Hello Everybody! Long time, no blog! I hope 2020 hasn’t been too bad of a year for most of you out there. It has been a year of changes for me for sure (more about that later) Today I want to talk to you about my new writing bestie. I want to say up front that this is just my own experience. I wasn’t paid or anything for this.
So let me tell you a story ... Once upon a time, or rather somewhere between 2 and 2 1/2 years ago, I was teaching an English class about crowd fundraising. We went to a bunch of different sites and talked about the different ideas people had. We talked about the “good” about using crowd fundraising and the ‘bad.’ And then students would pick a project and make a whole pitch about why someone should send their favorite project money and why they thought it would be successful. Well, a group of students did their project on “Freewrite Traveler.” This group of students do such a good job that they persuaded me to become a backer!! (It was only the second time I’ve ever backed a crowd fundraiser) I think their initial release day was in 2018. Insert international trade issues for parts and COVID. 2018 release was pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back again. Life happened, I lost track, and then I forgot. So Flash forward to yesterday. There I was chilling at home and then the UPS man stops by and hands me a sexy package. Like Christmas in November, from someone I don’t know. When I opened it I was kind of like “What is this thing??” But after a while I remembered where it was from.
Good job, 2018 Amy. It’s like you knew someday your day job would be writing! So here is my impression the first 24 hours with this baby!
Let’s start with the AWESOME. Oh, man, this thing is SO light. Now mind you, my laptop is a gaming beast. It’s like carrying around a giant stone. Which was why I got my Alaphasmart (and Microsoft surface which I HATE writing on), but this thing is even lighter than my AlphaSmart! Its like one pound of nothing! I threw this thing in my purse and was just gogogo. The Traveler is easy to open and just start typing. No logging on or waiting for it to boot up and load a million programs. There is nothing to distract you from writing. The screen is crisp and clear. Easy to read and easy to type on. You can set it up to connect to Wifi and it will backup your work onto Dropbox, google drive (and one more but I forget cause I just use google drive.) It also keeps your work on the Traveler itself and you can easily pull it off through the USB. The thing comes with 50% battery life, and after using it all day yesterday and today, the battery charge doesn’t even look like it moved. It says it can get 4 weeks without a charge. I’m not sure how true that is, but so far it has a great life. It has a timer setting so you can do your own spirts. It also keeps track of your word count and tells you how fast it will take to read it. Which is pretty awesome. 3 different folders so you can have 3 different files. Great if you are moving from chapter to chapter or maybe novel to blog, or blog to screenplay. Go nuts with all the files!
And onto the not so awesome stuff. This list is short. Actually, there are only two items. First is the lag. If you're a fast typer you're going to notice, it takes a while for the words to catch up to the screen. When I slowed down my typing, I didn’t notice. So slower typers this won’t be a problem. It’s not a ‘dealer’ breaker for me, but it is annoying. It helped with my flow a bit through as I would just keep writing instead of waiting for it to catch up. So I wasn’t trying to correct myself as I wrote. This really showed when I uploaded the doc. It was a bit of a spelling hot mess, but that is what editing is for. The other thing that bothered me was my Google drive save name. I know this isn’t a big one, because I take what is in there and put it into my Scrivener file. But it’s uploaded by date and it saves everything has February 14th 2019. This date doesn’t seem to ever change. If its a setting somewhere in the machine or in Postbox I haven’t found it yet. It’s a small thing I know, but it does irrate me. Especially when I have like 3 different files with the same date. It makes a new folder for each folder file (A,B,C) so at least you can keep track of what is whereby that.
Final thoughts : The price point of the ‘finished’ machine isn’t cheap. I was surprised at how much the product end price is. I feel like to have backed it two years ago. If you are a full-time writer or trying to make writing your day job. It is worth it. Its lightness and portably alone make it worth it. I found when I went to write in the park this morning it was easier to position on my lap then my Alaphasmart. If writing is a hobby or just something you do occasionally I don’t think this is for you. You’re likely better off using your laptop or computer. If you want to give ‘distraction free’ writing a whirl, maybe an Alaphasmart from ebay which will set you back $40. For me I am so excited to use this thing every day. I know that someday it won’t be 2020 anymore and the plague will be gone and will travel again. The size of this makes it easy to see I could write anywhere. On airplanes, at airports, in a Spanish Villa, at the beach. You get the idea.
This thing is prefect for first days and getting your flow on in writing!
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