| In a previous article I suggested that one way | | | | time a writer can work twice as fast is a good |
| you have to avoid writing is to hire a secretary. | | | | time. Almost as good as getting paid twice as |
| Of course, I wasn't serious. The last person I | | | | fast! |
| heard of who did that was royalty. Modern | | | | The disadvantages have to do with the need to |
| admitedly. The previous person hired four... but | | | | train the software. And the need to correct the |
| she really was royalty. Or at least minor nobility. | | | | result. Training the software can take an |
| So for those of us writing a how to book without | | | | extended amount of time and be very frustrating. |
| the advantage of royalty and money what are | | | | The big frustration, however, is looking at your |
| we going to do? You know those of us who stir | | | | manuscript and finding all the mis-translations after |
| our tea with stainless steel spoons and who don't | | | | all the effort in translating. |
| have secretarial staffs to write our latest | | | | The second disappointment comes when you |
| romance for us! | | | | realize that you can only speak in bursts. While |
| Don't worry we've got a secretary too! A cheap | | | | we speak faster than we type, we think even |
| one (YAAAYYYY! I like cheap.) It's called a | | | | faster still. That difference is used by many |
| computer. | | | | writers to figure out what they are going to say |
| I'm talking about voice recognition software. | | | | next. A difference that reduces severely when |
| There's a lot of it out there. Dragon Naturally | | | | speaking. As a result we tend to speak in bursts |
| Speaking comes to mind as the most well known. | | | | rather than at the full speed we have available. |
| But there's also e-Speaking and IBM's ViaVoice | | | | Therefore you are going to end up writing much |
| and WhyType and Julius and CMU Sphinx... you | | | | slower than you expect. And you're going to have |
| get the idea. Of course there are new ones | | | | to correct your English... after all your writer isn't |
| appearing and disappearing on a regular basis (IBM | | | | English speaking. They speak native C (or possibly |
| ViaVoice for example). | | | | LISP). |
| This software translates the words you speak | | | | However, if you are a one finger touch typist -- |
| into a microphone. They reappear as words that | | | | and that touch rather ham-handed -- it may still |
| appear on the screen in a word processing | | | | prove to be much faster than trying to type. |
| program. In fact, some Word processors come | | | | Despite the sci-fi feel, speech recognition/voice |
| equipped with built in speech recognition/voice | | | | recognition is a viable tool for writing your book |
| recognition software. | | | | and worh trying. Unless of course, you're old |
| The big advantage is that you are entering words | | | | fashioned like me! |
| at almost twice the speed of typing. And any | | | | |