Is Voice-to-Text for You?

This practice is growing in popularity.

Recently I arranged a Q&A for my memoir course, and a writer in the course asked a question about writing by dictation. I assumed George meant speaking his stories into a microphone, recording them, then having them translated into a text document.

I had only the poorest, most basic answer.

A few days later George emailed, clarifying his previous question. “I would like to read aloud my first, handwritten version and have the computer print it. I think editing would be easier this way.”

That gives us two good ways to use voice-to-text translation.

1. To write the first draft of a work.

2. To transfer a handwritten document to a typewritten one.

Surprisingly

Since George brought this subject to mind, I’ve come across some interesting information.

• Right now writing by talking is very popular.

• Many people are training themselves to write into a recorder. I assume this is for productivity, since a person could be doing two things at once.

• People are recording while walking on a treadmill, hiking, or driving.

• Some are recording while in public—shopping for groceries or watching a child’s softball game, for instance. Not only are they outlining on a device in public, they are drafting.

In Terms of Software

What to use?

• Microsoft Word has a Dictate feature.

• Google Docs offers a free, built-in option that is located under the “Tools” tab.

• Apple Dictation is integrated into Apple devices.

• Windows 11 and later have Windows Voice Typing/Access.

• Notes on iPhones & iPads translates from voice.

• SpeechTexter is a free tool you access via your browser. I didn’t try this one because set-up required a number of steps that I didn’t want to do.

• SpeechNotes (free & paid versions. You can use the voice for punctuation, as in, “She said, comma,…”)

Reasons to Do It

1. We usually speak faster than we can type.

2. We can record thoughts and ideas on the go.

3. We can overcome difficulties we have with typing.

Tips for Doing It

If you are going to speak into a recorder on your phone or other device and transcribe that to a text document

• speak slowly

• enunciate

• speak aloud the punctuation

• prepare yourself to make a lot of corrections (in my experience)

More Advanced Transcription Services

In addition to recording your own voice, you can use voice-to-text to transcribe interviews, podcasts, and meetings. I do this to create source material from which I write.

Note that some software is good at recognizing individual voices.

• Dragon by Nuance (recognizes specific voices, so good for meetings)

• Otter.ai (has a free version, also good for collaborations)

• Jamie

• Aiko (available on mobile devices)

• Gboard (for Androids)

• MacWhisper (for Mac users)

• Sonix

• Descript (I’ve used this one, with lukewarm success.)

• Notta

In the Comments

Do you write by speaking? Why? If so, which software do you use? How clean have you found the finished document to be? Any tips you can offer the rest of us?

If you don’t write by speaking, do you plan to try it?

In Personal News

My Studio

Because I have been writing at one end of the kitchen table for months, my studio upstairs has fallen into disorder. One day I left a window open, forgot about it, and a windstorm arose. The storm swirled papers all over my studio. Last Sunday, when I wasn’t on shift with the baby, I decided to step away from the many items on my writing to-do list and work on making my studio habitable. The main job is filing. I got a great start on it, but I have many piles and boxes of papers left to sort.

Book

Finding a great cover for Journey in Place makes my head ache. I hired a graphic designer from Pakistan through fiverr.com, where the freelancers are often not vetted. “Ali” said he was a cover designer and showed some beautiful covers he had designed. A great cover goes for $2,000+, and this was a $50 offer, so I shouldn’t have expected much.

I didn’t get much, lol.

During edits I realized that Ali had not actually designed the book covers he had posted as examples of his work. He didn’t know how to insert an ISBN, for example. He resized the cover four different times before it fit.

To look at the positive side, that cover is a placeholder. It has allowed me to order a galley, which is a proof copy of the book. That should arrive soon.

Now I am looking for a vetted American cover designer for the final cover. I have sent lots of email inquiries, but I still have no one. If you know of an award-winning graphic designer who does superb book covers, would you let me know?

The moral of this story is that, when you’re using a service like fiverr.com, please remember that what is presented may not be what you actually get.

Refunds

Chelsea Green Publishing gave me back the rights for my book Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land. At that time I bought all the books they had left, which was about 17. The book remained for sale on my website accidentally after I ran out of copies, and people kept ordering it, so I owed about 8 copies of the book to folks. I've intended to update, re-design, and upload the book to print-on-demand sites.

However, with my work time constricted, getting Pinhook produced could take months. Knowing that I owed people a book was causing me stress.

Yesterday I refunded those folks.

I apologize to the people who want a copy of Pinhook. When I get it redone, you’ll be the first to know.

Moving Rhizosphere to Trackless Wild

I’ve started the process of migrating this newsletter over to become a section of Trackless Wild. It will be called The Understory | Writers Gathering.

If you are ever presented with this problem, prepare yourself for a huge challenge. Substack promises that it will move your posts, but what I found out is that it only moves 20 of them, and it moves them to the main archive and not to the section. That work has to be done by hand. And Substack doesn’t transfer the comments, which I’ve found are full of great information. I would prefer not to lose the treasury we’ve collected over here.

As well, I’ve begun to worry that general readers of Trackless Wild will not want to see the blood, guts, and internal organs of the writing process. We over here are a different breed of people. I’m nervous about mixing the two.

Will You Have to Re-Subscribe?

People have asked if they will be automatically moved, and to tell you the truth, I don’t know. I can create a .csv of us writers over here at Rhizosphere, and I can upload that list to Trackless Wild, but folks get uploaded to the entire newsletter, not simply to section called The Understory.

As far as I can see, there’s no way to get you there, into the specific section. Truly I need a Substack expert to help me, and I’ve contacted Substack asking for this, with no response.

Someone wrote me yesterday commiserating that simplifying your life can take an enormous amount of work. Exactly.

ASLE

The Association for the Study of Lit and the Environment meets next week in College Park, Maryland. I will be an exhibitor! If you plan on attending the conference, please come by the booth for a hug and a photo.

I’ve been studying tips for in-person events. I received some fabulous hacks from Lisa Harris. I think I’ll write a Substack post on this, after I get home. By then I will have

1. seen more booths

2. collected more ideas

3. figured out what worked and what didn’t

4. changed my mind a dozen times

Recommending

Thank you, Gerri Bauer, for the recommendation.