Immersed in Disaster, Drowing in Calamity {WriterlyWednesday}

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Sometimes I wonder, will I ever see you again

Can't even remember how long it's been

My head is spinning, my heart broke long ago

And where you are, if only I could know

If only I could know, if only I could know

We've been immersed in disaster, drowning in calamity,

And sometimes I wonder, if this is all a dream

We've been through the fire, the darkness has come

What I wanna know is, can this battle be won?

Can this battle be won, can this battle be won

(From a song I'm currently writing for Fugitive)

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Well, Wednesday is once again upon us! Can you believe it's already mid-December? It's mind blowing how times flies these days.

Speaking of time, who doesn't like ways to help manage time better, and get more done in your day?

In writing, time can be very important. Especially if you're partaking in a contest or have set an ambitious goal to complete. Last month, dozens of young authors competed in NaNoWriMo, a contest that most of you reading this probably already know about, and maybe were in, yourselves. (For those of you who don't know what NaNo is- Basically, you have one month to write a 50,000 word novel. Now, that's real ambition, no?)  Obviously, only so much can be done in 24 hours, 30 days, 12 months. And time only seems to be picking up its pace, so we often feel left in the dust.

Time management is invaluable, and something I'm still trying to learn and master. It's hard. Another thing that is invaluable, is productivity in what you do. To complete your goals, productivity and time management go hand in hand are are absolutely vital.

I tend to get side-tracked when I'm on the computer and trying to write. Of course, it doesn't help that I am very scatterbrained, either. With Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube and all the many, many distractions on the web, being productive while trying to write can be very difficult. You can force yourself to ignore the distractions, which is really what it all comes down to. And an awesome way to do this is something I just discovered the other day.

What is it? *drum roll please* Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

www.WriteorDie.com

This program is pretty amazing. You can get it for iPad or desktop, but both options require forking over $10 so I opted for the free, online version which suits my purposes equally well.

What exactly is Write or Die and how does it help with productivity in writing?

So you have this screen which you type in.You can set either a word goal, time goal, or both, and the program lasts until you meet either goal. As long as you keep writing/typing, everything is fine. Butttt...as soon as you stop, that changes. Depending on what level you have Write or Die set at, different consequences occur. For example, on "Normal", when you stop typing, after a number of seconds a highly annoying, obnoxious sound starts playing, and does so until you start typing again.

On "Easy", if you remain inactive after a couple seconds, a little box pops up, reminding you to keep writing.

On "Kamikaze", (probably my favorite level) things can a little crazier. If you fail to keep typing/writing, you are only given a mere few seconds before the screen turns red and your writing actually starts unwriting itself. Yes, that can be pretty scary to observe. Your words methodically disappearing on the screen, one by one.

On all 3 levels, during inactivity, and building up to the 'consequences', the screen will turn a light pink and gradually progress into a deep red.

I find this program useful for keeping me focused 100% on the project I'm working on. If you don't devote 100% attention, you get the consequences. If you are like me, an extremely easily distracted writer, you need to try this. It may very easily help change that problem.

Not to forget, it's also extremely good for writing quickly, either for word wars, or just to get the words out swiftly in a specified amount of time. I will point out that I do not use Write or Die for finalized writing. Because of the constant time prompts, it forces you to write with no breaks for thinking long and hard on your sentences and word choices. So I would recommend this for creating rough drafts from which you then copy to your word processor and expound upon.

Hope y'all are having a blessed week so far!

In Christ,