Paragraph LLC

Once you've got the right writing space, one that's comfortable, well-lit, and not adjacent to a public restroom, you might find you still can't get any writing done. There are still two big problems: the Internet and the Delete key. Rather than paragraphs careening out of your keyboard at an unstoppable rate, you might find your writing is a bit more choppy, interrupted frequently by fervent needs to google a rare disease, find the exact width of a subway car or look at the weather in the Congo. And when the words do come out, maybe half of them get deleted, because a pinky stroke is such an easy and forgettable way to go.

One way out of both problems, we've found, is to write first drafts on a typewriter. Yes, a real typewriter. There's no way to go online, and deleting is such an arduous task that your desire to strike down most of what you write quickly dissipates. Pretty soon you find you're mostly writing forward and living with a few horrific sentences, and that some of those horrific sentences are followed by not so horrific ones. A brilliant simplicity, and one that once you give yourself over to it, works. Except typewriters are heavy and they run out of ink. Thankfully, QI Software came up with Writer, an application that turns your Mac into as close a thing as a typewriter as any other application we've ever seen.

Writer is, according to it's setup file, "a simple app, designed to get you writing. And keep you writing." It's easy to download and install, and it's free, but it's only for Mac users with OSX. Once installed, you have to follow some straightforward instructions to change network preferences so that Writer can work it's magic, which is, turn your computer into a circa 1990 machine without Internet connectivity. (It comes back when you close the program.)

The other nice thing about Writer is that it doesn't allow you to go backwards. Say its creators: "You can select things to delete (like, say, the inevitable typos you're going to make because you rely on spellcheckers and the quick cut-copy-edit of word processors), but there's no correcting past striking something out." When you're done writing, you can export or save the document to a text file that will open in any text editor, sans strikeouts. (Writer makes them magically disappear.)

The best thing about Writer, however, is that it seems the programmers behind it are actually writers. Software for writers by writers? We can't be sure, but hands down, it's the best "Read Me" file we've ever read. We can't resist re-printing most of it here, and we'll leave it at that:

Writer Read Me

This'll be short, and to the point.

You get distracted too easily. You have Bill, your agent, breathing down your neck to get that novel finished.

So you grab this app, and try getting some writing done. No more checking email every three seconds. No more iChat interruptions. No more checking your NewsFire feeds every four seconds, just after you check your mail.

If you really want a little solitude, you'll need to read the Setup document you'll find on the disk image you downloaded for this application.

Don't waste too much time on that document, though. You really want to get writing.

Posted at 10:56 PM | Comments (2)

Posted by LitPark
Nov 22, 2006

I'm kicking myself. I just spent the weekend at the Marriott trying to get a good chunk of my novel done, and now that I'm back, I find that a place like this exists.

Posted by _m
Dec 4, 2006

Thanks for the kind words, glad you like Writer.

If I still lived in New York City I know I'd find myself down at Paragraph - it's just far too easy to find ways to avoid writing that novel/short story/shopping list, otherwise.

Thanks, again.

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