- The hideous cloud of productivity now looms over all our lives. It seems that actual writers use productivity apps to get on with their articles and books. Helen Oyeyemi advises writers to download the Write or Die app onto their computer (or does she write on an iPhone?). In ‘kamikaze mode’, if you stop writing for more than 45 seconds it starts deleting the words you have already written. Other writers claimed they use it (‘great for those days when you simply can’t start’) or joined in with advice for getting those words down on the page. Pomodoro forces you into 25 minute slots and five minute breaks, making writing like interval training. Written? Kitten! gives you a cute kitten pic for every hundred words you get down. Stick or carrot? You decide.
I would guess that great writers not only write exceedingly well, but can slide into the creative frame more easily. Or, perhaps they are better at not spending time out of it in the first place. For a number of years, I was living under the assumption that I was going to be an artist of some sort. Not everything was great at that time, but I miss the way that I was taking life in. Meaning was closer to the surface, and serendipity reared its head more often.
Writing fiction or nonfiction is hard. It is a different kind of hard than rocket science or lifting a bus with only your two hands. The first hurdle always seems to be the writing bit ... that is the daily, every day, write. And I think that is the meat of what these apps are meant to do. Think of them like bots or NPCs that help you grind in the RPG of life.