Writer's Resource: Write or Die

A few weeks ago, I talked about programs like LeechBlock, Freedom, and Anti-Social and how they could increase your productivity by forcibly removing you from social media sites.

Here's a program that takes it a step further: Write or Die.

From their website's About section: "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."

The consequences can be toggled from Gentle--a box pops up when you haven't written for a little while, reminding you to keep writing--all the way to Kamikaze, where the program will start unwriting the words you've written if you don't keep typing!

Their tagline ("Putting the 'Prod' in Productivity") says it all. The website touts WOD as the best cure for writer's block around, and I have friends who swear by it. To be honest, I don't suffer from writer's block much--writer's extreme wordiness and need of editing is more my problem--so I haven't tried it.

But if you're someone who often sits in front of a blank screen, wishing you had some motivation to make the words come out, WOD might be just the thing for you.

The program costs $10 and is available in both desktop and iPad versions. If you've tried it before, or you decide to give it a shot, come back and let me know how it went!

Writer's Resource: LeechBlock, Freedom, Anti-social for Anti-procrastination

All those who spend a good portion of their time on the internet surfing random sites, checking comics, reading non-industry blogs, and otherwise messing around raise their hands. (Go ahead, I'll wait.)

One of the best things about the internet is the vast amount of interesting information available on virtually any topic. One of the worst things about the internet is--you guessed it--the vast amount of interesting information available on virtually any topic.

Writers have to balance their innate desire to LEARN ALL THE THINGS with the need to actually, yanno, write things every now and then.

Enter programs that forcibly remove you from the internet for a specified period of time. Dubbed "productivity tools" by their creators, they can be vastly helpful for writers. Here are three of the most popular ones:

LeechBlock: This Firefox add-on allows you to specify which sites you want to block and when you want to block them. If your writing time is from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., you can tell LeechBlock that under no circumstances do you want to be able to check your Twitter feed during that time. From the website: "You can specify up to six sets of sites to block, with different times and days for each set."

Anti-Social (for Macs): This app specifically targets social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. You can also add custom sites to the list. You can get around this one by restarting your computer, but as the website says, "As you will feel a deep sense of shame for rebooting just to waste time on Twitter, you're unlikely to cheat.

Freedom: Available for both Macs and PCs for $10. This one takes it to the next level and just boots you off the internet entirely for a specified period of time.

If you're having trouble staying off of time-wasting sites, try out one of these productivity tools!