Someone told me to try out WriteRoom - software for Mac OS X - so here I go.

Here’s me trying to type in a “completely distraction-free environment”. It is actually pretty interesting. The look of it kind of makes me feel like Doogie Howser (M.D., of course). I’m not entirely sure what I think of the software, though, because it seems incredibly limiting and will definitely require copying and pasting all of the newly written content into another program for formatting, etc, which is (I guess) fine as it’s a necessary step in order to be free of distractions while typing… then again, this sucks. I can’t imagine anyone enjoying typing like this…

Of course, as SOON as that thought reached my fingers and was typed out, I realized that this IS, in fact, incredibly sweet. Listening to some jammy hip hop tunes to pass the time and I can already see that using software like this that blanks out all distractions and “other things to do on the computer instead of writing”, I can see exactly how this would be an interesting piece of software to have for a writing professional. No popups, no Twitter alerts, no icons bouncing in my dock, no red stickers with routinely increasing numbers staring at me in the right corner of my Mail icon. Nothing.

Sadly, in my position, I can’t afford a distraction free environment, regardless of how beneficial it would be for quality of work and time management. Trying to be a designer/developer and simultaneously running a department, a small team, crunching numbers, writing proposals, chasing new accounts and acting as the AE on every project we do (despite having account execs whose only job is to perform that function…) kind of makes affording some distraction-free time an impossibility. Regrettable.

I’ll tell you what I won’t do, though, is remove this application. Too bad it’s a 30-day trial and not a 30-use trial or something. I don’t want to go buying software for $24.99 when there is really no guarantee that I’d be using it very often at all. We’ll see. If I have any success changing my job function and finding some time to relax and actually write, then I’ll break into the piggy bank (yeah, having a piggy bank would imply savings, which I do not have, so let’s just go with “wallet” instead) - I’ll break out my wallet and fork over the dollars. Until then, I do suggest you writing folks to give this software a try. It is very interesting. A completely new way to approach writing in our terribly/wonderfully over-saturated Internet-focused world.

Uh oh, just came across the automatic scrolling function that this software has. FREAKING awesome. Text always appears in the center of the screen. And just cascades upward as you move through your text. I imagine this to be the best feature thus far. I’ll let you know if I explore this app any further, but don’t bank wallet on it.