Write or Die!

I'm using another new, free writing tool to compose this entry. It's called Write or Die, and it's not a product that you download and install on your computer. It's a writing tool on a website. You just go to the site, tell it how many words you intend to write, how much time you're giving yourself to write them, and how strict the site should be as you type away.

But let me back up a bit, here. This is not a writing tool for the faint of heart. This is a tool for people who seriously want to get some wordage down. It's a nagging tool. It's the closest thing you'll find to a schoolmarm with granny-glasses standing behind you and whacking you with a pointer if you pause too long in your writing.

I'm using this site for the first time today (okay, it's actually the second time, but the first time, a couple of days ago, was a bust, because I was seriously interrupted and had to abort the whole process), so I don't yet know all the ins and outs, but this is basically what happens: Once you've entered your proposed word-count and the time you're allowing yourself (and optionally setting the level of strictness you want brought down upon you), you click the big "Write" button, and off you go! You're taken to a page with nothing on it but a big text-entry field with a countdown timer and a word count at the bottom.

There are also two buttons at the top-right of the page. One is the "Done" button, which you click when you're… wait for it… when you're done. The other is the "Pause" button, which the site permits you to use exactly once during a session. I guess this allows you to go to the bathroom or answer the phone, but, seriously, if you're this determined to write a specified word count in a specified time, wouldn't you pee ahead of time and either turn off the phone or go far away from it?

For this post, I'm using "Normal" mode with a "Strict" grace period. So far so good. I paused deliberately somewhere in the first paragraph, just to test out the nagging feature. After seven seconds of idleness, the white background of the page (the area outside the text box) began to turn red. It started with a light red, but over the next five seconds, the red became increasingly intense.

The color change should be enough to jog you back into typing again, but if for some reason it isn't, you're really in for it. The intense red screen will sit there quietly for another five seconds, at which point, if you still haven't gotten the message, really annoying music will start to play. (Fancy a little Hanson, Rick Astley, or The Devil's Interval?)

Sure, you can turn off your speakers, but what would be the point of that? You're not using this site just so that you can watch the page background turn varying shades of red. You're using it so that you can be frightened into writing without stopping (or without stopping much, anyway). So the honor system is at work. There isn't a writing tool on earth that will force you to use it properly if you don't really want to. So if you're going to use the site to get some writing done, then turn on the speakers and let slip the dogs of war!

So that's "Normal" mode with a "Strict" grace period. You can also choose a "Forgiving" grace period, which will wait for thirteen seconds before opening up a can of consequences, or an "Evil" grace period, which will start the whuppin' after one second of idleness.

The consequences delivered to your doorstep depend upon which mode you've chosen. We've seen "Normal" mode, which gives you increasing redness followed by annoying sound. There is also "Gentle" mode, which simply pops up a box that reminds you to keep writing. No red background or sonic disturbances. The third mode is "Kamikaze" mode, which provides a really serious consequence: After the grace period has expired, your work will begin to "unwrite" itself, i.e. your words will begin to disappear just as if you were repeatedly hitting the backspace key.

I've been curious about this tool ever since my writing friend Trish (aka Tasha) from Protagonize first mentioned it. It sounded like a great way to get writing and keep the typing fingers moving. Because, after all, the work can't be perfect out of the box. It gets better as we edit it. But we can't edit it if it hasn't come out of the box at all. So, we have to prod and cajole and plead with ourselves to get the words out of the brain and onto either paper or screen so that we can start massaging the raw material and making something useful out of it.

I plan to use Write or Die next month in my quest to write the thirty-day novel during National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). It promises to be a fun time.

(Update: I just reached my word count goal, and Write Or Die kindly graced me with a trumpet fanfare. How civilized!)

Now to copy my words into WriteMonkey, do a bit of copy editing, and get this blog post up on the site.

I think I'll do this again soon.

Mind the gap.

(In honor of Monty Python's fortieth birthday, here's a clip of Eric Idle talking about the process of writing with a partner.)