Is this a better and faster way to write?

Published on by Jean M. Cogdell

No, in fact it scares the beejesus out of me!

The very idea, writing something only to take a breath and have it vanish into thin air scares me spitless.

Writing is scary enough without writing with disappearing ink. And when I first began writing on the web that’s how it felt every time I sent a story out into the world-wide vast mysterious internet.

Now comes along a new app, “The Most Dangerous Writing App”.

This app is designed for you to write without stopping, without thinking and without giving in to writer’s block. If you stop typing for longer than seconds, all progress will be lost. You can set the timer for 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 minutes.

This means, no bathroom breaks. Take a pee break and a blank screen will greet you when you return. No breaks to sit back and argue with your protagonist. Because by the time the two of you resolve your differences, poof, the story is gone.

If you are fortunate enough to beat the timer the text remains and you can copy and paste the text into another document. 

Now I don’t know about y’all, but writing is hard enough without feeling as if I’m trying to outrun a high-speed train. No, for the love of God, I do not need an app that will delete my writing, should I stand, stretch or go make a cup of coffee. I forget to save things too often as it is.

The intention is a good idea, to enable the writer to shut down the inner editor and get into a state of flow. But we’ve all heard about good intentions.

Third try, and I beat the 5 minute timer!

My hands are shaking, my neck is locked at a weird angle and my eyes bloodshot. But I beat the SOB! Talk about pressure! Sheesh! After the tenth or so sentence, not much else makes sense. OMG, my eight year old grandson could write something more coherent that this gibberish. Nope, won’t be posting this anywhere. 

Bottom line, it’s clever. But I doubt it’s something I’ll use. If I want to challenge myself, I can set a timer and pretend. LOL

You can purchase the Flowstate app through Apple. 

Or if you’d like to try the app on your computer, here is a free version click the image below.

THE-MOST-DANGEROUS-WRITING-APP-570

Read what other people are saying.

My attempt to beat the “World’s Most Dangerous Writing App” by Peter Shankman

The Most Dangerous Writing App’ Is A Terrifying Productivity Tool  |  By

This writing app will delete your work if you stop typing by ABHIMANYU GHOSHAL

Okay, now your turn. 

Did you try it?

What did you think? Is this something you will try again?

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30 thoughts on “Is this a better and faster way to write?”

  1. Oh my gosh, never. Although I can type very fast, “writing” for me is slow and contemplative (but better for it). It is hard, but it’s enjoyable. I think quickly in images, feelings, and connections, but transcribing into words is something else. The second-last thing I need is stress, and the last thing I need is for my work to disappear. The wording will never come again. It’s so much effort to write something good that I save everything in multiple formats and regularly print my novel progress on paper.

    I think the new fad of “free flow writing” is over-rated. Everyone has their way of doing things. That’s not to say I can’t think fast. I wrote pretty awesome essays under time pressure in my time. As for today, I don’t need a timer or tricks to get things down. Writing for me is intrinsic — the drive comes from within. The flow or idea won’t disappear if I take a few minutes longer.

    However, each to his own. If this works for some people, more power to them.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. I agree about the “free flow writing.” I couldn’t get with that technique. But I am trying to write more without over thinking. Glad to meet someone else who sees the story in images. I’m not sure if it makes the writing process easier or harder. I can see and hear my characters, and watch them in action but then putting all that on paper is very different. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  6. no, no, no, I don’t like it. My writing is frequently interrupted by the dog, the phone, the postman so I would lose everything. Very scary, best horror story to date. lol

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Sounds terrifying. I would only use this to write poetry, or if I were trying to get into the mood to start on something bigger. I think there could be a usefulness to this, if you type fast enough, but the problem is, I use backspace so much that it would make it difficult to keep up. I don’t know how productive a tool it would be though. It would be fun to throw at teens or college students in an English class hahahaha!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Ha I’d love to see the look on students’ faces. I tend to pause and think a lot, so not sure this is a great idea for me. But like I said, when I write poetry, it might be useful for me. While good poetry is definitely about style and format and form etc, much of what you write is based on feelings and so I think expressing feelings in the form of writing using this app would be interesting. Too often we pause while we’re thinking of how we should express our feelings and it doesn’t come out authentic. Not saying this is true for everyone. Obviously too, time needs to be taken to refine and revise.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Pause more than 5 seconds though and you loose everything you’ve spent all that emotion writing. Good luck with that. On another note, I do admire anyone who can write poetry. I think it takes a special kind of talent. 🙂

          Liked by 1 person

          1. lol true! Maybe it’s not such a good idea. lol. Poetry for most people is dribble just expressing how they feel in free verse. I think it takes talent to actually write good poetry. Anyone can write down how they feel. It’s more than that. (I took a poetry class in college a while back. Great class, and I still have the text they used which is amazing.) You’re right, it does take a specific kind of talent. Using the exact words to create the exact meaning, both visually and emotionally. And not using too many words. I could probably write a whole post about this so I’ll stop ha

            Liked by 1 person

      1. That would have happened to me, too! Writers block is just a phase where your brain reorganizes thoughts to get back on track. So, let’s say it’s a writers “pause” to let this happen! 💛 E.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Really? You need an app to do that? Aren’t there half a million writers out there already typing out stuff hardly anyone can comprehend? 😀 But wait, they are then called “prolific”, “intellectual”, “mystic”…. and counting the number of poets on WordPress I guess we can safely say, you cannot debunk auto-writing or spirit-writing by any means… 😀

    Liked by 2 people

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