So what’s the difference between a $40 keyboard and one that costs 10X as much?įunctionally, not much. I wrote this justification argument after I ordered it… but down below I have some more details now that I’ve actually played with it. I wanted to feel like a writer, and create a luxury writing experience for myself. I had insomnia and ended up buying the Penna Typewriter. Why I bought a $400 keyboard (a justification tangent) And make no doubt, these are beautiful tools. I also believe sometimes expensive, beautiful tools that make you feel good while doing the work can actually influence you’re productivity and motivation. Getting into a writing habit relies on eagerness to do the work and confidence that you have what it takes to get it done. As you can tell, I’m not sold on the idea of these “narcissist keyboards”… and I’m dubious about whether they could actually improve writing speed, except for one thing: In that case, you might want something elegant, fancy, and loud – with that lovely click-clacking sound that is sure to catch the attention of everyone in the room (and probably drive them crazy). The other thing I’m interested in is creating a MOOD, with ritual and high quality tools… as an artist, I’m attracted to the aesthetics of the retro-inspired bluetooth keyboards. I’m skeptical of these, even though they’re attractive, because they’re so ostentatious.īut let’s say you want to go to a coffeeshop and immediately let everyone know you’re an author working on real book. Make sure you check out my list of best book writing apps and writing software. I haven’t found a way to mass produce it yet but I really think “screenless” writing has a lot of potential – I’m going to test my new setup with just turning my phone around or keeping it in my pocket during sprints. In that version, you can’t even backspace or delete, which forces you to keep writing forward instead of editing. I actually have a prototype given to me by the founder of, with NO screen – your bluetooth keyboard just goes straight into a little black box and you can reclaim it later. Functionality is part of it, but I also want to feel and look cool on the off chance having pretty writing devices will make me feel like doing the work (this is also why you should have a SEPARATE writing device for drafting or word sprints, as opposed to your main desktop or editing computer.) Limiting your thoughts to each sentence at a time can work wonders… but that’s why I write on my iphone with the iAwriter app. Having the wide space of you open manuscript can be daunting. This is because we can think in pictures (visualizing scenes) and words get in the way. You can actually write more, faster, and better by limiting the screen size. I don’t love these for aesthetic reasons, but you should definitely think about them for practical reasons. Since I’m a digital nomad/designer, I haven’t used a full desktop for years and need a SUPER powerful laptop – I’ll probably upgrade soon to a Ryzen9 Asus Rog… but I still prefer the classic zenbook as just a writing device (the ZenbookS just came out and it’s great, I’ll probably get one). But for all my normal stuff, I prefer a PC, and I want it to be as dark as possible, a non-shiny coal would be perfect. If I just needed a very slim portable laptop for writing only, I’d get a macbook a lot of writers buy one JUST for book formatting because Vellum is absolutely the best software for that. I’ll go back to a new Asus next time, or a macbook – I don’t love macs at all but it’s hard to argue with their sleek form and the powerful new M1/M2 chips. Scrivener and what I’m LOOKING for in a writing app or software.Ī few years ago I bought a black RazerBlade Stealth gaming laptop, mostly because I wanted a writing device that made me feel like a cool dark fantasy author it’s held up for three years but has been frustratingly buggy and prone to crashes. In this video I show you my current set up and process, and I briefly talk about Word vs. That’s my favorite writing machine, however there are unexpected benefits to using smaller devices with bluetooth keyboards. My current laptop (when I made this post) was a 15″ Asus Zenbook, but I’m actually in love with the smaller 13.3 inch Zenbook, which has better style, better typing experience and is lighter and more portable.
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