Day 508: Dictation: I need to think in full sentences
I am roadkill
It’s been extremely frustrating to wake up so many mornings feeling like a dump truck ran me over. My sinus headaches have not let up, and even now I still have a throbbing pain behind my right eye that won’t go away no matter how many drugs I throw at it.
However, I’m grateful that the drugs took the worst edge off the pain and let me get some work done today. I think I’ve been getting better at managing my health issues, knowing when to take more medicine and when to just back off and rest.
Japanese
I forgot to mention my Japanese studies, but on days that I have more energy, I’ve been doing it before I do any writing work.
I find I definitely feel better when I do it first, before my writing. There were a couple days when I did it after I did my writing—I only did 100 words because I wasn’t feeling well, but then I felt better a little later and decided to do some Japanese. But maybe because I was tired by then because of my health issues, or just because it was late in the day, but I didn’t get much Japanese study done, just the bare minimum, because I was tired.
If I were really going to a full experiment, I’d do my Japanese after my writing for a week or two just to see how I feel, but I already know it probably won’t work very well, and I don’t really want to waste two weeks of Japanese study just to positively affirm the results.
I haven’t been getting a lot of Japanese work done lately because of my sinus headaches, but I’ve been trying to keep up with my latest flashcards so that I don’t forget the stuff I’ve most recently learned.
Dictation, day three
My microphone was already hooked up and the recording app was even open, so I was able to jump right into the dictation. I was going to only do 15 minutes, but I would have ended in the middle of a fight scene, so I decided to finish the fight. Then I was almost at the end of the scene, so I kept going until that was done.
I finally figured out my equipment and software set up for my Dragon software, so transcription of my dictation recording is pretty seamless. However, it’s also time-consuming since my computer isn’t the fastest and I’m using an older version of Dragon (13 Premium, rather than the latest which I think is 15). Or maybe I’m just too impatient a person.
The editing today took a really long time. There were a lot of typos because I accidentally rotated my microphone in the middle of dictation (so I was speaking into its side rather than into the front) and didn’t correct it until halfway. Also Dragon isn’t trained yet, especially when it comes to weird names, and I had forgotten to take the time to correct the names when my Dragon program was still open. I closed the program and only then remembered that I should have taken the time to train Dragon. But I was too lazy to open the program again, transcribe the recording again, and then correct the errors and train Dragon.
I also had forgotten a couple things in my blocking notes when I was dictating, and so I had to add that in to the prose as I was editing. That kind of revision always seems to take me a long time. It’s partly because revision in general isn’t one of my strengths, but also because that kind of revision—adding little things into a piece of prose already written—is kind of difficult for me.
But overall, the dictation today went well. My writing speed was the fastest yet, even though I had to delete about 1/3 of those words (again, just like yesterday). I ended up adding even more words when revising, so my final word count on my manuscript was about the same before and after editing.
It sounds really impressive when I say I wrote 1800 words in 40 minutes, but since I had to delete 500 of those words, and after I added the extra time needed for more extensive editing, it’s more like 1300 words in a little over an hour. I also think my editing is even worse than normal because I have many more little typos and punctuation to correct than usual, so I don’t pay as much attention and notice as much about the writing as I would if it were cleaner.
I don’t think I’ll be impressed with dictation until I can produce cleaner prose. I know that will only come with practice, so maybe I should focus more on thinking my complete sentences before I speak them. I know that when typing, I tend to think in phrases rather than in whole sentences. But for dictation, I will need to think in full sentences instead if I want to have cleaner prose.
I wanted to get more blocking done today, but my headache is only getting worse, so I think I’ll just rest the rest of tonight.
***
Writing: Time spent: 40 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1868 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 2775 words/hour
Writing streak: 21 days
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 24 minutes
Blocking: time spent: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: Focus more on thinking in full sentences to make the dictation cleaner.
It’s been extremely frustrating to wake up so many mornings feeling like a dump truck ran me over. My sinus headaches have not let up, and even now I still have a throbbing pain behind my right eye that won’t go away no matter how many drugs I throw at it.
However, I’m grateful that the drugs took the worst edge off the pain and let me get some work done today. I think I’ve been getting better at managing my health issues, knowing when to take more medicine and when to just back off and rest.
Japanese
I forgot to mention my Japanese studies, but on days that I have more energy, I’ve been doing it before I do any writing work.
I find I definitely feel better when I do it first, before my writing. There were a couple days when I did it after I did my writing—I only did 100 words because I wasn’t feeling well, but then I felt better a little later and decided to do some Japanese. But maybe because I was tired by then because of my health issues, or just because it was late in the day, but I didn’t get much Japanese study done, just the bare minimum, because I was tired.
If I were really going to a full experiment, I’d do my Japanese after my writing for a week or two just to see how I feel, but I already know it probably won’t work very well, and I don’t really want to waste two weeks of Japanese study just to positively affirm the results.
I haven’t been getting a lot of Japanese work done lately because of my sinus headaches, but I’ve been trying to keep up with my latest flashcards so that I don’t forget the stuff I’ve most recently learned.
Dictation, day three
My microphone was already hooked up and the recording app was even open, so I was able to jump right into the dictation. I was going to only do 15 minutes, but I would have ended in the middle of a fight scene, so I decided to finish the fight. Then I was almost at the end of the scene, so I kept going until that was done.
I finally figured out my equipment and software set up for my Dragon software, so transcription of my dictation recording is pretty seamless. However, it’s also time-consuming since my computer isn’t the fastest and I’m using an older version of Dragon (13 Premium, rather than the latest which I think is 15). Or maybe I’m just too impatient a person.
The editing today took a really long time. There were a lot of typos because I accidentally rotated my microphone in the middle of dictation (so I was speaking into its side rather than into the front) and didn’t correct it until halfway. Also Dragon isn’t trained yet, especially when it comes to weird names, and I had forgotten to take the time to correct the names when my Dragon program was still open. I closed the program and only then remembered that I should have taken the time to train Dragon. But I was too lazy to open the program again, transcribe the recording again, and then correct the errors and train Dragon.
I also had forgotten a couple things in my blocking notes when I was dictating, and so I had to add that in to the prose as I was editing. That kind of revision always seems to take me a long time. It’s partly because revision in general isn’t one of my strengths, but also because that kind of revision—adding little things into a piece of prose already written—is kind of difficult for me.
But overall, the dictation today went well. My writing speed was the fastest yet, even though I had to delete about 1/3 of those words (again, just like yesterday). I ended up adding even more words when revising, so my final word count on my manuscript was about the same before and after editing.
It sounds really impressive when I say I wrote 1800 words in 40 minutes, but since I had to delete 500 of those words, and after I added the extra time needed for more extensive editing, it’s more like 1300 words in a little over an hour. I also think my editing is even worse than normal because I have many more little typos and punctuation to correct than usual, so I don’t pay as much attention and notice as much about the writing as I would if it were cleaner.
I don’t think I’ll be impressed with dictation until I can produce cleaner prose. I know that will only come with practice, so maybe I should focus more on thinking my complete sentences before I speak them. I know that when typing, I tend to think in phrases rather than in whole sentences. But for dictation, I will need to think in full sentences instead if I want to have cleaner prose.
I wanted to get more blocking done today, but my headache is only getting worse, so I think I’ll just rest the rest of tonight.
***
Writing: Time spent: 40 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1868 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 2775 words/hour
Writing streak: 21 days
Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 24 minutes
Blocking: time spent: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: Focus more on thinking in full sentences to make the dictation cleaner.
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