Arranging the time and place to contemplate, compose, and write is my biggest
challenge as a writer these days.  Avoiding endless clicking on the Internet is
my first challenge, but not the only one: the modern computing environment is a
distraction in itself.  Fortunately, a growing number of software packages have
come on the market to emulate the kerosene-lamp distraction free writing
experience I enjoyed in Indonesia (minus the kerosene). This article takes a
look at them.

Looking back on letters I wrote in 93-94 from Indonesia, what strikes me is the
consistency of message that characterizes each one from beginning to end over
the course of three or four pages.  These days, my emails don't look like that,
and I've usually begin thinking about the next message before I've finished
composing the first one.    But the consistency of my writing is no surprise
when I think back to the lifestyle I enjoyed at that point in my life and the
environment in which I composed my thoughts and expressed myself on paper.
Working in Indonesia at that time, I was blissfully ignorant of the Internet.
I lived  in a simple house in a Javanese neighborhood overrun with small
families, barnyard animals, and wet with the splash of water from the well.  I
wrote nights on the big wooden table lit by kerosene lamp, with my journal on
one side and a big bottle of fountain pen ink on the other.  There was no TV,
and few distractions except the call of the geckos.  I was free to think.

Arranging the time and place to contemplate, compose, and write is my biggest
challenge as a writer these days.  The Internet is my first challenge: I'm an
addict, and must make a Herculean force not to pop off to read some web page,
check my mail, or goof off in a dozen different ways, as is my penchant.  One
professor Polt stated in an NPR interview about typewriter repairmen, "The
problem with the computer is partly distraction.  You can't check your email on
a typewriter."  But besides the seduction of the Internet, the modern
computing environment is a distraction in itself.  Windows is a never ending of
pop up windows, alerts, and messages.  The wireless network for example alerts
me every minute about networks that have faded into or out of range, and in the
meantime Outlook flashes every new message that arrives with tedious monotony.
MSN can flash you with instant messages as well, plus Skype alerts, messages
about my laptop battery, and the river of red underlines that Microsoft Word
makes of my typing mistakes.

The Macintosh is a much less distracting environment, but even lovely OS X
likes to flash you when it wants your attention.  Any modern Linux environment
like KDE or Gnome is working as hard as it can't duplicate that experience.
The Gnome environment in particular is faithfully copying the mess of Window's
alert fest.  Only the Linux console is relatively distraction-free, but at the
cost of a rather steep learning curve that puts off most modern writers.
Fortunately, a growing number of software packages have come on the market to
emulate the kerosene-lamp distraction free writing experience I enjoyed in
Indonesia (minus the kerosene).  With one exception, they tend to be for the
Macintosh.  This article takes a look at them.


Nostalgia for the simplicity of computing in the pre-internet days led me to
reminisce about WordPerfect back in the DOS days. I'm not the only one who took
this approach: Commentator Paul Ford delivered a poignant commentary on NPR
the same interrupt-driven lifestyle.  His solution was to actually reinstall
WordPerfect for DOS on his computer.  Cool.     In my case the search led me
instead to a program by the name of Ulysses for the Macintosh, its competition
Copywrite, a new product by the name of WriteRoom, and more.  All are for the
Macintosh, though WriteRoom also offers a Windows equivalent by the name of
DarkRoom.  More about these below.


I've written before about Copywrite, so I'll preface this section by noting
it's the program I finally selected for the Mac and I've enjoyed using it
immensely when writing fiction or long memoirs. Copywrite provides a great
interface for writing scraps of text - chapters, vignettes, snippets of
dialogue, etc. -  and then combining, separating, sorting, reverting to
previously-saved versions, and exporting.  Best of all, Copywrite provides a
full screen mode in which the rest of your desktop, icons, alerts, and all -
disappear, allowing you to concentrate on your writing in a blissfully
distraction-free environment.  This is surprisingly seductive to a writer.


Ulysses is similar.  The folks that created Ulysses claim to have invented
full-screen mode and then suffered as their competition copied the feature. If
that's true I am immensely grateful.  Ulysses' biggest  advantage, in my
opinion, is that its native formats are plain text and RTF.  As a Unix junkie
and an open-formats zealot, that means a lot to me.  Copywrite makes up for it
(barely) by facilitating easy export to RTF, which is better than nothing.
Ulysses is expensive though, at $100 to Copywrite's $30. Like Copywrite,
Ulysses facilitates the writing, rewriting, and reiterative organizing of bits
of text that eventually fall into place as your masterpiece.

Compared to these two giants,  WriteRoom is rather spartan.  WriteRoom's first
advantage is that it is distributed free, and developed using an interesting
hybrid open-source model that incorporates a community input process.  That
gives the casual user greater voice in the incorporation of new features.  When
you start WriteRoom a small, black window appears in which you can input your
text; press command-escape and the window goes full screen.  Type away, save,
and then export to a text file.  WriteRoom has almost no editing features other
than cut, copy, and paste, but for many, that's enough.  Neither does it deal
with multiple files.  It's simply a big black, distraction-free screen.  Had I
not discovered the remarkable versioning and organizing features of Copywrite,
that might have been enough for me, but now I can't live without them.
However, Hogs Bay software, makers of Write Room, offer the same product on the
Windows platform by the name of Dark Room. It has the same limited feature set
as WriteRoom but deftly wipes away the constant pop-up window, error message,
screaming-for-attention experience that is Windows.  Letting Dark Room reduce
the Windows world to a single blank page that lets a writer write is a lovely
thing.

Interestingly, the Hogbay website states "There's emacs, but why learn all
those complicated keystrokes?"  When I'm working on my Linux computer
that's often exactly what I do: run emacs on the console, and I have the luxury
of writing with the world's best text editor in a distraction-free environment.
In a way, Linux, by stubbornly retaining the console environment in addition to
a graphical one, has retained the immersive, distraction-free environment so
conducive to writing.  And emacs, by linking to powerful software extensions
provides as much power as WordPerfect ever did, minus the formatting.  In fact,
what I like about Copywrite and friends is that they imitate (and graphically,
surpass) the Linux console experience.



Finally, Blockwriter doesn't yet exist, but its stated design is to replicate a
typewriter.  That means no backspace, your network connection is blocked while
you use it, and most other editing commands familiar to modern computer users
are removed." Text editing without the editing" is their slogan.
This would drive me bonkers, but I can appreciate the vision that has driven
them to produce it .  Computers are so much more powerful than they were a
decade ago, but in some ways we have complicated the interfaces to the point
where it's gotten hard to concentrate, and doubly so if you write while you're
connected to the Internet.  Fortunately there is an increasing number of
alternatives that duplicate the simplicity of times past. Add the kerosene lamp
and fountain pen for bonus points, and move to a tropical country if you think
it will help.


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Note: DOS 5.1 Screenshot courtesy of Edward Mendelson at Columbia University.
Professor Mendelson is perhaps the biggest fan of WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS I've
ever encountered, and his web page is invaluable.