Mark Katz

A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House.

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Founder of the Soundbite Institute and former in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House

Overbuzzed, you Buzzboard reader? That's the same frenetic condition most of us are in when called upon to write. Let me recommend some sensory deprivation software that has seen me through some pretty adrenalized deadlines. Write Room is a low-frills text editor predicated on the idea that less is more—and least is best of all. Select FULL SCREEN MODE to black out your desktop and block out distractions. It's a sparse writing environment most of us have not experienced since Wordstar circa 1983 and evidence that the bells and whistles Microsoft has given writers since are sometimes as helpful as piercing bells and whistles. Ironically, Write Room is written exclusively for Macs. For everyone else, you might try re-installing DOS.

5:53 pm, Oct 30, 2008

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Dos, Text Editor, Deadlines, Software, Sensory Deprivation, Buzzboard, Full Screen Mode, Write Room, Mark Katz

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