Tool Time Tuesday!

Every other Tuesday, we talk about the different tools available for writers to make life easier (theoretically 😉 ).

Today’s Writing Tool: Write or Die 2

Platform: web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS

Cost: Free to use on the web or $20 for desktop versions or $9.99 for iOS

What this writing tool does: In short, it makes you write.

Write or Die is one of the writing tools that’s been in my box for a long time. I’ve been using the paid version since v1; and v2 has added some bells and whistles that I don’t really use much, but the strength of this tool is that it encourages you (very strongly, if you set it up that way) to stop lollygagging and actually get words down on the page. How does it do this? Well…

There are a lot of options for how it encourages you to write, which makes it really customizable as far as writing tools go. But the general gist is this: you tell it how long you want to write and what your word count goal is for that session. Then you tell it what consequences you want if you’re not writing. Version 2.0 also adds rewards for accomplishing your goal. I don’t use the rewards too much — which are mainly adding nice photos to your writing page or playing good sounds or music. I find these to be a distraction, so I don’t use them, but I am sure a lot of people love it. That’s what makes this a great writing tool. There’s something for everyone!

I respond better to consequences when it comes to keeping my fingers moving on the page and here there are a couple different options. You can go with Startle mode, which begins when you stop typing. You get a short grace period (which you set) and then your screen turns pink. It gets systematically darker over the seconds you continue to not-write, until it becomes bright red. At that point, the program starts making the most obnoxious noises. All this continues until you start typing again.

Kamikaze mode, which, of course, you can set (or not!) used to eat your words when you stopped typing. But Dr. Wicked has made a change there too. Now it just disemvowels your words. Yep. It removes all the vowels from your words. How’s that for freaky?

There are a lot of other little bells and whistles, like custom playlists and persistent writing stats to keep up with your productivity. It also tracks average words per minute, all time highs and lots of other stuff. It’s a really great little writing tool!

I definitely wouldn’t get through National Novel Writing Month without it! It’s also useful in one of the steps I outline in my post Get More Writing Time: Find It in the Margins that went up yesterday, as a matter of fact!

Where to get it: Write or Die 2

Do you use Write or Die? Let me know in the comments!

Do you have a writing tool that you absolutely can’t live without? Drop a line to me down below and tell me about it!

Stay awesome!

 

 

 

Photos courtesy of Dr. Wicked.