It generally takes me about a week to quiet my inner editor during NaNoWriMo. For the first week, I fight with her a lot. She tends to want me to go back and fix plot ideas, weird sentences and anything else she can think of. I have learned one thing from her, listening to her is the quickest way to stop myself from getting my writing done. I’ve also watched a lot of friends become crippled by their inner editor, so they don’t make their daily word counts and end up quitting before they make that one week mark in NaNoWriMo.
So I decided to share a few handy tools to circumvent your inner editor.
ILYS
Ilys is a great website that even lets you test drive their software. When using their software, you set a word count goal and then it brings you to a screen where you can only see single letters as you type them. You cannot see if you have made errors and you cannot go back and fix them if you did until you hit your word count goal. This is a great way to set a word count goal and just go for it. It basically forces you to complete your writing without any sort of editing. You also cannot see the errors, so it may make you less anxious about making them.
The trial account allows you to write up to 10,000 words before signing up for a member account. When I looked into a paid account, it was only about 10 dollars a month.
Write or Die
Write or die is a program that sometimes scares me. When I first used it, the program would actually delete everything you had written if you waited too long to keep writing. Write or die now comes with several different options, and you can also try out the service to see if it is the kind of app that will motivate you.
You can still set the app to erase your writing if you pause for too long. You can also ask it to provide negative reinforcement. When I stopped writing, the app played horrible, off-key violin music until I started writing again. You can also set it to reward you, if you buy the program, and it will provide positive feedback as you hit your writing goals.
Both of the apps are great ways to break things up and force yourself to write! Are there any other tools you use to get yourself writing?
The Taming of the Muse 