To write the rough draft of “Elaty Riaf”, I used my Neo by Alphasmart. This was the first time I have done this. Here are my observations:
Positives:
- not very expensive ($28 used on Amazon)
- comfortable to type on
- the battery lasts for a long time
- this is a word processor only, and therefore I am not distracted by the Internet while writing
Negatives:
- the screen only shows a few lines at a time, which makes it difficult to refer back to character traits and names
- no thesaurus
- when I was in public, people interrupted me to ask about the “weird keyboard”
- once I transfer the file to my computer, I no longer feel like using the Alphasmart
- I must re-format for publication after transfer, rather than setting up formatting at the beginning of writing
Overall, I would use this again, especially during times where I am on a strict schedule for writing. However it did not change my life enough to insist on use.
Have you used this before? Something similar? What did you think?