. Curtis Brown Creative

Awards news!

Ursula K. Le Guin has stopped writing fiction, but we need her more than ever. Zoë Carpenter for The Nation.

When Steven Musil reported that Amazon was cracking down on incentivized reviews, everyone panicked, until it was clarified that this policy change would not apply to ARCs provided for book review purposes. cnet

Sarah Gailey: why we write about witches. Tor.com

Lisa Rosman: what The Girl on the Train is really about. Signature Reads

Angelica Jade Bastièn says the price of fandom can be too high for women of colour. New Republic

Julia Alexander examines sexism in television in the microcosm of Adult Swim. Polygon

Shane Parrish: what you read changes your brain. Medium

If you can correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you speak English better than 90% of English speakers in the world. I must admit, I flubbed two or three <blushes>. The Poke

Ephrat Livni for Quartz: a linguist’s love letter to profanity and why it’s okay to swear in front of kids.

Dark Horse Comics will be producing the next two seasons of The Legend of Korra in print. Rob Bricken for i09. Moar Korra! Eeeeee!

Evan Narcisse talks to Greg Rucka about the reaction to Wonder Woman’s canon bisexuality. i09

Did you see the premiere of Westworld last Sunday? Here are a few pieces about it.

Michael Bennett Cohn looks at Westworld through the lens of the golem story. The Forward

Can Westworld do for science fiction what Game of Thrones did for fantasy? Charlie Jane Anders for Wired.

I’m watching and enjoying it. Phil, not so much, but then, he did see the original movie (which I haven’t) and he just doesn’t see how the writers can turn it into a series and so he’s closed to the possibilities.

Evan Narcisse explores how Luke Cage uses blackness for i09.

Netflix provides a release date (and teaser) for Iron Fist: March 17, 2017.

Outlander casts Marsali and adult Fergus. Entertainment Weekly

The Doctor Who Christmas special features superheroes (!) plus a wee teaser. Katharine Trendacosta for i09.

See you Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Nov 29-Dec 5, 2015

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Gah! Almost didn’t make it, this week. The holiday season is starting to take over (!)

K.M. Weiland offers a final lesson learned from writing Storming: how to choose the right point of view.

Nina Munteanu shares her thought on how to end your novel.

Lance Schaubert picks apart the axiom that there is nothing new under the sun in this post for Writer Unboxed: Old books > new books.

What’s the current Donald Maass is writing about on Writer Unboxed? . . . and the greatest of these is hope.

What Cathy Yardley learned from writing erotica. Writer Unboxed.

So, Chuck Wendig saw this article in The Wall Street Journal and responded, no, ejaculated, most fizzily.

Junot Diaz shares his MIT writing class syllabi with Open Culture.

CBC Books presents its winter reading recommendations.

How the literary class system is impoverishing literature. Literary Hub.

A brilliant spoken word performance that explains depression perfectly. Upworthy.

Air New Zealand’s epic flight safety video:

 

Grandfather Frost and Baba Yaga: The weird and wonderful world of Russian fairytales. The Guardian.

Futurity examines science fiction’s lasting obsession with Mars.

J.J. Abrams actually said that Star Wars was always a boys’ thing. That toe jam taste good?

Phil and I are enjoying Jessica Jones. Here are a few posts about the show:

Suffering from #droughtlander ? Here’s a trailer for you to drool over. E!Online.

See you on Thoughty Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Sept 27-Oct 3, 2015

/ Melanie Marttila

This week’s offerings:

We all “know” we’re supposed to be honest in our fiction, but what does that really mean? K.M. Weiland.

Katie features One stop for writers, by Angela Ackerman, Becca Puglisi, and Scrivener’s Lee Powell, on her personal blog. We have to wait until October 7 to sign up, though. (Hey! That’s TOMORROW!)

Then, Katie offers two warning signs that you’re starting your story too early in her Friday vlog.

Bonnie Randall is back with another great post on Janice Hardy’s Fiction University: Getting psyched out.

C.S. Lakin gives us a list of ten questions that will help check our stories for underwriting. Live, write, thrive.

Every journey starts with a first step. Every story begins with the first word. About gittin’ ‘er done. BookBaby blogs.

Cathy Yardley asks, is your story complex, or overly complicated? How to build complexity without confusing your reader. Writer Unboxed.

Nicole Winters writes about how she kicked research in the butt. Writers in the Storm.

Canadian small press Bilblioasis is doing great things (with three books on the Giller long-list). The Globe and Mail.

Now is not the time for realistic fiction, says Margaret Atwood. NPR.

Elizabeth Gilbert warns of the perils of ignoring your creative self on CBC’s Q.

Eleanor Arnason guest posts on the Women in Science Fiction blog.

Chuck Wendig asked a few cool people to write guest posts on his Terribleminds blog. First, Stina Leicht offers her thoughts on message fiction in SFF. The S.L. Huang defends escapist, blow-shit-up-hell-yeah, popcorn entertainment. Then, editor John Adamus explains why getting an independent and professional editor to review your work is so important.

Anna Lovind explains why she ditched her beautiful career in publishing. Annapurna Living.

“If you’re being rejected 90% of the time, you’re actually incredibly successful.” Dan Blank interviews Eric Wert on We Grow Media.

Check out this historical fiction: The incredible expandable book. Medieval Books.

Put these ten ultra-weird science fiction novels on your reading list. i09.

Mental Floss presents 11 unusual books stores you can visit.

Hope you found something useful. If you did, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Hang in until Thoughty Thursday.

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz June 15-21, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

There’s a little bit of everything this week. A little craft advice, some blogging tips, love for the word nerds and the book worms, writerly brain science, and a couple of thoughtful pieces about women in fiction and making it in the world of fandom.

Part two of K.M. Weiland’s how to write a flat character arc series.

Later in the week, Cathy Yardley wrote a guest post for Katie: Six tips to outline your novel faster.

Jan O’Hara discusses McKee’s four tips on writing a BIG story on Writer Unboxed.

Anne R. Allen’s blogging essentials for authors.

In related news, Roz Morris answers the question, how much time should an author spend blogging and building websites?

10 words that started out as errors from Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty.

Moar wordnerdery from ideas.ted.com: 20 words that used to mean something completely different.

24 quotes that will inspire you to write more from Buzzfeed.

Also from Buzzfeed, 37 books every creative person should read.

Back with ideas.ted.com, six science fiction and fantasy books for the app generation.

Benedict Cumberbatch reads Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to McCarthy after the burning of (among other books) Slaughterhouse Five.

 

I just saw Lisa Cron tweet about this NY Times article: This is your brain on writing, by Carl Zimmer.

Tasha Robinson’s post on The Dissolve, We’re losing all our strong female characters to Trinity Syndrome, caused a bit of a furor on the SFCanada listserv, and elsewhere on the interwebz.

Jim C. Hines shares his Continuum guest of honour speech. It’s kick-ass. Then again, Jim’s good at that kind of thing 😉

Enjoy, my writerly peeps.

Tipsday