Following up from Monday’s post linking to Cory Doctorow’s advice for Writing in the Age of Distraction, I thought I’d mention two free writing applications designed to confront just that: Write or Die and Dark Room. Both operate on the principle that the less opportunities the writer has to break-off from writing, the better.
Write or Die is a free online application based around the philosophy that immediate punishment is a far more effective motivator than distant, intangible rewards. To that end it is customizable to present several types of punishments to the writer who stops typing, ranging from a warning message all the way to the actual deletion of the text you’ve been working on!
I’ve played a bit with Write or Die, going for the maximum penalty and least forgiving grace period (the time you may go without actually typing). And, while I got a kick out of it, I can’t really imagine it being all that practical for something longer than a blog entry — I certainly couldn’t approach writing fiction with any sort of artificially imposed limits such as this (which I can envision becoming distractions themselves). Still, if you have the attention span of a gnat, or a masochistic streak, have a look. And, even if it doesn’t sound useful to you, the site alone is worth investigating for its humor and attitude.
Dark Room is of a more practical nature. Apparently based on a Mac application called Write Room (Ryan Harvey’s blog entry about it on Black Gate lead me to Dark Room, he also blogged about Write or Die here), Dark Room is basically a full-screen, green text on black, text editor with very simple interface. The page width, font, and colors are all customizable, but I like the default just fine. While it doesn’t seem like much, having a full-screen blacked out with no other menus, tabs, or task bars peeking out at you does help to reinforce concentration. Dark Room saves files as text documents.
Dark Room is a bit like an Alphasmart Neo, it’s a ‘first drafter.’ Meaning, when I’m done working with it, I still have to jump through hoops to open my file in a word processing program for formatting and spell checking. Maybe that trade-off in efficiency is worth it sometimes but, frankly, often it seems like a hassle. As much as I like the working environment of Dark Room, I still don’t see it as being that one application that can suit all my needs.
But when I do find that application that final lets me part ways with Microsoft Word, I’ll let you know.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, Bill–
I found this blog entry very useful. I may give Dark Room a shot. Write or Die would just piss me off and make writing less fun. I had plenty of experience writing under high-pressure deadlines back when I was a reporter, and I don’t need to replicate the newsroom atmosphere in my fiction writing.
I saw that Ryan Harvey had high praise for the Neo. How is it treating you?
Thanks, as always, for sharing your insight on these things.
I changed my screen saver to a black background with “KEEP WRITING!” floating around in bright red. It kicks in after only 3 minutes. At first, I thought it was funny, but it helped me realize how many times I step away from my laptop. Now, I have it on my PC too.
I only wish I could lock out my internet access between 8AM and 5PM. (Don’t ask why the 5 is subscript, I can’t figure it out.)
As for writing programs, I use yWriter4. It was written by sci-fi author Simon Haynes, and has a lot of great features including exporting to .txt, html, or .rtf. Each scene is saved as a separate file and moved from chapter to chapter by dragging and dropping.
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html
Thanks guys. I like that screensaver Dave, and I think I should give yWriter a shot — I remember fooling with it years ago and not following through.
Nik, I’m not exactly sure how I rate the Neo, yet. It’s of fantastic quality, that’s not a problem, and the keyboard is a pleasure to type on — better than both my laptops. But the small screen, and the extra rigmarole with having to upload files into something else and then formatting them, shaves a few points off. Still, I was using it today for a blog entry, and I think it’s perfect for short material like that. I think whatever issues I may have with it might have more to do with me needing to train myself to use it, rather than any inherent flaws on its part — and that’s why I still haven’t posted a formal review of it on here.
But I will say the more I use the Neo, the more I like it.
Thanks, Bill. I’ll keep an eye out for your review.
With regards to Write or Die, how do you feel about having your writing content online? I know you can copy and paste it into other programs, but something makes me leery about not having the application on my own system. Writing fiction in cyberspace gives me the creeps.
If this were a program I could put on my laptop, I might try it out on the lowest two settings for novel writing when trying to push out that first draft.
It doesn’t really bother me, as I don’t think anyone is going to go out of their way to find the means to steal my stuff online. Maybe if my last name was Rowling or King I’d give it a second thought.
NewGuyDave: Write or Die is available as a downloadable program, which has more features than the online version. I agree that it’s not suitable for novel-writing, but it’s great for short pieces. I use it mostly for freewriting when going through a dry spell.