Anyone else use a dictaphone to write?

[FionaW]

Though it felt very poncy at first, dictating into a machine. I can't do it if anyone can hear me.

I've got the Dragon dictaphone/transcription software combo; it records as MP3 and then I just plug it into my laptop and the software does the rest. It's not perfect, but having just used it to write 16 000 words in three days (while simultaneously gardening and doing housework) I think I'm a convert.

I'm one of those people who maps out scenes in my head and then sits down to write, only to find that all my lovely sentences have vanished. It does come out a bit differently when it's spoken rather than typed primarily, but it's just another sort of first draft, and by 'eck it gets stuff down on paper quickly!

 

[Boneman]

Hi Fi,
And does it put in your punctuation for you? ie speech marks, paragraphs etc. Can you write a novel with the speech software, or do you have to go over it and insert them? I have been thinking about them, especially since I might dicover my 'voice' better this way. How easy/difficult is it to do?

Boneman

 

[J-WO]

My brother bought me this dictaphone-mp3 doodad for my birthday but its been sat in the cupboard ever since. From what you say, maybe I should dust it down and use it. Trouble is, I'm surrounded by other people's flats and the walls are thin, so...

Its also dawned on me from time to time that I could sit on the bus and surreptitiously record people talking--a mine of naturalistic dialogue--but doing so is possibly illegal and a little bit creepy now I think about it.

 

[mygoditsraining]

I can't do this. I tried once, and everything I wrote read back with an air that was distinctly...Shatner-esque. I can't quite rid myself of a tendency towards bombast when speaking aloud. Also I say "em", "eh", and "uhm" far too much.

I do read dialogue back to myself to give it a "reality check", but unfortunately the creative process itself is really stop/start/rewind/erase with me.

 

[The Judge]

Years ago I tried it with a very basic dictaphone. I was accustomed to using them at work (including having to dictate all the punctuation for a few clueless secretaries) though it still felt a bit odd to do the dialogue. But even being used to it, I couldn't do anything else at the same time, apart from walk up and down, certainly not anything that required thought of any kind.

The problem came afterwards, though, trying to type it up, as this was long before any kind of plug-it-in-to-the-laptop software. Pick up dictaphone, play a sentence, type; pick up dictaphone, rewind, play sentence and a bit more, type; pick up dictaphone... In the end, it was quicker and easier to scribble it down on paper in a kind of shorthand and then type it up from there.

I still 'plot' things in my head first, but I've trained myself to think straight onto the screen while I'm typing now. Sometimes I get annoyed that I've forgotten a brilliant line - but 'brilliant' in the mind, and 'brilliant' on the page are very often two different things anyway for me.

As for 16,000 words in 3 days - I don't think I'd have that inside me to dictate! Congratulations on getting it all down, though.

J

 

[thaddeus6th]

It's an interesting idea, but I couldn't do it. I really dislike the sound of my own voice. (I'm like the anti-matter version of a DJ ).

 

[Interference]

I've had one since I turned 21 - a couple of decades ago - and would be lost without it. I use it for music, as well, of course. My current model is also an HD camera. How times have changed

 

[FionaW]

If you're really clever you can add punctuation as you go; you just say 'comma', 'full stop' 'begin quotes' 'close quotes' 'em dash' and so on.

TBH, other than full stops and commas I don't punctuate much as I go along, as I find it spoils the flow. But I'm such a crap typist that it is still quicker to punctuate afterwards. I can also listen to the MP3 if I can't remember how something should have been punctuated, or the software has had a problem with a phrase.

If you're a 60wpm typist, and your brain doesn't run ahead of your fingers, it's probably not a lot of use having a system like this. But if, like me, you struggle to get stuff on paper before the words vanish into the ether, it's great.

You can also dictate in bed, in the dark, if you're the sort of person who develops their story in the hinterlands of their sleep-wake cycle, like me. (Maybe now people will believe me when I tell them that I am working, despite being in bed with my eyes closed.)

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I can see it possibly being useful for the basic outline but I find I have to see the relationship between the words sentences and paragraphs.

Small things like when the text wraps and you find you've used some word or phrase twice in a short period. Plus sometimes I can't continue if I know that one thought or idea should be changed or reorganised. It's just too distracting knowing there's a problem that needs correcting and worse one that I will probably miss on a read through later.

 

[Bontemps]

You can also dictate in bed, in the dark

Hey, it worked for Barabara Cartland!

Sounds interesting, my family already think I'm nuts as it is so it might come in handy for me.

I sometimes do the opposite though, I record my reading aloud something I've written to help catch the flow of my prose. Once i got past how stupid my own voice sounds (another anti-DJ here!), I found it a bit of a help in making my clunky sentence structure flow a bit more smoothly. I record it on my PC via headset and play it back in my headphones (I only tend to do this at night, with the door closed when everyone else is asleep ).

 

[Nik]

A dictaphone ? Er, no thanks ! I can work dialogue and stuff in my head when I'm half-asleep, but I need *quiet* and words on paper to be creative, and I can just about block out this keyboard tapping...

Also, unless I'm very sick or very angry, I can't handle spoken words. I need them as black on white print. But I don't read them 'consciously'. I rarely see individual words or even paragraphs on a fiction page-- My reading speed is such that I just turn the pages and watch the movie. Makes writing so slow, so hard...

 

[LukeW]

A few years ago I tried using a dictaphone to record the basic idea of a story I had. I did this while bushwalking with my dog (around Mt Wellington).

Long story short, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and fell into a ditch and nearly broke my leg. Plus my dog ran away.

...

A year later I found that dictaphone and had a listen to it. It was excrutiating.

Perhaps if your brain is wired that way it might be useful, but when I'm writing I like to have silence so that my mind can wander off with the story. I don't get that if I'm talking out loud.

I dare say that you might be really good at verbalising your synopsis if it comes to a salespitch.

 

[Nik]

Slightly OT, but my Spouse suddenly decided a dictaphone would be really, really useful for lists and, uh, lists. I remembered a nice 'Olympus' was on offer in M***n Christmas catalogue, went and had a look....

Think of a smart-phone with 'compass pad' and edge buttons, squeezed into shape of three cigarettes duct-taped side-by-side...

Oops, so sorry, bad idea.

 

[Prototype]

I've used Dragon with a dictaphone before for lecture notes and it took a painfully long time for the computer to get used to my voice. It DID get better over time but I eventually lost patience and gave it back to the person whom it was meant for in the first place!

It would seriously wind me up if I were to try and write a book in this way...