Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, April 18-24, 2021

April 27, 2021April 25, 2021 / Melanie Marttila

Your weekly batch of informal writerly learnings has arrived. Get them while they’re hot!

Jan O’Hara shares a display hack for your story’s outline. Dave King: the non-writing part of writing. Then, Barbara Linn Probst wonders, why was my protagonist so prickly? Juliana Baggott explains when to reject rejection. Yuvi Zalkow wants you to make something terrible (and make it again). Writer Unboxed

Janice Hardy says infighting is a lousy way to create conflict in your novel. Then, Bonnie Randall deconstructs Deadly Illusions to explain what not to do with your manuscript. Fiction University

K.M. Weiland explores the queen’s shadow archetypes in part 11 of her archetypal character arcs series. Helping Writers Become Authors

Shaelin Bishop shares her top 12 writing tips. Shaelin Writes

Becca Puglisi shares tips for landing a guest posting gig. Then Barbara Linn Probst shares ten different writing tricks to make your point. Later in the week, Laurie Schnebly Campbell explains when, why and how to show emotion. Writers in the Storm

Jane Friedman explains how the pandemic is affecting book publishing. Jane Friedman

Princess Weekes wonders, what’s in a (pen) name? It’s Lit | PBS Storied

Adam W. Burgess touts the magic of queer fiction. Gabriela Pereira interviews C.L. Clark about character, conflict, and world building in fantasy. Janelle Hardy wants you to shift creative resistance using your body. Then, LA Bougeois shares five creativity exercises to fire up your writing muse. DIY MFA

Lisa Hall-Wilson offers four tips for writing your characters PTSD and trauma memories. Writers Helping Writers

The actress trope. The Take

Chris Winkle offers five tips for using an arbitrary magic system. Then, Oren Ashkenazi analyzes five novels with bizarre tangents. Mythcreants

Zoraida Córdova explains what it’s like writing Gamora in ‘Women of Marvel’ #1. Marvel

Camonghne Felix interviews Barry Jenkins about bringing The Underground Railroad to TV. Vanity Fair

Thank you for taking the time to visit, and I hope you found something to support your current work in progress.

Until Thursday, be well and stay safe, my writerly friends.

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

February 14, 2019February 10, 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!

thoughtythursday2016

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, March 25-31, 2018

April 5, 2018April 1, 2018 / Melanie Marttila

It’s time to get your mental corn popping 🙂

Ari Berman: Emma Gonzales is responsible for the loudest silence in the history of US social protest. Mother Jones

Zoë Beery hopes we all say goodbye to our happy plantation narrative. The Outline

Showwei Chu reports on how every bit of exercise counts in reducing the risk of early death. CBC

Colin Lecher explains what happens when an algorithm cuts your care. Automation is not always a good thing, especially when users don’t understand how it’s intended to work and don’t bother to check. The Verge

Samantha Paige on firsts. Shondaland

Karin Brulliard asks, are service dogs good therapy for military veterans suffering from PTSD? The Washington Post

Six signs of high-functioning depression (dysthymia) – Kati Morton

Your Brain on Sleep Deprivation – Inverse

I hope you found something inspiring or pertinent to a current project.

Be well until the weekend and my next chapter update for March.

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

December 29, 2016December 25, 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!

thoughtythursday2016