Q: Dr Wicked, we have heard from thousand of Wrimos who use (and were led to victory by) Write or Die, a writing tool you created. Why did you make it, and how does it work? Will the electric shock mode be activated any time soon?
A: I made Write or Die because it occurred to me that the reason people stop writing is lack of motivation. An apt metaphor for motivation is the donkey and the carrot. The donkey moves forward because there is a carrot dangling a few feet in front of him on the end of a pole and he wants to eat the carrot. When that metaphor is applied to a writer toiling in obscurity, we must imagine the pole being about 3 miles long and the path before our proverbial donkey is laden with land-mines. When the reward for your work seems impossibly distant it is no longer useful as a reward and it's time to break out the riding crop.
Write or Die was born because it is better to have a tangible punishment than an intangible reward.
So when you use Write or Die, you set a goal: either a word count or a time goal. You then select the most effective punishment mode for you. The modes are Gentle, Normal and Kamikaze. Until you reach your goal, you will be punished when you stop writing.
When you click the Write! button you are presented with a blank text box on a white screen (simplicity is key to the banishment of distraction). Start typing away. When you stop, the consequences kick in. In Gentle mode, a text box pops up and gives you a mom-like reminder to keep writing. If you get distracted in Normal mode, you will be played a Most Unpleasant Sound, in a loop, until you start writing again. If you stop writing in Kamikaze mode, my mode of choice, your screen will fade to red and then your work will start To Unwrite Itself. It will delete one word per second until you start writing again.
As for Electric Shock mode, I know that it's possible and I know how I'd build it but if it is ever a reality it will only be available in the Write or Die Desktop Edition, which is due out very soon.
In true Mad Scientist style, you've not heard the last of Dr Wicked's Writing Lab! The project I'm most excited about is a short fiction podcast which will be open for submissions very soon. Thank you all for helping to make Write or Die the success it has been; I appreciate each and every one of you. Also thanks to Chris and the whole NaNoWriMo team for inspiring Write or Die and millions of words of fiction.
Dr Wicked is the Super Secret Pseudonym of Jeff Printy, an aspiring writer, podcaster and general nerd. Check out his blog at http://drwicked.com and follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/DrWicked. You can subscribe to his free weekly newsletter to get writing tips as well as updates about his upcoming projects, which will keep you all writing all the time. Subscribe or visit to receive dispatches from the lab.
