Freewrite Traveler Review - One Month Later

In this video, Mary lets a special guest take the helm: Harrison Gale, writer and Creative & Business Manager at The Book Incubator, gives you her honest review of the Freewrite Traveler, one month in.
Check out Harrison and Mary talk through first impressions in this video:
Should You Buy a Freewrite Traveler? An Honest Review - • Should You Buy a Freew...
If you want to learn more about Scrivener (the writing software Harrison shouts out at the beginning of the video), you can watch Mary's Scrivener videos on the channel at the links below:
Scrivener : The Ultimate Software for Writers [A Walkthrough] - • Scrivener : The Ultima...
Scrivener for Beginners- • Scrivener for Beginners
How to Storyboard Your Novel in Scrivener - • How to Storyboard Your...
Write your best possible book and have fun doing it… whether you haven’t written a creative word since third grade or have an MFA in Creative Writing.
I’m Mary Adkins, 3x novelist with HarperCollins and novel-writing coach. I’m so glad you found me!
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Privilege
When You Read This
Palm Beach
Video Breakdown
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0:00 Is The Freewrite Traveller a Perfect Writing Tool?
3:09 1. Portable and easy to handle
4:20 2. Eliminates distractions
4:56 3. Relatively easy to use
5:15 4. Relatively long battery life
5:44 What needs work?
6:32 Keyboard
8:37 Doesn't have back light or front light
9:56 Limited aesthetic choices
11:31 Get Your FREE Training!
Check Out Our Other Videos:
========================
How NOT to Write a Novel [Don’t Do This Thing Everyone Does] • How NOT to Write a Nov...
How I Finally Felt Permission to Write…and Became a Published Author
• How I Finally Felt Per...
5 Essential APPS for Writers!
• 5 Essential APPS for W...
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Learn more about Mary at www.maryadkinswriter.com.
Mary also has a popular podcast for aspiring authors:
www.maryadkinswriter.com/podcast
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#writingtips
#bookwriting
#writer

[@_gamma.]

Night gremlins unite! 🖤 I got a book light for my traveler so I can keyboard mash as late as I want. Really good review, I have a few tips! New+backspace will delete a whole word, I’ve found rewriting the whole thing to be faster than counting individual backspaces. If you don’t need to type further back, page up+down (to the left of the spacebar) is great for peeking up in your draft. And I agree with your critique of the boot time, it’s longer than my laptop! That’s why I’ve only ever turned it off a handful times, sleep doesn’t use a noticeable amount of battery and then you never have any friction to get writing 😌 Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[@maxwellross2889]

Oh my gosh!! My boarding school doesn’t allow internet devices unless we go through a process. I just found this, and your video is so helpful to let me know if I want to get it!!

[@maryadkins]

I'm so glad!

[@1monki]

Why none of these machines adopted the Vim (or Helix) interface, I don't understand. Using it, you can navigate/edit text without moving your hands. I'm not saying that learning it should be required to use the device, but it should be an option. It would make this device so much more usable.

[@Tojazzer]

The review starts at 3:07. You're welcome.

[@senecaaurelius1811]

Not all heroes wear capes.

[@PlaydatePlayer]

Enjoyed that take, thanks. I've just took the plunge and bought the Pomera DM250. I'm praying the keyboard is acceptable.

[@maryadkins]

Great! So glad to hear that.

[@BrianJones-wk8cx]

@PlaydatePlayer While it ain’t mechanical clickity clacky goodness, I find the Pomera DM250 to work really well. Because of certain features like side-by-side file comparison, it’s almost like an enhanced digital typewriter to me. (I use side-by-side a ton in Scrivener as well, so it feels seamless to me.) Between the size, swift start up, responsive screen, backlit screen, inverse white-in-black text (or dark mode-ish), side-by-side editing, actual arrow key scrolling, it has become my go-to for drafting and circling early drafts. The keyboard is a bit of a con, especially since the keyboard is not backlit for writing in the dark (the quirks of the keyboard really come out in the dark). Curious how you’re getting on?

[@Tjtellsthetruth]

I just took the plunge and got the Freewrite Smart Typewriter. it was $650 but I would rather get that than some shitty half measure and a mechanical keyboard is a must.

[@BrianJones-wk8cx]

@@Tjtellsthetruth agree to disagree. The keyboard is THE limiting factor on the Pomera, but in all other respects the DM250 is far more capable for my needs. Better file management, better ability to edit in the fly, and ability to side-by-side files in split screen are just a few of the ways the Pomera strikes me as significantly better bang for the buck than the FreeWrite. “Shitty half measure” may be a bit harsh, especially considering the user experience is significantly better on the Pomera overall for my mileage. However, to each his or her own, write on with the device of your preference and make the magic happen!

[@BrianJones-wk8cx]

@@Tjtellsthetruth “shitty half measure” seems a bit harsh. To each his or her own, but after hearing the many, many limitations in the user experience of the FreeWrite, I’m quite happy sacrificing the mechanical keyboard on such a device (I have a few for other machines around the house, so I don’t lose the mechanical goodness). Better file management, better editing, and side-by-side split screen editing are just a few of the perks of my “lesser” device. But again, to each his or her own, and if you’re happy with the FreeWrite, make the magic happen! There is room for more than one sheriff in this town, ha!

[@LarsDahlin]

I am impressed of the Freewrite. (I use the ReMarkable but like the style of the Freewrite).

[@maryadkins]

Glad to hear it!

[@Lichslave545]

Do you still use it today?

[@EdouardTavinor]

The freewrite devices start up a lot faster. The newer freewrite alpha is pretty much instant on with a battery that lasts a month or more.

[@maryadkins]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@kimberly25christinesmith72]

I would just use a chromebook and not have it connected to the internet if thats the issue. For less than half the price

[@jonb5150]

Remarkable E Ink tablet is far more streamlined, fast, expandable, and offers a folio keyboard option

[@maryadkins]

😊

[@JMaxwell1000]

Handwriting AND typing!! The problem with the Freewrite is that it does NOT have a storage card slot (SD / CF)! I would NEVER use any device that tethers me to the Internet. Never. They really screwed up when they decided to omit an SD or CF card slot.

[@bencollsuss]

The device doesn't absolutely require you use the internet: you can connect it to a computer via usb-c cable, and it shows up as an external disk, just like an SD-card. Just drag and drop your text files from the Freewrite to the computer.

[@Mike_Jones281]

For a second, I thought you were Mara Willson.

[@sarahcline8488]

I am trying to find the best thing to write on. I don't wanna listen to music. I don't wanna watch TV all I want to do is write. I prefer to write a Microsoft Word because it corrects my horrible grammar and spelling. But I was hoping to learn more about this at first I thought It was gonna be the Amazon scribe, but that's just no. My handwriting is terrible. This might be something I might use unless someone has a better idea

[@themixmusicandmore6280]

If it was 150 dollars or something it would be worth it but dude you can just get a cheap laptop and it has thousands more uses

[@iamsleepy]

This 100%

[@aresaurelian]

You can do the thousand more things on your laptop, or do just that work draft thing without a thousand distractions.

[@themixmusicandmore6280]

@@aresaurelian or be a grown up and write if that's what you need to do, regardless of distractions existing

[@minkya1010]

Not the point. That being said, there's absolutely No reason it should be over $200

[@EdouardTavinor]

I found the price fair for a product that isn't mass produced. If you're drafting, you'll probably be much more productive on this than on a normal laptop.

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

If actual writers developed these devices, they’d be 10x better.

[@bizmonkey007]

They’d be cheaper, that’s for sure. And at least have arrow keys ffs

[@pauls.7530]

They’d be the Neo2 with a Dropbox connection. That’s all anyone wants.

[@anthonymccarthy4164]

If people can't discipline themselves to not go online while they're trying to write they should probably stop trying to be writers.

[@fcf8269]

This device is hideous; but I understand that some people prefer to spend 600 dollars for this instead of an old laptop running just linux in terminal mode, to not get distracted. Also it is very thick and the size of the screen is very small; maybe a good alternative is one of those netbooks from 2000, with 10'' screens, which by today's standard are good for nothing but to type on it. An ipad with the keyboard folio weight less than this device and is wider but also way slimmer, so not sure what makes this device "portable" compare to a tablet. Reminds me a lot of Sony Vaio computers from the early 2000s, with a fraction of the power. BTW there is no such thing as a backlight on eink screen, as they are not transparent as LCD screen tech screen. The only thing you can have on eink display is front light.