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Tuesday, 11 November, 2008

Write or Die

Are you doing NaNo or are you sweating to Sven and having problems achieving your wordcount?

Dr. Wicked.com has a program on it that uses negative reinforcement to force you to write a certain number of words in a specified time. (You get to choose both time and wordcount goals.) What's different about this little handy dandy program is that there are negative consequences should you stop writing in that time frame.

  • 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


  • Did you read that last one? In the Kamikaze mode, if you stop writing for a certain length of time, it starts erasing your writing!

    Gentle mode wouldn't do anything for me, neither would that annoying song in the Normal Mode, but Kamikaze? That would keep me typing.



    Kamikaze mode is shown at about 4:50 in the video (The rest is really quite boring, but for those who are visual learners ...)

    Thanks to BlueSue for pointing this site out to me.

    6 comments:

    Susan Helene Gottfried said...

    Wow. Kamikaze is a bit too intense for me. Not to mention infuriating!

    Shelley Munro said...

    Good grief. Just the thought of my work vanishing is enough to bring me out in a sweat!

    Sue L said...

    1004 words in 24 minutes~

    Leah Braemel said...

    SHG: Infuriating - good word if you actually let it start erasing your work.

    Shelley: Ditto

    Sue L: WOW! Congrats. Obviously negative reinforcement works for you.

    Sue L said...

    >>Obviously negative reinforcement works for you.

    haha! um. yeah, you know ... spankings and such always work for me. ;)

    L.A. Mitchell said...

    That would feel like an ambush for me. Would be fun to try just once, though just to associate with Dr. Wicked...lol.