Anyone else tried to write using speech to text programs? Currently, the 2 most popular programs are Dragon Naturally Speaking and the Microsoft program that comes with Windows 7 & 8. I have 7, so don't know what other versions have it. Dragon costs over $100. MS is already on my computer, so I didn't have to buy it.
I used this to write my 25,000 word novella. More accurately, I mainly used the speech to text, but took to the keys to correct mistakes as they happened. I type 88 wpm at 100% accuracy. I experimented with speech to text to see how it would compare to my typing speed. I used a year old laptop and just used the built in microphone. I'll give my experience using it here. If others have tried this, I'd like to hear what your experience was with it.
So, I cranked Microsoft's version up and followed the instructions for training it. It took under 1 hour. I sat there reading sentences on the screen aloud until it was done.
Next, I opened a fresh word document. I set up the title and author by keyboard as well as setting the font and pitch.
Then, I began speaking and it began "typing" what I said. I used my tab to indent, but it probably had a voice command for that.
It screwed up a lot. Each time, I corrected it by voice. After half an hour, it stopped screwing up the same words over and over and it went more smoothly. It learns your voice & speech. Once I stopped talking like a robot, it did even better. I still had to annunciate, though, so it wasn't my conversational voice/speed, either.
Speaking one word at a time causes more errors. The reason? It's using other words in the sentence to figure out things like the difference between meet and meat, as well as differentiating what you said from other words that rhyme. At the same time, if I spoke too many words, it screwed them up. I found 3-8 words at a time worked best for me.
I used it for 2 days before I got fairly comfortable with it. It felt like swimming through Jello, especially when I had to correct something it got wrong. I made forward progress, though, on the story.
Day 3 saw an improvement, though it took me hours to realize it. I was about ready to shut it down and let fly my trusty fingers. Told myself I wouldn't use it on day 4. No way. It seemed so darn slow to me. But, in the interest of giving it a fair shot, I decided to use it till the end of day 3, despite how darn slow it felt.
Result--I wrote over 10,000 words on day 3 using speech to text. Took me 5 hours to do it, though. In theory, I could write a novel in about 50 hours this way. In practice, I pause here and there to figure out what I'm going to say next and how to say it and I do get stuck at times, so 50 hours would be extremely optimistic. One thing for sure; you know when you're using awkward sentences. You can hear it. Typing, I wouldn't have noticed until editing time.
This is more than I usually type in that time frame. I was shocked. It felt like I was going slow. No way could this be faster than typing. Yet, the word count was plain to see. I tried an experiment. I typed a long, long, run-on sentence while my son manned a stopwatch. (Sentence approached paragraph length) Then, I spoke the sentence and fixed whatever errors occurred with the keys. Result? Speech to text cut about 7 seconds off each sentence, even with the keyboard fixes.
Now, I know my typing speed works out to 5280 words per hour if I don't stop for an hour straight. STT produced 2000 words per hour for me. The math doesn't add up, right?
Well, I don't know what speech to text is capable of if I talked straight through an hour, so I can't compare it like that. Like I said, I pause a lot to think about what I'm going to say next.
I'm wondering if I was able to get more words down because I could hear myself talking it out and flowing paragraphs came easier. I'm one who edits as I write the first draft. I suspect I was able to get more of it right the first time because I was saying it out loud and the words just came easier.
For me, this is a boost in productivity. I'll be using it a lot from here on out to write fiction. My wife noticed my manuscript flowed better than usual on the first draft. There was a lot less editing to do on it than usual, as well.
What's next? I'm going to record my voice on my iPhone to and from work, then listen through the earbud later as I speak it into the computer. This will guarantee me over an hour of writing time each working day, which will be in addition to writing after work.
In the future, I may get a digital voice recorder, record the chapters away from the computer, then plug it into the computer to turn it to text.
I read the accuracy improves dramatically with a boom mike on your head. I just used the built in microphone in the laptop. Hopefully, accuracy will improve further once I have one.
All in all, this was a positive experience for me. Your mileage may vary. If you have Windows 7 or 8, I'd suggest you do your own experiment to see if it can be of use to you. It took me 2 days before I got used to speaking the story aloud, so give it some time before you decide. Also, time the difference between speaking & typing. Try speaking for an hour, then typing for an hour and watch the word count. Also, look for any difference in flow and rhythm. If you type faster than I do, it could slow you down.
Hope this helps someone.
I used this to write my 25,000 word novella. More accurately, I mainly used the speech to text, but took to the keys to correct mistakes as they happened. I type 88 wpm at 100% accuracy. I experimented with speech to text to see how it would compare to my typing speed. I used a year old laptop and just used the built in microphone. I'll give my experience using it here. If others have tried this, I'd like to hear what your experience was with it.
So, I cranked Microsoft's version up and followed the instructions for training it. It took under 1 hour. I sat there reading sentences on the screen aloud until it was done.
Next, I opened a fresh word document. I set up the title and author by keyboard as well as setting the font and pitch.
Then, I began speaking and it began "typing" what I said. I used my tab to indent, but it probably had a voice command for that.
It screwed up a lot. Each time, I corrected it by voice. After half an hour, it stopped screwing up the same words over and over and it went more smoothly. It learns your voice & speech. Once I stopped talking like a robot, it did even better. I still had to annunciate, though, so it wasn't my conversational voice/speed, either.
Speaking one word at a time causes more errors. The reason? It's using other words in the sentence to figure out things like the difference between meet and meat, as well as differentiating what you said from other words that rhyme. At the same time, if I spoke too many words, it screwed them up. I found 3-8 words at a time worked best for me.
I used it for 2 days before I got fairly comfortable with it. It felt like swimming through Jello, especially when I had to correct something it got wrong. I made forward progress, though, on the story.
Day 3 saw an improvement, though it took me hours to realize it. I was about ready to shut it down and let fly my trusty fingers. Told myself I wouldn't use it on day 4. No way. It seemed so darn slow to me. But, in the interest of giving it a fair shot, I decided to use it till the end of day 3, despite how darn slow it felt.
Result--I wrote over 10,000 words on day 3 using speech to text. Took me 5 hours to do it, though. In theory, I could write a novel in about 50 hours this way. In practice, I pause here and there to figure out what I'm going to say next and how to say it and I do get stuck at times, so 50 hours would be extremely optimistic. One thing for sure; you know when you're using awkward sentences. You can hear it. Typing, I wouldn't have noticed until editing time.
This is more than I usually type in that time frame. I was shocked. It felt like I was going slow. No way could this be faster than typing. Yet, the word count was plain to see. I tried an experiment. I typed a long, long, run-on sentence while my son manned a stopwatch. (Sentence approached paragraph length) Then, I spoke the sentence and fixed whatever errors occurred with the keys. Result? Speech to text cut about 7 seconds off each sentence, even with the keyboard fixes.
Now, I know my typing speed works out to 5280 words per hour if I don't stop for an hour straight. STT produced 2000 words per hour for me. The math doesn't add up, right?
Well, I don't know what speech to text is capable of if I talked straight through an hour, so I can't compare it like that. Like I said, I pause a lot to think about what I'm going to say next.
I'm wondering if I was able to get more words down because I could hear myself talking it out and flowing paragraphs came easier. I'm one who edits as I write the first draft. I suspect I was able to get more of it right the first time because I was saying it out loud and the words just came easier.
For me, this is a boost in productivity. I'll be using it a lot from here on out to write fiction. My wife noticed my manuscript flowed better than usual on the first draft. There was a lot less editing to do on it than usual, as well.
What's next? I'm going to record my voice on my iPhone to and from work, then listen through the earbud later as I speak it into the computer. This will guarantee me over an hour of writing time each working day, which will be in addition to writing after work.
In the future, I may get a digital voice recorder, record the chapters away from the computer, then plug it into the computer to turn it to text.
I read the accuracy improves dramatically with a boom mike on your head. I just used the built in microphone in the laptop. Hopefully, accuracy will improve further once I have one.
All in all, this was a positive experience for me. Your mileage may vary. If you have Windows 7 or 8, I'd suggest you do your own experiment to see if it can be of use to you. It took me 2 days before I got used to speaking the story aloud, so give it some time before you decide. Also, time the difference between speaking & typing. Try speaking for an hour, then typing for an hour and watch the word count. Also, look for any difference in flow and rhythm. If you type faster than I do, it could slow you down.
Hope this helps someone.
