My Way to Keep My Writing in Motion
Keep Writing – Keep In Motion
Down at the train yard it takes five people to push an empty boxcar into motion. But once the car is in motion, it only takes one person to keep it moving. Writing seems to be that way when you’re motivated.
Creative writing takes a lot of effort to start, but what is the secret for staying in motion?
As I have mentioned before I draft my stories using a pencil and a spiral notebook. This way to put down my ideas quick while before the text dissipates. Later, I will put that draft into the computer. First, I lock the door to prevent interruptions, make sure I have refreshment handy (water, pop, tea, snacks), banish my demanding cat to the basement, and sit down at the computer.
But what happens when my clumsy typing skills take me out of creative mode?
I prevent that by using Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) speech recognition software and speak into a microphone to transfer my creative thoughts to text. This took time getting used to. However, the efforts paid off as I increased my writing output. Using DNS I can deliver my stories three times faster than I can type them. I am not a trained typist so I use the hunt and peck method and often end up with a bunch of gibberish underlined with red lines. When I go back to correct the misspelled words, I forget which word I intended to use. Worse, my spelling is not stellar. I spell phonetically, but the correction mode guesses my intention and may give the wrong word. It takes several tries to get the right spelling. When that happens, I will stop my story creation mode to look words up in the dictionary, or even worse, come up with a synonym.
Is Dragon Naturally Speaking or any Speech Recognition Software Easy to Use?
The negative part of using DNS is the time required to ‘train’ the software to understand me without the software misunderstanding my voice. But as the instructions state, it ‘gets smarter as it learns the words and phrases you use the most, spelling even difficult words and proper names correctly.’ In the beginning, I had to go back and repeat words to get the program to react and type. If I wasn’t paying attention, the software typed a group of words that were not what I said. Then while editing I didn’t remember what I meant and had to sound out words so the software will type the right words. If I have words or names are not in the software’s dictionary, there is an area where you can train the software to recognize strange words or names. After that initial phase, the software got to know my voice and has made my story creation easier.
In the long run, despite the hassles I had in the beginning, DNS allows me to stay in creative motion. Keep writing. Don’t stop.
More on My Way to Keep My Writing in Motion
Motivation Tips that Actually Work: 6 Sure-Fire Ways to Get Writing and Keep Writing
Writing My Novel: Keep on Writing
A book in itself is unlikely to make or break you, but it is a powerful extension of your business or blog. More…
Tell everyone about your stories. More…
Need more help brainstorming your story? More…
Don’t forget to edit your character’s story. Are you using the right words to describe them? More …
Start Writing Now – This book is for the dreamers who say one day they will write their stories and become a writer. Then they forget their dreams of writing. But they can write now – write those stories now. I mean right now.
How Not To Write A One Star Novel – Do you want to create a five star novel? Learn from other writers’ mistakes and prevent yourself from receiving any one star reviews for you hard work. Here is your free e-book.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!