Writing Articles with Voice-to-Text: A New Process

Today I am going to try a new process for writing my digital journal entries. I am dictating this article via voice-to-text on my iPhone. I expect that this will reduce the amount of time it takes to write articles, but on the other hand speaking is a very different process from sitting down and typing.

The two actions happen at very different speeds: when speaking I feel more pressure to get my thoughts organized faster. When typing I have more time to pause and reflect on my word choices.

Nevertheless, the pressure to create prompts me to attempt different ways of speeding the whole thing up. Sometimes The best way to beat creative block is to simply do something, ANYTHING. 

Creating anything is better than creating nothing, or at least so it seems.

Still, the process is very new and clunky. I am not used to dictating so there are many pauses and breaks. I have to stop, look back over what I’ve said and edit manually with typing. I expect this will get smoother with time but for now I am enjoying the novelty of harnessing this technology.

Voice-to-text also creates a rather unique voice that is different from my typing voice. I don’t speak the same way that I type.

Even with all the weirdness, it is undoubtedly faster. Is it better? That remains to be seen. I am entering a phase where volume of creative work is becoming important to me. I have a tendency to overthink projects to the point where they never get off the ground. My sketchbook is a graveyard of half-finished ideas. If this method helps get my momentum going, it will be very useful.