If you need extra motivation to put more words-to-screen during a writing session, Dr. Wicked’s web app Write or Die might help. From Dr. Wicked’s site:
Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences. [...] The idea is to instill in the would-be writer a fear of not writing.
Depending on the mode you choose, consequences are:
* Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
* Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
* Kamikaze Mode: Keep writing or your work will unwrite itself.
Apparently one of the “unpleasant sounds” in Normal Mode is…Hanson.
“There’s no real tangible, immediate reward for writing.” That’s true, but this program still doesn’t reward–it punishes. That said, this is a hilarious idea. We writers seem to be coming up with more and more advanced technologies to treat ourselves like 3-year-olds.
This is hilarious!
This is seriously amusing and yet totally, 100% the opposite of what I personally need when I write. More pressure = NOT HELPFUL.
[...] ways to get yourself to write. There are tools to help minimize distractions, and even tools like Write or Die that dole out punishment if you don’t keep the words flowing. But what is all you need is [...]