As stories race through my mind and I can't get them typed up fast enough without losing the story, I was wondering, do you think it's worth my while to learn short-hand or some other method? Does anyone know how long it can take on average? Thank you.
Thank you very much too Cherry and Lorraine for your help. More information to digest and consider is always wonderful.
I have worked as a journalist and a writer and ghostwriter and have never used shorthand. I think there are great programmes out there, but I always type up my notes myself as it helps me process the information better,
If you are comfortable with dictating and can do it, that's fine - I can't speak my writing, as it were. I looked into this when I had a problem typing, but it wasn't for me. As you have arthritis, this could be a good idea for the future.
Do be aware that if you use this for proper writing, not just notes, where punctuation matters, you'll need to edit it really carefully! I reviewed a novel obviously written via one of these machines, and the author even credited an editor, but it was full of errors and was as a result unreadable.
You can create your own speed-writing technique, as students do for lectures. So long as you can read it afterwards, you don't need it to be formal shorthand.