My next stop in a journey t
o find a comfortable, inspiring writing place lands me on the outdoor patio of a Jamba Juice. For all of my “tests” I write on a Microsoft Surface RT with Touch Cover keyboard and Word 2013. The view isn’t terrible, and the little flowers are nice to look at now and again when searching for a word. The chairs and table are black wire mesh and extremely uncomfortable, making this writing a trip shorter than I had imagined. The traffic noise along the busy avenue create a nice little hum that can help keep with rhythm, or be totally distracting, depending on how one looks at it. There is always the fun activity of people watching, which at this location is plentiful, as I can see inside the store and try to guess which drink people ordered, or I can watch people driving by in their cars.
Actual writing time at this location has mostly positive results, as the distractions are mostly background noise. I was able to get a good dialogue flow going between several characters and not stop once in the middle of the conversation to determine where it was going. The words were able to flow freely and quickly, especially using the traffic noise as a rhythm marker. If Jamba Juice could work on the quality of their patio seating, I would be inclined to come back, stay longer, and even order a second drink. This one is out. *slurp*
Oh, Jamba Juice. I miss the one by the theater we used to have here.
How do you like writing on a tablet-keyboard combo?
Hello! I enjoy typing and writing with my Surface Tablet. You can read my article about the device and why I think every writer needs one here: https://ryanrpalmer.com/2012/11/17/surface-the-perfect-writers-companion/
Once you get used to typing on a touch sensitive device, I find my word count is on par with using a traditional desktop computer. Plus, I enjoy the portability and battery life a Tablet provides.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you come back for more!
Ah, cool. Glad it’s working well for you! I have an iPad, but there isn’t really any software for it yet that can do more than the really basic stuff as far as word processing goes. Every time I use it for writing I end up having to tweak formatting back in Office on the PC, which ends up being kind of a turn-off for using it at all.
Office will be coming to iPad in 2013 in some form or another.
So I’ve heard, but the rumors seem to be pointing toward a super-stripped-down version that may or may not even be able to edit without a subscription to their cloud service.