Mechanics of Writing [back to archive] Many people shrug off the mechanical side of writing as irrelevant or at most, unimportant. But even to hardened old campaigners like me, how - and to a lesser extent where - you physically record your words does make a difference to their ultimate quality. Mind you in my job, you learn how to write wonderful words in all sorts of undesirable environments. Many times I have written and edited complex speeches on a laptop while sitting (sometimes squatting if there are no spare chairs) backstage of a conference set while electricians, carpenters and riggers haul cables and build things all around me. That old line about necessity being the mother of invention is very true. It's surprising how you can galvanize your thinking into action despite maniacal circumstances, when the alternative is a disappointed or worse, irate client. The right environment Ideally you should try to do your writing in as quiet and comfortable surroundings as possible. Your own home may seem ideal but be careful. Unless you're very disciplined, working at home can be even more distracting than at your usual workplace (unless that's in your home, of course...) If I have to concentrate particularly hard on a writing task, I find it does help to get away from my usual working environment and go somewhere where I'm not reminded of the other jobs and activities waiting to be done. In my case my office is a room in my house. So usually I'll take a pen and notepad and go sit at the table in my dining room. In an external office environment, you could perhaps borrow an empty meeting room, or even an absent colleague's office. You might be surrounded by their daily distractions, but they won't affect you as much as your own do. Getting the words down One of the biggest barriers that restricts the flow of your words - if you use a computer to write, and most people do - is lack of keyboarding skills. Just because you know how to use a computer does not necessarily mean you have learned to use more than two fingers on the "sqwerty" keyboard. And if you need to write a lot of text it's well worth taking a course in touch typing, or even text management. You'll be amazed at how much faster and more pleasantly you can record your words when you use both thumbs and all eight fingers while keeping your eyes on the screen. There are various ways of learning how to touch type, from attending a course at a local adult education college to CD-ROMs to software packs you install in your computer. If you Google the phrase "touch typing" you'll find thousands of companies offering training in touch typing via a range of different delivery media. Some of those would be well worth a browse. Dictation I have never succeeded in dictating anything other than garbage into these systems and I'm not the only writer who feels that way. However many famous authors dictate their work into audio recording devices, to be transcribed by long-suffering secretaries, and for them it works well. Apparently the late Dame Barbara Cartland, the famous British romantic novelist, dictated every one of her books with an average output of one complete novel every two weeks. No-one knows how much editing had to be done to them and by whom. But with 723 books published in her lifetime of 98 years and about 100 unpublished titles yet to be released, she must have been doing something right. Most business people who have the experience of dictating business letters should be able to dictate other simple writing tasks with the same efficiency. But realistically, audio recorders are more useful as information gathering tools from which you can transcribe the good stuff and incorporate it into your written text. Voice recognition systems Many people swear by these gizmos and in theory they speed up the creative process by removing the need for transcription. I find them horribly distracting, but that's probably because I'm a boring old Luddite. You may totally disagree. Before investing time and money into an elaborate voice recognition system, in your shoes I would, if possible, try one out over a period of time and see if it really is as much of a time saver as all that. Unless you're very good at verbalizing your thoughts you may find it takes longer to re-edit everything the system records than it would had you typed it all in the first place.
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