Clipmarks | Prolific Clips

7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:48:57 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: This extremely prolific writer has won numerous awards, including the National Book Award. She writes in longhand, and while she doesn’t have a formal schedule, she says she prefers to write in the morning, before breakfast . She’s a creative writing professor, and on the days she teaches, she says she writes for an hour or 45 minutes before leaving for her first class. On other days, when the writing is going well, she can work for hours without a break — and has breakfast at 2 or 3 in the afternoon!

Clip Source: writetodone.com

1. Stephen King. In his book On Writing, King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays.

2. Ernest Hemingway. By contrast with King, “Papa” Hemingway wrote 500 words a day.

3. Vladimir Nabokov. The author of such great novels as Lolita, Pale Fire and Ada did his writing standing up, and all on index cards.

4. Truman Capote. The author of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood” claimed to be a “completely horizontal author.” He said he had to write lying down, in bed or on a couch, with a cigarette and coffee.

5. Philip Roth. One of the greatest living American writers, Roth works standing up, pacing around as he thinks. He claimed to walk half a mile for every page he writes.

6. James Joyce

Joyce prided himself in taking his time with each sentence. A famous story has a friend asking Joyce in the street if he’d had a good day writing. Yes, Joyce replied happily. How much had he written? Three sentences, Joyce told him.

7. Joyce Carol Oates

The George Orwell Diaries

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:59:20 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Published real-time in blog format with a 70 year lag.
http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/

Clip Source: orwelldiaries.wordpress.com

THE ORWELL PRIZE

In association with the Orwell Trust, Political Quarterly and Media Standards Trust

Clip Source: orwelldiaries.wordpress.com

The Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent prize for political writing, is publishing George Orwell’s diaries as a blog. From 9th August 2008, Orwell’s domestic and political diaries (from 9th August 1938 until October 1942) will be posted in real-time, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.

The diaries are exactly as Orwell wrote them.

For more information, click here.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Though as prolific as any blogger (his collected writings occupy some 20 volumes), Orwell, who died in 1950, never had the chance to spontaneously publish his thoughts to a waiting public. Now — with some lag time — they are being made available that way at orwelldiaries.wordpress.com.

Tags: george orwell, diary, politics, news, history, literature, writer

Mashable

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:43:54 GMT

clipped by: Igorek-73
clipper's remarks: Best

Clip Source: mashable.com

Zoho Share is Another YouTube For Documents

Document sharing is actually quite a crowded space, with several serious competitors; Scribd and Docstoc come to mind, but I’m sure there are many others. However, Zoho has been so thorough with their online office suite that it’s only logical they created a document sharing service of their own.

Their vision of how document sharing should look is called Zoho Share, and unlike most competitors, who still feel they need to explain what their service is about, they really take the Youtube route, with the homepage immediately hitting you with recent and featured documents, as well as most prolific and recent users of the service.

Lawmakers for Watermelon!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:38:59 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: A fun take from the WSJ on what is actually getting accomplished in Congress these days.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

WASHINGTON -- The 110th Congress, whose term officially ends in January, hasn't passed any spending bills or attacked high gasoline prices. But it has used its powers to celebrate watermelons and to decree the origins of the word "baseball."

Barring a burst of legislative activity after Labor Day, this group of 535 men and women will have accomplished a rare feat. In two decades of record keeping, no sitting Congress has passed fewer public laws at this point in the session -- 294 so far -- than this one. That's not to say they've been idle. On the flip side, no Congress in the same 20 years has been so prolific when it comes to proposing resolutions -- more than 1,900, according to a tally by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, whose home state of Georgia has 24,000 acres planted in watermelon, pushed a resolution establishing July as National Watermelon Month.

Tags: congress, watermelon

Eddie Dodson Aticle in Hustler - excerpt

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:50:01 GMT

clipped by: mrmoto

Clip Source: content3.clipmarks.com

clipped from: www.hustlerworld.com

From the Magazine: Note-worthy Stickup Man - Part 1

EDDIE DODSON, a charismatic charmer who in the 1970s became part of Hollywood's "in" crowd, lived a double life. To support his drug habit and lavish lifestyle, he became the world's most prolific bank robber. Now friend and confidant Timothy Ford recounts Dodson's whirlwind saga.

The robber looked so beat down in the bank photos that FBI Special Agent in Charge Andy Chambers wondered whether the old junkie would survive his next fix. Since his heists had been in that L.A. enclave, the FBI nicknamed him The Down-and-Out-in-Beverly-Hills Bandit. The Down and Outer hit seven banks the first three months of 1999, but he didn't cause much of a stir at L.A.'s FBI field office. The city averages two to three bank robberies a day.

What has Congress done so far...?

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:52:58 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

With the mostly symbolic measures, Congress has saluted such milestones as the Idaho Potato Commission's 70th anniversary and recognized soil as an "essential natural resource." As legislation on gasoline prices, tax fixes and predatory lending languish, Congress has designated May 5-9 as National Substitute Teacher Recognition Week, and set July 28 as the Day of the American Cowboy.

why are most people far from flawless?

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:56:43 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.theispot.com

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Natural selection, we’re told, is the process by which nature promotes our best qualities. But a look around strains that notion. If nature selects health, beauty, and intelligence, why are most of us far from flawless?

It may be because genes involved in reproduction work against themselves in opposite sexes across generations, says biologist Katharina Foerster at the University of Edinburgh. In her study of eight generations of red deer in Scotland, she noticed a curious pattern: The most prolific male deer sired daughters that tended to have fewer offspring, while the worst male breeders (the deer equivalent of ugly) fathered females that had more offspring. This is evidence, Foerster says, of sexually antagonistic genes. The same gene that makes a buck sexually successful can leave his daughter behind.

Poetry award

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:10:33 GMT

clipped by: writerslink

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Emerging artists on shortlist for most valuable poetry prize

Mark Brown, arts correspondent
The Guardian,
Friday August 1 2008
Article history

Judges chose six poets from 133 collections they considered for the £10,000 best collection prize, including the prolific Sujata Bhatt, whose poem Search for my Tongue will be familiar to many GCSE English students.

Tags: awards

Truckers and Kids

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:36:13 GMT

clipped by: rvnurse2b
clipper's remarks: Kinda COOL!

Clip Source: www.education-world.com

Truck drivers who travel the country often have no one with whom to share anecdotes and insights. A program called Trucker Buddy International offers such drivers an eager audience. The program pairs truckers and classes, giving students a driver's-eye view of the world and prolific pen pals

Truck drivers might not have soft and cuddly reputations in some circles, but to thousands of schoolchildren, they are friends and confidantes who write exciting letters about cross-country travel.

A non-profit organization called Trucker Buddy International pairs truck drivers with kids in second through eighth grade and with special education students. Truckers write to students about their travels and incorporate math and geography lessons. Students get to practice their letter writing.

Trucker Buddy Tom Hawks visits some of his students.

Becky Thunder is a Trucker Buddy to several classes, including Lee Floyd's fourth-grade class at Grady Brown Elementary School in Hillsborough,

Tags: education, truck, commerce, geography, school, teach, vollunteer

Mass Iranian execution: 29 drug traffickers, murderers and rapists hanged in one day

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:36:12 GMT

clipped by: pitim

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Mass Iranian execution: 29 drug traffickers, murderers and rapists hanged in one day

Twenty-nine people convicted of drug trafficking, murder and rape were hanged in Iran today in the country’s biggest mass execution in years.

The hangings were in defiance of growing criticism of human rights in Iran, which Amnesty International says is the world’s most prolific executioner after China.

Hanging is the most common form of execution and the condemned are usually executed inside prison compounds.

But 10 people were hanged publicly earlier this month, despite a moratorium on grisly public executions ordered by the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, in January.

And eight women and a man face execution by stoning for adultery.

Hanged: Iranian authorities execute 29 criminals in one day

At least 74 people who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, are also awaiting the gallows

FriendFeed - Why It Will Win

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:00:28 GMT

clipped by: DarrenTooCool
clipper's remarks: If you a new to Twitter and FriendFeed, this is a great article to get you up to speed.

Clip Source: mashable.com

10 Reasons Why FriendFeed Will Beat Out the Competition

The interesting aspect of FriendFeed is its quick evolution from a lifestreaming service to lifestreaming plus discussion forum plus latest news plus search engine. Here are 10 reasons why I think FriendFeed will beat out their competition if they keep innovating at their current pace:

1. Noise Reduction – One of the main gripes about FriendFeed in the beginning was simply the sheer number of comments and links that were being duplicated by all the Twitter refugees. Also, at startup, FriendFeed would plaster the same nine prolific social media users (Scoble, Rubel, etc) on the front page whenever a new account was created causing the Friends feed to be completely overwhelmed.

2. Breaking News – Like Twitter, FriendFeed is fast-becoming a great way to find out the latest breaking news or most popular topics on the Web.

Tags: social, networking, friendfeed, twitter

Omega 3 How much and where to get it.

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:47:44 GMT

clipped by: zalisan
clipper's remarks: “Older people should absolutely be concerned about mercury in fish,” says Florida neurologist David Perlmutter, M.D., author of The Better Brain Book. “Mercury causes memory loss and other cognitive problems. And there are other ways to get omega-3s besides eating fish.” His recommendation: Take algae-based DHA supplements, available in any health food store.

Harvard Medical School cardiologist Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., who as the author of several major medical studies may be the nation’s most prolific researcher on the health impact of seafood. Mozaffarian says those older than 50 should be worried about mercury only if they’re eating five or more seafood servings a week. “Then, they should have a variety of fish—the majority have low mercury levels—and minimze consumption of high-mercury shark, swordfish, tilefish and King mackerel. Overall, a fish meal is very beneficial.”

Clip Source: bulletin.aarp.org

Tags: omega 3, fish, mercury, health, food, brain

In Hawaii, tattoos are a mark of pride

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:32:54 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: travel.latimes.com

That's a hot-button issue for many parents. They panic at the thought of their teenager being inked -- scarred! -- for life at a still tender age.

If, however, the question is posed in Hawaii, the parents' reaction may be quite different. In the 50th state, tattoos are part of the culture, having been introduced centuries ago by early voyagers from other Polynesian islands. Today, tattoo parlors are just about as prolific as souvenir shops. The number has increased 16% in just one year, state records show. Tourists, it seems, are returning home not only with the obligatory shell necklaces and pineapples but also with tattoos.

The growing popularity of tattoos is helping to revive native Hawaiian culture, which first Christian missionaries and then politicians tried for decades to erase, Kapu says.

"You've got to remember that a lot of these [cultural] things were forbidden," he says. "The resurgence is great, because people are in dire need of their identity."

7 Steps for Becoming a More Productive Writer

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:05:49 GMT

clipped by: migcmc03
clipper's remarks: Nice practical tips and suggestions.

Clip Source: www.changemag.org

Seven Steps for Becoming a More Productive Writer

#1:

The first rule is to write regularly every day.

But as Robert Boice points out, most people become far more productive when they write daily, even for short times.

The best way to do this is to set yourself a realistic daily quota of writing. The quota could be measured in terms of time (mine is 90 minutes of writing time), but it could also be a page or word quota. The prolific George Bernard Shaw, for example, wrote a minimum of five pages each day, regardless of whatever else was going on in his life

#2:

It is important to strike a good balance between reading and writing

#3:

It is a truism that good writers rewrite and rewrite and then rewrite some more.

#4:

Another tip to help begin writing is, do not start with a blank page but always be continuing something

#5:

Then there are those exhilarating days when writing seems easy and you don’t want to stop.

#6:

#7:

It is helpful to have

On uncreative days, it is best to start

Tags: writer, writing, productive, seven steps

Prolific spammer goes to jail

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:06:40 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A Brooklyn man was sentenced to more than two years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty last year to sending unsolicited "spam" emails to about 1.2 million subscribers of Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) America Online.

At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan sentenced Adam Vitale to 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release. He also was ordered to pay restitution of more than $183,000 to AOL.

"The spamming is serious criminal conduct," the judge said. "This is not a teenager engaging in child's play."

David Touger, Vitale's lawyer, called the prostitution allegations " ridiculous."

"Yes, Mr. Vitale was a prolific spammer," Touger said. "That's all he was."

Tags: spam