Well hello again.
Like many others, my writing productivity has suffered during the pandemic. I went from having mornings free of kids to pursue my writing (and physical therapy) to suddenly supervising four kids learning at home. (Stop me if you’ve heard this one.) It was stressful and many times it was all I could do to get the kids through their school work in the morning and spend the rest of the day on the couch, obsessively reading Google News and Facebook.
After a month or two, I started building a foundation that allowed me to come out of hibernation. Honestly, I was forced to. I had agreed in February to write a blog post due in June, and my deadline was fast approaching. I had to find some way to come out of my funk and get some kind of work done.
I decided to finally try out the writing productivity tool 4thewords, which I had heard about from Mary Robinette Kowal. If you’ve never used it, 4thewords is like a combination of Neopets and Write Or Die. You receive quests along a story line and then fight little monsters by writing a certain number of words under the time limit. When you succeed, you are rewarded by digital loot that allows you to complete quests and upgrade your character. Oh, and if you write at least 444 words a day, you add to your streak and win further bonuses.
It shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does, but there’s something about hitting the button and seeing that timer and a little digital bad guy facing you that suddenly makes the words spill out. I started out by working on the article that was due (finished that–read it here) then went on to start reconstructing a journal of all that had happened to us so far in the pandemic (working title: “The Corona Chronicle”). Now I’m working on another series of blog posts about Mormons and speculative fiction (read the first here). I even using it to brainstorm for the novel I’m planning to write this year for NaNoWriMo. I have a 17 day writing streak. It’s amazing.
If you’re interested in trying out 4thewords, consider using my friend code to join (DMOMA21731). The first month is free, then it’s $4 a month or $40 a year. Not bad for something that saved my writing life.
Next week, I’ll be setting some new goals for writing during the continuing pandemic (and while homeschooling–did I mention we’re homeschooling in the fall?).
