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Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work
What method do you prefer when you're writing?
- Thread starter Nox VII
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I recently got Dragon Naturally Speaking because it was on sale at Amazon. So far, I love it. I took to it right away. I wrote 6k words yesterday like it was nothing, and I had a lot of non-writing crap to do yesterday. I imagine it's not everyone's cup of tea, but the only way to find out is to give it a try.
UH, speech to text, isn't it? Dragon, I mean.
I've always believed that speaking and writing are such different processes that speech to text applications would prove to be something in the vicinity of useless to a writer. Guess I was wrong about that if you can up your output so dramatically.
Yeah, you've convinced me it's worth giving it a shot.
I've always been curious about speech to text. Henry James famously erupted in output when he discovered dictation. I think about the applications more lately, as I've started to experience some pain in my hands that I worry could be from the typing.
I use a pen & notepad in the planning/brainstorming phase, and Scrivener once I'm laying down sentences.
I can't imagine using speech to text. Once I formulate a spoken thought in my mind, I spend a fair amount of time placing it in the written form. I don't mind using speech to text for short text messages, but I don't feel compelled to edit them unless they are way off.
There is absolutely no way I would ever go back to pen and paper for drafting any written work over a paragraph. The ability to cleanly edit and make it right using a word processor is huge. Old time writers basically had to get it right the first time, for all intents and purposes.
I think it would be an interesting study to see how they did that. I did my high school essays on pen and paper, and my early college reports on typewriter, but I don't remember how I did it other than I burned through a lot of correction tape. I think I pretty much drafted paragraphs by hand before committing it to type or final print.
Not going back there. Nope.
There is absolutely no way I would ever go back to pen and paper for drafting any written work over a paragraph. The ability to cleanly edit and make it right using a word processor is huge. Old time writers basically had to get it right the first time, for all intents and purposes.
I think it would be an interesting study to see how they did that. I did my high school essays on pen and paper, and my early college reports on typewriter, but I don't remember how I did it other than I burned through a lot of correction tape. I think I pretty much drafted paragraphs by hand before committing it to type or final print.
Not going back there. Nope.
I use Word 
First off, because when I started out writing like fifteen years ago, it was the only software I had for writing and editing (yeah, I'm that lazy), but also because when I get in 'the zone' I need to put that idea/scene into words as fast as possible, or it may change/I may forget some of its details. If I were to jot that down on paper, it would be only scribbles not even God would understand (haha), but since I type fast, that's not a problem in Word. Aaand finally, despite English not being my mother tongue, I love writing in English, and Word allows me not to butcher the language that much :3
First off, because when I started out writing like fifteen years ago, it was the only software I had for writing and editing (yeah, I'm that lazy), but also because when I get in 'the zone' I need to put that idea/scene into words as fast as possible, or it may change/I may forget some of its details. If I were to jot that down on paper, it would be only scribbles not even God would understand (haha), but since I type fast, that's not a problem in Word. Aaand finally, despite English not being my mother tongue, I love writing in English, and Word allows me not to butcher the language that much :3
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I've been using the Windows version of Scrivener since 2014.
I think my way through a story by writing about it, so in addition to the manuscript itself I end up with lots of notes, ideas, research, character sketches, scene sketches, drafts, etc.
Scrivener allows me to keep all of that project-related crap in one place, along with the manuscript. Much better for me than working in both Word and OneNote, which was how I used to do it. It's really a writing project management tool.
A key feature, called Scrivenings, allows you to write your manuscript in as many sub-documents as you want--I typically write each scene in its own doc--but read and edit the manuscript as if it were all in one document.
Another thing you can do is rearrange the sequence of scenes without impacting the manuscript, to see how it reads without actually making the change. You can also label the scenes and then arrange them by label. For instance, I have a multiple POV novel, and I can have Scrivener pull the scenes for a single POV into one doc, so I can check for voice and story continuity, again without impacting the manuscript.
You can also view scenes in corkboard or outliner formats if you like.
Last year I purchased the iOS version, so now I can access my Scrivnener projects anywhere, from my iPad or iPhone. Paired with a bluetooth keyboard, the iPad becomes a bona fide writing tool, and I was surprised how productive I could be while writing on the iPhone 5s, despite it's small screen.
I think my way through a story by writing about it, so in addition to the manuscript itself I end up with lots of notes, ideas, research, character sketches, scene sketches, drafts, etc.
Scrivener allows me to keep all of that project-related crap in one place, along with the manuscript. Much better for me than working in both Word and OneNote, which was how I used to do it. It's really a writing project management tool.
A key feature, called Scrivenings, allows you to write your manuscript in as many sub-documents as you want--I typically write each scene in its own doc--but read and edit the manuscript as if it were all in one document.
Another thing you can do is rearrange the sequence of scenes without impacting the manuscript, to see how it reads without actually making the change. You can also label the scenes and then arrange them by label. For instance, I have a multiple POV novel, and I can have Scrivener pull the scenes for a single POV into one doc, so I can check for voice and story continuity, again without impacting the manuscript.
You can also view scenes in corkboard or outliner formats if you like.
Last year I purchased the iOS version, so now I can access my Scrivnener projects anywhere, from my iPad or iPhone. Paired with a bluetooth keyboard, the iPad becomes a bona fide writing tool, and I was surprised how productive I could be while writing on the iPhone 5s, despite it's small screen.
Interesting. I suspect my brain would be hard pressed to adapt to that style, but then again I've used separate character list/descriptions to keep track of characters. Then I decided, at some point, if I can't keep track of them, neither can the reader, so I dropped it and just kept my major player group fairly small.
I've tried many different programs. Like most people, I started by writing in Word but I always found that clunky. By chance, I discovered Scrivener and have used it ever since -- both for OSX and Windows. Although there will be a renewed fee to purchase Scrivener 3, I will definitely invest in it.
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It depends entirely on what I am writing. Journalling can only happen in an unlined notebook with a fountain pen (okay, okay, a biro if I'm totally desperate, but that makes me miserable—biros are too much work). Non-fiction in Word just because that's what I've always used and I know how to make the footnotes. Fiction in Scrivener because I like the stretchy compose screen and the ability to shuffle notecards with summaries of scenes that I don't know how to write yet.
But when I have writer's block or need to revise, it's realms of printer paper and coloured pens all the way.
But when I have writer's block or need to revise, it's realms of printer paper and coloured pens all the way.
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Mostly, I use MC word. I also have a double monitor and I always put on a movie or TV show when I'm writing. Not something I actually want to watch because that would be too distracting, but just a movie that I have seen before and still enjoy. It's nice background noise.
When I'm on the train or in a coffee shop or basically just anywhere in public without my laptop, I always have a little notebook that I keep in case sudden inspiration strikes me (unfortunately that doesn't happen as often as I'd like).
When I'm on the train or in a coffee shop or basically just anywhere in public without my laptop, I always have a little notebook that I keep in case sudden inspiration strikes me (unfortunately that doesn't happen as often as I'd like).