One of my secret weapons when it comes to writing is the fantastic website 4thewords.com. As well as being a fairly straightforward word processor 4thewords has a wonderful gamified interface which gives you the opportunity to fight against bizarre and magical creatures with the power of your words! I am in fact writing this on 4thewords, and am fighting against a Pawia which is like a giant mutated bat thing. It is very appropriate for just before Hallowe’en.

A week ago I would have told you how much I loved this game, talked about how there are so many options for monsters to fight, some that require massive word counts to defeat but give you a full day to do so, versus smaller bite size word count monsters that have a time limit of a few minutes. But just today they have relaunched the website with tonnes of new artwork and it is spectacular. Really, they have clearly done a lot of work (and probably spent a tonne of money) to get the website made as beautiful as possible. 

Also there have been some great quality of life improvements that won’t mean a lot to the new players they are hoping to attract, but which do just smooth out a few of the clunky bits from the website. Mostly those were just left overs from when the website was much smaller and, for example, when you wanted to travel to a new part of the map there weren’t over a dozen places to choose from. So that’s really cool too, even from the ten minutes or so I have been using the website I can definitely see little annoyances of the past have been sanded away. 

But yeah, why am I talking about this, beyond the simple fact that a website I like has gotten a facelift?

NaNoWriMo baby.

It’s almost time for the most stressful time of the year for the internet living writer.

But 4thewords makes it so much easier. For one thing whatever you write on the website gets counted so you don’t have to keep count yourself. Good bye having a word document where you have to copy and paste everything to keep track! Plus they have annual events during NaNoWriMo and a bit after so that you can be inspired by the story to keep going when you hit the boring doldrums in the middle of the month. Or feel extra pressure to get another couple thousand words done because if you do then you will get a new shiny and what is more inspiring to those of us on the internet than shiny clothing options for our virtual characters?

Nothing, there is nothing more likely to get me writing than the offer of a pair of sparkly shoes or a cloak for my wee avatar. She is better dressed than I have ever been, especially in the dramatic costume department. I mean currently she is dressed as an eldritch swamp witch for Hallowe’en and she looks epic. 

So get yourselves over to 4thewords.com and see about starting a new arc in your writing. I really cannot recommend this wonderful website highly enough, it has kept me writing through many writing blocks and has probably done more to keep my brain ticking along than any other technological advantage. 

If you like the sound of all of this then may I also tempt you with my referral code for the site? It’s nothing new, you get some money off and I get some extra crystals for updating my character’s wardrobe, but it is worth it in my opinion. My code which you can input for bonuses is ORVEG04656

I am curious though, what would you consider your personal secret weapon for writing? Leave a comment saying what it is and hopefully we will all go into November with an advantage!

Thanks muchly for reading and I hope you are having a fantastic time,

Kirsty