Eft, Newt or Salamander?
Salamandrids are collectively known as the “newts”, a term which often breeds some confusion — as in “What is the difference between a salamander and a newt?” The simple answer is nothing: a newt is simply a specific type of salamander, namely members of the family Salamandridae. In other words, all newts are salamanders, but not all salamanders are newts [1].
In North America, there are only two genera of newts, Notophthalmus with three species, and Taricha, also with three species [2]. All of these species are only found in North America.
Among Notophthalmus species, Notophthalmus viridescens (the Eastern Newt or Red-spotted newt) is one of the most attractive because of the bright orange or red coloration of its terrestrial stage (juvenile), usually called Red Eft (shown in the photo).
Notophthalmus viridescens can be found just about everywhere in eastern North America [1]. These newts are unique in that they undergo two metamorphoses. The first is the usual transformation from aquatic, gilled larva to an air-breathing terrestrial form, this sexually immature land phase is the eft. However in this species there is a second, less striking metamorphosis to a breeding aquatic adult, called newt [3].
Photo credit: ©Alan Cressler | Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens, red eft (terrestrial juvenile), Mine Mountain, Dupont State Forest, Transylvania County, North Carolina, US.
Felted sweater knitting basket.
Writer Block First Aid Kit
We’ve all been there. Some people have it all the time. Some say it doesn’t exist. I class writer’s block as anything from lack of motivation to not being able to solve a plot problem. Whatever it is, here’s a list of activities to try and get those creative rivers running.
- Move. Pick up your laptop and go to a different room. They say a change is as good as a rest and this can be true with writing. Move to the kitchen. Write outside. Go to a coffee shop. Sit in the cupboard under the stairs and block out the world. Just change up the scenery.
- Swap Medium. If words just aren’t doing it for you make aesthetics, mood boards, draw maps or characters. Victoria Aveyard once said she designed book covers and let the plot stew in the back of her mind.
- Write Something Else. Working on other projects can give you inspiration for what you’re working on now. Find some prompts. Write irrelevant short stories or character studies. Write about your characters as kids or at defining points in their lives.
- Plot. Hands off the keyboard, open up one of those many unused notebooks I know you have and start scribbling vague, half formed ideas. Allow yourself to write things you might discard later. Allow yourself to try and work through an idea you like but don’t understand yet. Try and work out the next 10 steps. 10 things you want to cover. 10 scenes. 10 days. Whatever it is, just write it down.
- 20 Minutes Rule. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Sit your butt down in that chair and write for 20 minutes. I don’t care if it’s trash. I don’t care if you’re going to delete it all later. I don’t care if it’s nonsense. Do it. 20 minutes of writing nonsense is still more productive than 20 minutes staring at that wall. After 20 minutes if you still don’t want to write, leave it, but you just might find yourself inspired.
- Finally, Take Time Off. If none of this is working, it’s likely a sign of burn out. Take some time for yourself and just do nothing. “Write every single day,” yeah sure if you wont to be a machine who pumps out words instead of art. Sometimes you need to recharge before you move forward and that doesn’t just mean getting a good nights sleep. Look after yourself and be kind. This isn’t a race against the clock, you have your whole life to publish a book.
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do you have any advices or tips for a a person who just started writing?
In the immortal words of Ms. Frizzle:
Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!
There's no right away to start writing, and there's no wrong way to do it either. Should you learn the 'rules' before you start breaking them? Probably. Do you have to? Not really, that's something you can learn with time Should you get a group of critique partners to share your work with? Sure. Do you have to in order to keep writing? Hells no.
Find what you like to write, and read that, be it genre fiction, fanfiction, poetry, etc. Wanna write for video games? Play video games! Want to write a movie or TV script? Watch movies and TV! Take notes on what you like, maybe pick up a scriptwriting book or novel writing book or get yourself some Writer's Digest magazines.
Have a novel idea and don't know how to start? Look into plotting advice, or hell, jump headfirst into a 30-Day novel writing challenge like NaNoWriMo. Want to write a fanfic but intimidated by the process? Try drabble writing first, short little scenes of images you want to put out there. Want to get into writing a memoir but don't know how to go about it? Start with daily journaling to focus your thoughts and see where they lead.
But the most important thing about starting to write is actually writing. Don't let yourself get bogged down in all the extra bits. Set aside time to write every week and just see where it leads you. Most of all, have fun!
