I would like to hear the experiences of anyone who has tried dictating their manuscripts rather than typing and particularly, at what stage of the writing process they have used it.
I would like to hear the experiences of anyone who has tried dictating their manuscripts rather than typing and particularly, at what stage of the writing process they have used it.
I have used ‘Dragon Naturally Speaking’ to dictate my work, and find if effective, though you do have to spend many hours in training it to fit with your voice. It is quite startling (at first) to see the words come onto the computer screen as you speak. Make sure you are using the correct ‘local’ English programme – you don’t want the American ‘skedule’ when it should be the European ‘shedule’ (or vice-versa).
Having given the device a thorough trial (over a month at about two hours per day) I rejected it as I can type faster than it can transcribe. Any reasonably competent touch-typist should be able to beat these artificial dictating machines – but you have to learn to touch-type first!
If you do not already touch-type, it should take you about two months to learn; again at a couple of hours a day (every day!). You will start to think asdf;lkj in your sleep.
Incidentally, the reason I started dictating to my computer was because I had lost much of my finger dexterity following a rather nasty heart operation. It took a couple of months before the dexterity began to return, so the ‘Dragon’ came in useful.
When I dictated, I did not dictate my early notes, only the first full draft. Further drafts I worked on via the keyboard.
I haven’t dictated a whole manuscript, but I’ll use my phone to record phrases or ideas that come to mind.