Speaker 1: 0:50

I would tell authors to not be discouraged and not fall for the thing that your brain might tell you of. We can't do this dictation thing. We've tried and failed. It's a wiring thing. Some people are just more inclined to this, to speaking their words, and that's not how your brain is wired. So just turn that voice off and know that you can train your brain to dictate your fiction.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I wanna prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming, so each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So, whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, I'm diving into a writing technique that could transform how you approach your novel, and that is dictation. If you've ever struggled with finding time to write, battled perfectionism when staring at a blank page or simply wanted a healthier way to create your stories, then this episode is for you.

Speaker 2: 2:02

I'm joined by a very special guest. Her name is Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer, and she's an author, writing instructor and the host of the Confident Fiction Author podcast. Sarah has written multiple novels using dictation and has helped countless writers incorporate this powerful tool into their creative process, and in this episode, sarah is going to share her experience writing novels using dictation, as well as some of the surprising benefits to using dictation to write your novel that go beyond just writing faster. She's also going to share some practical tips for getting started, some insights into how to overcome common obstacles and how speaking your story might just help you finally finish that manuscript you've been dreaming about. So, without further ado, let's dive right into my conversation with Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer.

Speaker 1: 2:50

I'll actually introduce myself in the words of our Choctaw language. I'll actually introduce myself in the words of our Choctaw language Alito Sohocha Foyet. Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer, choctaw, siya Hokke. Hi, my name is Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer and I am Choctaw. I'm a tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and I'm an author and digital course creator.

Speaker 2: 3:08

Love that so much. We're going to talk about an exciting topic of dictation and I think that a lot of writers are going to benefit from our conversation and they could benefit from dictation, whether it's because they want to write faster, maybe they have a chronic illness that makes it hard to show up at their desk every day, or maybe they're battling with perfectionism or writer's block whatever it is that for some reason, showing up and typing the words just feels really hard. So I'm so excited to get into all of this. But how did you kind of find dictation? What made you go?

Speaker 1: 3:40

to it. You know it was listening to podcasts and hearing authors at conferences and stuff talk about how they were just rocking it with dictation. They were getting in 5,000 words, 10,000 words a day, and they just rambling off and it sounded so easy right, it sounded so easy to just be able to speak your fiction instead of typing and the process of actually doing that. So every time I would hear one of those interviews, every time I would hear another author who was just killing it with dictation, I was like I've got to do that, I've got to try it. And so I would try and promptly fail, like my brain would freeze up and I was like, okay, my brain just doesn't work that way. Great, it works for those other authors and they're able to do it. I'm just not wired that way.

Speaker 1: 4:21

And so I kept going back to that. That was probably. I know. I did a Facebook post in 2013 saying where I was trying Dragon Dictation on my phone whenever I first got smartphone and Dragon came out with their app that subscription based app and so I tried it and same thing. I was like this just isn't going to work. So for several years I had a lot of false starts with dictation before I finally mastered it. I guess it was 2019. I keep trying to track back over that because I never thought I would be sharing my dictation journey with people. But looking back at the first novel that I dictated all the way through, that would have been 2019. So it took some years to get it down.

Speaker 2: 5:01

Wow, yeah, and it's so funny you say stops and starts, because I've dabbled with it before. It's not something I use. I still like handwriting and typing and more of those like tactile things, but for me and tell me if this is true for you it's almost like I would start to say something that I'm like that's not right, that's not good, and then I would. I would get frustrated, like I can't do this because what's coming out isn't working. Did that happen to you?

Speaker 1: 5:25

Yeah, absolutely Pre-judging yourself. You know it's like it's fixing to come out your mouth, so it's oh, it's got to come out perfectly because it feels so. Like I said, the tactile experience with typing on the keyboard backspace is right there delete. I can you know very quickly, highlight and get rid of that sentence. But dictation really makes you push forward and get your writing done, which is another huge benefit of dictation.

Speaker 2: 5:46

Yeah, and just I should back us up a little bit because in case you're listening and you don't know what dictation is, it's essentially you're typing and your computer, or you're talking and you're typing on the computer as you talk. Is there another way you would describe it, or did I get it?

Speaker 1: 6:00

Yeah, actually, you don't have to type, so you're just talking. Now some authors do that They'll type at the same time and they'll speak to get trained in dictation. But yeah, it's not, I don't. My books that I've dictated all of them have been on my phone, so I never actually dictate really on my computer and it just makes me mobile. I'm able to do it comfortably from my living room or from my bed and just really get in good positions or taking a walk and being able to get words done. So you don't have to have a keyboard and a computer there to get your writing done. You can just speak your words. And yes, that's a great description of dictation Instead of typing them, you're speaking them.

Speaker 2: 6:37

Yeah, that's awesome. I love the idea of being mobile as you can write your book. So we're going to dig into. I know you have three main benefits. I asked you to summarize and you're like I have three main benefits of dictation and it goes beyond just writing faster. So will you walk us through the first benefit?

Speaker 1: 6:54

Yeah. So health and you mentioned this health is really number one. It's really taken over writing faster. So a lot of authors come to dictation like me, you know, wanting to be able to rack up those huge word counts and do it with ease. But I have so many authors now that come into my trainings and they're there for the health benefits. They're getting older or they have chronic illnesses and arthritis so many issues that they're like I have to do this or I can't continue writing. And so health definitely. And they say sitting is the new smoking. We spend so much time just sitting at our computers. And I tell authors even if you want to continue dictating at your computer, totally fine, but if you're able to do it in twice as fast like I doubled my writing speed with dictation that doesn't happen for everyone, but I doubled my writing speed you're at least cutting your sitting time in front of your computer in half for your writing time. So health, huge benefit. Lots of authors go for walks when they're doing their dictation. So you're able to get your exercise in and get your writing in. You're not having to sacrifice one or the other. So if you have an hour to write but that doesn't leave you time to exercise or you can walk for an hour, but it doesn't give you time to write. You can get an hour of writing and an hour of walking in at the same time. So number one really over writing faster is health.

Speaker 1: 8:13

So number two what I really enjoy is just the natural, the naturalness of telling stories. I have oral storytelling background. I never did it professionally but I enjoy telling stories orally and I think we all start that way. We all start with being able to tell stories before we can even write them. And so, going back to that tradition, I'm a tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, so storytelling, that's how we pass down stories and preserve them. So being able to just speak the stories, it's a lot of fun and it can also give you a really natural sounding dialogue. That's something that some authors get that benefit of. We don't write, of course. You know spot on dialogue when we're in fiction, but it still just gives you that opportunity to hear the words as they're coming out and even get into the voice of your character. So sometimes I will throw in a little bit of an accent, not too much, because you don't want to mess up your dictation, but you can just really role play in that. So being able to just orally tell a story huge benefit.

Speaker 1: 9:15

And then the third one that I really love is time management. So the first time I did finally successfully dictate a piece of fiction it was a backstory scene of one of the novels that I was working on and it just like downloaded in my brain all at once and I was like I've got to capture this. But I also had a sink full of dishes and I needed to be out the door in about 20 minutes and I was like, okay, either, I'm going to capture the scene which I knew I couldn't, even even if I sat down and just spent the 20 minutes on that, I was like I can't, I won't be able to capture all of it, I'll just be some exercises and some practice and all. So let me just hook up my phone and give it a try. And so I did it while doing dishes, came back, transcribed those words and I had over 1,200 words in just that 20 minutes and they would just, it would just have been completely gone, like I would have not been able to capture it and have that backstory.

Speaker 1: 10:13

So that's for me time management. It allows you to get your writing in the little places of time that you might not otherwise. If you're doing your pets or you're doing dishes, you know you just get to go ahead and get some writing in, especially when inspiration strikes. Those are three top benefits beyond writing faster that I just love about dictation.

Speaker 2: 10:33

And that's amazing because I heard some things that are usually top of mind for writers. So the time management thing is huge. Usually it's like I don't have the time and now you're like dictation is a way that we're going to help you get some of that time back. I also heard you talk about how dictation can make it feel a little more natural, like when you're writing either in your voice or your character's voice, which is something writers struggle with, and then it all goes back. We can be healthier if we use dictation and we can live longer to write more books. So I think all of that is awesome and I'm sure there are so many other benefits, but those, I agree, those are probably the top three most interesting, most enticing for listeners. Well, I kind of want to go to some technical questions too. Maybe you have this planned, but I'm thinking of, like you're doing the dishes, and it's kind of loud when you're doing the dishes. Does any of that stuff get in the way when you're doing dictation?

Speaker 1: 11:25

So there's a couple of things that you can do One, having a mic and I now have a headset mic that I would use whenever I'm out and about or going out and feeding my chickens and stuff. I can hook that in. What I used that first time were just my earbuds, just my wired earbuds, and I don't recommend that. You're not going to get the best accuracy, but just the fact that I was able to get this backstory scene written that I knew I wasn't going to go back and edit and publish, I just wanted to capture it. That worked for that time.

Speaker 1: 11:53

But that's what I recommend for authors when you're looking at time management is getting a mic, and it doesn't have to be expensive and, honestly, I wrote my first nine books without a mic. I typically don't use a mic with dictation, so I just always encourage authors you don't have to make a big financial investment to get started with your tools and your tech with dictation. So that is one of the things. Though, if you're going to be walking, there's a lot of creative solutions that my authors are always coming up with in the boot camps. It's a lot of fun to see how they get creative with being able to make dictation work in their lifestyle and get their writing in ways that they never were before.

Speaker 2: 12:30

I bet that's so cool. And I'm just thinking of some of the writers I know who are like my most creative ideas come in the shower or when I'm taking a bath or walking the dogs or whatever. So I'm sure the opportunities to use dictation are endless.

Speaker 1: 12:42

Yeah, and I'll just slide that in there. So one of my good writing friends, she did dictation in the shower. So yeah, we have waterproof phones. Now you can get a waterproof case. But yeah, you get those ideas and whenever they're hit, most of us typically have our phones on us, or at least where we can grab them pretty quick.

Speaker 2: 12:58

Right, yeah, that's so cool. Ok, and so another tech question Is there like a specific program that you use to do this, or are there multiple programs? Tell me about that.

Speaker 1: 13:09

Yeah, there are so many tools and options available Savannah now that we have with doing dictation that we didn't have 10 years ago or even five years ago. So back in the day, dragon Dictation was our only option. We had to spend that $600, $700, I think it's currently $700 to do Dragon Dictation to get that, naturally speaking, and then we had to train on how to use it and train ourselves to do dictation what I call dictation, but being able to dictate your fiction so it was quite an investment to even get a software to do that. Nowadays there are voice to text apps that you can use. There are recording apps so you can record your words, and that's actually how I wrote my first nine books. I recorded and then the app had a transcription service built in, and so I was able to do that.

Speaker 1: 13:58

I don't recommend that specific app. In fact, I try not to recommend too many specific tools nowadays because they're constantly changing and the app that I use it's no longer works well, so I don't recommend it. But that is what I get in there with my trainings is I give people you know, let's look at what the latest tools are and then it depends if you're an Android or iPhone user, if you're a Mac or PC, how old or how new is your technology? But one thing that all authors can do. So I'll just go ahead and give you guys just this one simple thing that pretty much everyone if you have a smartphone or a computer, you can do dictation, and that's just using your built-in speech-to-text option on your phone or your computer.

Speaker 1: 14:38

So pretty much everyone. If you pull up a text message or an email, there's that little microphone on your keyboard you can tap that, start speaking and you are now dictating. So that's just a quick and easy thing that pretty much anyone can do. The only thing I will give a caution on that, because I've sent a lot of my author friends down that road before I started doing my trainings and they were like, oh, this is a mess, oh, this was terrible, oh, my brain froze up and I'm like, ah, and so then they built that resistance around doing dictation just like I had. So I do encourage authors, do practice, do some training before you jump right into it. But if you want to jump right into it as far as a tool, you've got a built-in speech-to-text option on your phone or your computer that you can get started with.

Speaker 2: 15:26

That's awesome, and I'd imagine I'm thinking of practicing. There are probably so many ways you can go about that. Like there are prompts. You can even just pretend you're telling a friend about your story or what would you want to ask your friend who's writing? Like you can just start to imagine all these scenarios and then just kind of get used to seeing your words come out of you. I'd imagine that that's a little hurdle we all have to get over if we're going to try dictation, but not something that's the end of the world, would you agree?

Speaker 1: 15:52

Oh, absolutely, and that's what I do in my bootcamp. I'm like, okay, before we jump right into it, let's go through some exercises. I always give some assignments and I'm like I know everyone's chomping at the bits, but it's so important to create those neural pathways and if you will take the time to do that and do that training instead of building resistance, I mean I truly believe any author that dictation can become as natural to them as typing that it really, once you have dug those neural trenches and you're able to just let your words of fiction flow out of your mouth instead of out of your fingers, so there is a big transition there and that's what I spend a lot of time working with authors on, so that they don't have to spend the years that it took me to master dictation dictating my fiction. So that's my big goal is to trim down that learning curve. Let's practice, let's do some training so that it's a smoother transition for you.

Speaker 2: 16:42

Yeah, that's awesome. And so, speaking of learning curve, is there like talk about the learning curve when you're going from typing to dictating, and are there any things that consistently surprise people about, either, like opportunities or challenges? Talk to me about that.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Yeah, I think the I think tech challenge is usually everyone's first hurdle Just getting. I have a lot of older authors and even younger authors. I like I said my friend she didn't realize she could dictate directly into Scrivener the Scrivener iOS app. So I think once that's why I focus on the tech challenges first, because there are some phones they'll cut off after 30 seconds.

Speaker 1: 17:18

you know you're dictating and they'll cut off or your computer will, and so once you just just encourage authors, stick with it until you find a tool that works for you, works for your device and that you're able to use. So that's generally the first thing that authors hit with that. The second thing is just having that brain freeze. They got there if they're an outliner or a pantster, either way and that's another thing I like to share is authors, whether you're an outliner or a pantster, right by the seat of your pants you can do dictation, but they will have their outline or they know what scene they're going to write. They start their dictation function and they just freeze.

Speaker 1: 17:54

They're like how do I actually like, how does it, how do I actually get this fictional world out of my mouth? And so that's something that I see consistently and that we really work on, because I don't want them to create that resistance of you know how do I do this. And so the last thing that I really see a lot is just, people aren't used to their own voice. I think, like you said, as authors we're just, we type, we're in our little writing cave. I have a sign above my desk that says I know I'm in my own little world, but they all know me here and so we just have that. You know, everyone has different comfort levels, and coming together in a group of other authors who are also, you know, having all of the same struggles, it's really empowering for authors to not feel like they're alone whenever they speak for the first time and be able to start dictating their fiction. So, yeah, those are some things that I see come up pretty often, with authors making that transition.

Speaker 2: 18:49

Yeah, and I think what you just said is really important too, because it sounds like it's almost like you should expect that there will be hurdles. It's not going to just be easy to sit down and dictate your story or anything. So I like pointing that stuff out too, that if whoever is listening tries dictation and you hit one of these hurdles like Sarah is saying you are so not alone. It's part of the process. So just hang in there if it's something you want to make work just hang in there if it's something you want to make work.

Speaker 1: 19:15

Absolutely. That's what I tell authors and I have a lot of them that will come into my trainings a few times, you know, because they just they will not give up and they're not going to give up and I encourage them. I was like just keep, keep going through the exercises and I see it. Finally click for authors. I've not seen any authors who haven't been able to do it, if they just stick with it long enough.

Speaker 2: 19:32

Yeah, that's great. And so another kind of technical question, because you were talking about planners and pantsers Is there a certain part of the writing, outlining brainstorming process, even the editing process, that either dictations like perfect for or doesn't work for?

Speaker 1: 19:49

The outlining. I dictate my outlines and it's so fun because I used to be a pantster. I was a seat of the pants writer and I would do outline. And then I'm like I would get frustrated because I wouldn't stick with my outline. You know, I would go off totally different and I'm like, oh, I wasted all of that time doing outlining. So that was always a point of frustration for me.

Speaker 1: 20:08

Nowadays I do outline all of my stories. I don't do an elaborate outline, but I do outline. The fun thing about dictation is I'm able to do my outline by speaking my words, so it feels a lot more effortless to do an outline. So even if I end up trashing 50% of my outline, I don't feel like I wasted my time, my writing time, doing an outline that I wasn't going to use because it went so fast with dictation. And so, yeah, huge benefit with outlining and there are ways that you can use dictation in the revision process. But it is really for that first draft, to get that first draft down, get it out and get it down on paper for the editing process.

Speaker 2: 20:47

Yeah, and I can just my brain's kind of exploding with ideas because even if, let's say, you have your first draft written and then you were, I don't know reading through your first draft, you could have a little side window up where you're dictating your notes to yourself or things like that.

Speaker 1: 21:01

So I feel like there are so many opportunities beyond.

Speaker 2: 21:05

You know so many creative ways and I think, just because I've been playing with AI a little bit these days for business stuff and it's just opening my mind to all these different ways that we can use tools like AI or dictation or whatever it is, so I think this is really cool, okay, so let's, let's see where do I want to go now. We talked about what dictation is, the benefits of it, the transition between typing and writing to dictation, and then you shared how we can easily get started on our smartphone for free. Basically, we don't even need a fancy microphone, right? Talk to me about timing and because we keep talking about this idea of we can save time, we can write faster with dictation. I know that's going to be a very juicy thing for listeners. So what do we? What do you mean by that? What does that look like practically?

Speaker 1: 21:53

So very practically, I used to be able to type about 1500 words of fiction per hour. That was if I was in a season that I was working on my novel. I would block out about an hour and I could do about 1500 words and I was like that's great. I did a war scene one time and I hit 2000 words an hour. So that was my top writing speed and I did hit 10,000 words in a day one time, but it was very challenging and it just it took a lot of effort to get all of that. It was probably during Nano or something. So you know, with typing, that's about where I land. I'm not a super fast typer and I don't think real fast with my fiction sometimes. So that's where I was at With dictation. I average about 3,000 words an hour. So, and that's just, that's not speaking fast, that's speaking slower than anything that I've done on this podcast so far. So it's speaking much slower, it's pausing, it's checking my outline notes and I hit about 3,000 words. Top speed is 4,000. Wow, yeah, and my top day on that's 11,000. And I had that done in the morning time like early afternoon I was done with those 11,000 words. So I was on a deadline, but I got that done and so that's. You know, on a practical level, that's what it looks like.

Speaker 1: 23:05

I will say what a lot of authors find, and what I found with my 3000 words an hour is I would end up with this big mess. So I would have my 3000 words and it was great to have that many, but it was a big mess, and so that's another thing that really turns authors off from dictation is okay, it's faster, but if I have to do all of this cleanup, is it worth it? And so I would spend about 50% of my time on cleanup itself. So if I dictated for 30 minutes, got 1,500 words in, it would take me another 30 minutes to clean up that 1,500 words and I'm like, okay, well, I ended up with the same 1,500 words. So a couple of things with that. One is the technology is always getting better. It can learn your voice, it can learn you know if you have an accent and all. So there are some things around that. And then there's just some things that you can do to have a cleaner transcription, and that's what I've done. I've done a lot of practice with enunciating my words and doing I speak, my punctuation and just lots of things that you can do to have cleaner transcriptions.

Speaker 1: 24:13

And then I encourage authors, right after your writing session do your cleanup while it's fresh on your mind. Do not write an entire novel and not do your cleanup like. You want it to look as good as if you had typed it and so do your cleanup. And now it's about 90 10, so I would spend about 90 10. So if I dictate 3 000 words in 50, 55 minutes, I can spend five or 10 minutes and get my cleanup done. So it is definitely. It's still, you know, you do need to do your cleanup so that you don't face you know this some weird things that come through in the, in the transcription, but it can get better with time. The other thing that I look at it as you still have all of the other benefits of dictation. So even if your speed doesn't increase or doesn't increase by that much which it's almost guaranteed that it will you still have all of the other benefits of health and time management and all the things that we talked about. So it still makes dictation just so worth it.

Speaker 2: 25:11

Right, I love all that, and so I'm thinking of. Something I teach a lot in my course is let's say that you're in the middle of a scene and you don't know what the name of the business is, or you don't know what the setting looks like, or you know certain details and I teach them, like either put the letters TK for information to come and it's really easy to do a search and find TK or put it in brackets and say come back and describe the building or whatever it is that you need to do. So how do you do stuff like that when you're dictating? Is it as simple as just saying brackets, you know, describe the building later, or tell me about how you do that it is yeah, it is.

Speaker 1: 25:48

You're already a pro Savannah. So I'd say open bracket and leave myself a note, just like I did with typing, and that makes it where, yes, I can. Then whenever I'm doing my cleanup, I'll either take care of the note then or I'll just I'll save it for my editing. It's like with cleanup I just want to be able to know that all of my text is there, that everything is readable, and then go on and leave the notes for the editing phase. Because one of the great things about dictation is a fast first draft, and whether fast means getting it done in a week, getting it done in a year instead of 10 years, you know whatever that means for each author individually, that doesn't matter it, just it speeds up the process.

Speaker 1: 26:22

So, like I said, I dictated, I would speak my words and they would be recorded. I had no option of doing any kind of edits or doing any notes, and that's why it's also so fast. So that's when I learned I could just say open bracket, leave myself a note, close bracket. I could just say open bracket, leave myself a note, close bracket. I would just say open bracket, name, close bracket, and it just meant I need to put that character's name in there, because I can't remember what that character's name was Right, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 26:44

So, yeah, I leave myself lots of notes with dictating.

Speaker 2: 26:47

Cool, that's awesome. And I'm thinking too of the writers who are like you know. They love that editing phase. They love having something written so they can clean it up, and I'm just imagining dictation for them would be so huge right? It's like you do your little word, vomit onto your page or onto your screen, whatever, and then you get to do that thing. That's very rewarding for you, which is cleaning up that mess that you've made. So I think there's so many benefits, depending on what kind of writer you are, when you choose to use this. In the process, it seems like the options and opportunities are almost limitless.

Speaker 1: 27:21

Yeah, I love what one author and I need to memorize her name because I quote this often but our first drafts are just shoveling sand in so that we can build castles later, and I love that. I have that messy first draft and that's. The fun thing about dictation is you can just vomit on the page and it's so much easier and more effortless than typing that. Just go ahead and put it all in there and then go back and edit it later and then, if you are more of an edit as you go author. I have author friends that they're 500 words an hour and that's totally fine and they're using dictation and it's still speeding up their process, but it's just making it easier and more effortless for them to get their words down. So yeah it just it gets worse on the page.

Speaker 2: 28:00

And I think what you said is really important too is it's almost like we have these tools like dictation or like whatever we're using, and the goal is not to make it harder, it's to make our jobs easier. So for some people, that's going to be using something like dictation to brainstorm, or for other people it will be outlining, for other people it'll be drafting. So I think it's a good idea if you've, if you're listening and you're like this sounds really cool, maybe just try it and see what part of the process it can help you with. And, of course, have that patience and grace for the learning curve, because, as Sarah said, it will exist and you will hit hurdles, so don't be surprised. But I do think this sounds like something we can all try and, like you said, we can try right away on our phones. So it's very cool.

Speaker 1: 28:42

Yeah, that's what I always encourage authors. Just pull up your default note application and give it a whirl. So yeah, I do my character notes. It can take over your whole process or just be a part of it.

Speaker 2: 28:51

Yeah, I love that. Speaking of tools, tell me about how dictation works with things like Scrivener, google Doc, word Like. Can we use it with everything?

Speaker 1: 29:01

Oh yeah, basically, anywhere that you can type you can dictate. So if you're on your computer, if you're on Windows, I think it's Command-H pulls up your dictation function, like that's the shortcut, and so if you're on Microsoft Word, you can just hit that and start speaking your words. It may cut you off, it may drag, it may lag. You know there's different things that you know. Just be aware of as you're doing it it's going to behave differently, but you can pretty much anywhere you can type, you can do that. Google Docs has its own built-in voice recognition that you'll use. And the fun thing that we, like authors who do Google Docs that I discovered is you can still have your music playing. So if you have your music playing on your computer in your earbuds, since Google Docs has a separate voice recognition thing, you can still keep that going. So that's a fun thing. Otherwise, I just tell authors if you do music while you're dictating, just have it on a separate device, have it on your phone or have it on your computer. You know, vice versa, your tablet to do that With things like Scrivener again, a lot of authors think that it's Scrivener has its own voice recognition or dictation.

Speaker 1: 30:06

It's not, it's just using your default. So whenever you pull up Scrivener, if you're on a Mac, on my Mac, I have just a microphone on my keyboard and I just tap that. Sometimes I have to tap it twice whenever I'm first doing a session. But you tap that, it brings up your voice recognition. You begin speaking.

Speaker 1: 30:22

And what's really fun with Scrivener is I use the split screen mode and you can click between the two screens and your dictation function will follow you and you can keep speaking. So there's some fun stuff with using Scrivener and dictation and that's why I created a free mini course called dictation plus Scrivener power combo for those of you who are Scrivener users. That's specifically on using dictation with Scrivener. So my current method of dictating is I dictate directly into my Scrivener iOS app on my phone, so I will just pull that up, go to the scene I'm working on, tap the center of the screen. It brings up my keyboard, tap the mic and I start speaking. So pretty much anywhere that your keyboard pops up on your phone or you have the ability to type on your computer you can use dictation.

Speaker 2: 31:08

That is awesome, and so this free little mini course we're going to link to that in the show notes. We're also going to link to a free resource that you're going to give my audience.

Speaker 1: 31:21

Do you want to talk about that a little bit? Yeah, so I just created a quick start guide and it's got some tools in there, some things for PC users and Mac users, so you can go explore that. It does have a punctuation key but just know, depending on your device, you may need to say instead of new line it may be new paragraph. So there's going to be some nuances that you'll learn as you're getting into your device. But that's a quick start guide to help you get started with dictation.

Speaker 2: 31:42

That's awesome, and we're also going to post some info about Sarah's course. She teaches and has a community around using dictation to write, so we'll post information about that. But on this quick start guide, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit, Sarah. If you were to give my audience who let's say they're saying, okay, this sounds interesting, I want to try it. I'm going to get the quick start guide. Do you have a little like what's a challenge? What can they do this week to start implementing?

Speaker 1: 32:09

I would say pull up your text messages, tap on your little, where you would normally type, and hit your dictation function and dictate a text message to your mom or to a friend, and it doesn't have to be long, just a sentence or two. You can tell them what you're doing. It's like, hey, I'm dictating my first text message and then do a little cleanup if you need to and hit send. So just taking action for the first time and getting used to words coming out of your mouth and seeing them appear on the screen. So that would be the quick action that I'd recommend your authors take.

Speaker 2: 32:44

Love it. So a little bit of homework is to grab the free guide that Sarah is providing and also send your first text message or whatever it is with dictation, just to practice. So I love that so much. And, sarah, do you want to tell them a little bit about your course and community?

Speaker 1: 33:00

Yeah, so fictation so that's my word that I combined dictating your fiction. So I love that and my authors love that they're able to say that they're fictating. Authors, or don't bother me, I'm fictating.

Speaker 2: 33:12

And so.

Speaker 1: 33:13

I really get to own that. So that's what the name of the course and it's pretty hefty, several hours long, and I spend time demonstrating so a lot of these tools that we talk about. I share my computer screen and recorded it and walk you through the whole process of recording and transcribe and there's things like Otterai and, of course, google Docs and Scrivener. So I demonstrate on my phone and my computer a lot of these tools and then I go into the mindset, so the mental. How do you actually train your brain to do dictation, to dictate your fiction? Because it is different. You know I'm encouraging authors to. You know, just get used to the tech with going ahead and sending a text message or an email or something, but when it comes time to actually dictate your fiction, that's where a lot of authors freeze in making that transition. So I go through exercises and just take you step by step through the process. We go slow of dictating your first scene and then I also talk about cover. You know what should you do for your startup routine, like what are some things you want to make sure are in place each time that you're going to dictate your fiction and making sure that you know your tool is working and that everything is going to go smoothly for your writing session. So I cover all of that.

Speaker 1: 34:28

A big part of the course as well is I recorded my whole process of writing a novella, so a 20,000 word novella by dictation, and I do some commentary in there and of course I don't. I didn't post the whole, you know six hours or whatever that it took me, but I clipped out the important bits and just did some just talking about the process of what my mental process was, what the tech tools doing cleanup. I talk about outlining and using dictation and outlining. So basically the entire process and everything you wanted to know about dictation and you wanted someone to walk through you with it. That's what Fictation is, and so that's at fictioncoursescom forward slash Fictation and I think we're also going to have a special coupon code that you can use.

Speaker 1: 35:15

So with Savannah we are going to offer $50 off that course and I think we could just use the coupon code, just the acronyms of the podcast FWME, yep, okay. So let's just do the coupon code. So put in the coupon code FWME for $50 off the dictation course. And I do have a dictation for authors boot camp that I run a couple of times a year, so that's a live event where authors get to come in and do Zoom trainings with me. We have a Facebook community and it's just a really good opportunity for authors to support each other on their dictation journeys.

Speaker 2: 35:54

Yeah, and we'll list all the information for that in the show notes. And you know, depending on when this airs, maybe you can join in on the boot camp, or, if we miss it, maybe you'll just have to wait for next time. But either way, sarah has a ton of great resources you can dig into now and I feel like we need to get you a coffee mug that says, like the fictation queen, you've got all this stuff, so I think you need a coffee mug.

Speaker 1: 36:16

I think I do need one to go with my coffee mug that says hello Tuesday. It's been a long week.

Speaker 2: 36:20

Yeah, that's how I'm feeling. I don't know about you, but OK, so all that is so great. Sarah, is there anything? If you had to say like one last parting word of wisdom, no pressure, what would you tell the authors who are listening?

Speaker 1: 36:35

I would tell authors to not be discouraged and not fall for the thing that your brain might tell you of. We can't do this dictation thing. We've tried and failed. It's a wiring thing. Some people are just more inclined to this, to speaking their words, and that's not how your brain is wired. So just turn that voice off and know that you can train your brain to dictate your fiction.

Speaker 2: 36:59

Love it. I think we can all train our brains to do much more than we think they're capable of sometimes.

Speaker 1: 37:05

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 37:05

Dictation included. Okay, so again, we will link to all Sarah's information in the show notes. Thank you so much, sarah, for being here. I am pretty fascinated by this topic and I think you've convinced me to try dictating my own fiction. We'll see. There's so many things you can do with this.

Speaker 1: 37:22

Absolutely. It's a powerful tool for authors to have in their toolkit, so I love it. Thank you so much for having me on Savannah. This has been a joy.

Speaker 2: 37:32

So that's it for today's episode. As always, thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support. If you want to check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode, you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode inside your podcast player or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast. If you're an Apple user, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Your ratings and reviews tell Apple that this is a podcast that's worth listening to and, in turn, your reviews will help this podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. And while you're there, go ahead and hit that follow button, because there's going to be another brand new episode next week, full of actionable tips, tools and strategies to help you become a better writer. So I'll see you next week and until then, happy writing.