The holidays are upon us and that writer in your life is almost impossible to to buy for. Forgive my ending that sentence with a preposition, because do I have some deals for you.
A couple of years ago, I saw the Alphasmart NEO in a Writer’s Digest advertisement.
This baby may not look like much, but it is pure creative functionality. It starts up instantaneously, runs on two AA batteries (which will last 700 hours), and best of all, it does not have internet. No Facebook-ing. No tweets. No “research” before you get started. Sit your ass down, because that is all this thing does. Want to write for 12 hours straight in a blackout? Done. Export your work to any program you want. The NEO emulates the keyboard of your computer and re-types it. (Which looks awesome.) For editing, you will still want your computer, but for quick and dirty first drafts, this is ideal.