Review: Write or Die

Write or Die was created by a man called "Dr. Wicked" so you know something nefarious is going on. Like other online writing tools, this one is about motivation. It is about getting you to sit down and write and write and write until you can't write no mo'. It does this by deleting your words. Yes, that's right. It makes you write by threatening to unwrite what you've already written. If you're not writing constantly, Write or Die will delete, word by word, everything you've done. Better finish in time then, no?

I am reviewing WoD as a web app. However, for those of you who want all the evil that it entails without the "giant kitten of distraction that is the internet", there is an iPad/iPod/etc. app and a desktop version that works on Mac, PC and Linux.

Usefulness: 4 out of 5

Write or Die is really useful. This is because it cracks the proverbial whip in getting you to get your words down. It has 4 difficulty settings: Gentle, Normal, Kamikaze and Electric Shock. Gentle and Normal don't really count, in my opinion. Gentle simply gives you a pop-up box suggesting you keep writing and Normal plays an annoying sound, which can easily be avoided by turning your speakers off. Kamikaze and Electric Shock are the truly useful modes. Kamikaze is the mode everyone hears rumors about, the one that deletes all your hard work. Electric Shock, well, that doesn't even have a description on the webpage, so you know it must be the purest of evils.

You can also set a grace period. This is the amount of time you have before Write or Die imposes its evil motivational techniques. You can chose between Forgiving, Strict and Evil. As a personal suggestion, Evil may be too evil for most.

The true usefulness of Write or Die, however, is found in its time limit and word count goal. You decide how hard this is supposed to be. If you need a leisurely stroll, try 1000 words in 30 minutes. If you want breakneck speed, try that same thousand in 10 minutes. You plug in how much needs to get done, in how long, and Write or Die makes damn sure that you do it.

It does lose points for the lack of export capability. To save your work, you must copy and paste it into your own text editor. It would be quite nice if I could save it online or it would export as an already formatted file.

Fun: 4 out of 5

This is fun for masochists everywhere. I really don't think people use it angrily. It's not only fun to race against the clock, but its fun to see your words disappear and scramble to replace them. That being said, that could just be me.

Hipster: 2 out of 5

This is a pretty well-known site. The author created desktop and iProduct versions because he had such a big following.