My brother, @everydayastory, tipped me off last week about this superb mac app. OmmWriter is part word processor, part virtual zen garden. In the words of the official site: ‘OmmWriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.’

What this means in reality is the app stops all notifications while opening the text editor  backed with a choice of relaxing wallpapers, a selection of calming music and sound loops and various key input sounds. While this all sounds a bit new agey, it is also instantly provides a more relaxing virtual environment to write than the usual word processing suspects. You soon find a set-up to suit you; I prefer the lilting piano loop and old school typewriter keytaps backed with a abstract bluey-yellowy wallpaper that reminds me of a fuzzy beach landscape. The promo video shows all this in action:

I used OmmWriter extensively over the weekend, drafting an entire short story with it, in less time than I would have ordinarily, solely because it removes all the distractions of my lovely macbook and replaces them with calming, focusing and (in the case of the typewriter key sounds) nostalgic stimulus that enhance the writing state rather than distract from it.

If you are looking for a well-priced (only £2.99 on the Mac App store) focused writing tool then you should take a look at the website. While I will still be leaning heavily on Scrivener and Pages to do my redrafting and collating of stories and chapters and such, on the strength of my road test at the weekend, OmmWriter will, for the foreseeable future, be my goto app for first drafts.

NB – I don’t have anything to do with the folks who make or sell this app and only wish I received money from software sales.