Ok so here’s the deal. I’m checking out this new gizmo to really motivate the writing habit.
See, people on forums and blogs that I read are invariably fessing up about the fact that they know they have to write / love to write / want to write but just don’t do it. For whatever reason.
It could be that ‘blank sheet = blank mind’ kind of thing.
Or maybe they have so many ideas popping into their head they don’t know where to start.
For some it’s a matter of not feeling worthy ‘but so many people have written about this before and so much better, what have I got to contribute, who’d want to hear me say it” or some other variation of self doubt.
The whole point being that either people then procrastinate before actually getting the writing done (if they do) or they have a go a frustrate themselves in the process from editing in their head before even getting anything on paper.
Well, I suffer from those afflictions as well. And on one particular blog (robertplank.com) a commentator made reference to this thing called "Write or Die". There was no reference to it other than she used it.
So, what do you do when you want to find out something?
Yep, I Googled it. And up popped Dr Wicked’s writeordie.com website.
Here’s the thing. What you do is you set how many words you want to write and in what time frame you want to write it in and then set the consequences of not achieving those targets. Up pops a new page with a blank space for you to start writing.
Once done you just copy and paste to wherever you want to post that – a blog, a forum, an article directory, your word processor on your pc – you decide.
The magic is in the mental game.
Because you are aware you are ‘under the clock’ then you do tend to just get stuff on paper. It may be brilliant or it may not be your best work. It may even be drivel. But at least you are writing.
So if you are one of those people who struggle with actually getting things done when it comes to filling in blank space with words, then get over to writeordie.com. There’s an online version and a desktop option as well.
And you’ll just have to find out for yourself if you don’t get done what you said you’d get done ….
ps I wrote 419 words in 11 minutes! And now you are reading it! Mission accomplished!