#focus writer

So focus writer had been a little buggy, but I hadn't wanted to upgrade to the newest version till I hit my year streak. Just updated it and it looks way cooler, the colour scheme matches your desktop now and there are new images for the icons along the top and best of all I didn't loose my streak.

ive been super distracted by other stuff and kinda bored of my studying from the textbook. also just been super drained because of the weather.

but i decided to finish the rest of lesson 28. was just a few exercises left. lesson 29 is only 9 pages but full of exercises, so there's that to look forward to.

This may be a wild take, but hear me out.

I've got Scrivener for a while now, I do know how to use most of its fancy features and it does not scare me (anymore). But the longer I analyzed my writing process, the more I realized that

Scrivener just doesn't work for me

It is meant to be a software supporting writers, enabling them to keep all the research, planning, outlining and character development in one place, which is nice.

Seems to be nice. But to me personally is also

distracting as hell

I fiddle with the theme, I color-code the outline cards, I change the font almost every two weeks because it suddenly feels off and then it's inconsistent across the files and it drives me crazy, even through it's one of the Scrivener's feature that it doesn't matter. But it does drive me crazy, so I just fiddle with it more and more. There are so many things that can be fitted just to my liking that I just keep changing everything all the time because I just never seem to like it. And in the end it triggers my anxiety, because I just spent an hour on my writing without doing any actual writing. Maddening.

enter Focus Writer

a program that is at the opposite end of the spectrum

if Scrivener has everything, Focus Writer has nothing

but guys, after seeing my word count skyrocket for the past few weeks, let me tell you

nothing feels incredible

The things that may annoy others but that I grew to love:

the typewriter sounds - they make me feel like a writer and set the rhythm and atmosphere

tick-tick tick-tick-tick tick-tick-tick-tick-tick

the little percentage bar at the bottom that shows my daily progress (depending on the set daily goal)

counting the words from all the open projects together into the daily goal (so I don't set the goals for a project, I set the goal for my daily writing)

the little summary of the written scenes on the right side

the fact that it has everything I need and not a thing more

In short: I recommend Focus Writer because I noticed that it truly works wonders for me.

It may not be perfect for editing (in fact, I'll probably edit through Word or Scrivener in the end), but it is perfect for getting those words on the page.

Here's where you can download it for Windows and Linux and I'm not entirely certain where I downloaded it for Mac (the page I linked to says it's not available for Mac, but don't believe it and google /FocusWriter for Mac/ since I know for a fact that it can be installed and used there too).

If you're curious about my Focus Writer Theme*, let me know - I'll share the details in another post.

Outil d'écriture : Une plateforme d'écriture en ligne pratique et motivante avec @Scribbook

Scribbook est une plateforme d’écriture en ligne dont je vous en ai déjà parlé à quelques reprises et que j’utilise actuellement pour écrire mon deuxième roman Météorites. C’est un outil très intéressant à utiliser, et qui s’adapte à pas mal de styles d’écriture.

  Comment fonctionne Scribbook ?

Pour ceux qui connaissent Scrivener, le principe est assez semblable : on peut organiser chaque…

LISTEN UP

IF YOU HAVE A MAC (or not, you know, whatever, your computer your choice) I NEED YOU TO GO AND GET YOURSELF A LITTLE GEM CALLED FOCUS WRITER.

It looks like this on my dash. It’s the one in the middle next to my two other favorite writing apps.

But guess what

I HAD TO PAY FOR THOSE OTHER ONES

FOCUS WRITER IS FREE

So here’s the best thing. It has a breakdown of everything you want in it. You wanna check your wordcount? Or hell, even see how many writing streaks you’ve had?

Done.

You wanna set daily goals?

DONE.

You wanna listen to your own music!?

WELL SPOTIFY THAT BITCH, CUZ YOU’RE GOOD!

Not only does this app cover up your screen to inhibit distraction-

(which, by the way

you can go to your toolbar to customize)

-but it makes fun typewriter noises AND it has changing backgrounds AND it let’s you set goals based on word count, character count, or time writing

AAAAAAND

IT’S

FUCKING

FREE