#byok

the BYOK (bring your own keyboard)!!! its a device meant only for writing, like those Freewrite things but less giant and heavy and without the typing lag

I will no longer be writing first drafts on my laptop!!! too many distractions. Now I'll write only on this thing and if anything I write is good enough to edit into a draft two THEN i'll transfer to laptop for use of Scrivener.

"It's my writing device, for writing words" my brain says. no games, no internet, no email notifications, no tumblr, no youtube. it's like my brain has created a box where Writing goes and this little device is the trigger. i anticipate, with enough use, i'll just Lock The Fuck In every time i turn the damn thing on, god im excited

So after my Freewrite flop, I told myself I wasn't going to keep wasting money on distraction-free writing devices. They were all cool, sure, but they never felt… right to me. I don’t know how to describe it, but I've always had a hard time fitting them into my natural writing workflow. I figured they just weren’t for me.

Then I stumbled upon this lovely little device: the BYOK, which uniquely allows you to write with whatever keyboard you want. After some thought and research, I pre-ordered it months ago, and it finally arrived last night.

I sat down with it this morning, just to test it out, and ending up writing almost 500 words! It was so smooth. No input lag. No fussing around with some lousy built-in keyboard. It felt no different from writing on my laptop, and that, I now realize, is so important for me.

Best of all, it syncs directly with their Studio app, which I’ve already been using for the past 6 months now. I wasn’t sold on it right away, but I’ve really come to love it. There’s a space for all my notes, series planning, a wiki for my worldbuilding. It has everything I need in a simple, clean workspace.

The device and app work seamlessly together. I can start a draft on the BYOK, sync and continue it in Studio, and vice versa. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for in a drafting device.

I normally don't link to stuff that isn't already on this platform, but I figure in the case of advertisement, that is appreciated!

The BYOK is a distraction-free writing device that just launched its kickstarter! I own several distraction-free writing devices, including a second hand Astrohaus Freewrite, an Astrohaus Traveler from their launch event, an AlphaSmart 3000 that I since gifted to another writer, and an AlphaSmart Neo2. I can tell you from experience that distraction free writing devices genuinely work; I write about 50% more words per session on them per unit time, compared to a normal device with internet access and your references/resources on it.

However, the Astrohaus offerings are prohibitively expensive, they abandoned the first two generations of their smart typewriter (no more updates), and they have quality control issues with the Traveler that they have yet to address. I don't trust the company, which is sad because I have genuinely enjoyed their devices (other than the exploding battery in the Traveler, obviously).

The BYOK looks comparatively inexpensive and promising! Obviously I can't say how it preforms now, but at the price point, it's worth a look! I also love the flexibility of using your own keyboard, having several lighting options, being able to set up the height of the screen however you want, etc.