Day 511: Seeing the words as I dictate
Dictating directly into Dragon is a bit slow
It took a little longer before I got started on work today since I had house chores to do.
I decided to try doing the dictation directly in Dragon so that I could see the words as they appeared. The problem was that I had to spend some of the time setting up Dragon and my blocking notes, and I also wanted to train Dragon with some words it kept missing.
I expected today’s dictation to be slow because of all that, and I also was trying to get used to speaking and then seeing my words on the screen. I also noticed that I wasn’t trying to vomit-write—instead, I was writing like I normally do, when I’m writing slowly and editing as I go. In fact, I did a bit of editing within Dragon—instead of just repeating the sentence like I do when recording my dictation, I would instead delete what I just wrote and then repeat the sentence. So maybe that also contributed to my slow writing speed.
I also noticed that Dragon takes a while before my words show up on the screen, and that might have made me dictate more slowly, because I was waiting on Dragon. When doing a recording, I usually just blaze through.
The good news is that I wasn’t writing any slower than I do when I type, although not as quickly as I did when doing a recording of my dictation. Also it seemed to help me figure out what to write next when I could see what I just wrote, as opposed to trying to remember what I’d just said. And editing was super fast, since I didn’t have so much to correct.
I’ll continue to try this setup, dictating directly into Dragon, but I’ll try to focus again on not editing what I just wrote. I’ll also try to dictate the same speed as I do when doing a recording. If Dragon can’t keep up with my dictation speed, then I might have to go back to doing a recording instead.
Also, instead of training Dragon as I’m going, I think it might be more efficient to simply write down the words that Dragon seems to keep getting wrong, and then train them all at once after I finish my writing for the day.
Blocking taking a long time
I finished blocking two scenes yesterday, but I’m still only about 2/3 of the way through all the scenes in the book. I’ve already taken 78 hours to block those scenes, whereas I only took about 45 hours each to block books 2 and 3 (I didn’t record my blocking time for book 1). I have a bad feeling that it will take me at least 90 hours to block the rest of the scenes of book 4, which will be twice as long as books 2 and 3.
However, I have noticed that my blocking for this book is much more detailed than it was for books 2 and 3, and I’ve found that the more detailed blocking makes the writing a lot easier. So it could be that even though the blocking will take me a long time, the writing may not take as long as I think it will.
***
I got some blocking done before dinner, and I was going to do more after dinner, but I’m feeling a bit tired. I think I’ll stop here and get to bed early, and then hopefully I can get an early start at work tomorrow.
***
Writing: Time spent: 36 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 617 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 1027 words/hour
Writing streak: 24 days
Editing: Time spent: 10 minutes
Blocking: time spent: 1 hour, 22 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 9 minutes
My takeaway for today: When dictating next time, 1) don’t go back and edit, just repeat the sentence, 2) dictate normal speed and see if Dragon can keep up, 3) write down any words that need to be trained and train them all after the writing session.
It took a little longer before I got started on work today since I had house chores to do.
I decided to try doing the dictation directly in Dragon so that I could see the words as they appeared. The problem was that I had to spend some of the time setting up Dragon and my blocking notes, and I also wanted to train Dragon with some words it kept missing.
I expected today’s dictation to be slow because of all that, and I also was trying to get used to speaking and then seeing my words on the screen. I also noticed that I wasn’t trying to vomit-write—instead, I was writing like I normally do, when I’m writing slowly and editing as I go. In fact, I did a bit of editing within Dragon—instead of just repeating the sentence like I do when recording my dictation, I would instead delete what I just wrote and then repeat the sentence. So maybe that also contributed to my slow writing speed.
I also noticed that Dragon takes a while before my words show up on the screen, and that might have made me dictate more slowly, because I was waiting on Dragon. When doing a recording, I usually just blaze through.
The good news is that I wasn’t writing any slower than I do when I type, although not as quickly as I did when doing a recording of my dictation. Also it seemed to help me figure out what to write next when I could see what I just wrote, as opposed to trying to remember what I’d just said. And editing was super fast, since I didn’t have so much to correct.
I’ll continue to try this setup, dictating directly into Dragon, but I’ll try to focus again on not editing what I just wrote. I’ll also try to dictate the same speed as I do when doing a recording. If Dragon can’t keep up with my dictation speed, then I might have to go back to doing a recording instead.
Also, instead of training Dragon as I’m going, I think it might be more efficient to simply write down the words that Dragon seems to keep getting wrong, and then train them all at once after I finish my writing for the day.
Blocking taking a long time
I finished blocking two scenes yesterday, but I’m still only about 2/3 of the way through all the scenes in the book. I’ve already taken 78 hours to block those scenes, whereas I only took about 45 hours each to block books 2 and 3 (I didn’t record my blocking time for book 1). I have a bad feeling that it will take me at least 90 hours to block the rest of the scenes of book 4, which will be twice as long as books 2 and 3.
However, I have noticed that my blocking for this book is much more detailed than it was for books 2 and 3, and I’ve found that the more detailed blocking makes the writing a lot easier. So it could be that even though the blocking will take me a long time, the writing may not take as long as I think it will.
***
I got some blocking done before dinner, and I was going to do more after dinner, but I’m feeling a bit tired. I think I’ll stop here and get to bed early, and then hopefully I can get an early start at work tomorrow.
***
Writing: Time spent: 36 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 617 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 1027 words/hour
Writing streak: 24 days
Editing: Time spent: 10 minutes
Blocking: time spent: 1 hour, 22 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 9 minutes
My takeaway for today: When dictating next time, 1) don’t go back and edit, just repeat the sentence, 2) dictate normal speed and see if Dragon can keep up, 3) write down any words that need to be trained and train them all after the writing session.
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