Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June1, 2012 Edition

► What do you think of this "submissions bombing" idea?


► Blog readers know how much I like writing prompts. In this guest post over at Jane Friedman's blog, Midge Raymond talks about her book for time-crunched writers, Everyday Writing, and offers some prompts.


► Language is a Virus is an interesting, new-to-me site for writing exercises, games, prompts, etc.  (via Diane Lockward)


► Authors Kelly Corrigan and Anna Quindlen chat in this video.


► GetPocket is a new, free site, billed as "A great option for those interested in saving video, images, text and other content, all in one place."  Viewable later  on any device -- mobile, tablet, or e-reader -- and, your computer. (via Wooden Horse)


► Some pointed revision/editing tips over at The Writer.


► Finally, the upcoming online personal essay writing class (begins July 9) is beginning to fill, so now is a good time to register.


Have a great weekend!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: May 21st Edition

►Real Delia’s Wednesday tips post this week was all about generating ideas, in some not-so-usual ways.

►Wondering if it’s okay to use that image you found online? Getty Images has put up StockPhotoRights, an easy-to-navigate new site to help with that and other questions.

►Who didn’t love Betty White on SNL? Can a writer learn anything from White’s career longevity? This literary agent thinks so.

►Been invited to write a guest blog post? Or wondering if guest blogging might enhance your career and/or book marketing efforts? C.M. Mayo has tips, offered via – what else – a guest post over at Christina Baker Kline’s blog.

►Check out this interview over at HuffPo, with John McNally about his new novel After The Workshop, a satire set against the backdrop of the Iowa Writers Workshop.

►Have you read any of these seven online literary magazines, given a rave review by, of all sites, ModCloth? There were two on the list I hadn’t read checked out before

►And finally: rejection is hard, but these 50 famous rejections seem cruel, at least in retrospect.

Have a great weekend.

Write or sleep. Write or Die. Hmmm.

In case you have what some people insist on calling writer's block, also known as extreme procrastination, staring-at-screen-but-not-writing syndrome, or the condition known as I-get-way too-distracted-by-Twitter-email-Solitaire, or even the cyclical depressive episode recently identified as I'm a lousy writer, so why bother, then consider this: Write or Die.

Amusing and perhaps, effective.

Or, if you are a born nocturnal creature who manages to rise by 7:00 a.m. on weekdays only because children must be driven to school by a legal adult, then simply tell an early-riser spouse (mine is up at 5:45) that you would like him to help you wake up along with him for the entire month of November in order to write 2,000 more words than usual.

Warning: Consider canceling large-death-benefit life insurance policy on said husband first.

Twitter, Tweet, Twitterpated

One of my clients is using Twitter to lure in more website visitors, so they'll get interested in subscribing and/or buying products from the site. An editor friend is taking a break to read through the Twitter postings of friends every hour or so, to keep from going insane while doing tedious edits on a scientific manuscript. Me? I'm wandering around Twitter every so often to get a feel for this newest social/business communication tool. Occasionally I also Tweet.

So, it being Sunday night, and having just wrapped up plans for a class I'm teaching tomorrow morning, and my brain feeling a little lazy, here's what just occurred to me: In the movie, when Bambi emerged from hibernation to discover he'd started growing antlers and no longer felt like a little boy, and instead starting falling in love with Faline, all the other little animals said, "Aw, he's twitterpated".

So, what'll we call falling in love w/Twitter?

P.S. If you feel about Twitter the way I did six weeks ago (What the??), then click here for the details - clever & quick.

Writers: How to Get tiny

Are you ever embarrassed to admit you don't know something which you imagine must be incredibly obvious to everyone else? And then, when you do say so out loud, instead of getting eye-rolls, you hear a resounding and reassuring chorus of, "Oh I never knew that either"?

In that spirit, I make my confession. I never knew that there was a free web tool to compress those horribly long URLS into those wildly efficient and mysterious ones that begin "tinyurl". Then a few days ago, I admitted as much to a colleague, who I was sure would be appalled at my ignorance. Instead, she simply told me, in one easy step, how it's done -- no eye-rolling. Since then, I have mentioned this to at least a dozen other folks, nearly all of whom said, "Oh, how do you do that?"

So here's how: copy and paste the annoyingly long URL into the little box over at tiny.cc, click on the Compress button, and viola, a new URL appears, beginning with "tinyurl" and -- here's the really nifty part -- it's already been placed in your clipboard so that you can then immediately return to whatever it is you were writing and insert the new, shorter (tiny) URL.

I don't really know or for that matter care why this freebie feature exists - there's no obvious advertising supporting it. And maybe some of you are doing the eye-roll right about now. That's OK. I know plenty of folks aren't, so this is for them. You're welcome.