Struggling with that new year’s resolution to write more every day? Sat staring at a blank screen that mocks you with its existential emptiness?
Maybe One-Two-Fiver can help; it’s designed as a warm-up exercise to get the writing muscles stretched up and ready to run. The instructions are pretty simple:
Start with a single word.
Type it like you mean it.
Now write two words.
Move on to five…
Keep typing until you are writing.
One-Two-Fiver can even email your output back to you! No ads, no gimmicks; give it a spin. [via MetaFilter]
Start with a single word.
quit
Type it like you mean it.
quit!!!
Now write two words.
Don’t quit
Move on to five…
Don’t quit the day job!
Keep typing until you are writing.
(A slow news day, Paul?)
Hah! Just thought it was worth sharing, Jetse – we can’t all be free-flowing word machines like yourself, y’know. 😉
Starting a story isn’t the problem. Starting a story is the easy part, the fun part. You have this idea and you start playing with it.
What we need is a program that helps us get unstuck when the story comes to a screeching halt and refuses to go anywhere whatsoever. Not to mention something that helps us figure out what exactly is wrong with a story we know is bad, but just can’t quite see what to fix. (I know, I know: other people. That’s the real solution.)
I certainly wouldn’t call myself a free-flowing word machine: that’s more appropriate for people like Des Lewis, Jay Lake or Chris Roberson. When writing fiction I’m somebody who rewrites while he writes, then edits the rewrite, then polishes it, and then still thinks it sucks, and then carries on through sheer bloodymindedness, paragraph after struggling paragraph.
But the moment I need advice like that, I will change to something more rewarding, like beer brewing…;-)