"Write or Die" and Word Sprints! Post your best!

[ladyseishou]

You'll never know your limits until you try to extend them and even then,
one has to break out of his/her comfort zone to appreciate that effort.

- Martin Dansky





If you find yourself struggling to make your word count for the day Nano Writer, why not try writing your "blocked" scene using the Write or Die web application? This leather whip task-master, adrenaline-producing service may not be for everyone but devotees have nothing but high praise for the results!

For the newcomer, in the the words of its creator...

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.
A tangible consequence is more effective than an intangible reward.

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."

Further discussion about the service can be found on the NaNoWriMo forum: Writing differently with Write or Die?

Why not try Write or Die to see if the "crack of the whip" is what you need to get the words out.


Word Sprints is a writing challenge similar in philosophy to both Write or Die and Word Wars in that you commit to writing as many words as you can in a specified time period that ranges anywhere from five minutes and up (ten is common). In fact, many consider a Word Sprint a kind of Word War without the friendly competition.

Does it work? Well according to one writer:

One thing I did that really pushed me to get my word counts were word sprints. I did them with a timer on my computer...I'd set it for 10 minutes and see how many words I could bang out in that amount of time. I was averaging about 500-600 words on my good sprints! I am competitive by nature so that really helped me move forward without thinking too much, if that makes sense.

Again, not all block-busting methods work for everyone - so give Word Sprints a try to see if it can help!

And if you're looking for a timer to keep you honest, you might try one of these yahoo widgets: http://widgets.yahoo.com/search/?q=timer


Next week we'll look at more writer's block busters! Until then, keep writing!