The writing process for Hunter Healer King involved me taking a somewhat different approach to dictation, so I thought I’d pull together some thoughts I’d posted on a writing discord I belong to.

-Dictation cleanup (after transcription by a computer program or website) takes about as long as actual dictation, but it incorporates a lot of what would otherwise go into editing/polishing (expanding descriptions, sharpening dialogue, wording things better, fixing punctuation), so maybe it’s a wash. I’m putting what should be the last task in the dictation workflow first, because this component is something dictation advocates tend to gloss over, and then newcomers are disappointed when they find out about it the hard way.

-Unless I’m trying to exercise in the computer room or do laundry there, I rarely dictate into a headset, and I never dictate sitting at the computer desk any more. I also don’t use Windows Text to Speech anymore; if I am dictating on a headset, I’m recording an mp3 file in Windows Voice Recorder app.

-As a result of not seeing my words on the screen and freaking out about how rough it looked, I got better at saying something, then trying on different phrasings for it before moving on to the next bit

-I did most of my dictation into a phone app, usually when commuting. This one seems to have pretty good audio quality and includes a fun, simple retro interface, allowing you to unlock new skins by watching ads. Just remember to name and save your recordings before closing them, or they will be lost forever.

-My true secret weapon is this AI-powered transcription/translation website. Upload an mp3 (for free, within certain limits), let it process it, and it will play the file back with subtitles. Find the txt file below the playback window, click on it, and select/copy/paste the words into wherever you save them on your computer. Then start dictation cleanup (see above). I have a fairly neutral High Plains/Midwestern accent, but also a tendency to mumble and switch over to bad parodies of English and French pronunciation. This transcription service understands me surprisingly well. It puts in question marks based on inflections, and commas, periods, and paragraph breaks based on how long I pause between words. It has very little awareness of quotation marks. Punctuation is one of those “dictation cleanup tasks” I mentioned at the start of the post, and it is an important one.