Distractions; coming soon to our site

Working on a computer with Internet access is fraught with temptation. How does one resist checking for e-mails, looking at the latest news, adding to your Amazon wish list at the first hint of writer's block?

Some potentially helpful tools can be found at Fiction Matters, a Web site for writers run by WordPress, the open-source blogging company. Writer P. Bradley Robb reviews a handful of downloadable programs that block out everything on your screen except the story or article you're working on. There are programs listed for both PCs and Macs: WriteRoom, which was created for Mac OSX operating systems, costs $24.95; all of the other programs mentioned are free.

Coming soon to The Writer site is a vastly enhanced forum section with social-networking features such as friends, public profiles and private conversations. Also in the works is a new look for our Web site with easier-to-access categories and links. (Yes, we updated our look a few months ago; that was an interim step until these latest improvements were possible.)

These changes are just a few weeks away; we'll keep you up-to-date as we get closer to the switchover. In the meantime, to get an idea of what our new forums will look like, visit one of our sister publications, FineScale Modeler.

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