Day 826: Dictation, day 30
I'm really disappointed in myself. I got up extra early, but I ended up wasting time. One half hour here, one half hour there. I'm not sure if it's because I just tend to go slowly in the morning since I'm not a morning person, or if I just need to improve my discipline.
Regardless, I got started late this morning, but I am now going walking and dictating. It's supposed to be very hot today, which was another reason why I had gotten up early in order to try to get started work earlier, but now that I am leaving the house so late, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to go walking. I may need to cut my walk short if it gets too hot.
However, even if I do have to return home early and cut short my walking and dictating, I will try to make up the extra time by dictating in the house or in the backyard. I want to try to get at least 6000 words today. That means I will have to do at least two hours of dictating, and possibly five or 10 minutes extra just to be sure, since sometimes my dictation speed is less than 3000 words per hour.
I am doing my dictation exercise first, starting with this free write. Although, to be honest, I am finding myself pausing more than I should, when the point of a free write is to keep dictating and not stopping.
I will also do a fiction dictation exercise of short sentences using my Regency side novel. Yesterday, I'm not supposed to work on Sundays, but I admit I took a look at my side novel blocking notes. I was tempted to do some editing, but instead I simply took a look at it so that I would know where to start the dictation during the exercise today.
Probably because I am using it as a prompt for my dictation exercises, but the cleanup editing for my Regency side novel is really quite awful. For every 5 to 10 minutes of dictation exercises I do on the Regency side novel, I am finding myself doing 45 minutes of cleanup editing. I'm not sure if it's because the dictation exercise is all short sentences, or maybe because my blocking notes are quite poor, or maybe because it's the first fiction I'm dictating when I start my dictation walk, and my brain hasn't warmed up yet. Or it could be a combination of all three.
I hope to be able to try to concentrate on thinking in longer phrases and complete sentences. I don't know if my dictation is better in the morning or not, but it would be great if it was.
I also want to try to get my dictation speed up higher than it already is. When I do my free write, my dictation speed is usually around 4000 or 4500 words per hour, so I know that it's possible. I think that I am pausing too much when I do my fiction dictation. So I am probably not relaxing enough to just speak the next thing that comes to mind. I aim to improve my ability to dictate.
At the same time, it is sometimes frustrating to have to edit out all the repeated sentences that I dictate. Plus, I noticed that lately, a lot of the repetition is because I think of something that I should've added in a paragraph earlier. And so I have to leave a note to myself to add something in “somewhere up there” which often involves editing what I’d written in order to slip that addition in.
One option is that I could simply not add the part I was going to add, and just hope that I'll remember to add it when I do the cleanup editing. I don't really like doing that, because I'm a control freak.
I suppose a lot of my slowness in dictation is because a part of my brain still wants to try to edit as I go. I don't know if it's possible to turn this off. When I was trying to vomit write via typing, it was really difficult for me to leave typos. They would bother me until I gave up and went back to correct them.
Because of my tendency to want to correct errors, it might be why the dictation is slow. I'm not sure how to make myself stop doing that.
Maybe it just takes practice. If I just keep trying to dictate quickly and not try to correct myself, I'm sure I’ll eventually dictate faster. But a part of me worries that the writing will not be as good, because quite frankly, I don't trust in my cleanup editing skills. I think I'm afraid to let go of the inner editor because I don't trust my self-editing to take up the slack and fix bad vomit writing.
This is a quandary for me. I want to dictate faster, but at the same time I am distrustful of vomit writing and my self editing skills in combination. My highest priority needs to be the quality of the writing, not in how fast I write.
Maybe I just need more editing passes? Would I feel freer to dictate if I knew I had three instead of two self editing passes?
At the same time, I don't know if an extra editing pass would make much of a difference. I hate editing so much that the extra editing pass may not be very detailed because I would simply want to get through it more quickly.
Well, for now, I will try to focus on thinking in complete sentences. I will also try to dictate without stopping, although I think I should prioritize dictating complete sentences over not stopping.
And if it turns out that I can't dictate faster than 3000 words an hour, I may just have to accept that. If I want to write more words in a day, I will simply have to write more hours.
It would've been nice to be able to dictate 5000 words an hour and be able to dictate for two hours, and then do two hours of cleanup editing for 10,000 words in four hours. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that.
Or am I setting myself up for failure by thinking that I can't do it? Maybe I should just be more positive. Yes, I can do it. I just need to practice more. I need to focus more. I need to concentrate.
***
I happened to have a lot of people and cars pass me today, which disrupted my dictation rhythm, so that might have contributed to my slower dictation speed (see below). It got very hot, so I cut my walk short and did some dictation in the backyard today, and it was actually really nice. I think I should do that more often.
It certainly felt like I was dictating slowly today. I started out at 1700 words per hour during the dictation exercise, and then it jumped to an average of 2600 during the first scene that I dictated today. When I switched to a new scene, the average was 3000 words per hour. I dictated a total of almost 7000 words in 2.5 hours, which is an average of 2800 words per hour for the raw dictation.
So far, my dictation in the morning isn’t significantly faster than my dictation in the afternoon, but I’ll keep trying it so that I have more tests to compare. I also want to try to dictate in my backyard rather than walking and see if that makes a difference.
I’m disappointed that my dictation speed hasn’t improved, even though I was trying not to pause and just dictate what first came to mind, but I was also trying to think in sentences, and that probably slowed me down. And 7000 words in one day is great! Although I still have to do the cleanup editing, which I hope won’t take more than 2.5 hours.
Unfortunately, getting myself to start work on the cleanup editing is a chore. I just don’t have good discipline when it comes to forcing myself to do editing. In this way, editing as I go while typing was better since I did that editing as I was writing and the prose was as clean as I could make it, and I didn’t have to fight myself and battle procrastination.
Even with the increased editing time, dictation and cleanup editing is still a little faster than typing—an average of 1200 words per hour versus 900.
***
I did manage to get my cleanup editing done today, but I ended up deleting about 700 words, which was more than 10% of my total dictated words. I had no idea I’d had so many mistakes! Since I had dictated close to 7000 words, I still ended up with a higher total word count than my goal, which is 6000 words a day.
I will have to do some reading to see how I can reduce my procrastination when it comes to doing my editing. I don’t want it to become a problem like when I procrastinated editing book 4.
I’m also determined to figure out how to become better at dictation. Maybe I just need more dictation exercises? Or maybe I need a different prompt? I have a different series idea that I have been kicking around. I might use that story world for a few prompts for my dictation exercises. I will have to think about it.
Writing streak: 303 days
My takeaway for today: Try dictating in the backyard since there are fewer distractions and disruptions than when I go out walking.
My second takeaway for today: Read some book to figure out ways to reduce or eliminate procrastination in doing my editing.
My third takeaway for today: Consider other ways to improve my dictation, such as using my other series idea as prompts for dictation exercises.
Regardless, I got started late this morning, but I am now going walking and dictating. It's supposed to be very hot today, which was another reason why I had gotten up early in order to try to get started work earlier, but now that I am leaving the house so late, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to go walking. I may need to cut my walk short if it gets too hot.
However, even if I do have to return home early and cut short my walking and dictating, I will try to make up the extra time by dictating in the house or in the backyard. I want to try to get at least 6000 words today. That means I will have to do at least two hours of dictating, and possibly five or 10 minutes extra just to be sure, since sometimes my dictation speed is less than 3000 words per hour.
I am doing my dictation exercise first, starting with this free write. Although, to be honest, I am finding myself pausing more than I should, when the point of a free write is to keep dictating and not stopping.
I will also do a fiction dictation exercise of short sentences using my Regency side novel. Yesterday, I'm not supposed to work on Sundays, but I admit I took a look at my side novel blocking notes. I was tempted to do some editing, but instead I simply took a look at it so that I would know where to start the dictation during the exercise today.
Probably because I am using it as a prompt for my dictation exercises, but the cleanup editing for my Regency side novel is really quite awful. For every 5 to 10 minutes of dictation exercises I do on the Regency side novel, I am finding myself doing 45 minutes of cleanup editing. I'm not sure if it's because the dictation exercise is all short sentences, or maybe because my blocking notes are quite poor, or maybe because it's the first fiction I'm dictating when I start my dictation walk, and my brain hasn't warmed up yet. Or it could be a combination of all three.
I hope to be able to try to concentrate on thinking in longer phrases and complete sentences. I don't know if my dictation is better in the morning or not, but it would be great if it was.
I also want to try to get my dictation speed up higher than it already is. When I do my free write, my dictation speed is usually around 4000 or 4500 words per hour, so I know that it's possible. I think that I am pausing too much when I do my fiction dictation. So I am probably not relaxing enough to just speak the next thing that comes to mind. I aim to improve my ability to dictate.
At the same time, it is sometimes frustrating to have to edit out all the repeated sentences that I dictate. Plus, I noticed that lately, a lot of the repetition is because I think of something that I should've added in a paragraph earlier. And so I have to leave a note to myself to add something in “somewhere up there” which often involves editing what I’d written in order to slip that addition in.
One option is that I could simply not add the part I was going to add, and just hope that I'll remember to add it when I do the cleanup editing. I don't really like doing that, because I'm a control freak.
I suppose a lot of my slowness in dictation is because a part of my brain still wants to try to edit as I go. I don't know if it's possible to turn this off. When I was trying to vomit write via typing, it was really difficult for me to leave typos. They would bother me until I gave up and went back to correct them.
Because of my tendency to want to correct errors, it might be why the dictation is slow. I'm not sure how to make myself stop doing that.
Maybe it just takes practice. If I just keep trying to dictate quickly and not try to correct myself, I'm sure I’ll eventually dictate faster. But a part of me worries that the writing will not be as good, because quite frankly, I don't trust in my cleanup editing skills. I think I'm afraid to let go of the inner editor because I don't trust my self-editing to take up the slack and fix bad vomit writing.
This is a quandary for me. I want to dictate faster, but at the same time I am distrustful of vomit writing and my self editing skills in combination. My highest priority needs to be the quality of the writing, not in how fast I write.
Maybe I just need more editing passes? Would I feel freer to dictate if I knew I had three instead of two self editing passes?
At the same time, I don't know if an extra editing pass would make much of a difference. I hate editing so much that the extra editing pass may not be very detailed because I would simply want to get through it more quickly.
Well, for now, I will try to focus on thinking in complete sentences. I will also try to dictate without stopping, although I think I should prioritize dictating complete sentences over not stopping.
And if it turns out that I can't dictate faster than 3000 words an hour, I may just have to accept that. If I want to write more words in a day, I will simply have to write more hours.
It would've been nice to be able to dictate 5000 words an hour and be able to dictate for two hours, and then do two hours of cleanup editing for 10,000 words in four hours. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that.
Or am I setting myself up for failure by thinking that I can't do it? Maybe I should just be more positive. Yes, I can do it. I just need to practice more. I need to focus more. I need to concentrate.
***
I happened to have a lot of people and cars pass me today, which disrupted my dictation rhythm, so that might have contributed to my slower dictation speed (see below). It got very hot, so I cut my walk short and did some dictation in the backyard today, and it was actually really nice. I think I should do that more often.
It certainly felt like I was dictating slowly today. I started out at 1700 words per hour during the dictation exercise, and then it jumped to an average of 2600 during the first scene that I dictated today. When I switched to a new scene, the average was 3000 words per hour. I dictated a total of almost 7000 words in 2.5 hours, which is an average of 2800 words per hour for the raw dictation.
So far, my dictation in the morning isn’t significantly faster than my dictation in the afternoon, but I’ll keep trying it so that I have more tests to compare. I also want to try to dictate in my backyard rather than walking and see if that makes a difference.
I’m disappointed that my dictation speed hasn’t improved, even though I was trying not to pause and just dictate what first came to mind, but I was also trying to think in sentences, and that probably slowed me down. And 7000 words in one day is great! Although I still have to do the cleanup editing, which I hope won’t take more than 2.5 hours.
Unfortunately, getting myself to start work on the cleanup editing is a chore. I just don’t have good discipline when it comes to forcing myself to do editing. In this way, editing as I go while typing was better since I did that editing as I was writing and the prose was as clean as I could make it, and I didn’t have to fight myself and battle procrastination.
Even with the increased editing time, dictation and cleanup editing is still a little faster than typing—an average of 1200 words per hour versus 900.
***
I did manage to get my cleanup editing done today, but I ended up deleting about 700 words, which was more than 10% of my total dictated words. I had no idea I’d had so many mistakes! Since I had dictated close to 7000 words, I still ended up with a higher total word count than my goal, which is 6000 words a day.
I will have to do some reading to see how I can reduce my procrastination when it comes to doing my editing. I don’t want it to become a problem like when I procrastinated editing book 4.
I’m also determined to figure out how to become better at dictation. Maybe I just need more dictation exercises? Or maybe I need a different prompt? I have a different series idea that I have been kicking around. I might use that story world for a few prompts for my dictation exercises. I will have to think about it.
Writing streak: 303 days
My takeaway for today: Try dictating in the backyard since there are fewer distractions and disruptions than when I go out walking.
My second takeaway for today: Read some book to figure out ways to reduce or eliminate procrastination in doing my editing.
My third takeaway for today: Consider other ways to improve my dictation, such as using my other series idea as prompts for dictation exercises.
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