For me, writing is almost always fun. Notice how I said, ‘almost’?
Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes I have to dig deep, plant my ass in the chair and get the words down because it’s my job.
It’s times like that when you need to make it fun.Which is wehre these little writing aids come in.
This site is awesome because you can set it to what every word count you want to be rewarded for and then…you start typing. When you hit your target a kitten appears. That’s right. A kitten! Thanks to blogging and Twitter friend, Amber West for turning me onto this one.
My random ramblings produced a kitten!
2) Write or Die
This one works on the theory that “A tangible consequence is more effective than an intangible reward.” And it’s great if you’re the kind of writer who works well with consequences, bad consequences. You can set your wordcount, your time limit and your consequence level (gentle, normal, kamikaze or electric shock mode) as well as your grace period. THEN…you write. I tried this out and as the time started ticking, really bad violin music started playing, (apparently this stops when you start writing again) the screen changed colors. If you choose kamikaze mode, your writing will start to unwrite itself if you stop. Brutal right? Hey, if you work well with that kinda thing…there’s also a desktop app and a iPad app with further options.
3) 750 Words
If positive reinforcement is more your thing. Maybe you like getting cute little badges for your work and you can get that over on this site. I haven’t tried it but apparently you have to log in and can earn cutesy badges for various things, like writing for 5 days in a row, or achieving certain word counts. Sadly, the badges aren’t real and you can’t wear them on your shirt.
4) #1kwaday or #wordbitches or #wordmongoring
These are some commonly used hashtags on Twitter that can encourage you to get your words done for the day. Just follow the tags and jump right in. There’s always someone around to do a word war with.
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Can you think of any other fun writing tools? I’m dying to check some out.
