The Writer's Guide to Training Your Dragon: Using Speech Recognition Software to Dictate Your Book and Supercharge Your Writing Workflow (Dictation Mastery for PC and Mac) by Scott Baker

Author:Scott Baker [Baker, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ashe Publishing
Published: 2016-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

Your First Hurdle: Getting Used to Dictation

Let's be clear on this: dictation is an art. Some would also say it's an acquired taste, but we're not going to dwell on that. Because while writers will seemingly always find ways to either procrastinate or find any excuse not to use dictation, it has to be regarded as necessary. We've already talked about the benefits for your health and your word count, so isn't that reason enough? Besides, if you master the art of dictation then you give yourself the ability to write absolutely anywhere. We'll look at ways you can do that later, but for now it's important to focus on changing your mindset about dictation and how it relates to writing.

Writing is not typing. That's the first big misconception out of the way. I have lost count of the amount of writers – and I include myself in this category, on more than one occasion – who have told me that they simply can't use Dragon or any form of dictation as it doesn't feel natural to them. They talk of how a different part of your brain is required, how it feels soulless, blah blah blah. I'm going to be blunt here – these are excuses, and there is no excuse for making them!

Just like that other classic, "writer's block", there simply comes a time when you have to pull your big boy or girl pants on and get the work done. Dragon is no different to typing. There, I said it. It's just a different route to getting your words onto a page. Yes, there is some brain training to do. Specifically, you have to adjust to writing through your mouth instead of through your fingers. It can seem cumbersome having to dictate things like punctuation, but your brain does a little trick when you hit the quote, comma or period keys on your keyboard. You don't think of it when you do it, do you? The trick with dictation is to get to that point so talking feels as natural as typing.

Your first task is to write a throwaway story off the top of your head. Think of any topic, be it non-fiction or fiction, and just talk to your computer. Better still, close your eyes while you do it and ignore the screen completely. Seeing your words appear in front of you may be slightly magical but it's also fairly distracting, so cut that out of the equation right away and you'll put yourself in a better position in the future when you come to dictate while walking around or speaking into a voice recorder. There's no screen in front of you then, either, so it makes sense to form a habit that works straight away.

Don't worry at this point about story structure or anything even being remotely decent. All you are doing is getting words into Dragon so you can see how accurate your setup is and how much correction needs to be done. We'll

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