Writers software - MacSpeech Dictate

A couple weeks ago I mentioned this software I'd purchased to dictate the end of my book into the computer - the 15000 words I'd handwritten the previous week. As I said, I've had a lot of trouble with my right arm. I've tried to use it less but there's no way I can type with one hand. And if I tried to case the mail with my left hand I'd be six hours getting out of the post office. I can't imagine what a left handed mail person does to deliver the mail because I sit on the right side of the truck, drive and steer from the controls on the left with all the mail sitting behind the steering wheel, and poke the mail in boxes out of the right side window. Hmm.

Linda Faulkner suggested last week that I try writing with my left hand. I did. Here's a sample. Ugh. I know I could get used to it and might even benefit from the right brain release of cool writing creatamones or whatever happens when you use your left hand, but that will take some time.



I finished the handwritten ending on Sunday. Received Dictate on Thursday evening. After only thirty minutes of training the microphone and program to my voice by reading a boring bit of text, I began reading my messy handwriting into the mic. Amazingly, Dictate was more accurate than I was. Even when I stumbled because I couldn't read my own writing, it understood my stumbles accurately. So by mid-afternoon Friday including some training on the fly, I was done. (Because the book is paranormal there were words that had to be fine tuned along with local slang words like my favorite Southern expression - fixin' to.)

In the past I've tried Via Voice, Dragon Naturally Speaking (several versions including DNS 9.0) and IListen. This is the first time I've seen this kind of accuracy. Dictate is based on the DNS engine but Dictate is for Macs only. If you're interested in this type of product for PC you'll want to pickup DNS version 10. One of the secrets to the success of this software is the USB microphone headset.

A bonus - I expect Dictate will be handy when it comes to inserting the notes and text into the document after I've read the hard copy and made my notes. Dictate has its own little notepad from which you can copy and paste but will also dictate straight into Word. I haven't figured out how to use it to dictate all my recorded notes yet but now is the time. My recorder is full of great story ideas and I'm ready to incorporate them into the first rewrite.

THE END

Finally!

I finished Tempest Rising.

On April 11th after being stuck for almost a month, and getting a boot from various writer friends, I turned to the pen and notebook method of writing TR. I concentrated only on creating, moving forward, not trying to project when the ending might come, not counting words, just letting it happen. I really didn't expect it to happen today. But I wrote about 6000 words. Then it was there! Done!

Yey!!! And I don't even care that now I have to type those typewritten words into the computer so I can print the whole thing out and start re-reading it.

Diamonds or Stone

I used to sing a song called, 'Some Days are Diamonds, Some Days are Stone.' Well, yesterday was a Boulder!

When a story is flowing, 900-1000 words per 45 minute sprint are pretty easy to get. So 1500 for eight hours of wandering around in a half dozen different directions had me just about ready to give up on this scene and these new characters.

Then inspiration struck and an idea I almost ditched before writing it, turned into a key scene. It ups the stakes, makes the community and characters more interesting, and pulled many critical threads together. I wound up with 2300 and I can't wait to return to these characters and the new direction they are taking.

Note to self: Remember! Even though it's really really really hard and doesn't seem like it's meant to be, keep diggin, keep clearing out the debris, keep mining. Because if you quit, you may miss a raw diamond.

Rising Tempest Rising

Finally, I've settled on a temporary title for my paranormal. Tempest Rising or Rising Tempest. Tempest is the main character. Hmm, Rising Tempest fits better. The title may not stick but will help me focus on the protagonist's arc. Anything is better than RCP which stands for nothing so much as 'Tempe's story'.

Yesterday, I listened again to Screenplay expert Michael Hauge's workshop Identity to Essence. As a result, I've identified more clearly the main characters' motivations and resulting conflicts. Hauge calls it their Desire. The desire and longing that drives the story forward to the end. 'The character arc is the tug of war between their identity and their essence.'

It's interesting how we relate and apply teaching from some workshop presenters better than others. Hauge is obviously stating the same as other writers I've heard but each time I listen to his application of screenplay techniques to novel writing, I come away with new insights. I highly recommend his Hero's Journey2 (with Chris Vogler) and Identity to Essence workshops.


BIAW starts again tomorrow for a week so I must finish up my notes on clues and threads and move forward. If I'm not here for a couple days that's where I'll be - BICHOK. (Butt in chair, hands on keyboard)

Sunshine and bandwidth

Okay, I've ranted enough about this that everyone knows when there's rain, it means little or no satellite internet. Emails will eventually go through but surfing or building a blog post and uploading - forget it.

Sounds like another rant, huh? Well, if it looks like a duck...

So finally today we get sunshine and cool weather. (It's going to be 45 in the morning. WOOHOO! I pulled out the sweat pants for work tomorrow, cranked up the butane heater this morning, and sat down to catch up on a few internet tasks. A week puts me SO far behind though and my weekly trip to the bookstore/highspeed cafe yesterday was cut short.

So I got my computer updates done, major mac update, downloaded my audibles, went through changes for my website, and now I'm posting my little blog promise.

I had promised earlier in the month to blog about the four writing software programs and the one I've settled on. I'll do that next week in four parts. I get very little done on Sundays during football season so I'll do my blogs then and upload them on a nice day.

Monday BIAW begins. For those of you who don't know about BIAW, it's a Book in a Week loop which repeats each month for our GIAM goals loop. The goal - write as much as you can in 7 days. Looks like I may not be working but one day next week so I should get a good start on RCPN.

Last week, after cleaning up the scenes I had originally the manuscript decreased to around 20k from 30 but amazingly, I'm not shook up over it.

I toyed with first person for the main character, writing the new first scene. I liked it and I listened to some advice from some published authors on the RWA cds about POV. One editor said use the pov that best suits you. But avoid it if you always sound like the same person, i.e., yourself. Another said, only do one POV per chapter. A third, don't write in first AND third. And a multi published author said, "Phooey on that. I've done it all and it hasn't stopped me from getting published yet." The bottom line seems to be if you write it well enough, the plot and world are interesting enough and the characters stick with the reader, anything can be forgiven.

So I'll write the main character in first, everyone else in third. Then if it pulls the reader out of the story, I'll go back and put the main character in third. Writing in first and switching back to third might help create a deeper third pov in the end.

See you Monday! (unless I find something I just have to share before then.)