The Most Annoying Writer You Know: A Preliminary, Non-Sponsored Freewrite Alpha Review

Hi!! Writing you this review from my Alpha itself, while I’m watching Groundhog Day. This is a very important day for my college friends and me. But that’s not what this post is about. This is about this very fun writing tool I got for myself in an attempt to become someone who actually finishes her writing projects.

Now, many moons ago, in one of my first posts on this website, I wrote about all the things I love about handwriting drafts as opposed to typing them on the computer. I am very much a pro-handwriter. I love it, and it’s really the main reason I have finished as many projects as I have. I’ll tell you, I’ve started and left more very, very unfinished drafts on the computer than handwriting. Like, ten to fifteen opening chapters one the computer to one handwritten. At least.

Granted, it’s a lot easier to start a computer draft than a handwritten one (a good notebook is a requirement!), but that is not the point. The point is that I get very bad hand cramps, and while not diagnosed, I have been talking to my doctor about the potential of me having arthritis at the ripe age of twenty-eight.

Anyway, I’ve been wondering what the right course of action is for pursuing writing with this hand issue. Because, look, I’ve tried drafting on a computer. I’ve had really great ideas! But I get way too stuck on what I’ve already written. I can’t help but go back to my past pages and editing as I go, only to go back further. And further. And further. Until every writing session, I only end up adding a hundred or so words to my count. Sometimes that’s only in edits, not even new scenes!

My favorite author, Ally Carter, my queen!, uses (used?) an AlphaSmart to write her books. She’s talked a lot about it. I thought, hm, this could work for me. This will allow me to only move FORWARD in my writing, and I won’t get so stuck in what I’ve already written. At least, that’s what I told myself when I googled it. But they discontinued the device she used, and it was going for a pretty high price tag on eBay. I wasn’t exactly rolling in the dough at the time, so it didn’t make sense to try it out. And so, I persisted.

Fast forward to 2023, I keep seeing this ad for this device (the “smart typewriter”) on this website called “Freewrite.” One day I actually decided to look up this website to investigate this so-called “smart typewriter.” It is a good chunk of change, I learned, but it comes in such pretty colors! I wondered if this was a device for me. If this was going to be the game-changer I was looking for.

But then…OH but then!! I decided to browse the other devices this brand offers, and lo and behold, and Alpha was available for preorder! It was still a chunk of change, but I could rationalize it. I could look at it and assure myself that THIS could absolutely change the game for me. It was like Ally’s, it had the bells and whistles I was looking for. Looking at it made me believe I truly would find it helpful for my writing.

So I hit preorder, and I waited.

Well, I’ve had it for two days, and y’all, I really do think I am changed!

It’s something to get used to, for sure, but it’s already changing my mindset. I can check my time, my word count, I can send documents straight to Google Docs.

It’s compact, it makes very satisfying clickity clacking noises, and I can only see the last 3-4 lines of my work. It’s kind of everything I wanted as a writer.

So this is an early user review of the Freewrite Alpha (non-sponsored, but pls feel free to click the link and browse).

First, it’s lightweight! I checked the sizing and weight, of course, and I deemed it manageable–under 2lbs! But in my head, that still was going to feel like an extra lug on my shoulder. But it is really not heavy at all! Very easy to hold and move around. Remember that arthritis that I’m pretty sure I have? Hard on the wrists! This is very easy to hold. I’m happy about that.

Also as I said, it makes an incredibly satisfying clickity clack sound. Not as loud and sharp as a typewriter, not as subtle as my work keyboard, but a very lovely medium. My nails at the moment, however, are a biiit too long, and I do make a goood amount of typos. But I’m having that issue with all of my keyboards, so really, it’s manageable. It’s a later-Me problem.

I initially thought the reaction time on the keyboard was a bit slow, since I kept messing up my email address when signing into my Postbox account and typing my wifi password. But once I actually got to WRITING something, it’s pretty good! I can be a really fast typer, so that’s helpful.

Next thing, it’s cute! It only comes in black and a speckled white (which I got), but she’s adorable. I love her.

It does have some kinks and some things I will have to get used to, though. For example, it is really just a keyboard. It doesn’t have arrow keys. You have to use a shortcut to move around from character to character and word to word. It’s going to take some time to automatically remember how to do it.

The next thing–and this I haven’t figured out yet, I’ll have to google it or something–bold and italics. I can do caps lock and shift+[whatever] to get symbols and everything. But there’s no “command+I” or anything, ya know? At present, I am caps-locking anything I want to italicize, and I will revisit upon editing.

You also need to reconnect to a “remembered” wifi network every time you’ve connected to a new one. I can’t confirm if you still need to re-connect if you’ve simply lost wifi and not connected to any network while you’re away, but it did not automatically log me back into my home wifi network after I used my work wifi network. Does that make sense?? Lol.

Then there’s the formating. So I journaled earlier today to test out the syncing and sending feature. I sent my draft off to Google Docs, and when I opened it, it formatted in the same way the blog does when I copy and paste from a Word document. Separates my paragraphs with an extra little space. I haven’t really tried the indenting thing yet to see if that carries over. I know that when I copy this over into the blog, it’ll format the same way as always, so might as well not do the proper Word way that I usually write. This isn’t an issue for right now, but I’m wondering what it’s going to be like when I actually sit down to write my next project. I will be trying it out soon, but I know the basic way that it’s going to carry over. I don’t know if I love that, but I don’t know what I would prefer? I feel like removing all formatting might be harder to fix? I’m picturing how it is when someone tries to create a table on a Word document. You try to add a row and then your computer explodes.

I expect this will make my first drafts messy. Full of typos, bad paragraph breaks, and so on. A random comma somewhere it really shouldn’t be. A run on sentence that I don’t know where it starts, nor where it ends. Like, I’m picturing a really shitty first draft. But that might just be the best thing about this? I miss having shitty first drafts! I miss reading over what I’ve written and cringing so hard I am almost ashamed that I wrote it. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but really, sometimes my work is just BAD. Writing is hard! Words are HARD. And honestly? I can’t wait for it. I’m a much better editer than writer anyway.

So far, I’m loving my Alpha. I am motivated to write. I am determined to make it worthwhile. I’m excited to write my next thing! And not get so wrapped up in what I’ve already written! I can’t wait to post annoying pictures of me writing with it!

I’m toasting to bad first drafts tonight. I’m scared of what this is going to look like when I sync it. But oh my god, it’s going to be so fun.