Writer's: Have You Ever Thought About Dictating Your Book?

     If you are currently writing a book and struggling because you do not type fast, or maybe you feel as if your thoughts are faster than your hands can type, then you just might want to consider dictating your book.  Dictating a book can be fast and easy once you get the hang of doing it day in and day out.

     Here is a video of a person dictating their book:

     There are many devices that allow you to do this, and one of them is the "Dragon Naturally Speaking" device.  There are various versions of this device since the makers of this product keep improving it and the voice recognition features to it.  This product can run between $50 - $70 dollar depending on where you buy it.  (Here is a video showing you how this device works).

     Here is another video where a person is reviewing the "Dragon Naturally Speaking - Home Edition" version.

     There is also a way you can play with this dictation technology for free as long as you have a Gmail account.  Since Google owns Gmail this will allow you to use Google Drive where you can actually use the voice dictation feature inside this program.  (See video below showing this).

     Personally, as an author, I have to admit that I struggle with dictating my book.  I guess it's because I always feel the need to edit my book as I write.  Yes, I know that this isn't always the best thing to do.  I know that a writer should just write the first draft and not edit it until the first draft is completely finished.  But, I will admit the one time that I do use the Google Drive voice dictation feature is when I have an important scene to write.  I find that this works great for just these types of scenes because a lot of times my brain generally works so much faster than my fingers.  Although I can type between 55-60 wpm, it is in these times where I need to be able to type at least 100-130 wpm, so being able to dictate an important scene inside of Google Drive helps.  I let the voice dictation type while I just talk and talk and talk.  Then I go back to the scene and fix anything that the voice dictation didn't get right.  I also put in all punctuation and such at that point.  When I'm done with fixing the scene I cut and paste it into my original book template.  I don't know if I could write a whole book using dictation, but some writer's say that if you continue to use this technology it gets easier.  So I'll leave this up to you.

     I also discovered something really interesting when I was researching dictation and that was Evernote.  Yes, Evernote...I discovered has a way for a person to use this technology and their phone on the go so you can write while away from your desk.  (see video below where this is explained.

     So as you can surely see writing a book is becoming easier and easier with today's technology.

     In my next blog entry, I am going to discuss how to write descriptively.  This is a blog article that I am going to have to do a lot of research on.  I have to admit that I love dialogue more than description when I write, so this research I hope will not only help you but me as well since I am currently working on a historical, romance novel and I know that description will be important to this story.

     So stay tuned!