Why Write With Speech Recognition
I’ve been interested in using speech recognition for writing the first draft of a chapter for a while. I thought this would allow me to focus on the image in my mind of the scene and not on the words as they appear on the screen. I could write a first draft faster and be more stream of conscience. Faster is better but I’m not sure if stream of consciousness is better. I can write about 1000 per hour if I know where I want to go in a scene. This hour is usually at 5 am so I’m barely awake. That could also add to stream of conscience.
I’ve heard authors say they can dictate a novel in two weeks. That’s grand for them but I haven’t read one of those two week novels and enjoyed it. It was more a chore to read. So I’m not trying to pump out quantity just to reach the end. I could write badly using a keyboard – no need to investigate new ways of doing that.
So I want to try speech recognition for the first draft only. I fully expect to revise and edit without speech recognition.
Microsoft Windows 7 Speech Recognition
I started by looking for YouTube videos of the free product installed with my operating system. This turned out to be funny and depressing at the same time. Several videos were created as tutorials of the product but only thirty seconds into the video, there were plenty of potty words because the software wasn’t dictating the speech correctly. However, it was enough information for me to feel it was worth a try.
I found the software on my own computer and went through the tutorial. The tutorial taught me how to start the speech recognition software, how to use it, and then gave me a few exercises to try on my own. I finished the tutorial then I tried to read a Curious George book into Microsoft Word 2007 at regular speed to see how the dictation would go. The hardest thing for the software to get right was a period at the end of a sentence. I must say that word in some Northwest-by-way-of-Texas accent that the software doesn’t know how to interpret.
I also have terrible use of the marks of grammar due to my programming background. The dictation software expects me to say “exclamation point” when I naturally say “bang.” So I have to change my natural speech to get this to work. This is annoying but really my own fault and nothing to do with the speech recognition software.
The software worked best when I spoke a few words or short phrase then waited till the dictation appeared on screen. Longer sentences didn’t work in that the software just stopped dictating. I would have to start up again by repeating what I had already said. In terms of natural speech speed, I wasn’t impressed.
However, for a free product for a person that doesn’t mind slowing down — it would work very well. The tutorial covered how to navigate between programs, navigate a web page, and a few other need-to-know processes I had not thought about.
What Caught My Eye
The software works across your entire computer, meaning drop down menus, tool bars, buttons etc. The thing I liked and didn’t expect was that you can say “show numbers” and an outline of items shows up with numbers right over what was there. So if you don’t know how to say make this text olive green, you can select the text (easy enough), and then navigate to the color by numbers. It was impressive. When software impresses me – well, I’m happy.
The Headphones
I have heard the headphones are important for success with the dictation. I used by husband’s set which has a rotating mic on the headset. The one thing I noticed was that I wear glasses and the headset was very tight. If I keep looking for dictation software, the right headset will be very important.
Summary
So I don’t think this software will work for dictating a first draft of a chapter however it would work for correcting a work because that is a much slower process for me. It would also work for short emails or web browsing.
