Comment by kworks | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kworks | Hacker News Reader

I bought a 1st gen Freewrite back when it was the Hemingwrite on Kickstarter, I'm pretty embarrassed to say. I still haven't forgiven myself.

I've wasted waaay too much thought on that thing: why won't the founders just release an API like they originally promised, why did they delete the entire Freewrite forum full of many complaints right before a new model was released, why... and here I am... sucked in again, whining... publicly. Jeez.

Anyone out there thinking of buying one these things, my gentle suggestion is don't. Really just don't. I'll let you borrow all my wasted time so that you don't have to waste yours.

The most gracious thing I can say is that wasting my precious time and hard-earned cash on a Freewrite taught me a very important lesson... do not be seduced by slick marketing and a new device to solve what is at its heart a self-discipline problem.

On a positive note, it got me into exploring the dead art of writing on actual typewriters. A typewriter is a good deal more useful than a Freewrite, version control on the page for example. I can edit and rewrite with a pen. Good times.

I'm a professional screenwriter and often use a typewriter for first drafts or when I'm super stuck on something or procrastinating on a hard deadline. It's a good way to get things moving. I OCR the pages into emacs and fountain-mode to rewrite until the inevitable time comes when production needs the script in Final Draft... which is a sad moment, but so it goes.

I took an unfortunate road filled with regret that led to way of working that I love. So there's that.

I've been having a joyful time exploring art tools lately and - in a turn similar to switching back to a classic typewriter, I recently realized that ballpoint pens, the same kind I doodled with in school, are, in fact, great sketching pens. The oily ink in most of them isn't made to last, and they have a nasty habit of spurting out dabs of ink at random when you move the pen, but they let you make thin, faint, precise lines and add layers of shading and texture, and they're stingy with ink usage and don't saturate the paper. So I can sketch with ballpoint and then use my "nicer" pens to add finished lines.

I have a decent enough digital art setup, but I really find myself drawn to traditional lately. Like, the input just isn't as good in digital for doing characterful lines. There are pretty good stylus systems now, but they have a handful of different shapes and nib frictions, the raw output is always a little bit too aliased to be satisfying, and it always ends up going into software that stabilizes it into a generic swooshy line. So you have to work at it to get something like an analog result. And most of the things you really benefit from in digital happen either at the beginning(edits to help with planning) or at the end(corrections and layered treatments).

But the two things that help the most are also there in traditional: use references, and make straight ruler lines and take measurements to help get the initial shapes in proportion. If you're mashing the undo a lot you're still wasting time that is mostly accounted for by good planning and use of technical drawing tools.

And writing really is the same way. Good command of language isn't really restricted by slow writing speed.

> [D]o not be seduced by slick marketing and a new device to solve what is at its heart a self-discipline problem.

I should print this quote, frame it, and put it on my desk.

Me too.

But we're not going to, because we lack discipline.

Amirite? Who's with me? [waits for high five]

I do a similar thing with my own typewriter, the in-phone OCR with the iPhone is remarkably good now, only a few minor mistakes when I use it to scan in typewritten pages. It’s nice to have a different way of working when I want to. Usually I write longhand then type it up later.

Yes - you can still get a great reliable workhorse typewriter and have it professionally serviced for less than the cost of a Hemingwrite. I have 3 at home and use one regularly.

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