A new distraction-free writing platform has emerged. Can QuietWrite unseat WriteRoom as the best tool for internet-enabled authors?
Distraction-Free Writing Platforms
Everything That Rises Must Be Filmed
Recommended Listening: this episode of the Ryder + Flye podcast in which Jason Diamond and Margaret Eby discuss Southern Catholicism, 70s cinema, and why it’s so darn hard to make Flannery O’Connor’s stories work on the screen.
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Come On, Karma
From Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to George Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, here are five of the most annoyingly unpunished characters in all of literature. Can we petition to have Daisy Buchanan (The Great Gatsby) added to this list?
Skirmishing With the Eminati
Look out, Darwin — Wolfe’s coming for you. Tom Wolfe’s new book, The Kingdom of Speech, which we reviewed a couple of days ago, takes aim at Charles Darwin and Noam Chomsky: “Like an industrial engineer who also makes bespoke dueling pistols in his shed on the weekends, Mr. Wolfe has made a side career of skirmishing with the eminati (his term) in an array of cultural fields. If fighting enlivens one’s mornings, Mr. Wolfe has had little need of caffeine.”
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Words of Wonder
Over at Aeon, Jenny Davidson explores what makes a great sentence. As she puts it, “A great sentence makes you want to chew it over slowly in your mouth the first time you read it. A great sentence compels you to rehearse it again in your mind’s ear, and then again later on.” Pair with our own Michael Bourne’s essay on sentence structure for creative writers.
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Press Start
Readers of the 1960s and 70s ran into many people who worried that writers were learning from television. In 2015, the concern is slightly different — are writers taking cues from video games? At the Ploughshares blog, Matthew Burnside tackles the game-ification of books.
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My own favorite distraction-free writing software is OmmWriter–it runs full screen and creates a sort of zen experience with neutral sound (or music) in the background, as well as satisfying tones as you press the keys. It’s sort of tough to describe, but it’s a peaceful experience and has worked well each time I’ve used it (and God knows I need to use it to get anything done!)
Scrivener is by far the best:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
Not only for it’s distraction-free full-screen mode, but for all of its great organizational features.
Here’s a second nomination for Scrivener. I hardly ever use the full screen mode, but when I do, it’s marvelous. When I need to check how I spelled a character’s name or how a dragon says “castle”, I can quickly jump out of full screen, get what I need, and then pop back into full screen. Excellent software.