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The Write Machine

Because most writers have no money

Dear Ideal Collaborator,

EDIT: It's been put to me that the following could look like an attempt to piggy-back on someone else's skills to make money or gain reputation. As that is 100% not my intention I thought I should preface my original remarks with these points:

To continue my original observations...:

In some ways we're very similar and, in other ways, we're very different. Here are a few things on which we agree:

However, as I said, in some ways we're quite different people:

So I'm hoping if you've read this far, you're interested in hearing what I'd like to make. Put simply it's a word processor. I was negatively inspired by the recent release of the Astrohaus Freewrite. Why negatively? Well it's a beautiful looking thing. I heartily approve of its conception and its execution. So what's not to like? Well it's the $613 price tag. To me that simply invalidates the whole thing. It turns a good idea into just another vanity toy for people with a lot of disposable income and very little time. It's not a tool for real writers. It's just another way of people who'd like to be writers spending money as a substitute for spending time (and time makes writers).

Let me back up a little to add a bit of credibility to what I'm saying. I'm a director of an independent publisher. I'm a fiction editor. I've worked with a few commercially successful writers. I've worked with a lot of commercially unsuccessful (though excellent) writers. I work with many young and aspiring writers. All of them have had this in common at some point: they had no fucking money. I don't know a single one of them that would consider spending $613 on a writing machine. The biggest purchase most of them made was on a laptop, which they needed for many other things in their lives: editing other people's work, doing freelance work, writing college papers, living a normal modern life. The idea they would then, separately spend more money on a writing machine is ridiculous. Writers try to spend money acquiring only one thing: free time.

And to me this is what makes the Freewrite seem like such a wasted opportunity: The driving concept behind it is an excellent one. Create a simple, distraction-free word processor for writers which can automatically make online backups. This is something writers badly need nowadays. They're not technical people. Most of them are on Windows 10 getting badgered to death and unable to resist the lure of Twitter. Yes they have the ironically named Self Control software. Yes Jonathan Franzen can afford to put glue in his Ethernet port. But wouldn't it be lovely to create an environment where the user knows the only thing they're doing is writing? The tool defines the activity.

So, it's a great idea. Only it should cost $50. Not $613.

So that's my concept. Here's an outline of the key elements:

My vision is something like those 1980s typewriters that had a digital display built into them. At the time they cost a fortune. Now we can build something much better that's incredibly affordable. To me that is very compelling.

I believe together we can do it, have fun, learn something and produce a tool that a generation of real writers will love because it contributes to their freedom.

Yours sincerely,

Your Ideal Collaborator scandox@gmail.com