WriteorDie or Written? Kitten!

WriteorDie: www.writeordie.com

Written? Kitten!: www.writtenkitten.net

Samurai fight to the death! Which one motivates you more? The fear of annoying sounds and losing words? Or the temptation of seeing just one more cute kitten photo?

Omg.
I had never even heard of written kitten before this, and I was about to jump in and say that write or die totally saved me when I was behind and has increased my productivity threefold...

...but...

....KITTENS!!!

I think I just found my new writing tool.

Definitely using the kittens one now! XD

Kittens ftw!

AAAH! OMG KITTEN! SCARY KITTEN!! If that's supposed to be a reward, I think it went a little... wrong. *shudder*

Okay, having now tried out Written? Kitten! I must say that the motivation to get a new kitty picture is surprisingly effective...except when i already have a perfectly adorable kitten picture as my last reward. Then I don't want to keep writing because it'll make the kitty go away! O:

Seriously though? I actually really like it, and the positive reinforcement is nice. But the lack of pressure to *keep* writing (as the pictures don't disappear if you just sit around) removes the most important factor of write or die influencing my productivity - that it forces me to concentrate.

So for me? Write or Die for my daily word sprints; Kitties now for when I'm on a more leisurely pace :D

I actually found Written? Kitten! to be highly effective for a word sprint--I wrote 500 words in under nine minutes because I set the word counter for the new image to 500, so I didn't actually GET a kitten photo until I was finished with the word sprint.

I do agree, it's not good to keep me productive, but the fact that I can set it to give me that first kitten photo at 500 or 1,000 words is definitely a motivator.

Oh, I'm so torn! I just took a sneak peek at this writtenkitten because this is the first time I've heard of it and I thought, "Pfft, cute kitten pictures wont encourage me to write faster." BUT then I saw the cute kitten and my heart melted slightly and now I find myself torn. I'm very much behind on word count and have been relying heavily on writeordie since the start of Nano. For some reason writeordie terrifies me. I don't even go all kamikaze on it, just the annoying sounds, but the wailing baby cries, car horns and sounds of Hanson's repetitive "Mmmm Bop" are playing on my last nerves.

I think I'm going to give this writtenkitten a test drive tomorrow, so I still can't say which one is better. I think like someone else said, I might rely on written kitten when I'm doing a more leisurely writing pace and writeordie for the more, insane, panicked fits I go into-which is a lot lately-.

As a teacher I know reward always works better than punishment :D I have never heard of written kitten but I simply don't like write or die, it stresses me out to no end and I always wind up closing it out and going back to my doc a little more twitchy and no more productive than I had been before.

Maybe I'll try written kitten though.

I just looked at my facebook a few minutes back and a friend had sent me a link to Written Kitten earlier...WOW SO CUTE. And such a great idea!

Written? Kitten! works better for me. It may not make me faster, but I enjoy the process. I can crank out 500 words in Write or Die pretty quickly but it isn't fun for me--it's just stressful. I keep W?K! set to 100. 100 is so manageable. And ooh, kitty picture! Then another easy 100. Then kitty. And so on, so forth. I enjoy the writing, even if it takes longer.

And since I'm playing catch-up, it's helping me to think of my word count deficit as 85 kitten pics I *get* to see as I write, not 8.5k I *have* to write. I sure won't be counting those kitten pics, but I'd be counting every difficult word of that 8.5k.

I never even tried Write or Die because I already know that any stress at all is deleterious to my writing process. Even when I get all excited in a positive way because my writing is going really well, the stress of my increased heartbeat, etc., usually derails my writing soon after hitting that high. It took me years to work up the nerve to do NaNo, in fact, because I was so afraid of all the stress entailed.

Written? Kitten! is great—I immediately took to it. I don't need a reward, especially, but the layout of the page is relaxing in itself, and the kitten photos are surprisingly calming. But like anything else where your brain habituates to an image, the calming effect wears off after a while. The timing of having a new one pop up every 100 words is just about perfect for refreshing the feeling of calm. And calm, for me, is what it's all about, in getting writing done.=smile=

I think maybe all I need is a word counter in the corner and a bit of motivation and I think kittens win out for me over threats, so kittens on Written Kitten it is should I need a writeordie/writtenkitten kind of motivation.
:p
My cellphone is on hand should I need an added boost of motivation (set time on timer) or want to know how long I've been writing (stopwatch).

Just want to add my joy to the rapidly increasing pile of thanks for introducing Written? Kitten! to me.

And I've never tried Write Or Die, but I can see how a combination of carrots and sticks would be most effective. Hopefully I'll never get far enough behind that I have to force myself to use Write Or Die though ;_; Kittens for now!

I've just tried out 'Written? Kitten!'.

I've used WriteorDie for a couple of years now, both online and with the desktop edition. Personally, the threat from WriteorDie works better for me. That said, my desk has a few pictures of my cute dogs on it, so I don't feel the need to write in order to see adorableness.

Also, with the desktop edition, I have it set up so I'm Rick Rolled every time I stop writing for more than a few seconds. xD

If it's between the praise of a kitten or the fear of failing, I choose kitten.



Write or Die uses the Skinner principle of the carrot and the stick, while the Written? Kitten! approach uses the principle of positive reinforcement and praise. In my humble opinion, at least.

I still haven't tried write or die, I think I will tonight, just to see.

I have tried Written? Kitten! and it's incredibly cute.

KITTENS!!!!!

OMG Kittens!! My brain just went squelch with all the cuteness...

I am a devote icanhazcheeseburger fan so kittens are always a win for me!!

I have Write or Die on my PC and iPad. However, typing at speed on iPad (unless you've got a separate keyboard) is a pain. I gave written kitten a go and it's pretty nice and no Red Screen Of Death :)