Snazzy Ware Selection of the Hebdomad: Write or Die

www.writeordie.com by Dr. Wicked

This is an oh-so-nifty tool for so-called writers who are having difficulty making themselves write.

In case you are wondering about the odd title, it is explained here, in my first Snazzy Ware Selection of the Hebdomad, now quite a few hebdomads ago.

As you may or may not know, my "writing streak", in which I wrote at least 30 consecutive minutes on my dissertation every single day, died back in December, at the ripe old age of 145 days. After it died, I went on an "avoid the dissertation altogether" streak of 16 days. Eventually I figured out this was not a good plan, and began to flirt again with the dissertation proposal, writing something at least every few days. While this was marginally more productive than avoiding it altogether, it caused me to not only lose momentum, but also to lose something less tangible, but perhaps more valuable. I realized that during the four and a half months I had spent visiting my dissertation every single day, Diss and I had actually developed a friendship, or at least a pleasant sense of companionship, a comfort in one another's company. Now, after being out of touch over the holidays, our friendship had cooled. There was no outright animosity, but our relationship had ceased to grow. I had forgotten some things about Diss that I should have remembered, and I think Diss had forgotten some important things about me. So, I have tried to get back into the habit of visiting Diss every day.This is only our 26th consecutive day being together again, but already I sense an improvement in our relationship.

Unfortunately, tonight I simply wasn't in the mood to have a deep, serious conversation with Diss. But I didn't want to let our friendship lapse again, and I didn't want Diss to feel neglected. Most importantly, I wanted Diss to know that our relationship was sufficiently important that I wouldn't risk losing it by missing our daily talk. If a relationship dies, it doesn't usually die all at once--it fades away, and the fading begins when one of the parties lets it slip into unimportance, laid aside for supposedly more important things.

So, since I didn't feel up to a serious conversation with Diss, but I knew we had to talk, I went to www.writeordie.com.

Go to www.writeordie.com, click on Web App, and you'll see a little tool that will get you writing, whether you feel like it or not. For your goal, you can choose either a set time or a set number of words. Then you choose the punishment, gentle, medium, or kamikaze. You can choose the grace period, again either gentle, medium, or evil. These may not be exactly the correct adjectives. I cannot go back and verify them because I set the "Write or Die" app to kamikaze mode, with the evil grace period. I am not sure how long the evil grace period actually is, but supposedly if I pause in my writing too long, the kamikaze mode will start erasing my words. My screen is flashing rather weird shades of red and orange, which I think is my warning that the kamikaze bombers are coming. I think it begins flashing pink, then orange, and when it gets to red, you know you're in trouble. According to the documentation, if you pause too long in your writing, your computer will start to make evil noises. So far, my computer has been utterly silent. Perhaps my sound card is incompatible with Dr. Wicked's evil noises. But I do not doubt him...if I do not keep writing continuously, I will get erased!

This entire blog post has been written on Dr. Wicked's Write or Die website, with the web app set on Kamikaze/Evil. I have decided that I am not allowed to edit this at all, except for whatever little bit of editing I can manage while still avoiding the kamikaze eraser.

According to Dr. Wicked, the online web app will be free forever, but you can buy the desktop version for just $10. Check it out!!

Please don't erase my words!! Please, please, please....I'm almost done!!!