Day 207: Massive health issues
So, except for one day of work on the 21st, the last ten days were pretty much a complete wash because of health issues—migraines, IBS. I really don't know what I could have eaten to cause either of them, so I was rather shocked to be incapacitated when I'd been feeling well on Monday the 14th.
It was also frustrating because I thought I'd been finally figuring out some tips and tricks to make my dictation work, and I'd been looking forward to trying them.
Anyway, I spent most of the last 10 days in pain and listening to audiobooks. I suppose refilling the creative well isn't a bad way to spend my time—it wasn't a waste of time, anyway—and reading always helps me with my writing in some way.
In the meantime, I got a new computer monitor, but the stand it came with is too high for my desk. I had to order an adjustable monitor mount. I suppose it was good I was too sick to work, because otherwise I’d have had to work with a very unergonomic monitor setup. The mount came a couple days ago and the new monitor and mount is even better ergonomically than my previous monitor.
On the 21st, I felt a little better and did some editing of the writing I did with dictation in my last session, but I didn’t finish the editing completely.
Today I still have a bit of a headache, but it’s not too bad so I’ll continue on the editing and maybe get it done.
***
I finished the editing in very little time, so I went into writing the next scene.
I dictated and recorded it into an MP3 file, rather than dictating into the Dragon program, because I read that Dragon transcription is much more accurate. Apparently it does several passes through the recording as it does the transcription.
The dictation started off very rough and very badly. I had a lot of blank space as I tried to think of what to say, and I ended up resaying things as I was trying to figure out how to open the scene. While I sometimes have difficulty starting writing, it is rarely as bad as that, and I got very frustrated at the end of my first 15 minute recording.
However, I had decided to full commit to dictation for the rest of this book because I have read that the people who succeed at dictation tend to be ones who fully commit to doing dictation (usually because of debilitating injury). So I decided to power through another 15 minute session.
The second session was a bit better, although there were still a lot of times where I wasn’t saying anything, and I had to repeat/rewrite sentences often. After transcribing, I did corrections in Dragon, in order to train it, but I didn’t do any editing, so the rough draft is exactly as I dictated it, and it’s abominably messy.
It’s very frustrating because I do not have the clean rough drafts I’ve seen on the Dragon dictation Facebook group. I don’t know if it’s because of a difference in how I write, or if I just need more practice. I tend to rewrite sentences as I go (which I think is also what I do when I write by typing, even when I’m using something like an Alphasmart), which makes the resulting rough draft extremely messy, since I’m repeating sentences as I reword them.
Since I have committed to doing dictation, I will continue, but today’s dictation session really made me want to throw in the towel. I’ve noticed that long sentences especially are difficult for me to dictate—I lost the thread of my thoughts in the middle of a long sentence and I just ended it and hope to correct it later.
Most people who dictate say that they just want to get the words down and they’ll edit it later. I can understand the thinking behind that, but so far, the resulting editing of my dictation is almost like an entire rewrite. It really makes me wonder if dictation will make my life any easier.
Also, this time I kept my timer going while I did both the dictation and the correction in Dragon (since I was correcting what wouldn’t have been erroneous if I’d been typing), and the resultant words per hour rate was about 1000 words per hour, which really isn’t much different from when I write with my keyboard.
I have to keep reminding myself that I’ve committed to doing dictation for the rest of the book, to try to get more practice in. The Dragon dictation Facebook group often says that for most people, it takes a lot of practice to get better at dictation.
If that’s true, then my words per hour rate should get faster, and my self-editing time should also decrease as I do less rewording while I dictate. So I will continue with the dictation and see if my numbers show my progress, or if things don’t change much.
I also want to compare the total time it takes for me to write a book using dictation versus typing.
People say dictation is better ergonomically, but my experience so far has been that while the dictation time does not involve typing, I instead have increased self-editing time, which involves more mouse-work and causes problems with my right wrist.
So right now, dictation is not more efficient than typing because the self-editing of the dictation takes a lot longer. But if practice enables me to get better at dictation and produce a cleaner rough draft, then the self-editing time should also decrease, and the dictation might become more efficient than typing.
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 19 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 6 minutes (includes both dictation and correction time)
Writing: Total number of words: 1126 words (corrected, but not edited, and because of copious repetition, final will be significantly less)
Writing: Average speed: 1024 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: I’ve committed to dictation (painful as that is so far) but I will continue to monitor my writing time and hard data to see if I can get better and see if dictation is more efficient than typing.
It was also frustrating because I thought I'd been finally figuring out some tips and tricks to make my dictation work, and I'd been looking forward to trying them.
Anyway, I spent most of the last 10 days in pain and listening to audiobooks. I suppose refilling the creative well isn't a bad way to spend my time—it wasn't a waste of time, anyway—and reading always helps me with my writing in some way.
In the meantime, I got a new computer monitor, but the stand it came with is too high for my desk. I had to order an adjustable monitor mount. I suppose it was good I was too sick to work, because otherwise I’d have had to work with a very unergonomic monitor setup. The mount came a couple days ago and the new monitor and mount is even better ergonomically than my previous monitor.
On the 21st, I felt a little better and did some editing of the writing I did with dictation in my last session, but I didn’t finish the editing completely.
Today I still have a bit of a headache, but it’s not too bad so I’ll continue on the editing and maybe get it done.
***
I finished the editing in very little time, so I went into writing the next scene.
I dictated and recorded it into an MP3 file, rather than dictating into the Dragon program, because I read that Dragon transcription is much more accurate. Apparently it does several passes through the recording as it does the transcription.
The dictation started off very rough and very badly. I had a lot of blank space as I tried to think of what to say, and I ended up resaying things as I was trying to figure out how to open the scene. While I sometimes have difficulty starting writing, it is rarely as bad as that, and I got very frustrated at the end of my first 15 minute recording.
However, I had decided to full commit to dictation for the rest of this book because I have read that the people who succeed at dictation tend to be ones who fully commit to doing dictation (usually because of debilitating injury). So I decided to power through another 15 minute session.
The second session was a bit better, although there were still a lot of times where I wasn’t saying anything, and I had to repeat/rewrite sentences often. After transcribing, I did corrections in Dragon, in order to train it, but I didn’t do any editing, so the rough draft is exactly as I dictated it, and it’s abominably messy.
It’s very frustrating because I do not have the clean rough drafts I’ve seen on the Dragon dictation Facebook group. I don’t know if it’s because of a difference in how I write, or if I just need more practice. I tend to rewrite sentences as I go (which I think is also what I do when I write by typing, even when I’m using something like an Alphasmart), which makes the resulting rough draft extremely messy, since I’m repeating sentences as I reword them.
Since I have committed to doing dictation, I will continue, but today’s dictation session really made me want to throw in the towel. I’ve noticed that long sentences especially are difficult for me to dictate—I lost the thread of my thoughts in the middle of a long sentence and I just ended it and hope to correct it later.
Most people who dictate say that they just want to get the words down and they’ll edit it later. I can understand the thinking behind that, but so far, the resulting editing of my dictation is almost like an entire rewrite. It really makes me wonder if dictation will make my life any easier.
Also, this time I kept my timer going while I did both the dictation and the correction in Dragon (since I was correcting what wouldn’t have been erroneous if I’d been typing), and the resultant words per hour rate was about 1000 words per hour, which really isn’t much different from when I write with my keyboard.
I have to keep reminding myself that I’ve committed to doing dictation for the rest of the book, to try to get more practice in. The Dragon dictation Facebook group often says that for most people, it takes a lot of practice to get better at dictation.
If that’s true, then my words per hour rate should get faster, and my self-editing time should also decrease as I do less rewording while I dictate. So I will continue with the dictation and see if my numbers show my progress, or if things don’t change much.
I also want to compare the total time it takes for me to write a book using dictation versus typing.
People say dictation is better ergonomically, but my experience so far has been that while the dictation time does not involve typing, I instead have increased self-editing time, which involves more mouse-work and causes problems with my right wrist.
So right now, dictation is not more efficient than typing because the self-editing of the dictation takes a lot longer. But if practice enables me to get better at dictation and produce a cleaner rough draft, then the self-editing time should also decrease, and the dictation might become more efficient than typing.
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 19 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 6 minutes (includes both dictation and correction time)
Writing: Total number of words: 1126 words (corrected, but not edited, and because of copious repetition, final will be significantly less)
Writing: Average speed: 1024 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: I’ve committed to dictation (painful as that is so far) but I will continue to monitor my writing time and hard data to see if I can get better and see if dictation is more efficient than typing.
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