Playing with Write or Die: “Fartley and George”

Getting started on a writing task is always a big challenge for me. Once I’m rolling, it seems that the opposite is true (when to stop?), but getting started is the most difficult part most of the time.

Enter a little site called “Write or Die”.

This site offers tools to put the flame under your rear. I used the free Desktop Edition, which provides a custom editor with a timer and various levels of prompts, ranging from gentle reminders to outright word assassination.

You set your own initial goal, say 150 words in 10 minutes, or 1000 words in an hour or whatever, and the rest is up to you.

With Kamikaze-level prodding from the free Desktop Edition, I burped out this little scene in a few minutes.

I didn’t say it was good – just fast. Enjoy.

That damned grass hadn’t been mowed in months. It was growing tall as hell, and it really pissed Eileen off. She’d been after George to cut the damned lawned for months and he never did. Why was everything always up to her?

George’s beloved and ancient laborador retreiver, Farley (or “Fartley”, as Eileen had dubbed him) was laying in the sun, like a great lump across the back sidewalk, blocking the gate. If there ever was a better advertisement for neutering, she hadn’t seen it.

Fartley rolled over, grunted and emitted a loud canine fart, and then sighed contentedly. She turned away from the window when she heard George do the same thing from his spot on the couch.

Boy, what a marvelous little family she had assembled around her, she reflected, pushing open the window.