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kottke.org posts about writing
Writer’s Dreamtools has a timeline of events,
Writer’s Dreamtools has a timeline of events, people, entertainment, fashion, money, etc. for every decade since 1650. This allows the writer to put herself in that time period and as a jumping off point for further historical research. Favorite categories: “who’s in” and “what’s in”. What a great resource for writers. (via youngna)
Robert Shields is the author of the
Robert Shields is the author of the world’s longest diary. It runs to 35 million words and he wrote about everything he did. Everything. “3:30-3:45 I was at the keyboard of the IBM Wheelwriter making entries for the diary.”
Following the lead of the Six Word
Following the lead of the Six Word Story group on Flickr and Caterina’s prompt, Wired asked some prominent writers to pen their own six word stories. “Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.’) and is said to have called it his best work.” Got any good ones?
Computing is killing cursive writing. My writing
Computing is killing cursive writing. My writing was always bad, but now that I write things maybe once every three months, it’s like I don’t even know what a pencil is…most monkeys print better than I can.
Will people need to know how to
Will people need to know how to read and write in the near future? Emails and texts are already not exactly literature and in 10 years, text-to-speech will be good enough that you can listen to anything you want. On the flipside, text holds a lot of advantages over “icons and audio prompts”. A quick survey of the modern workplace reveals slow progress on the paperless office, so I’m skeptical that this no-text future is soon to arrive. (via 3qd)
By asking for “for the next sheet
By asking for “for the next sheet of paper that he or she would have written on”, Jonathan Safran Foer collected emtpy sheets of paper from a group of writers, building “a museum of pure potential”. (thx, matt)
Update: Here’s the uncut version of the article as it originally appeared in Playboy. (thx, chris)
How I Blog
Seth Godin, who ruminates for a living, wrote a little something about how ideas are transmitted last year:
For an idea to spread, it needs to be sent and received.
No one “sends” an idea unless:
a. they understand it
b. they want it to spread
c. they believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind
d. the effort necessary to send the idea is less than the benefitsNo one “gets” an idea unless:
a. the first impression demands further investigation
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time
Seth hits the nail right on the head with this. When I’m deciding what links to post here, I’m essentially curating ideas, collecting them to “send” to you (and to myself, in a way). And unconsciously, these seven points factor into my decision on what to post here.
a. they understand it - I read everything I post and attempt to understand an article enough to represent it accurately when linking to it.
b. they want it to spread - I pick links and write posts based on ideas that I think are in some way important, meaningful, relevent, or good for the soul. And sure, I want those ideas to be more widely known or enjoyed, even if it’s something as simple as someone getting a needed chuckle from a video of a monkey teasing a dog.
c. they believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind - This factors into anyone’s motivations for anything. In George Orwell’s 1947 essay Why I Write, his #1 reason is “sheer egoism”.
d. the effort necessary to send the idea is less than the benefits - If I wanted to, I could post 30 links or more a day without too much more effort on my part, but in this case, part of sending the idea is making sure the reader has enough attention to consider it.
a. the first impression demands further investigation - I spend a lot of time on getting the description of some linked text, photo, or video just right, so that the reader has a good idea of what they’re getting into. Choosing a 1-2 sentence pull-quote that accurately represents the idea of an article is key in getting people’s attention in a productive way. “This is an awesome link” is only going to cut it so many times; you need to tell people what the link is and give people an honest reason to click.
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea - I assume visitors to the site are regular readers and that they have a good sense of what happens here, but I try to limit my reliance on jargon or “in-crowd” references so that everyone can follow along.
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time - If I do all that other stuff right, hopefully you’ll trust me enough to be receptive to the ideas I’m sending you. And if not, you probably won’t trust me for long.
Like I said, all this was pretty much happening unconsciously. I’ve worked consciously on bits and pieces of it, but until I read Seth’s post, I didn’t know that this was the end-to-end process.
Jack Shafer waxes poetic about the NY
Jack Shafer waxes poetic about the NY Times TV listing’s film capsules. Their succinctness reminds me a bit of writing remaindered links posts.
Writing prose and writing software have much
Writing prose and writing software have much in common. “Vigorous writing of words is the same as vigorous writing of software. Every word, every line of code, every interface element should tell.”
Robert Birnbaum interviews writer Gay Talese. “Look,
Robert Birnbaum interviews writer Gay Talese. “Look, if you want to make your living chopping people up, you will find an audience. You will, but it’s not me.”
Robert Birnbaum interview with Susan Orlean. Here’s
Robert Birnbaum interview with Susan Orlean. Here’s his first interview with her from 2001.
Update: I linked to this without reading it first, something I *never* do, but now that I’ve read it, there’s really some great stuff in there about the writing process, magazines (specifically The New Yorker), and editing. And great quotes like “I’d rather work for Drunken Boat than for Time magazine, to be honest with you”. Ouch for Time magazine.
Winterhouse (along with the AIGA) is sponsoring
Winterhouse (along with the AIGA) is sponsoring an award for design writing and criticism. There’s a main award ($5000) and a student award ($1000). Be nice to see some Web design writing in there.
Joe Woodward profiles David Foster Wallace for
Joe Woodward profiles David Foster Wallace for Poets & Writers magazine.
Merlin’s excellent advice for writing sensible email
Merlin’s excellent advice for writing sensible email messages. This one is excellent advice for email and blog comments: “Emails to a thread are like comments at a meeting; think of both like your time possessing the basketball. Don’t just chuck at the net every chance you get. Hang back and watch for how you can be most useful. Minimize noise.”
Paragraph looks like a neat idea. It’s
Paragraph looks like a neat idea. It’s a writer’s workspace located near Union Square here in NYC. It’s like a gym, except for writers. You pay a membership fee and then you can show up and use the facilities (desks, kitchen, your own locker for your stuff, wifi, etc.). More on Paragraph at designer Khoi Vinh’s site.
Winners of the 2005 Faux Faulker Contest
Winners of the 2005 Faux Faulker Contest. Winner: “The Administration and the Fury: If William Faulkner were writing on the Bush White House”.
“So You Want to Write a Book?”
“So You Want to Write a Book?”. O’Reilly Media’s guide for new authors.
To read: How to writ more clearly
To read: How to writ more clearly think moor clearly and learn complex stuff more easier and stuff. Yeah need that.
Malcolm Gladwell talks about his work space
Malcolm Gladwell talks about his work space. He does most of his writing on his laptop while sitting on sofas and in coffeeshops and restaurants.
A blueprint for the writing process: “Sniff.
A blueprint for the writing process: “Sniff. Explore. Collect. Focus. Select. Order. Draft. Revise.”.
Stephen King’s Everything You Need to Know
Stephen King’s Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes.
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