Language Is A Virus

I’ve only scratched the surface of Language Is A Virus but it seems like a promising site: the kind that might inspire you to write, rather than burgling your time like so many writers’ advice sites (fascinating but not helping with the actual writing of your own work…)

I used their Writers Block “Cut Up” tool to cut up a dull introductory sentence and it had me firing up Notepad (the fastest-opening word processor on my machine) and cranking out three rhythmic, Burroughs-esque paragraphs. They’re not going anywhere, of course, but just trying out different styles can shake off the boredom with my usual style.

And there is a lot more, including more time-sinky bits like links to author sites and essays about different styles and techniques.

One downside: the site is covered in flashy ads. It’s pretty easy to see the useful stuff though, because it is the plain wordy stuff in the middle that is most likely to l catch the eye of anyone interested in words and writing.