I’ve written before on blast-writing exercises and zero-drafting, so my interest was certainly piqued when I heard of an application designed to viciously facilitate that process.

The idea behind Flowstate is simple.  You pick the length of time you wish to write for, then start hammering away on those keys.  If at any point you stop typing for more than five consecutive seconds before that time is up, everything you’ve written is erased.

How’s that for motivation?

The downside is that it is currently only available on Apple ecosystems.  The downier side is that the Macintosh version is $15 and the iOS one is $10, which in the mobile market is a pretty steep ask for such a rudimentary program.

I’ll keep an eye on it, though, and probably snag it for the iPad when it comes down in price.  Sounds like just the sort of thing to keep the don’t-stop discipline in check and help curb those pre-editing tendencies.

How about you?  If you find yourself struggling to get those initial words out, would you consider trying a run-or-die method like this?

Bene scribete.