Motivation by Word Wars

*cough*  Pardon the dust around here.  I'm trying on some new layouts for the blog.  Things were feeling very cluttered.  

I am a very competitive person.  Not much can get me motivated quite like a challenge can.  Or, heaven forbid, someone telling me I can't do something.

Turns out, writing brings out my competitive side as well -- in a good way.

Ever played Word Wars with a friend?  It's awesome.  The idea is that you set a certain amount of time, say 15 minutes, that you're going to sit down and write as many words as you can punch out.  Then at the end of the allotted time you compare numbers.  It doesn't have to be a competition, I just work better if I've got a goal to surpass.  Either way though, it forces you to focus on writing and writing only.  BICHOK as Susan would say.  (Butt In Chair Hands On Keyboard)

Similarly you can use a program like Write Or Die by Dr. Wicked to war with the clock.  And that works for me if I'm having focus issues, but Word Wars really ups my game.

I find that when I write faster, I write better.  Is that weird?  Probably.  The faster I write though, the less my brain over-analyzes every little tiny part of every word I put on the page.  Which is good, because my internal editor is a MONSTER.

Plus, having someone there working with you is a great motivator.

Do you guys ever Word War?  What other motivating tricks do you have up your sleeve?