Here’s one of the side benefits of Twitter:  The discovery of writing tools proven to do what they profess to do:  get you and keep you writing.  (Is it OK to have two colons in one sentence?)  Check out Dr Wicked’s Write or Die, a web-based tool for writing.  It did take me a moment (actually, several) to realize that there was nothing to download, that instead you launch the tool right from the website.  You can set your own parameters to have gentle reminders or more heart-stopping reminders to keep writing whenever you pause for a few or even one second.  I’ve tried several modes now.  The kamikaze mode is a bit frightening for me (imagine seeing the words you just wrote start to disappear if you pause for too long), but I am amazed at how fast I could type … as if my life were on the line, which it sometimes is since I have to write on deadline at times.  You can also follow Dr. Wicked on Twitter … see, Twittering does pay off :-)