Dictation software has improved to the point where it is actually practical for writing. The challenge, of course, is that when we talk, we don’t necessarily structure our utterances according to plan.
Speak your book!
The methodology I teach for book writing — Joel’s BookProgram™ — has as its central meme, “structure before content.” If you create your structure, you can then easily dictate the segments at the lowest level of the structure. In the case of a book, this would probably be subchapters — portions that are 200 to 600 words in length.
Why use dictation software? For many, speaking is easier than writing. Most people can speak much faster than they can type.
I have found another, more subtle, reason for dictating rather than writing: speaking seems to come from a different place in my brain. As a result, what I dictate often has more emotion than what I write, even more authenticity.
Why not use dictation software? For one thing, even though speech recognition has improved dramatically in recent years, the software still introduces weird errors, due to imperfect recognition. That is actually not a significant disadvantage, since most writing needs a round of editing anyway.
There’s the cost of a package that includes software and a high-quality microphone. Current prices are around $200, for the leading PC and Mac software.
There is also a learning curve, both in terms of getting used to dictating instead of typing, and in terms of using your voice to control your computer and perform editing functions during the dictation process.
Can dictation take the place of transcription? Yes and no. Transcribers can handle noisy input, and multiple speakers in the same recording; dictation software cannot.
The most popular packages by far on the market today are Dragon Dictate for the PC, and MacSpeech Dictate for the Mac (also built on Dragon technology). Both are about $200, and come with a good quality microphone. Incidentally, the quality of the microphone is critical; don’t try to save money by buying a cheap mike.
In short, dictation can:
- Save you time
- Make your writing sound more authentic
- Require you to learn a new workflow
Dictation may not work for everyone, but for most book authors, it’s worth a shot.
