Writing for Clarity (and Wellness)

Keeping a journal or committing to a free writing practice can be a soothing—even meditative—activity that helps to bring clarity, alleviate stress, boost mood, hone focus, and improve overall wellness—at any age (even if the “writing” begins, for our youngest writers, as drawing pictures).

But what if your chosen writing tool is also equipped with powerful distraction capabilities? How can you develop a healthy writing practice without getting sucked into distractions (and by “distractions” I really mean the internet, including social media and constantly streaming news)?

Sometimes I wonder what writer's block was like before the internet. When writing with a pen or a typewriter or even a word-processor before 1995, the challenge must have been writing with real-life distractions in the backdrop.

Music, the hum of family conversation, or even perhaps actual nature beckoning from behind a frosty window… These were the distractions capable of lulling writers away from their task and out into real, tangible, hold-in-your-arms life.

Nowadays, can you even imagine the bliss?

The struggle for writers today, which I unfortunately know all too well, is that the very devices most often used for writing—the iPads, tablets, or laptops—are also equipped with digital distractions engineered to dwarf the real-life distractions that we ache to experience and long to write about.

This feels especially difficult lately, with one heartbreaking catastrophe after another in the news—whether it’s the actual catastrophic event that beckons our attention or the desire to be distracted from the news—it’s easy to feel compelled to check. And re-check. Procrastination is literally at our fingertips.

If you are reading this and thinking, "This is not a problem for me. I simply tell myself it's not time for the internet or social media or the news. It's time to write. And then I do," I applaud you. For the rest of us, do not despair. There are options, and over the past several years I have explored many of them.

BYOK-Bring Your Own Keyboard (Cost ~ $179-$200)

Right now, in fact, I am typing on my brand-new BYOK device (short for Bring Your Own Keyboard). The screen holds eight lines of text, it is equipped with a word counter and a back light, I can (as the name suggests) connect a Bluetooth keyboard of my choosing, and, blessedly, it has no capability for accessing the internet. Later, thanks to the same Bluetooth capability, I’ll be able to upload my writing to my iPad for editing and polishing.

The view beyond my BYOK is the snowy landscape of my front yard and my neighbor's car, half-hidden under snow drifts. As I type, I am free from the sudden urge to check the news, as is lately my primary temptation with all of the calamity and disaster that comprises our current events. I am free to take a deep breath, gaze out into the snow and…keep writing!

I think I should mention here that I do not work for BYOK, I haven’t been asked to do a review, and I don't get any kickbacks for this device or any other device I'm about to mention.

“Distraction-free writing” is a common term for devices and tools that allow the refreshing possibility of being distracted by the real world while writing, and finding one such device that fit my budget and my writing needs has been a quest of mine for years. These devices and tools can provide a fantastic freedom from the internet and all of its temptations, bells, whistles, buzzes, and unrelenting notifications.

AlphaSmart 3000 (Cost ~ $40-$180)

My first such device was the AlphaSmart 3000 (I added keyboard stickers purchased on Etsy, just to make it look a little less like a tank and a little more like a friendly device I could use for creative pursuits). Apparently AlphaSmart 3000s were used back in the 1990s for teaching students how to type, and now they’ve found a new function as a distraction-free tool for writers. As my first "distraction free" device, it was a breath of fresh air and opened my eyes to what writing without the internet in arm's reach could really feel like.

Pros

I found a "like new" model on Amazon for about $30 about five years ago, although nowadays they’re harder to find and run between $40 and $180. The AlphaSmart 3000 was free of the internet and yet easy to connect to my ipad (with a cord plus an adapter that cost an additional $5 or so). I could also connect it directly to my printer and print my document without any involvement of the internet at all. Perfect for first drafts that were never meant to see the light of day anyway. It saves up to eight documents like a champ and runs off of AA batteries for an undetermined amount of time. Possibly eternity.

Cons

New AlphaSmart 3000s are no longer produced—the only option is to find a like-new or used model. While typing on my AlphaSmart 3000, I could only see four lines of text at any time, which gave me the sense of driving through thick fog. There was no back light, which made it impossible to use in a dark room while someone else was sleeping. The keyboard, too, was noisy, and the keys were so large by today's standards that it felt like my fingers were trudging through ice-topped snow as I typed.

Pen and Paper (Cost~$20)

Frustrated with this AlphaSmart 3000 experience, I opted for a pen and a hard-bound notebook for a while, which is what I usually had on hand anyway—my go-to for lists, questions, random thoughts and snippets, and research notes. But I wanted to experiment and use it for writing rough drafts. Would writing feel different this way?

Pros

The first pro to this option was cost. A simple, hard bound lined or unlined notebook usually costs between $10 and $20, and the cost of pens, compared to the other distraction-free writing options available, is pretty much negligible (although they, too, can vary in price). My favorite two brands are Moleskine and Leuchtturm1917.

I also felt a little more connected to what I was writing, possibly because of the physical connection to the words on the page. There is plenty of research to suggest we retain information better and think differently when writing with a pen and paper versus typing on a keyboard, but we’ll cover that topic another time (I think it’s fascinating!).

Cons

The cons for this method came most with editing. There was obviously no way to cleanly delete my pen markings (I prefer pen to pencil), and since writing is such a process for me, I make a LOT of corrections and changes as I write. My pages quickly became a confusing tangle of crossed out sections and crisscrossing arrows and margin notes written sideways to fit.

I also realized how slowly I write (compared to my typing speed), which is sometimes a good thing, like when I'm taking notes or making a list—processes that involve a lot of pausing and considering. While writing in narrative form, so many of my words were inadvertently and nonsensically combined together as I tried to get my hand to keep up with my thoughts.

Writing with a notebook was free from the internet, for sure, but ultimately I created giant messes on paper that were hard to untangle later for editing.

Supernote (Cost ~ $330-$500)

After my pen and paper experience, I found a new kind of notebook that didn’t improve my writing speed but did take care of all of my editing woes, and it is still one of my favorite writing tools: an e-ink notebook called the Supernote.

Pros

With the Supernote, I can organize my work with tabs and folders, and since the format is an e-ink notebook, I can write with a pen on what feels like paper. The e-ink interface is minimal and distraction free (what joy!), AND I can lasso text to delete and move around the pages as I please. Supernote can even detect my handwriting (if I toggle that option) to turn it into text that then transfers through Bluetooth to my iPad for editing and polishing later. My handwritten notes are also stored in the Supernote cloud, so if I ever lose my Supernote, my work is still available.

One final bonus: I lose notes far less often. Instead of having to shuffle through a dozen paper notebooks to find my notes on a particular topic (at any point in time, I’m at various phases of researching, brainstorming, and writing for many different projects), I have them all categorized now in one device. Overall, the Supernote is my favorite tool for research and note-taking, and I get a LOT of use out of it.

Cons

The only cons are that the Supernote does cost far more than a paper notebook, my handwriting still doesn’t keep up with the speed of my thoughts for narrative writing, and there is no backlight.

Finding the Right Tool That Facilitates Writing for Clarity (and Wellness)

There are plenty of other e-ink notebooks out there, including paper tablets like ReMarkable, the Kindle Scribe, and the Boox if the idea of pen and paper appeals to you but you want to take things up a notch with editing, compiling, and organizing. Each has its own advantages and features that are well worth researching.

The options for a stand-alone word processor like the BYOK are a bit more limited. Less expensive is the AlphaSmart 3000, and at the other end of the spectrum is the Freewrite, which I dreamed of for years before the BYOK came out.

I just couldn’t afford a Freewrite (models cost between $349 for a sleek and modern “Alpha” model, which appears to be a dressed-up—and Bluetooth equipped—AlphaSmart 3000 to $1099 for the chrome-encased “Hemingwrite” model, with a few additional and also gorgeous models in between). BYOK devices are currently available for $179 on their website—a splurge compared to pen and paper, and a steal compared to any Freewrite model.

Writing, some say, is a thinking process, and I whole-heartedly agree. It's thereapeutic. It's cathartic. It's a stress relief... so long as your actual writing tool isn’t also the source of your most addictive distractions.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of distraction-free writing, but you’re not sure where to start, I suggest a simple notebook. I know, it’s the obvious answer, but try it out while thinking about what matters most: writing fast enough to keep up with your thoughts? Edit-ability? Backlight? Word count? What are you missing most, and what are you appreciating most about writing with a pen and paper?

Not sure what to write about for your experiment?

How does it feel to write freely with a pen? How does the pen feel on the paper? Start there. Where does your mind wander? You might be surprised just how far your imagination can travel without digital distractions… maybe beyond your window, or down the street and around the corner, or maybe even into some quiet space where you can finally discover a sense of calm, serenity, and—in the midst of this crazy world—even a little bit of peace.