Full-Screen & Distraction-Free (just a crosspost of my #thatcamp session description for @GLTHATCamp)

A relative wealth of full-screen writing programs and distraction-free text editors are available online. Each purports to be unique in its presentation despite often promising to deliver the same, basic thing: increased focus on the task at hand.

Beyond the occasional rave review online, though, I haven't come across much analysis or research about any one of these programs. So, I'm curious about them, their implications, and how they are pitched to users. Both the programs themselves and their descriptive pitches enable and frame the act, purpose, and value of writing in different ways. Some are very process-oriented; others are more expressive. Many exhibit stark, monochromatic styles, harkening back to simpler times.

Certain programs invite certain kinds of writers. For instance, Writer for iPad implies concern about "destroying the voice and the organic structure of our original thought." Meanwhile, Ommwriter "believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper." Furthermore, WriteRoom "gets your computer out of the way so that you can focus on your work." These programs are pitched and presented more as environments than tools. They are more spaces for us to write from/within and less instruments facilitating the writing process, if it is a process at all.

Many of these programs are available for free or at minimal cost. I encourage my fellow THATCampers to download and give a program or two a trial run prior to (or even during) our time together.

Selected directory

FocusWriter (Linux/Mac/Windows)
JDarkroom (Linux/Mac/Windows)
Marave (Linux)
Ommwriter (Mac/Windows)
PyRoom (Linux/Mac)
Q10 (Windows)
WriteRoom (Mac/Windows)
Writer (iPad)
Writer (internet browser-based)

via Julie Platt

6 responses

I'm a user of Q10. It's simple, easy to use, and has some nice features, like word and character count, built in spell check, etc.

— Justin Whitaker

Productivity, creativity, and technology writer Merlin Mann has recently criticized these "writing environments" and how they're pitched to users, suggesting that writers shouldn't look to tools such as these to "focus" but rather address the problems that necessitate the desire for these tools.

While I do think programs such as Ommwriter promise too much and deliver too little, I do see their value. I love the full screen, "de-chromed" look. I've never had one of these programs resolve the problem of focus, however, without supplementing its use with a program like Freedom which cuts off network access for a predetermined period of time. Even that application, however, offers a brute force approach to the problem of focus and other writing anxieties.

I, for one, wonder what Robert Boice, who wrote a bunch on writing anxieties based on his decades-long work with writers would've thought about these tools.

— Mark Vega

Such a great point, Mark. Though I've read a lot in Boice, and he doesn't seem to be opposed to focus or concentration -- he just says you can do that for an hour a day or whatever.

For what it's worth, two more of these tools are Freedom and Concentrate: http://macfreedom.com/ and http://getconcentrating.com/

— Amanda French

I like Ommwriter but its Zen-lite language hits my post-colonial sore spot. I mean, I just know a bunch of white guys who maybe read "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" once decided to throw in all these "monkey mind" buzzwords. I doubt most users of Ommwriter understand the monkey mind principle on any deep level. But maybe "understanding stuff on a deep level" is the opposite of Zen. grumble, grumble.

— aristotle_julep

Haven't thought this out fully, but might these programs or writing environments also be collectively making an argument, and an unfriendly one at that, about the window-based organizational metaphor that has organized the way we approach computer-based tasks, particularly writing, and the way in which we interface with the computer? Multiple open windows, while handy, is not necessarily a good thing, in my opinion, and suggests a need to rethink the operative interface metaphor of personal computers.

Also, no one asked but there are tools (Mac, in this instance) that provide an opaque scrim over other windows while keeping the frontmost window highlighted: HazeOver, Think, Isolator, Spirited Away, come to mind right off the top of my head.

I'm coming to this from a slightly different perspective as my "focus" problem is more internal to the writing program I happen to be using. It's pretty easy for me to close all windows save one when it comes to writing. What's less easy is staying away from the various options available in Pages, Word, etc. Formatting, spacing, and other things are just too easy for me to mess around with instead of writing.

— James Schirmer