People are strange

In one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.” But beyond the irony lies China’s true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region’s Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

universoul:

What am I? I am nothing. Which is beautiful, because that says I can also be everything. Why become something when you can be a little bit of everything? Our unfolding can be revealed in an infinite amount of forms, all within our fingertips, where the only limit is our own mind….

bohemianarthouse:

this-gets-personal:

lennonitis-:

acciowalrus:

rumblerooooooaaaaar:

warmmilk-itsdelicious:

sprinklescriss:

snapeandshampoo:

theatomicboom:

butterfinqer:

hunterkane:

HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE.

THIS IS HAPPENING ON MY BIRTHDAY

OHMYGOD

vghjbknmlk;oijhuikjnlm,;.

are you serious oh my god jsdlajskdjajlfh

W H A T

Am I getting Punk’d?

for real now? :’)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

writingadvice:

Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.

Professional

Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.

1. Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.
2. Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.
3. PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.
4. Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.
5. Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.
6. Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.
7. PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.
8. Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.
9. One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.
10. Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.
11. Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now.

Writing

These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process.

1. WriteSearch: This search engine focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing to deliver its results.
2. The Burry Man Writers Center: Find a wealth of writing resources on this searchable site.
3. Writing.com: This fully-featured site makes it possible to find information both fun and serious about the craft of writing.
4. Purdue OWL: Need a little instruction on your writing? This tool from Purdue University can help.
5. Writing Forums: Search through these writing forums to find answers to your writing issues.

Research

Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap.

1. Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.
2. WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. It’ll search and find the closest location.
3. Scirus: Find great scientific articles and publications through this search engine.
4. OpenLibrary: If you don’t have time to run to a brick-and-mortar library, this online tool can still help you find books you can use.
5. Online Journals Search Engine: Try out this search engine to find free online journal articles.
6. All Academic: This search engine focuses on returning highly academic, reliable resources.
7. LOC Ask a Librarian: Search through the questions on this site to find helpful answers about the holdings at the Library of Congress.
8. Encylcopedia.com: This search engine can help you find basic encyclopedia articles.
9. Clusty: If you’re searching for a topic to write on, this search engine with clustered results can help get your creative juices flowing.
10. Intute: Here you’ll find a British search engine that delivers carefully chosen results from academia.
11. AllExperts: Have a question? Ask the experts on this site or search through the existing answers.

Reference

Need to look up a quote or a fact? These search tools make it simple.

1. Writer’s Web Search Engine: This search engine is a great place to find reference information on how to write well.
2. Bloomsbury Magazine Research Centre: You’ll find numerous resources on publications, authors and more through this search engine.
3. Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus: Make sure you’re using words correctly and can come up with alternatives with the help of this tool.
4. References.net: Find all the reference material you could ever need through this search engine.
5. Quotes.net: If you need a quote, try searching for one by topic or by author on this site.
6. Literary Encyclopedia: Look up any famous book or author in this search tool.
7. Acronym Finder: Not sure what a particular acronym means? Look it up here.
8. Bartleby: Through Bartleby, you can find a wide range of quotes from famous thinkers, writers and celebrities.
9. Wikipedia.com: Just about anything and everything you could want to look up is found on this site.
10. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Find all the great philosophers you could want to reference in this online tool.

Niche Writers

If you’re focusing on writing in a particular niche, these tools can be a big help.

1. PubGene: Those working in sci-fi or medical writing will appreciate this database of genes, biological terms and organisms.
2. GoPubMd: You’ll find all kinds of science and medical search results here.
3. Jayde: Looking for a business? Try out this search tool.
4. Zibb: No matter what kind of business you need to find out more about, this tool will find the information.
5. TechWeb: Do a little tech research using this news site and search engine.
6. Google Trends: Try out this tool to find out what people are talking about.
7. Godchecker: Doing a little work on ancient gods and goddesses? This tool can help you make sure you have your information straight.
8. Healia: Find a wide range of health topics and information by using this site.
9. Sci-Fi Search: Those working on sci-fi can search through relevant sites to make sure their ideas are original.

Books

Find your own work and inspirational tomes from others by using these search engines.

1. Literature Classics: This search tool makes it easy to find the free and famous books you want to look through.
2. InLibris: This search engine provides one of the largest directories of literary resources on the web.
3. SHARP Web: Using this tool, you can search through the information on the history of reading and publishing.
4. AllReaders: See what kind of reviews books you admire got with this search engine.
5. BookFinder: No matter what book you’re looking for you’re bound to find it here.
6. ReadPrint: Search through this site for access to thousands of free books.
7. Google Book Search: Search through the content of thousands upon thousands of books here, some of which is free to use.
8. Indie Store Finder: If you want to support the little guy, this tool makes it simple to find an independent bookseller in your neck of the woods.

Blogging

For web writing, these tools can be a big help.

1. Technorati: This site makes it possible to search through millions of blogs for both larger topics and individual posts.
2. Google Blog Search: Using this specialized Google search engine, you can search through the content of blogs all over the web.
3. Domain Search: Looking for a place to start your own blog? This search tool will let you know what’s out there.
4. OpinMind: Try out this blog search tool to find opinion focused blogs.
5. IceRocket: Here you’ll find a real-time blog search engine so you’ll get the latest news and posts out there.
6. PubSub: This search tool scours sites like Twitter and Friendfeed to find the topics people are talking about most every day.

the-write-idea:

Wondering when you’ll reap the fame and fortune that come with your dream of being a writer? Well, probably never. If:

1. You don’t read

At least, not the right things. You read all the books on writing and polishing and publishing, and all the books that literary critics are praising, but nothing of any real value. You don’t read books that light a fire under you, you don’t read in your genre, you don’t read non-fiction for fun and inspiration.  You don’t have an Audible membership or a library card and you couldn’t name a book that has meant anything to you since you turned 20.

If you were learning to be an accountant you’d study accounting law. If you were studying to be a doctor you would read medical books. Stephen King, in On Writing calls it the Great Commandment: Reada lot, write a lot.

“Read, read, read, Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it.”

-William Faulkner.

2. You’re too busy to write

You’re not independently wealthy: you’ve got a job, a family, commitments, a social life, a pressing engagement with the cast of Glee! You can’t possibly squeeze any time out of your day to write.

Jon Scalzi, current president of the Science Fiction Writers of America puts it bluntly and truthfully:

So: Do you want to write or don’t you? If your answer is “yes, but,” then here’s a small editing tip: what you’re doing is using six letters and two words to say “no.” And that’s fine. Just don’t kid yourself as to what “yes, but” means.

You can make time to write, but something else is probably going to have to give. It might be sleep, it might be ‘watching Ellen in the afternoon’, it might be having lunch with the same people every day in the dreary work cafeteria. It might be ‘feeling bad about yourself because you’re not getting any writing done and eating ice cream instead’.

But, chances are, you can make time to write.

3. You have no original ideas

Every time you sit down to write you are paralyzed by the overwhelming feeling that everything has been said before. Well, you know what? You’re right. But it hasn’t been said by you, in this time and place, at your age, and in your circumstances. Agent Donald Maas talks a lot in The Breakout Novelist about the difference between ‘original’ and ‘unique’. You don’t have to be original, but you do have to be ‘unique’.

I once interviewed Daniel Pinkwater and he said the same thing: only you can speak in your voice, and if you write for a while you’ll discover what that voice is.

I love that what my readers need, they can only get from me. It’s riskier, but much more ego-gratifying
-Daniel Pinkwater, 2003 interview

He also said,

Ideas are everywhere. I have 60 ideas a day. So do you. So does everybody.
-Daniel Pinkwater, 2003 interview

The trick is paying attention, taking those ideas and developing them into the story only you can tell.

4. You have no qualifications for this. You don’t know what you’re doing

No writer does. Every artist is engaged in creating something unique and new. Experienced writers say this all the time: I don’t know what I’m doing until I’ve done it. Here’s a little evidence:

The only way to write is to write… Stupid b*****d job.
-Russell T. Davies, Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale.

Very few writers know what they are doing until they have done it.
-Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

You can’t completely understand what good writers do until you try it yourself…Write from the very beginning, then, and keep on writing…The next story will be better, and the next one after that still better, and eventually—
-Isaac Asimov, Gold

5. Your Writing Sucks

When you do make the time to write, it’s hard. The words do not come dripping off your pen easily; all the elements in your story don’t come out in the right order; your characters are flat and uninteresting and they speak in cliches; you want to give up.

And that is what Anne Lammot calls your ’shitty first draft’. It has to be got through in order to get to the second draft, the third, and the polished end result. If you are too scared to suck, too scared to fail then you will never be a writer, because all writing involves putting some truly terrible prose on the page — and excising it later or, like William Faulkner, throw it out entirely and start again,

Write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.
-William Faulkner

Sure, it’s scary but even the great and prolific Isaac Asimov says, of the writer’s daily task:

We sit there alone, pounding out words, with out hearts pounding in time. Each sentence brings with it the sickening sensation of not being right.
-Isaac Asimov, Gold

Can you allow your first drafts to be less than perfect?

6. You’re Too Nice

In real life it’s nice to be nice: people like you, you offend nobody and your mother is proud of you.

In literature, being nice doesn’t pay. It’s boring if nothing happens, if no-one gets upset, if no-one is threatened, insulted, shamed, murdered, even. Your writing can be your playground. Be nice in real life if you must but, in your writing,

Embrace your inner sadist.
-Donald Maass, The Breakout Novelist

tonyfahkry:

I wrote a post called Harnessing the Power of the Subconscious Mind some time ago. I explored the distinction between the conscious mind (CM) and the subconscious mind (SM). Recapping some of the points mentioned:

• Your conscious mind is the logical mind that…