thriving

In 2024, more than 90,000 books. It is estimated that in the United States the figure was much higher and reached three millionincluding self-published books. Those numbers make something very clear: the world has been filled with writers. Those who write also do so in many ways. The traditional typewriter has practically disappeared to give way to the computer, and the versatility of this technological product has made the experience more personal than ever. The blank page, but on the screen Thus, while some write on the desktop computer, others do so on the laptop, but in that experience the details matter a lot, such as the type of keyboard used – with the popular mechanical keyboardsfor example—or, of course, the application that each one uses to write. The famous case of George RR Martin with the mythical and very old WordStar It is almost anecdotal, because currently there are many much more modern rivals. Microsoft Word is the obvious choice, but rivals have tightened significantly in this sector. Thus, a huge number of applications and services designed for writers have appeared, such as Scrivener, Ulysses, iAWriter, Manuscripteither Ghostwriter. In many cases, one of the focuses of these applications was not only to help the writer in areas such as the structure of the novel or the organization of the characters and plot. They also usually have a distraction-free mode, which usually manifests itself with the digital version of the blank sheet of paper: the interface is completely empty, without toolbars or menus. Just a cursor blinking and waiting for us. Welcome to distraction-free keyboards These software applications are also accompanied by some hardware devices specifically aimed at writers. They are a modern version of traditional typewriters: products designed entirely to do one thing and one thing only: write. Freewrite Traveler. These “distraction-free keyboards“They usually integrate small screens on which the text we are writing is displayed, but there is nothing else we can do with them. They have internet connectivity, but only with the objective of being able to synchronize those texts with the cloud to save them. No web browsers, no social networks, no (supposedly) distractions. All of them try to create a “concentration bubble” so that whoever writes can focus exclusively on it. The clear reference in this segment is Freewritefrom the company Astrohaus, which manufactures several models of keyboards without distractions with this proposal. In them we normally have: Internet connectivity Small flash memory but enough to store several manuscripts Internal battery Screen: usually e-ink, but also LCD This electronic ink screen of various models makes it more comfortable to have long writing sessions and contributes to long-lasting battery life. The most notable alternative to FreeWrite machines is Pomeranianfrom the Japanese company King Jim, which has launched some of its models on crowdfunding platforms such as IndieGogo. Pomera DM250US These are, however, devices with a high price for how specific they are. Here it is likely that the limited production batches make these products more expensive, but still its price/performance ratio is not remarkable. The Freewrite Traveler, for example, is priced at 602.95 euros in the official Freewrite store. Pomera’s recent rival – with an LCD screen – has an official price of $449, almost 400 euros. There are even ones with a much higher price, like the Ernest Hemingway, which has a price of $1,206.95. At Xataka we have contacted three users of these devices: two of them English-speaking, and a young Spanish man. All of them have purchased and used at least one of these types of keyboards without distractions or a similar alternative, and they have been kind enough to share the experience with us. Looking for a digital substitute for the notebook and pen Ilia Epifanov, writer and editorhas published more than 30 works, including short stories, books and even comics. When he decided to buy one of these devices, he tells us, “I was looking for a compact machine that would allow me to write without distractions.” He discovered the Freewrite devices“but the price seemed high to me, and I was also looking for something more portable. He ended up deciding on Nokia E7a smartphone launched in 2011 that had a physical keyboard that could be folded out under the case. “It’s small, well made and evokes nostalgia,” he commented, “although it certainly has its limitations.” He admits that he wouldn’t recommend it to most people, especially since the keyboard isn’t suitable for use for long periods of time. But for this user, one of the keys to this old device is that it is old and most of its applications are useless today. That makes me approach it solely as a keyboard without distractions, because as he says “I love its simplicity: you unfold the keyboard and just type.” Carl Dilkington —pseudonym that use on Reddit our second guest—is a freelancer who writes both professionally and as a hobby. He also began to look for alternatives to write without distractions, and started with the cheapest and least technological: a notebook and a pen. He soon realized that this did not seem practical to him, and after searching for devices of this type he opted for the Freewrite Traveler, which he chose for its portability but which “if I’m honest, I chose it over others for aesthetic reasons. I just liked the way it looked, and I thought that if I was going to spend a good part of the day looking at it, I wanted to like its design.” These types of products “don’t work magic,” he confessed. “You still need to force yourself to sit down and write, and that will always be a complex task. And that’s the real problem. We let computers distract us because we want to avoid the difficulty of writing. Eliminating those distractions doesn’t eliminate the desire to be distracted, and the world has plenty of additional sources of distraction that we can subject ourselves to.” It is an important reflection, and reveals … Read more