Write Attack!
Introduction
Write Attack! is a timed-writing exercise tool. It's a writing
motivational aid, a cure for writer's block and a creativity pressure cooker.
Or maybe it turns the familiar welcome mat of the blank page into a
paralyzing nightmare. It depends on who you are. (If you're one of the
productive "i never have writer's block" in the latter category, or
think this is a ridiculously stupid idea, just close your browser,
make some tea, and go back to writing your novel in productive
peaceful stillness. This program isn't for you. I hate you.)
How it works
It's like a mini-word processor. No distracting bells and whistles like "choosing fonts" or spell-check.
You choose a target word count and a time limit. Then you hit "Start" (or
just start writing), and the clock starts ticking. Once the clock has started,
copy/paste, drag-and-drop, and--most unnervingly--saving your work are all disabled. Locked out. All you can do is write.
There's a live word count, and an encouraging mascot who will cheer you on, or
express consternation if you're falling behind your goal. Right now these guys
are borrowed from 'Tetris Attack' for the beta, but I'm hoping to have
new ones soon.
As soon as you reach your target word count, saving (or copying and pasting into the safe bosum of your Word or Google Docs novel) are all re-enabled,
and you can breathe a sigh of relief and bask in your creative laurels. Everyone loves laurel-basking.
However, if you lose focus, obsess over every word, revise, delete (the mascots
really hate it when you delete stuff, btw), or otherwise fail to reach your
goal... the text ignites and everything you've written is gone in the
pixelicous flames. There's no undo, and no secret way of getting it
back. It's gone, back to the blank page, try again.
So basically, don't let that happen. It's bad. The goal of this program
is not to make you write super fast, but instead to simply make you (or more accurately, to make me) write. Choose time limits that are generous,
that you can finish comfortably (if you don't wander off to check the fridge).
There's a helpful "Nanowrimo" button that sets you up for a day's worth of Nano-writing, too. Once you hit your quota, just copy/paste what you've written into your nano-novel and you'll be finished in no time. Well, in
a month, actually.
Download
BETA WARNING: This is BETA quality software (and barely that). Which
means that it hasn't been tested very thorougly. So there is a distinct
possibility that it will crash and lose what you've typed, or fail to
let you save even when you hit your word count or any number of other
bad things. Please let me know via the email address below if you encounter
any bugs and I'll do my best to fix them.
Currently there is a window build, Mac version coming soon.
(Linux users can build from
source code).
Feedback
Please send me any comments, bugs, or any other feedback at:
joeld42@yahoo.com.
