Getting It Done

For me and many of my fellow tutors, this semester is largely devoted to writing our senior honors theses. A thesis requires a great deal of reading and writing, and above all, concentration.  However, as any student knows, writing for long periods of time almost encourages the mind to wander, obliterating necessary concentration and precluding the furthering of the project. It is so easy to distract oneself when the machine we use to work is also the machine we use to play.  If only there were a program that facilitated concentration! Oh, wait...

I have found two (free!) writing programs that expediate the act of writing and eliminate the careless wandering of the mind.  The first, Written Kitten (writtenkitten.net) prompts the writer to set a word goal and encourages her to complete it through the dispense of kitten pictures at milestones.  Written Kitten is very much a reward-oriented program; it provides motivation through the writer's desire for more cuteness.  The other program, Write or Die (writeordie.com), takes the complete opposite tact: the writer sets a word goal, and the program proffers recpercussions if the writer dawdles or strays from the goal.  The repercussions range from annoying to disturbing--the program even begins to delete your words if you pause for too long. 

I have used both programs, and both have been successful in prompting me to complete writing projects from discussion board posts to thesis chapters. You should try them out for your next writing project!