“Embrace dictation as a productivity tool. It’s a weapon in your writing arsenal and your workflow … If you’re not embracing voice … You’re missing out on a lot of technological help.” — Scott Baker, The Writer’s Guide to Training Your Dragon
The word ‘writing’ is associated with hitting keys on a keyboard to make letters appear on a screen, or inscribing by hand onto paper. But the result is a mode of communication from one brain to another through the medium of words. Your voice can generate those words just as much as your fingers.
Famous dictating authors include Winston Churchill, Barbara Cartland, and Dan Brown. When Terry Pratchett, fantasy author of the Discworld series, developed Alzheimer’s disease, he couldn’t write anymore, so he moved to dictation in his final years.
Clearly, dictation can work for many writers across different genres, and it has become more popular for authors as technology makes it easier and faster.
Why might you consider dictation?
Writing speed and stamina
Most people can speak faster than they write, so dictation is faster at getting words on the page than typing.
You will need to do a light edit to correct transcription issues each time, but if you want to get your first draft done faster, dictation can be effective.
If you have a structure with chapter headings and even sub-headings, you can use those to talk about each topic, then transcribe it and use that to start your draft.
You can also ask ChatGPT to ask you 20 questions about a topic, and then use that as a your starting point. Record yourself answering those questions and it will spark more thoughts as you go.
Use of existing material
Perhaps you already have recordings of your course material, professional speaking or webinars, or teaching in some form. If you have the audio files, you can use the transcription as a start to your draft.
I used to teach online courses and I used the recordings as the start to several of my non-fiction books.
Increased creativity
Some writers have a problem with perfectionism and critical voice in the first draft. They struggle to finish a book because they constantly edit what they write. If you dictate, you can bypass critical voice, get the first draft done, and edit later.
You also don’t have to dictate a perfect draft. You can just get your thoughts down and work through them later.
Kevin J. Anderson, author of On Being a Dictator, says,
“The biggest advice that I would give for you and for other writers to get started with dictation is don’t try to write that way. The best way to start is to do notes or brainstorming. Take your [phone or] recorder and just go for a walk. It’s almost like free association.”
Health reasons
You can dictate standing up or walking, or even lying in bed, and many writers with health issues find dictation useful. Dictation can help ease or prevent pain now, and learning how to write with dictation can also future-proof your living as a writer in case of health problems later.
I started dictating when I developed pain in my wrists and forearms and used it to write some of my first drafts. I eventually corrected the pain issues through changes to my health and fitness (which I wrote about in The Healthy Writer), and now I prefer to write in a local café, which is not so conducive to dictation. But I’m glad I learned the skill and I use it occasionally, just not for every book.
Use AI tools to help
Speech to text is one of the most common AI use cases and the tools are improving all the time. You can either choose to have the tool transcribe as you speak, or record the audio file and then transcribe it later.
In-built dictation tools
Most phones and computers have dictation modes built in for any application where you can use text. If you open MS Word on the PC, Pages on the Mac, or Google Docs, you will find Dictation options as part of the software. Just enable it and start talking.
Specialist transcription apps
Most note-taking apps have in-built dictation. For example, when I am out walking, I sometimes dictate into my Notes app on the iPhone, or I use Gmail to dictate something and then send it to myself for later.
More specialist apps include Dragon Professional, as well as Otter.ai, which I use to transcribe my podcast interviews.
If you want to use audio and video for social media marketing, or other content repurposing, then I recommend Descript.com, which has transcription built-in, and also enables you to edit audio and video files by editing the text, as well as transform them into audiograms, video clips, and more.
Cleaning up the transcription
Initial audio file transcription is rarely perfect, although you can hire human transcriptionists or editors if you want someone else to clean up the files.
You can also use AI tools to clean up raw dictation if it’s missing dialogue tags or punctuation. Use ChatGPT or other tools with a prompt like, “Please clean up this raw dictation and add appropriate punctuation and fix any typos.” I’ve found this to be remarkably accurate for when I can’t even understand myself!
You still need to edit the material, however you get it onto the page, but dictation can give you a great start.