Yep, you guessed it, I've only been and gone and done it again. Not wanting to be too boasty and smug, but I've won Nanowrimo. As before, I responded well to a deadline. I made the most productive use of all time I had, and wrote on planes, mainline trains, Tube trains, at home early morning and outside in the bright sun. Here's how the word count went.

I wrote it all on my Alphasmart Neo, which is why I could write it in so many places, if I'd have used my laptop I couldn't have written on the plane or outside, and it would have been unlikely I'd have written on the Tube because it's a heavy laptop to lug about. It helped with my early morning, bleary eyed writing sessions at home because there was no 'I'll just check my email or facebook' when I turned it on, it was instantly on, and I was very soon writing, and only writing.
Week 1

• 7 November – 6500 words – on the flight to Tenerife
• 8 November – 3500 words – outside on the terrace in Tenerife

Week 2

• 10 November – 5177 words – outside on the terrace in Tenerife
• 12 November – 5334 words – outside on the terrace in Tenerife
• 13 November – 4260 words – outside on the terrace in Tenerife
• 14 November – 5366 words – on the flight home from Tenerife

Week 3

• 16 November – 3203 words – in my local library – my new favourite place to write, plenty of space and seems to give me a welcome change from writing in my spare room where I usually write at home.
• 18 November - 2728 words – on the London Underground
• 19 November – 2633 words – at home
• 20 November – 2244 words – on the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and a flight to Amsterdam
• 22 November – 1032 words – in a friends' flat in Amsterdam. I then plotted the missing scenes needed while on the flight home from Amsterdam and waiting in the lounge at the airport. No words counted, but still time spent on the novel.

Week 4

• 24 November – 2854 words – at home
• 25 November – 2415 words – at home
• 28 November – 3113 words – on the London Underground
• 29 November – 3418 words – on a train to Swindon and back.

Week 5
30 November – 0 words, formatting into double spaced and indented paragraphs and integrating the extra document into the main document.

The statistics

For some reason there's a 1000 word discrepancy between the Alphasmart's word count and my laptop's word count, but I'm told different devices can do this, so I'm not too worried. Using the lower of the two totals – 53479 words, over 15 days, that's an average per day of 3565 words, or an average per week of 13369 words.

And finally

Yes, it's rough. Yes, there are lots of spelling mistakes and lines with xxxx FIX THIS SCENE or xxxx RESEARCH THIS or sometimes xxxx THIS SCENE IS TERRIBLE, but I am a great believer in a sh**ty first draft that's only for the author. Yes it'll need a really thorough self-edit before going to beta readers and more fixing after that, before it's ready to submit, but now, I have the words on paper, now it's not just a 'wouldn't it be nice to write this story' idea floating around my head. I have made it happen. And in my experience, that's the difference between all the people who say they'd like to write a novel, and wish they had the time, and wouldn't it be lovely to actually write a whole novel, and the other people who sit their bum in a chair, and put their fingers to the keyboard and actually write the novel.

I'll blog about what the story is about and maybe include a very rough extract, but that's for later.
When people ask me how on earth I can write a whole novel, I simply reply, 'One word at a time.'
How did your Nanowrimo go this year? I'd love to hear from you.
Liam Livings xx

PS: In the meantime, here's the pictures that inspired me to write the story.

I'm pleased to announce The Guardian Angel is now out and ready for your reading pleasure. That link includes a sample of the first 3 chapters so you can get a sense of the story.

There's a blog tour talking about me and the book and various other things, which I will reblog here too!
Happy reading,

Buy Links

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK)

Liam Livings xx

My latest test with the device was writing on the London Underground (the Tube). Although it's technically a train, it's a bit different because:

• it has no tables
• it has no plug sockets
• people sit much closer to one another than in a mainline train
• people can stand right above you, staring down at your lap as they 'strap hang' with one hand

Getting started
These weren't insurmountable issues, and at first I felt a bit self-conscious getting the Neo out and resting it on my lap with the Post It notes underneath. But once I'd started writing I ignored everything all around me. And when I looked up to check if anyone was watching, they were all swiping left on their smart phones or tablets. It's my journey and I'll do what I want during it. It certainly wasn't as intrusive as people who sodcast their music loudly to the whole carriage, or eat smelly food, or talk loudly on their mobile phones (once the Tube is above ground which is about ½ of my journey into central London).

As it's instant on I was able to get up and running quickly. It took my brain longer to get back to where I'd last written and re-read the Post It notes, than it took the Neo to switch on.

A bit of awkwardness
Not from my elbows or the position of the Neo on my lap, but there were a few slightly awkward moments when I realised I was in the middle of a sex scene and the woman sat next to me was blatantly staring at the Neo's tiny screen. I bottled that I'm afraid and went back later to add in the rest of that scene.

Instant off and saved
As it saves every key stroke as you type it, there's no having to rush and Control S before you stop. When it was my stop to get off the train I switched the Neo off, put it into the case and left. The Post It notes were more of a pain to position and replace in the case than the Neo!

Productivity
Checking my word count list I have written 5361 words during 4 tube journeys that totalled 2hrs 40mins. Not bad I think. Another important factor is that the time when I wrote was time when I could write. Had I tried to write once I was home, after a commute and a full day of day job, I would have been too tired and wouldn't have written anything.

Post it notes and nosy commuters notwithstanding, that's another 5* from me for this latest test.

Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

I watched a great TED talk video by Shawn Achor where he explains that it's not necessarily reality that shapes you as a person but the lens through which you view that reality. By changing the lens through which you view the world you can change education and work outcomes at the same time. I'm not claiming ownership of this research, or thoughts, and have referenced Achor throughout this post; this is my attempt at reflecting on this learning and how I'm going to apply it to my writing. As an aside, if you've not yet discovered Ted Talks, here's the most popular ones of all time, they're wonderfully inspiring, educational and entertaining.

In his talk, Achor said, 90% of someone's long term happiness isn't based on what's going on in their external world, it's based on how your brain processes the world. So by changing how we process the world we can change how happy we really feel.

He goes on to explain that schooling, university, work, everything in terms of motivation and happiness really is based on the following assumption: 'If I work harder, I'll be more successful. And if I'm more successful, then I'll be happier.' (Achor, 2011)

The problem with this is every time you get success you just move the goalposts to strive further so you're never quite happy. I got mostly A* and A and a couple of Bs at my GCSE exams, many moons ago, and rather than focussing on the great grades all I could think about was the two Bs I got and how they were letting me down. If you are successful to get into a good school / university once you're there you want to get into a better one. You hit your sales target, well, we're going to change it to a better one. If happiness is the other side of the horizon for success, this thing we always strive for but can never meet. Just like when you run towards the horizon you never actually meet it. This means happiness is now an unattainable state for most people.

Same with my writing: in 2013 I wrote about 200,000 words, all in, which I don't think is that bad considering I have a day job and had caring responsibilities for Great Auntie. So what did I do? I set myself a higher target for 2014 to write more words to strive further. I met that target of about 500,000 words, and that made me happy, briefly. And then I thought, where do I go from here? So I wanted to set an even higher target for 2015. I realised although I'm no longer looking after Great Auntie, I still have a day job and I am now studying at college too, so trying for more than 500,000 words is not realistic. So I've set a lower target for myself for 2015. Remember, all this is just me setting myself these targets, no one's asking me to write these words, no one's sitting at the sidelines cracking a whip asking for my next story.

And here's the sad thing – because the 2015 target is less than 2014 I've felt sad as I'm not working as hard, I won't be as good, so therefore I'm not as happy. See the assumption in paragraph 2.

And here's another thing – no matter how much I write, I enjoy it. I love it. Even if I just write things for myself with no intention of publication, I still enjoy it. It. Makes. Me. Happy. But at the back of my mind there's been this gnawing feeling that because I'm not striving to beat my 2014 target I'm not as productive, and that makes me less happy, it takes away from the happiness I get from the joy of just writing/plotting/editing/whatever.

Sad isn't it?

All of this because as a society we think we must be successful, then we'll be happy.

But here's the thing – Shawn explains that our brains work in the opposite way. By making ourselves happier in the present moment (so we're not always running towards the horizon we never quite reach) then your brain gets 'a happiness advantage' which means: 'Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise... Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You're 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed.' (Achor 2011)

So by being more happy in the present it turns our brain's dopamine on which makes us work harder faster and more intelligently. Isn't that amazing?

So how can you make your brain experience the world through a more positive lens which will make you happier? Achor says there are 5 ways and I've added my thoughts next to each:

1. Writing down 3 things you're grateful for each day for 21 days in a row. This trains your brain to scan the world for positive not negative things. I've started doing this in my daily diary/journal, it's a great way of finding the positive in what may have seemed a really negative day. It's like the #100happydays some people do on social media. I know one author who's doing #365happydays and her posts about this are wonderful.
   
2. Journalling about one positive experience you've had for the last 24 hours means your brain relives that positive experience. Among the negative things I journal about I try to focus on one nice experience during that day – a nice walk in the sun, a fun conversation with a stranger, or a friend, enjoying a new song I've discovered, anything really. Usually when I write about it in my journal/diary I find myself smiling as I am reliving it.
   
3. Doing exercise. This, for me, has been harder. I don't enjoy sport – I am terrible at them too, except skiing, and unfortunately that's not something I can fit into a daily routine. So I've really embraced walking. I have 4-5 45min to 1hour walks ever week, regardless of the weather. It has improved my mental health no end. Just taking a break from laptop time and getting out in the real world is wonderful.
4. Meditation – helps move away from the multi-tasking we are encouraged to do nowadays and focus on one task. I'm not a great meditator. I've tried it and I find it very hard. What I do instead is have a weekly / daily task list and focus each day on completing some of the tasks, not trying to achieve 34 things in part, but trying to tick off 3-4 full tasks each day instead.
5. Random acts of kindness – since losing Great Auntie, I have noticed a real hole in my life related to this. But I remember someone once told me you leave a trace of yourself after you've been somewhere, whether you want to or not. So when I'm talking to checkout staff, helping lost tourists in the street, letting someone go in front of me at the shop as they only have 2 items, or even driving I try to be kind and considerate and helpful. I'm not perfect, I sometimes want to scream and shout, but remembering I'm trying to be kind helps in those situations.
   

So now I'm doing most of the above steps, enjoying the moment, enjoying the happiness writing brings to me at the time, and hopefully the productivity will follow. Let's see how it works out at the end of 2015. I originally wrote this early in 2015, but didn't actually post it until now. I have finished my HR qualification (CIPD level 5 diploma in human resource management in case you're interested) and since September have been studying a MA in creative writing at Kingston University. Checking my writing productivity spreadsheet (yes I know, I'm one of those people) as of 17 November I have written:

• 252,000 fiction words
  
• 66,000 other words (blogs, guest blogs etc which are posted online)
• 35,000 other words (RNA New Writers Scheme reports, beta reading, marketing consultancy work).
• Total of 355,000 words

And how do I fit all this in, with a day job and studying and life? That's something for a future blog post I think.
Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this happiness / productivity concept in the comments section.
Liam Livings xx

It's been a few weeks since my Neo arrived from America and I said I'd blog about what it's like living with it. If you missed why I bought one, it's here. So here's the first in a sporadic series about living and writing with my Alphasmart Neo. I don't have any affiliation with the company that makes these devices, I am just writing about how I, as an author, find it as a writing tool.
During a 4.5hr flight to Tenerife I wrote 6500 words on my new work in progress. I rested the post it note plan underneath the Neo and the Neo on my lap. It was light, and easy to use on my lap during the flight. The time flew by and I was pleased to see how many words I wrote during the time.
The man sat next to me asked if I was working. I explained I was writing a novel. He asked what the Neo was and I said a word processor and that was it. It didn't connect to the internet which in itself was a boon. It's interesting in this day and age that people assume everything *must* connect to the internet, but sometimes, when you want to focus on one thing, and one thing only, it is actually better to not connect to the internet.

In terms of what it's like to write on, it is as near to writing with pencil and paper as you can be, and still be electronic. There's no menus, or operating system, or booting up or any of that jazz; just you and the words on the little screen.

Trial one of the Neo and it passed with flying colours. It fits in my laptop case nicely, along with my writing notes and plotting papers.
My next trail will be to see if I can type with the Neo on my lap on a tube train, and on a mainline train. It should remove the power cord anxiety I have on mainline trains, and also be much less intrusive than a laptop. It is much harder to see what is written on the screen than a laptop.
I would like to see what the maximum word capacity is of one file, to work out the full word capacity of the whole machine. The pages displayed on the Neo do not correspond to the number of pages when it 'types' the text out on a word document, so I'm paying less attention to the page numbers and more to the word count – something writers use more commonly anyway.

Future things to test on the Neo

• Writing outside in sunlight - easily works
• Writing on tube trains - to follow
• Filling up one file - approx 19500 words per file (the Alphasmart Neo has 8 file slots)
• Comparing whether first draft fiction is noticeably different from when I write it either on my laptop, or hand write on a notepad. - to follow once I've written my whole Nanowrimo novel on the Neo and self-edited it.

Neo update 10 November
Writing outside
Today I am sat outside on the breakfast terrace with morning sun – it is 9.50am. I am writing with the Neo rested on the table, with a tray of tea next to me. The screen has full sun on it and I am wearing sunglasses. Pleased to report that the screen is easily visible in full sun. How long I will stay outside in full sun without sun cream on, is another matter!

Writing on the sofa
Last night, I sat in the living room, with the Neo on my lap and my post it notes to the side of me on the sofa and easily wrote 3000 words. It was much less intrusive than getting out my laptop, opening up its screen, finding a plug point and adaptor (we're in Spain) and trailing the lead across the room. It was as intrusive and as simple as writing with a pencil and notepad.

Living with the Alphasmart Neo 12 November

Total file capacity

I have just filled up file 2 on the Neo, it took 19631 words, which is near enough what my estimate was. This means the full capacity of the device would be about 157,000 words. I'm paying less attention to the page count, as that didn't correspond to pages when I sent it to my laptop. I'm sticking with the word count as that's a standard measure for authors, and doesn't change depending on spacing and typeface.
The file take slightly longer to open and count the words as it's more full, but the Neo still switches on, back to the last point I wrote within 2-3 seconds.

Editing on the Neo
To be honest, this isn't great. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it's pretty terrible. It can scroll around with the cursor keys – something the Hemingwrite doesn't have – but scrolling through pages and pages of 4 lines of text is pretty tedious.

It does have a spelling function, but I can't be bothered to go through to fix spelling when I'm going to need to tidy up some formatting and take it from first draft vomit on page, to second draft presentable anyway, using my laptop, so I won't be using spelling on the Neo. It also has a thesaurus too – same as the above. If I repeat a word too close in the first draft I'll leave it in – as I would for any first draft – and I'll fix it in second draft clean up mode, on the laptop.
I think of the Neo as an electronic pencil and notebook – I wouldn't try to edit on that, so I won't try to edit on the Neo either.

Comfort for typing
It is comfortable writing with it in my lap, as a laptop. It is equally comfortable writing with it resting on a table in front of me – as a laptop. I rest it on a tea towel as it sometimes rocks while typing.
It is completely silent except for the keyboard tapping. It makes no heat as it rests on my lap.

Writing productivity
To be honest I've not exactly measured time taken and words written. I'm on holiday all right! However, I know that the whole time I'm on the Neo I am writing, because there's nothing else I can do, because, it doesn't do anything else. When I find myself wondering off, making tea, checking the internet on my phone I know I've probably passed concentration and so put it to one side and do something else – just as with anything the human brain peaks and you have to listen to when it's time to give yourself a rest.

Living with the Neo 14 November
When I returned home from holiday, I connected up the Neo to my laptop and 'downloaded' all the files I'd written into Word docs. Always good to back things up, I find. I say 'downloaded' but it's actually a bit more old school than that with the Alphasmart Neo. You don't 'download' files, you 'send' them to the laptop.

• I connected the Neo to the laptop's USB port, selected the file on the Neo I wanted to 'send'
• I made sure the cursor was ready to take text on my laptop, in the new open Word doc
• I pressed 'send' on the Neo and it types the document for me. The laptop sees the Neo as an external USB keyboard and the Neo types the documents from start to finish. The words appear on the screen one letter at a time, while you sit and watch.

Things I learned from doing this

1. It types at about 270 words per minute (I worked it out when it typed up my first file). A full file of almost 20k words took 1hr 10mins for the Neo to type out.
2. You can't use the laptop for anything else while the Neo is typing onto it. Even clicking on Page Down on the keyboard moved the cursor which meant it was then typing the text into the middle of the previous page, rather than to the end of it. I stopped the Neo typing, deleted the text in the Word document and started the process again. (The text stays on the Neo's files until you click 'clear file' on the Neo) Although this typing up sounds boring, it is so much easier than me having to type up hand-written notes. I did this a while ago and managed 12,000 words per day until I got wrist cramps. Based on that, it would have taken me more than 2 days to type up the notes the Neo typed up in about 2 ½ hours.
3. This typing up as it goes method is a bit steampunk really, but once I got my head around it, I simply left the Neo and laptop doing their things alone while I got on with my life, checking them periodically to move to the next file on the Neo.
4. It always starts typing the files on the Neo from the start, so if you've saved more than one thing in one of the Neo's files – I had a Romantic Novelists' Scheme New Writers Scheme report, a blog about my friend Ralph, and then some stuff about using the Neo, all in file 1 slot on the Neo – you have to wait for it to type the earlier stuff first, then if you already have it saved somewhere else, delete that from the final Word file, and keep what you need.
5. Start a new file to continue the same project once you've downloaded part of the project to laptop. For instance my Nanowrimo novel has filled file 2, and has half filled file 3 on the Neo. I've downloaded both of these to my laptop. So when I continue writing the Nanowrimo novel, I will start from file 4.

Has anyone else got experience of using an Alphasmart Neo? Is this making you think about investing a few quid in one for yourself? I'd love to hear from you.

Liam Livings xx

I am blogging on Sue Brown's website about my best / most eventful bus journey. Night buses can be an experience, let's just say that. If you'd like to win a chance of one of my ebooks, please do comment on Sue's blog.
Thanks,
Liam Livings xx

I wanted to try and see how it feels to write on this new device. But before I do so, It's probably worth explaining why I bought it.
I recently read some advice about always taking a notebook, two pencils and a sharpener on any flights. This, of all the writing advice I've read, has been the most useful. I have done so on every single flight since reading it. I managed to write 24,000 words on my Australian trip. I wrote about 10,000 words on a long weekend to Spain (mainly the flights, but a few odd moments in the shade of a tree, next to the pool). And coming up, I have an 8 hour round trip flight to Tenerife. Despite using the notebook and pencil method, I did still had to type up the story afterwards, which was slightly tedious.
I read on an online group I'm a member of that a writer had an Alphasmart 3000 for sale. I had no idea what that was, so I googled it, and discovered this whole world of portable word processors which had no access to the internet. They're not really computers, because they only word process, and don't connect to the internet. You may have heard of the Hemmingwrite, which is being produced using a Kickstarter campaign. It is meant to go back to basics with what a writer needs – a tool to create words, and that is all. The reason I'm slightly reluctant to invest in a Hemmingwrite are 1) it's $350 to buy 2) it backs up through the cloud, and if the company's 'cloud' fails, or the company goes bust, and hence the cloud goes with it, there's no way to get the words from the Hemmingwrite to a computer to share with anyone. 3) it doesn't as of today, technically exist, yet. I'm sure it will exist to buy, but at the moment it doesn't.

And that's what brought me to this world of basic word processors, from the Alphasmart 3000. Because this is what I do before I buy something, I researched them to death and founds lots of writers blogging about having these Alphasmart devices. Some links below if you're interested:

Alphasmart Neo Research - as I said, I really got into the research!

http://www.allisonmdickson.com/2010/02/alphasmart-neo-and-me-faq-review.html?m=1

https://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/the-alphasmart-neo-a-long-term-review/

http://munk.org/typecast/2013/10/07/no-more-neo-how-about-the-alphasmart-dana/

http://www.williamlanday.com/2009/05/29/things-i-love-the-alphasmart-neo/

http://jennifermack.net/2015/01/29/writing-with-the-alphasmart-neo2/

http://geardiary.com/tag/mobile-phones/

http://tools-for-thought.com/2008/05/27/further-thoughts-on-writing-the-alphasmart-way/

http://www.renlearn.co.uk/neo-2/

http://nataliesharpston.com/tag/writing-with-the-alphasmart-neo/

http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/portable-word-processor/

through the ressearch, I discovered that the Alphasmart 3000 had a relatively small memory and was quite old. I discovered the last model the company made was a Dana, with a back lit screen and an operating system from a Palm Pilot. Its batteries lasted 25-30hours. This, I felt was a step too far – if I wanted all that functionality, I'd just use my laptop.

The Neo was the model most praised by writers, journalists travelling around the world. It has a 700hour battery life – uses 3 standard AA batteries. That's some pretty heroic freedom from a mains plug isn't it? My laptop, even with its new battery, only gives me max 4hrs battery life.
The Neo can be connected to a computer using a manager programme, but I'm not into downloading programmes onto my laptop and I'm all for keeping things simple. That was where the Neo was pretty magic. You just connect it with a USB cord to a laptop, open the file you want to transfer on the Neo, open a word processing programme and new file on the laptop, then press send on the Neo, and the words appear on the word document. The laptop things it's a keyboard, typing the words as it goes. It's pretty magical to watch the words appear on the screen while you do nothing. There's no compatibility issues, no downloading software, just plug in with USB and press a button on the NEO. Sometimes I watch the words appear, sometimes I make myself a cup of tea and leave it running in the background.
The other great thing about the Neo is its weight – 800g or less than 2lbs for you imperial people out there. Yes, this is more than an Ipad, but have you tried typing on an Ipad without a keyboard attached? As someone who touch types, it is vile to type on a screen. Also the whole balancing laptop and keyboard on lap thing isn't great either in my experience. Because there's no hinged separate screen the Neo should be easier to write on tray table / on lap during flights.
This summer I tried to write in the back garden; it was a beautiful day and it seemed such a shame to sit inside. I set up a table outside under the shade of a tree, with my post it notes of planning next to the laptop and basically couldn't see anything. The screen was too shiny to really work outside.
The Neo's screen is small LCD, about the size of a chocolate bar, and can show between 2 and 6 lines of text at one time. I have it set on 4 lines as that displays about the right size and I can see the last few bits I've written. Anyway, the LCD is perfectly visible outside in the bright sun.
Because the Neo isn't really a computer, it only does word processing, there's no internet distractions. If I want to look something up while I'm writing, I have to stop using the Neo, and use my smart phone. This is takes much more of a conscious decision than clicking on firefox and opening a browser on my laptop.
Another benefit of it not being a proper computer is it's solid state – no whirring hard drive, DVD drive, or fan to make noise. The only noise on the Neo is the clicking of the keyboard, just like on a good laptop's keyboard, or an electronic typewriter. My laptop has a sold state hard drive which means it boots up v quickly. It is a boon, and a massive improvement on Gummidge, my 2006 Dell laptop. However, even the new laptop has nothing on, yep, you guessed it, the Neo. Because it's solid state, it's instant on too. Yep, even quicker than an ipad. You press the on/off button (or hold down enter and then press that button to prevent it accidentally turning on while in your bag) and in less than 2 secs it's there, back to the exact place you were last writing in your document, just like if you'd opened up a notebook and flicked to your last page.

How much writing can it store?

It has a whopping 513k of memory! A-ma-zing eh? ;-) It has 8 buttons for 8 files, and into each you can save approx 25pages of single spaced A4 text, making 200 pages; more than enough for a decent sized novel. *update* Currently, file 1 has 5242 words or 13.8 pages on it and the status bar is showing it's 27% full, so scaling this up it looks like approx 5000 words = 25% full per file, so that's 20,000 words per file. Multiplied by 8 files, that's 160,000 words! I doubt I'll ever need that much storage because every time I'm 'back to base' I plan on 'sending' it to my laptop and clearing the Neo's memory. For me it's about having a device where I can write, just about anywhere, in sun, with no distractions, with no power, anywhere.

Why were they built?

These devices were designed for use in schools to teach keyboarding skills, and so teachers could beam tests to them. They all network together if needed. This means it's designed to be pretty tough. I've read it can be dropped from 4 feet high and be fine. I'm not going to try that one out, but as long as it's tough enough to be thrown into my bag in its little case and jangle around with my other junk, I'm fine with that.
And how much did I pay for this archaic single use piece of hardware?

New, they were about $200, but they stopped selling them in 2011, I think it was. Would I have paid that for one – about half the price of a netbook? To be honest, I don't need a netbook, never have done, I'm happy with my laptop. The Neo performs another function and had I known about it before I would have probably bought one. Because it's still cheaper than the fancy schmansy Hemmingwrite, without the cloud issues I've highlighted before.

What did I pay for mine? They don't sell them new any more. I scoured Ebay for them, once I'd researched which model I was going to buy, I found loads of them on Ebay. You can buy them individually or in lots of up to 20 or so – obviously ex-school stock bought in bulk. I paid £54 for two, including delivery from America. Why did I buy two? One was £40 and I thought for an extra 14 quid I've got a spare one. The postage wasn't much more for two than one, so...I am so my mother's son.
I could have bought one cheaper, but I wanted to make sure the one I bought was 1) tested to work 2) had new batteries and 3) came with the special USB cable it needs to connect to a computer. Having those three things in place when I bought it was well worth paying a bit extra. If you want to buy one, just search ebay for Alphasmart Neo and a list will come up; check for the 3 points above if you're a bit 'belt and braces' like me, and you should be fine.
Well, that's me and my new to me, used Neo, and I've written this whole thing on it. (I've edited the article slightly on my laptop, but basically the whole thing was written on it.)
I'll be blogging about what it's like living with it over the coming months. If I do Nanowrimo this year – still tbc – I will probably use it as my main writing device because I'll take it everywhere.
Until next time,
Liam Livings xxx