Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Write or Die is great fun for terrifying yourself into 5+ minutes of work

The timer signalling when your session ends is a blessing. That said, I didn't look at it once.


Okay I guess I have to start writing so here I am, fudging out word after word after word in the grim hope that by the end of the next five minutes, I will have succeeded in clawing together five hundred silly little words, all in a row. Or a paragraph, at least. If I don't keep a steady stream of words going, my words will start to eat themselves. I am using Write Or Die.


Famous already to wordsmith masochists, Write or Die allows users to set a predefined word goal, and time limit, and then proceeds to viciously punish anytime temptation to succumb to stalling or procrastination. It's been two minutes so far, and I'm already almost one hundred and fifty words in. This is major good news, and entirely unlike my standard approach.

WriteOrDie is available on iPad, possibly on iPhone, and I have just discovered that it also offers a web app, the latter of which I am using right now to write about it. After two seconds, the screen starts to flash red. After ten seconds, my words begin to disappear. It's a harrowing but ultimately highly productive riding crop. If I wasn't feeling so pressured, I'd have edited that to say 'writing crop'. I am live-editing my thoughts, and putting it over here because I cannot afford to stop. I would describe Write Or Die as a 'writing crop' - ready to whip you into 250 words at the drop of a hat. The timer is finished. What a relief.

Write or Die is available on their website.

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