Writing With Kittens

One of my favorite tools for first-draft writing is in the Cloud. It's WrittenKitten, a configurable writing space that rewards word production and doesn't judge its quality.

I'm serious. Aside from noting possibly misspelled words, WrittenKitten is set up to feed me a new kitten picture in return for writing each hundred words, without trying to tell me about incomplete sentences, doubled words, awkward phrases, clichés, broken or too-short paragraphs.

Its small view window keeps me focused on churning out the draft. Okay, it's not a word-processor—but it is a word evoker. It may not work for you, but I find it draws words from me like no other tool I've used before.

I've also reconfigured it as needed: you can shift the reward picture to a number of different options. The reward trigger can be set to 10 words or 10,000, although the latter wouldn't really be noticeable. Each time I've reconfigured it, though, I put it back to the original 100 words/new kitten reward setting.

I worried a bit this year. Would WrittenKitten stop working for me as a plotter rather than pantser? It may be early to say, but based on two writing sessions yesterday that generated 4053 words, I'd say it's still going strong. 

I think I'll stay with the engineer's maxim: If it ain't broke...

Word Count: 1863 Day 2 and 5916 Total
For a different reward, try writtenkitten.net/?search=highheels