In my association with the National Writing Project, I’ve explored dozens of ways to nudge the “get writing” into being and I’m all for the kinds of explorative techniques/technologies in this article.

This is a really interesting concept and despite my objection about the empty text box being a barrier to writing, the authors are on the right track when they make the statement that “we think giving writers the ability to get writing” is the goal. Again, I don’t know that all writers start with the undefined “big goal” in a way that inhibits writing, but the idea that writers need to start writing is definitely right. Using a platform like Wattpad as a place for textual technology experimentation is genius, and I wish that schools would use Wattpad; their students do on their own time anyway. Unfortunately, schools want test-takers, not writers (though colleges want writers, so there’s an inherent conflict in all this) who may or may not be able to access or create “inappropriate” content. Then again, perhaps it’s better to leave schools out of fanfic, because the Wattpad community seems to have the “generating writing” part handled.