So my dear WordPress & Twitter friend from across the pond and fellow nerdalicious novelist, Ali (of 12 Books in !2 Months- http://12books12months.com/) passed along this amazing writing tool that can be yours for 10 peasly bucks. That’s right, it’s called Write or Die and it was programmed by Dr. Wicked. (Why do I feel like this is an infommercial written by Tim Burton? It must be the subject matter, not the actual write-up…)
Dreamed up to help all those NaNoWriMo participants as the deadline quickly zoomed up to demolish their attempts at noveling success, this program is devious in all the right ways.
Why would I subject myself to this you ask? It’s pure genius. I like to think of it as Lucifer’s Typewriter. You can’t use the computer for anything other than writing and bad things happen if you stop working. With this kind of propulsion from an external source that really doesn’t care if you succeed or not, there’s very little stopping it from annihilating your work if you choose to give it that power.
Of course I had to jump on this bandwagon- I’ll try anything to meet my 50,000-word goals from here on out. It took a few days to get it but so worth the wait! A few pointers if you happen to succumb to your masochistic side:
- Turn off your messenger programs. There’s nothing worse than hearing pings as people send you messages and you can’t even close the program! Trust me, it’s hard to think when the messages are getting angrier (you can usually tell by the frequency of their arrival)
- Start off with 1/2 the time you actually want to try. I’m pretty sure I’ve fried a few brain cells from the stress of starting my writing session and keeping it up. It’s best to let your brain get used to the amount of focus this will require.
- Don’t pick the kamikaze option right off the bat. Just like the length of time you pick, start off slow. There’s plenty of time to play russian roulette with your work. That’s right. Stop writing and it gets erased. Oh try it for 2 minutes if you want. Go ahead, I dare you but don’t cry when you hear me say “I told you so!”
At some point I’ll get up the nerve to really push myself with this program and see what my little brain can come up with when it’s subjected to this torturous pressure cooker. Until then, my settings are staying on normal with an easier grace period before the evil violins start playing.
At this point with the count down in full effect, drastic times call for drastic measures.
Another good piece of advice is too turn off the internet or work on a computer that has no Wi-Fi capability. 🙂
I’ve tried that. It’s pretty tough to do but worth the effort.