I really appreciate you writing about how technology has helped you and how it has impacted your thinking and writing procedure. I'm facing a bit of the same obstacles with typing due to the neck and hand troubles I've had for a long time, but not to the same degree you have. I'm struggling with the IDEA of dictating aloud, which I haven't done since the late 1980s, into a cassette recorder. Aside from the readings of podfic I did in the mid 200s, I suppose.
We've talked about how audio book and text to speech tech have basically saved me.
I have been frustrated for years about how difficult I find writing fanfic. And I do think part of the issue for me IS technology. I learned my writing habits before I even owned a computer at all...by writing outlines by hand in a journal or on a legal pad, and sometimes by writing drafts on a typewriter. I did move to computer based word processing, and did learn to compose more in moveable blocks or modular bits. And I had a very set way to compose on my earliest computers...strong preferences for certain software, fonts, and ways I organized my files of notes and drafts. As technology changed, I found it hard to keep changing my work habits, and I think I felt a little bit adrift. I still find it fun sometimes to start on paper and pen but even if I do that, it's tremendously unlikely that I"d ever sit down and transcribe notes like I used to. That's the kind of thing I wonder if dictation might fix for me.
As a matter of fact, what I learnt from you about TTS is what first inspired me to think that the opposite technology might now work well too, i.e. STT (though no one ever seems to call it that).
I had completely forgotten my typewriter phase! Gosh, those things made so much noise. I guess in an office environment it's not a problem - I never used one in an office - but at home in the evenings it was a problem. Not to mention the tangled typewriter ribbon...
One of the great things about dictation is that it's one of the few very things (together with listening to audiobooks/podfic) that you can do while lying down flat. You should give it a try! If you have some sort of iPad or tablet, you probably already have the necessary software installed. The first few days were incredibly frustrating, when the computer only managed to capture aboat 20% of what I was saying, but now with a bit of practice I'm up to 90%.
We've talked about how audio book and text to speech tech have basically saved me.
I have been frustrated for years about how difficult I find writing fanfic. And I do think part of the issue for me IS technology. I learned my writing habits before I even owned a computer at all...by writing outlines by hand in a journal or on a legal pad, and sometimes by writing drafts on a typewriter. I did move to computer based word processing, and did learn to compose more in moveable blocks or modular bits. And I had a very set way to compose on my earliest computers...strong preferences for certain software, fonts, and ways I organized my files of notes and drafts. As technology changed, I found it hard to keep changing my work habits, and I think I felt a little bit adrift. I still find it fun sometimes to start on paper and pen but even if I do that, it's tremendously unlikely that I"d ever sit down and transcribe notes like I used to. That's the kind of thing I wonder if dictation might fix for me.
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I had completely forgotten my typewriter phase! Gosh, those things made so much noise. I guess in an office environment it's not a problem - I never used one in an office - but at home in the evenings it was a problem. Not to mention the tangled typewriter ribbon...
One of the great things about dictation is that it's one of the few very things (together with listening to audiobooks/podfic) that you can do while lying down flat. You should give it a try! If you have some sort of iPad or tablet, you probably already have the necessary software installed. The first few days were incredibly frustrating, when the computer only managed to capture aboat 20% of what I was saying, but now with a bit of practice I'm up to 90%.
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