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Write The Damn Thing – the procrastination killer that has no mercy

writethedamnthing

We love writing with a passion, really we do. But even with massive amounts of motivation, some days it’s plain impossible to put anything down. The words just don’t come. The know it alls call this writer’s block, we call it a royal pain in the derriere. Whatever the cause it’s something that can really drive you nuts, made especially worse when you allow yourself to waste time on something else instead of knuckling down.

If only we couldn’t procrastinate on Teh Internets, we’d be saved right? After all those blogs, websites and YouTube are just so darn *interesting*. If you’re strong willed you can fight the time-wasting gene, but if you’re like us and a weak kneed dork, you’ll need help. Which is where Write The Damn Thing comes in.

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Once you’ve downloaded and installed the program, fire it up and it will immediately, automatically and without asking switch off your Internet connection. Dead. Until you fill your quota of words for the day (min 500 words). After which it will generously switch your connection back on. Your words are automatically saved to a text file on the desktop for later cut and paste.

You can set your daily quota to any maximum you like, but there’s no cheating except in one case, where you can access a ‘pleading’ box to write a minimum of 200 words as to why you need the Internet switched back on. Yes, we’re saying you have to beg your computer to give you web access. Not a nice feeling. And you can’t copy and paste in blocks of text to make your quota, because they disappear, and switching the computer off and on won’t work either because the program restarts.

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There are a number of things that are wrong with the program, including the fact that pressing the RESET button can make all your work disappear in a heartbeat, which really really sucks when you’re 400 words in, and hoping to pop back onto your Facebook account or Reddit (just for a minute or two you understand). There really needs to be an ‘Are You Sure’ dialog box there.

There’s also the matter of that incredibly nauseating purple UI color. Please please Mr Developer, you may have thought it was funny at the time, but it’s not. Being forced to write with that gruesome hue assaulting the eyeballs is the writer’s equivalent of water boarding, but without the near death experience. Apart from the those niggles, and the disconcerting lack of a clearly visible word counter so you can see how far along you are, the program works as advertised.

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Before you rush off and download the 7 day trial demo (full price $10) just sit down and ask yourself whether you really want to do this to yourself. Because it’s not a pleasant experience, trust us on this. Demeaning yourself by prostrating before a computer program is not funny, it hurts. Now you’ll have to excuse us, a new email message has just arrived.

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