Today, we’ll be discussing the super-productive (and healthy) writing method that everybody is talking about — dictation! Yay! Isn’t that exciting?
COME BACK HERE YOU COWARDS.
Look, I know exactly what you’re thinking right now. Most likely, something along the lines of “bleagh.” Maybe you don’t want to hear yourself telling your story out loud. Maybe it seems clunky to you to channel your creativity through the spoken word instead of your fingers. Maybe you’re not fond of speaking in public, and you’re concerned that the same discomfort will crop up when you try to dictate.
These are all perfectly valid concerns, and believe me, I spent plenty of time grappling with all of them myself. However, I can testify that once you overcome them, you may very well discover that dictation opens up a whole new dimension of productivity for you. I’ve actually written an entire book related to this topic, which will soon be freely available for those who subscribe to my new nonfiction email newsletter. For now, I’ll just give you a few basic insights on how I learned to stop worrying and love the microphone…and how you can too.
It Won’t Cost Much…Just Your Voice
Let’s get one thing out of the way right from the start — dictation can require some initial investment of money. The best dictation software available is currently Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which costs $300 (if you get the version that includes digital transcription, which I recommend). That said, however, there are good, basic dictation options available for free — for example, the dictation function in Google Docs. These don’t have all the same variety of features as Dragon, but they’re getting better all the time, and they will at least allow you to get your feet wet. You may want to try these first while you’re making up your mind about whether or not dictation is right for you. I’ve worked with Google Docs on occasions when I only had a mobile device to dictate with, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much it can do.
Your Brain Will Filter Out Your Constant Blabber
The biggest issue I had when I start dictating was the fact that I didn’t really care for the sound of my own voice. I actually think this is true of most people, no matter how good they may sound to others. When I write, I hear my characters’ voices in my head, with their unique inflections and accents, not my own voice. Thus, telling my stories out loud felt very wrong in the beginning.
Then I discovered something interesting. After a while, I stopped listening to my voice. Think of it this way: when you type, you’re not constantly focusing on the clickety-clack of the keys, are you? Your brain filters that out after a while. This same phenomenon comes into play with dictation. After many hours of practice, when I dictate now, I barely pay any attention to how the words sound coming out of my mouth. I’m seeing the typewritten page in my head, and I’m still hearing my characters’ voices. This has allowed me to achieve the same kind of creative flow that I have when I’m typing, but through a different channel.
There’s No Need to Obsess on Punctuation
By this, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t put in punctuation as you dictate. Some writers do leave the punctuation out and then put it in after they’re done dictating, but I think this leaves you with too much work in the editing phase. What I mean is, don’t be put off from dictating by the fact that you’re going to have to speak your punctuation out loud. It’s going to feel weird to say “comma, period, open quotes, close quotes, etc.” as you write, but just like the sound of your own voice, your brain is going to filter this out after you’ve had a reasonable amount of practice. Think about it. You’re not consciously aware of your fingers reaching for the punctuation keys as you type, are you? Plus, dictation handles things like capitalization at the beginning of sentences automatically, so you don’t even have to worry about this step. I didn’t enjoy saying all my marks of punctuation out loud when I began dictating, but these days, I’m barely even aware that I’m doing it.
Take a Gulp and Take a Breath, Go Ahead, Dictate the Draft
Regardless of whether you’re dictating or typing, I am a big believer in never going back to fix anything until you’re done drafting. And I really mean never going back to fix anything, even the little stuff. All those brief pauses during which you go back and tweak things add up to a lot of lost time and stalled momentum in the long run. When I dictate, I don’t bother with Dragon’s correction commands (and if you go with a free option, you probably won’t have those anyway). If there’s something I want to change, I make a note to myself in the text (in brackets) to go back and do that when I reach the editing phase, and I move on. Yes, this makes the draft look messy. My first drafts are downright hideous. But they’re also finished, which is the important thing. They’re raw clay that I can shape into something beautiful. And they would still be nothing more than raw clay even if I had spent extra time trying to make them look pretty as I initially wrote them. Drafting is drafting, editing is editing. One is always going to be messy, the other is always going to be more precise. Don’t try to mix the two together at all. This is good advice for any form of writing, but especially for dictation. A tendency to self-correct too often was what nearly caused me to give up dictating when I first gave the method a try. If you can eliminate this from your workflow early on, you’ll have a much easier time adapting to the dictation process.
Yes, I’ve Had the Odd Complaint
In conclusion, I want to point out that despite everything I’ve said, dictation may not be for you. You need to write by whatever method is most beneficial to your productivity and creativity. Plus, it’s not all about getting high word counts. I still do plenty of typing, even though I tend to emphasize dictation these days. Alternating between the two helps to keep me from burning out.
However, I’ll say this: don’t knock dictation until you’ve tried it. In the beginning, I absolutely hated dictation, and I was sure that it would never work for me. Now, I couldn’t be happier that I forced myself to keep practicing until I finally cracked this process. Even if you’re sure that you’re never going to be interested in dictating, do yourself a favor and give it a shot first. You may surprise yourself.
And yes, I dictated this entire blog post.
No, I’m not going to upload the audio file to prove it.
