Write. Don’t stop. If you stop typing for more than five seconds, all progress will be lost.
Thus I was prompted by The Most Dangerous Writing App to get over the hump, so to speak, finishing an action scene in a new subgenre. My inner editor was effectively cock-blocked as I racked up hundreds of words in five-minute commitments. Awesome!
The reasons why it—and other timed writing apps like Write or Die—works so well are fascinating, and explained well in this article on verge.com about Flowstate, an iOS-based app. The formidable— but not impossible—challenge of continuously laying words down is actually a precondition of flow, an ultra-focused state of mind “in the zone.” Caleb Slain, Flowstate co-creator, thinks that users aren’t as afraid of losing their hard work as they are of what their minds might produce when they’re put to the test. He might be right.
Using The Most Dangerous Writing App made me feel I was attached to the prow of a ship like a figurehead of yore—thrust relentlessly, inevitably forward, breasts bared to the cold, wind whipping at my hair, salt in my nostrils, tears streaking backwards on my cheeks—into the great, green, heaving, swelling, oceanic unknown.
Exhilarating. Not scary. Try it.
michelle rau 