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.

Review: Chaotic Shiny

Oh Chaotic Shiny. You are so wonderful. Not as dear to my heart as the Sanctum, which has been with me since my first foray into the web-based writing world, way back in '05, but still wonderful.

Now, I'm just going to dive right into the review of this site, solely because I am about to do something I never thought I would. Try not to be angry at me, as I go over my own scale to descrbie how great this site is.

Usefulness: 6 out of 5

If Seventh Sanctum is the pinnacle of usefulness, Chaotic Shiny is the stratoshpere. It's like, having nukes in Civ 5 when everyone else has warriors. It's ass-kicking and name-taking. Shiny contains many similar generators to the Sanctum, broken up into similar categories. However, Shiny succeeds in two places the Sanctum does not. One, Chaotic Shiny generates a LOT of words. The "CivGen", or civilization generator, generates 50 separate words describing different aspects of your newly created civilization, ranging from culture, to population, to economy. You can even put in constraints, like what time period the civilization thrived in (ancient to far future) and whether or not they possess magic. For those of us who are just winging it when NaNo comes along, Chaotic Shiny is the place to go for substantial plot details.(You know this site is good when it can generate a valid DnD 4e character, dice rolls and all)

Two, Chaotic Shiny tied itself intrinsically with National Novel Writing Month.  Not only does Shiny have a generator meant to motivate us, suggesting that "If you write 163 words in a row that questionably-dressed hottie you've been eyeing will turn out to prefer your gender, after all.", but they even have a NaNo calendar app for FREE on their product site. NaNoWriters, you have found your home. Not only does Shiny know that you can't be bothered to come up with your own complex ideas, but they know just how hard it is to write your simple ones too. Shiny has your back through it all.

Fun: 4 out of 5

Shiny doesn't tie with Sanctum here because of their lack of contests. Shiny has a similar amount of humor based generators. However, the Sanctum ups the ante by having hilarious art contest using their generators.

Something that must be mentioned, however, and a large part of the reason that Shiny gets a 4, is their RPG Drinking Game. Yes, Chaotic Shiny randomly generates a drinking game based on RPG tropes. Srsly. I don't even know how to begin explaining how awesome that is.

Hipster: 3 out of 5
 Shiny's not Sanctum. Sanctum's tie to Deviant Art will probably make it the least obscure overall  out of everything I review (save, maybe Holly Listle). Shiny is not entirely obscure. Shiny has a huge product site and a damn good following both of writers and gamers. Chaotic Shiny is the kind of website that, if it's not incredibly popular now, has so much potential to be incredibly popular in the near to immediate future.