There are a lot of times when my brain is all set to think about my novel, but physically I am not capable of typing out my thoughts. Like, when I’m driving. I drive a lot, and that is often when I work out some of my best ideas. But if I didn’t get in an accident first, surely I would be arrested for keeping an open laptop in the passenger seat, leaning over to type with one hand and constantly switching my attention between it and the road.
What I really need is a hands-free dictation device. Not just an ordinary tape recorder, although I do have one of those. Using a tape recorder means that I would have to spend just as much time listening to my voice and then manually typing out a transcript of all I said. That isn’t efficient enough. I need some sort of device that would automatically dictate my words into print so that I can just cut and paste into my novel when I get home. If I had one of those devices to use on the road, imagine how much I could get done. I would be finished before Thanksgiving!
On a more practical note, it takes a couple hours to write a couple thousand words. As a result, everywhere I look now I see computer screens. Ominous, glowing monitors peeking out only to me from picture frames and mirrors. My eyes are straining out of my head. I will be surprised if I don’t need glasses by the time this is over. Maybe I’ll run over to Target and pick myself up a pair of granny readers to use for the duration of this project.
Nov 09, 2008 @ 03:12:43
They sell recording devices that once you plug into your computer outputs as a word doc. Look online, they are out there! I almost bought one for class a while ago.
Good luck!
Thanks for the tip – I’ll look into that.