If you’ve been mental enough to linger on my recent posts in this blog, you’ll probably know that I’ve been on an introspective journey to change my story and writing habits as a late. This has yielded a great deal of hunting through the diverse and varied landscape we call the internet, and a confused QuestingAuthor trying to rethink his daily routines. It’s gotten me to an almost existential level of thought, where I’m questioning the foundations of reality and…

You get the idea.

All pseudo-intellectual humor aside, you’ll probably know that I’ve been playing a lot with restructuring my story and writing habits. Whether it be the difficult choice of amputating my book or my dealings with a minimalist word processor, it’s been an interesting week for me. I’m still struggling to gain my footing after retconning that massive chunk of my story, but I’ve been dealing well as of late. Of course, my new obsession with alternative softwares for writing has led me to stumble upon another neat gem that has made my life easier.

What is this gem you ask? What is this other gift from the Writing Deities that has graced my presence? Well, it’s a cute website that goes by the name of Noisli.

Do you live in a household that is inundated with an endless stream of distractions 24/7? Is there an army of stray dogs that enjoys serenading you every night with a barrage of barks? Do you have neighbors that couldn’t give less of a crap if their poor taste in music reached all the way to your house? Do you live near people who are fond of arguing with one another? Do your nosy relatives or roommates turn on the television during your writing sessions? Do they turn up the volume more than is necessary?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Noisli is an addition to your writing that is worth trying out. Trust me.

There is nothing in this world that drives me insane more than an unassuming person starting a loud phone conversation while I’m writing. Or someone turning on the television while I’m writing. Hell, I hate it when people are just existing next to me while I’m writing. I don’t know, it really is one of my habits that’s hard to explain. I feel that knowing that another human being is in the room with you serves to take me out of my immersion in the story. Kind of like an intruder is trying to break into my imagination (except that they are not).

But the great thing about Noisli is that I can just put on my headphones and stay in my own realm of immersion. You see, Noisli is a website that provides you with a number of background sounds that you can plug into your ears while you work. The noises on the site are not intrusive, they are made up of flowing water, rain, trains, rustling leaves, chirping birds, and other things that blend well into the back-burner of our minds. Since the sound they produce is static and looping, your mind will just register it as though it were a regular part of your hearing.

If you do this, you’ll be able to override whatever noise is going on around you, and focus only on the noise in your earbuds. And once that noise fades into your subconcious thinking, you’re all set! You can just devote the rest of your energy into your writing, and you’ll be gold!

It’s almost jarring to me. A lot places where I thought I’d never be able to write in, mainly the kitchen and living room, are places that i find myself cranking out my word-counts in. Every complaint I used to have to not write, which came in the form of distractions, is now annuled! It’s almost euphoric in a sense.

So if you haven’t tried out Noisli, then do yourself a favor and go ahead! One of our responsibilities as authors is to give ourselves less excuses to not write, and the internet is a key ally in attaining these goals. Slowly but surely, I’ve been able to tweak my routine to max out productivity, but have you?

I’ll get to writing my usual advice posts later on. but in the meantime, let these questions simmer in your mind. Have you considered an alternative application to do your writing in? Is your writing situation as noisy and intrusive as mine used to be? Do you think all these extra applications are just an attempt for me to feel more special than all of you? Then type out whatever you feel in the comments below!

As always, this has been the QuestingAuthor. Keep writing, my friends.