Fear Does Not Motivate Me as a Writer — Sorry
By: Gregory A. Austin
Tags: Motivation, Apps, Tips, Speed Writing, Writing

Fear Does Not Motivate Me as a Writer — Sorry

My experience with “The Most Dangerous Writing App”

Photo by Luca Campioni on Unsplash

Hello, I am a slow writer. However, I’m not — I assume — the world’s slowest writer. Over the past seven years, I’ve gotten quite a few things written, but I’m nowhere near as quick as the “speedy” authors whose books I read and those I connect with on social media.

While I almost always love the content I create and can appreciate my eye for detail, I’m always on the lookout for tips and tricks on how to write at a quicker pace. That being said, I won’t sacrifice the other aspects of my craft for speed, but I am willing to compromise. For example, I’ll gladly spend more time in the editing chair if there’s a slick and painless way to get to that step earlier.

A good friend of mine suggested an online program called, The Most Dangerous Writing App. As soon as he explained the rules of the program, I was anxious to try it. Was this the miracle I’d been waiting for?

No. No, it was not.

The most bizarre writing app

The rules of the MDWA are simple enough. The second you type your first word, you must continuously type, or else the program will delete everything you’ve written in that time period. You can set the clock for longer — up to an hour, I believe — but five minutes, in my opinion, is harrowing enough.

Think about it. What if you set it for an hour and at the fifty-five-minute mark your computer crashed, a small fire started in your kitchen, or you just had to use the bathroom really, really bad? Almost an hour of hard work would be ruined. I don’t know about you, but this feels like a recipe for writing slower, not faster.

Regardless, I gave the program a try, setting it to the lowest time interval. Anny idiot could continuously write for five minutes — even me.

The experiment didn’t go as planned. I figured with the fear of losing my work as a motivator, I’d easily muster five minutes’ worth of content. The product might not be perfect, but I could take another five to ten minutes without the app to shape it into a passage suitable for my novel. Instead, my sample devolved into this nonsense:

…You see, that’s the second time I wrote “you see” because this is not an effective way to write and I don’t think I’ll ever use this app again because I have no idea what my thesis is going to be and I can’t even take a moment’s rest to think about it because then all my writing will be erased from existence. Forever. And ever. I see your point, “Most Dangerous Writing App” but this is not a sustainable way to get people writing. Maybe your logic dictates that this will release something in my brain for when I go to write next time. To really, really write, not this business where I’m just writing about not writing to not have everything erased. Instead, it’ll help me develop a mindset to do better and not be distracted by shit like YouTube or Twitter. Yes, writing on the internet, or with the internet, rather, is kind of a bitch. A double-edged sword. You have all the research right there, at your fingertips, but oh so many distractions. No, that was not helpful — but kudos on the clever idea.

Not exactly Dickens, right? Well, here’s what happened. Once the clock started I wrote a paragraph pertaining to my novel. When that was finished, I wrote another. Just like that, I had two fairly good paragraphs to add to my novel — unless they got erased!

After those successful paragraphs, my mind went blank, so at the risk of losing my work I started writing about how I couldn’t stop writing. It took around a minute to jot down those first two paragraphs, and it took four minutes to aimlessly vamp, writing nothing in particular just so I wouldn’t lose the small bit of work I was happy with.

I don’t know about you, but one minute on and four minutes off doesn’t feel like the most lucrative use of my writing time. After such middling results, I tried to imagine if I set the clock for longer — fifteen minutes, half an hour, or an entire damn hour. Would I have gotten back on track at some point? Probably, but I doubt I’d utilize any over twenty percent of the allotted time, and there’s an even greater chance I’d lose everything. Seriously, is anybody capable of writing non-stop for that long?

Maybe you, but not me

I’m not here to tear down the MDWA, nor do I want to discourage anybody from trying it. What I want to make clear is: maybe there isn’t a shortcut to faster writing. However, if you try this app and it works for you, congratulations, I won’t even be completely bitter.

For me, though, this trial was a big tick in the L column. I said at the beginning that I’m a slow writer, and despite having tried this app, and numerous other tricks, tips, and miraculous methods, a slow writer I remain. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop looking for ways to write quicker. And when I discover the secret, I’ll be sure to let you — and everyone — know.