Dragon Naturally Speaking 10

[ashling]

Anyone here have experience with this voice recognition software. My wife and I are getting it for use with our graduate school stuff.

Comments?

[OneGrassRoot]

1. I understand it requires extensive editing...

as it has difficulty with context. Their, they're, there...it would have a hard time knowing which is correct.

There are other drawbacks. Since my typing speed is very fast, it's not worth it to me; however, for others, the positives may outweigh the negatives.

:)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. I tried it

Lasted about an hour. I found it just impossible, not worth the effort.

[ashling]

3. what problems did you encounter

People that I have talked to have indicated that it takes a while to learn but they have been very satisfied after that (also, this is the newest version) What types of problems did you encounter?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. Word identification

It was just - for me - too laborious to train it. The homonyms were impossible, and, granted, I'm not the most patient person in the world, but it was just so much more difficult than actually writing things out, the physical act of writing.

Also, as my agent and my publisher/editor pointed out to me, a whole different part of the brain is involved in speaking, as opposed to writing, and the results I'd have gotten would have been quite different from what I'd have gotten if I'd written it out. Not anything to which I wanted to put my name.

That's why it's called "writing," I believe, and why speaking is called "speaking." Color me purist.

[ashling]

5. I appreciate your comments

Thanks!

[petgoat]

6. I haven't used it, but I'm much intrigued with the concept.

To me, homonyms would not be a problem, because I do thirty drafts
before something is done, anyway.

A friend in the legal industry tells me that people can speak at
200 words per minute--12,000 words an hour. Obviously if you
babble 60,000 words into Dragon it's not going to be the Great
American Novel in five hours, but it would surely outdo the
best a couple of thousand monkeys bashing at typewriters could do,
and it would be a start.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Just remember

the good - and accurate - advice my agent and editor gave me when I was going off on voice-recognition software: you use different parts of your brain for writing and for speaking. Your spoken result will be very different from what you wrote. It's a whole different process.

What's the hurry?

[petgoat]

8. The hurry is that usually it takes me 300,000 words of sketches and notes redrafted eight times

to boil down to a 50,000 word novel.

And in this national emergency I'm too busy in activism to have time
for self-indulgence in my silly stories.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. So?

That's your rhythm, that's how you work. Again, what's your hurry? We all work at our own paces. I know folks who write all day, every day. I know people who write when the urge strikes them. It's just how we are.

Maybe you should focus your attention on refining your work methods instead of looking for a short cut that's bound to affect the quality of your writing.

A 50,000 word novel, by the way, is not very long. A big novella, I'd say. My first novel was 100,000 words, 278 pages hardcover.