As someone who writes a lot on a daily basis I’ve always wanted an e-ink tablet that could run Word and OneNote smoothly. With a foldable keyboard it is the perfect distraction free working environment.
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Nearest thing is probably the Onyx Boox Note Air w/keyboard case. But OneNote still needs Microsoft to add e-ink support to OneNote. It can’t be done (legally) by third parties. And, of course, you need to be happy with the Android implementations of it and Word.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/lulnq9/onyx_boox_note_air_keyboard_im_actually_mad/
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Boox’s new scribble layer works very well for me when taking hand written notes on OneNote. I wouldn’t call using the app “smooth” as it’s an Android app on eInk, so screen refreshes are wonky, but writing is perfectly smooth once you’re sitting in a note.
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Coincidentally, my eldest sibling did a writer seminar with John Irving once upon a time. She says he wasn’t that good of a teacher but fascinating to listen and talk to.
She got all fired up yesterday “for the first time in ten years”, she said, after I told her of my completion on NaNoWriMo. The Freewrite devices intrigued her but the price tag gave her pause. I doubt anything will come of her enthusiasm. She’s handicapped by decades of being an editor and educator of English—Masters degree, English professor at Denver and Cincinnati state universities, years of side work as a professional editor and occasionally grading SAT essays, etc. Though she’s tried to write novels they always get bogged down in early critical revision and abandoned, never more than a third of a way through. So she has never finished the first draft of a novel and doubts that she could do NaNoWriMo.
Anyway, it seems there’s more interest in a Freewrite kind of writing machine than I first supposed.
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Off the record the Freewrite engineer said Irving was more than a bit of a jerk.
Also if she or anyone has serious interest in the FreeWrite, we’ve seen them show up on ebay now and then at a substantial discount, I’m assuming from those that bought one and found it more limiting than they anticipated.
And going slightly further off topic, cause that’s what we do here 
, earlier this year, as we were cleaning out some storage as part of the corporate “right-sizing” I came across three, still in the shrinkwrap, copies of the writing app that originated the "clean, no distractions " mode for writing.
WriteNow for next computers and then the old 68K Macs. That was hands down my favorite word processor program, but alas, like many others it was vanquished by the behemoth that is Microsoft Word. Though a couple of the key engineers did end up at Claris and then Apple proper with the Pages app.
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Hey @Dellaster, I’ve been more than a little intrigued by your NaNoWriMo adventures, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the HumbleBundle (that’s ending in two days):
Do you use any particular writing resources yourself and do any of the books in the bundle seem good for amateur writers?
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Sorry, can’t help with the Humble Bundle. I haven’t read any of those. Maybe someone else here has.
I read a lot of books on writing in the 80s and 90s, many of them surely out of print by now since they predated ebooks. Because of my rekindled interest I have tried some new ones and there is one I would recommend by Jessica Brody:
I’ve been listening to the audiobook (will likely also buy the ebook for easier reference) and I wish it had existed a long time ago when I first got interested in writing. Things might have gone differently. My next novel attempt will use what I‘m learning from it.
I’m also liking a couple of Great Courses audiobooks that I’m listening to. One by James Scott Bell…
… the other by James Hyne:
I haven’t gotten halfway through either of the latter two—Great Courses tend to be very lengthy —but both have had insights and approaches that I have never encountered before.
Anyway, those are the only resources I’m using right now. There’s a lot out there nowadays, so good luck with it!
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Top those all off with a sprinkle of
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Cool, thanks @Dellaster.
Of those two, which one would you recommend for someone who’d want to write something oh about the level of a trashy, pulp novel. You know the kind you’d dig in over lunch break, but would never admit to liking in front of others. 
Strunk and White is actually the one book I’ve been familiar with since I found it on my parents’ bookshelf as a kid.
I swear I had the strictest high school English teacher you’ve ever seen, and that book saved my ass. I can still hear her lectures about diction and brevity swear to this day. :shudder:
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Trashy? Hm, I guess the one by James Scott Bell since he started out as a trial lawyer. 
Kidding, but Bell is all about commercial fiction, stuff that allows people to escape reality for a little while, and his lectures are focused on that kind of writing.
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Not entirely sure but I think Margaret Atwood and Lee Child did one of those Master classes.
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Yeah, to be clear, I’m not making suggestions as if I know anything (I don’t). Just answering the question as to what I am using right now. There are doubtless plenty of great resources out there I know nothing about.
Without a doubt the best book about writing I’ve ever read is Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s not necessarily chock full of technical tips, but it has the best practical advice and is good for motivation.
For the best technical book, The Elements of Style is definitely it.
There are a few other books I’ve read over the years that have had some good advice. The Great Courses has a few I’ve liked. Save The Cat is definitely good, however the very best advice anyone can give on writing is, just write. Nothing beats just sitting down and doing it, no matter how bad you start at it, just keep writing.
And the second best thing for writing isn’t from books. Join a writer’s group where people can talk with you about your writing and you can talk with them about theirs. That is the best way to learn and grow.
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Required reading for law student (most of which is ignored once they get out in the real world). I think it was required for my research and writing class.
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This was required reading for my English degree. I still have mine.
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I hate to admit that mine is an original blue Second Edition from my high school honors English class
That has to be worth something! To all ten of us who still use that book.
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Every English student, writer, journalist, and editor should have to pass a test on the final chapter - An Approach to Style - before they can EVER publish a single word…
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