Write or Die (Just in time for NaNoWriMo)

Check out my Screencast Demonstration of Write or Die
or Watch on YouTube


Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box, as long as you keep typing, you're fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.

Many people find themselves unable to write consistently. I believe that this is because their reason to write is intangible. For instance, I want to write and finish a book because I want to be published and make a living as a writer. That goal is a long way away so I often find it difficult to sit down to the task of writing.

Conversely, I'm in a creative writing class for which I manage to consistently write and finish projects (albeit at the last minute). I therefore draw the conclusion:

A tangible consequence is more effective than an intangible reward.

-serif;">If I don't write stories for class, I will receive scorn from my teacher and a bad grade in the class. If I don't write my own stories I am only disappointing myself. I experience perpetual disappointment in myself so I'm kindof used to it. Add to that the fact that I simply have neither the self-discipline to write consistently on my own nor the capacity for self-deception that would enable me to create artificial deadlines. That is how Write or Die was born.

The idea is to instill in the would-be writer with a fear of not writing. We do this by employing principles taught in Introduction to Psychology. Anyone remember Operant Conditioning and Negative Reinforcement?

Negative Reinforcement "strengthens a behavior because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behavior."

Consequences:

• Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
  
• Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
  
• Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself
  
• These consequences will persist until your preset conditions have been met (that is, your time is up or you've written you wordcount goal or both)

This text box is not a word processor, it is not for editing, the way to save is to select all of the text, copy and paste into your own text editor. The idea is to separate the writing process and the editing process as much as possible.

This is aimed at anyone who wants to get writing done. It requires only that you recognize your own tendency towards self-sabotage and be willing to do something about it. If you're sick of saccharine writing advice that no one could honestly follow and you want a real method to getting work done.

• Works great for real deadlines too!
  
• Excellent for getting your 1667 words a day for NaNoWriMo
  
• Good for writing on lunch breaks, just enter 30 minutes in the time limit box
  

You can't explain to a child that they should eat their vegetables or do their homework because, a long way down the road, they'll be glad they did. You must explain to a child that if they don't eat their vegetables or do their homework there will be dire consequences.

Your inner writer is very much like a willful child, this is how you discipline it.

Quick and Dirty SFWA Submission Links

For those who want to be accepted to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, there are a set of specific magazines in which you must publish. There is a list on their site but it is not linked to the publisher's respective websites. I linked them which should make it easier to find and submit if SFWA membership is your goal.

• Analog Science Fiction and Fact (guidelines)
• Asimov's Science Fiction (guidelines)
• Baen's Universe (guidelines)
• Brutarian (guidelines)
• Cemetery Dance (guidelines)
• Clarkesworld Magazine (guidelines)
• Chizine (guidelines)
• Cosmos (guidelines)
• Dark Wisdom (guidelines)
• Dragon (guidelines)
• The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (guidelines)
• Odyssey - Adventures in Science (guidelines)
• Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (guidelines)
• Pedestal Magazine (guidelines)
• Realms of Fantasy (guidelines)
• Strange Horizons (guidelines)
• Subterranean Magazine (no unsolicited subs)
• Writers of the Future Anthology (guidelines)

But the most wonderful thing about tiggers...

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Steampunk Fonts Vol: III

This is the last in the series of fonts culled from AcidFonts.com. Pickings were slimmer in this the latter part of the alphabet so there's a bit more Art Nouveau influence in the selections, I hope it is useful!

I will do another series of these in the future so please bookmark or subscribe to my RSS.

Braindump

Having iced coffee late-ish in the day is good for pinball and good for writing and good for blogging and good for cleaning out Google reader.

I have all but completely switched over to Google Chrome when I’m on my Windows machine at home. This makes me a bit sad because I rather like Firefox and I still use it on my PowerBook (which is out of commission right now because of a dead power supply, the third dead power supply, grr). But once they port Chrome to Mac I’ll probably use it there too. The thing about it is that it’s so simple, it’s like moving into a smallish apartment: you only bring with you the stuff you need and then you realize you need less than you thought you did and it makes your life better. I keep trying to make mental lists of things I miss about Firefox but they’re mostly bellsy whistles, like TwitterFox and FireFTP and Google Bookmarks integration (which I’m surprised aren’t synced but I suppose that will happen soon). The positive effect of having a browser that doesn't totally lock up and misbehave because of one bad page outweighs having plugins.

I also recently discovered mouse gestures, which are nice.

I've been reading the Graveyard Book, which is so very very good. To counteract its deleterious effect on my writing self-esteem I also grazed through a smattering of bad SF&F books at Barnes and Noble, this made me feel better. I did actually have a positive end in mind, rather than just putting others down to make myself feel better. I want to get a better feel for endings. I realize that I've started reading way more books and started writing way more stories than I've finished. That's why I get stuck in the middle, I simply don't have enough experience with the middles and ends of things. So I wrote a crappy, five-paragraph essay conclusion style last chapter. i.e, in the end, it all didn't seem so bad, and in conclusion. This was painful but apparently necessary because I figured out a couple story threads that I needed to weave and chapters I needed to write to get to anything like an ending. And of course I know that the ending won't be anything like what I wrote today but it at least gives me a direction, and at this point I'd rather be writing in the wrong direction than not writing at all.

Today Friend Bat perched low on the brick wall outside my Starbucks, here is his picture

I petted him very gently, he was soft. Then I washed my hands, not because bats are icky but because I was making drinks and I thought customers would probably appreciate clean hands on my part.

I also saw this today, which made me laugh, LOLSpeak auto ad!

To prove how ADD I am, I was almost distracted from finishing this by removing duplicate songs from my iPod.

One last thing, both of you reading this blog post should go out and purchase the new Enigma CD because it is deeply awesome.

Thanks!