I’ll try to post a few of my writing tips over the next weeks and share some of my working (or not) ideas.
Someone asked my about Dragon Speech, so here it comes: About 4 weeks ago, I’ve been trying to write about 2k every day, but after a while, my wrist started hurting really bad. I’ve had it before and will probably have it forever, as soon as I write too much (longhanded or at the computer). Anyway, I met a fellow author online who recommended Dragon to me. I figured I’d try it, since my hand hurt really bad.
My husband encouraged me, even though it’s pretty expensive (200€)
I bought it, did the training and it was horrible. I sounded like I was telling a story in school. I also read about authors dictating 3k in an hour. I didn’t even get 500 done. I can write about 1200 in an hour, when I’m typing fast. With Dragon, it was like pulling teeth. But I didn’t have a choice, so I stayed with it. I had to get used to form the sentence in my head and instead of sending it to my fingers, I had to speak it. I also had to learn to say Quotationmark, Comma, Period and so on, because you have to dictate everything.
About three days in, it got better. My hand didn’t hurt (that was the best part) and I finally managed to sound like “me”. I also made about 800-1000 words in an hour.
Now, four weeks into it, I can easily write 2500-3000 words in an hour. I also hit my personal goal of 5k on one day (my best have been 3,5k before that). Now I usually do at least one day per week where I write between 4 and 5k.
I stopped editing/fixing every sentence, except when I mess up a sentence beyond everything. (that still happens) I need to edit my ms anyway, and most of my sentences get changed when I edit, so I would only fix something I might cut later anyway. I also edit with the keyboard, since that’s something that I couldn’t do with Dragon.
It’s a lot to learn and don’t expect to be as fast as you are with typing, but in my eyes, it’s worth it. And speed will come with time. (It took me exactly 23 minutes to write my first 1k today.) And you’ll get used to dictate when your partner is around. That was very weird in the beginning. Now he simply ignores me 🙂
Also, since I work with a macbook Pro, I didn’t need anything except the software. If you have a windows PC, you will need a microphone. There’s an app for iphone, but I haven’t tried it yet.
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me. There’s also a support group on facebook. Let me know how your experiences went.
*Disclaimer* I bought Dragon Speech as everyone else does. These experiences are mine only and I received nothing in return for writing this. I also didn’t add any links here. Please search for Dragon or Nuance (that’s the software company) if you’re interested in purchasing it.
Chris McHart 