A platform to practice writing

In an attempt to try and write a bit more, and coherently (as much of my ramblings in private spaces don't translate well to anyone other than me understanding it), I'm going to try and blog a bit more. Francesca and I were talking about how, after quals, it's hard to have a constant writing schedule (since one is presumably also not in class anymore at this point), and it's easy to get caught up in a plethora of other projects, as I have, that don't necessarily require constant writing.

There are actually a few sites that I use to help me get into a writing groove. One that I have used pretty extensively to brain vomit is 750words.com, a site inspired by a program (?) or process called The Artist's Way (which I have actually undertaken years ago, when I was writing a lot of music). In The Artist's Way, one of the activities that you do every day is what is called "Morning Papers," in which you write stream of consciousness 3 pages handwritten, just to get any "gunk" out of your system before you do actual writing. Hence the brain vomit.

Whenever I need a quick fix, I will head over the writtenkitten.net, where the site gives you a picture of a kitten every 100 words you write. It's quite the motivator. You just have to remember to cut and paste everything you write back into a word document, or you'll lose it.

Winmar has told me about a program called Write or Die which sounds seriously ominous. I haven't personally used this, but apparently you have to keep writing, or it will start (egads) DELETING what you write! If that's not a motivation to keep writing, I don't know what is.

So there you go. Happy writing!