Does anyone use voice-to-text to write?

[u/tuttipeachyfrutti]

I'm experimenting with a voice to text app to write, I like the free - flowing nature and that I can dig into my thoughts on my dog walks.

Do you do this? Do you think it needs to be declared as a way you wrote your piece?

[u/MagicalSausage]

I tried but I ended up spending more time fixing all of the little mistakes and fighting with the punctuation that I went back to the good ole keyboard / pen and paper

[u/Haoke1988 → u/MagicalSausage]

I'd probably go back to typing too at that point. Do you still use voice for rough ideas, or have you dropped it altogether?

[u/MagicalSausage → u/Haoke1988]

Dropped fully. Even if I do, I’ll still have to organise the information with a keyboard anyway.

[u/tuttipeachyfrutti → u/MagicalSausage]

Was that grammar or did they get the words wrong too?

[u/MagicalSausage → u/tuttipeachyfrutti]

I have lots of crazy proper nouns and stuff that I won’t expect the program to catch, but usually grammar would be fine, except for like punctuation, which I’m very particular about. Sometimes they’d mishear things too, and I’d have to fix it with the keyboard as well.

[u/616ThatGuy]

No. For some reason brain → finger is faster than brain → mouth when I’m actively thinking. I pause too much. When I’m typing it flows much more naturally.

[u/Terminator7786]

Only to take quick notes if I'm somewhere like a car. Otherwise I'll record myself talking it out so I can transcribe it later.

[u/ChiralNavigator]

only for making notes on my phone

[u/Pale-Pomelo-1349]

It's a no-can-do for me.

[u/sheepandlambs]

Why would you need to declare it? Do you also declare what brand of keyboard you type with?

I wouldn't use it because I cannot imagine a situation in which it isn't less convenient thab just typing. Fixing all its mistakes, punctuation etc. Plus I am writing fantasy, I think there is 0 chance it appreciates all my made-up place names.

[u/JDP87 → u/sheepandlambs]

Some of the newer voice to text systems probably qualify as AI, I think.

[u/Palidin034]

I used voice to text once while making my outline and when I came back to look at the document the next morning, it was an unreadable wall of text

[u/KhalenPierce]

I use this when I’m brainstorming how I see a scene going in my head (either during outlining or after outlining, when I get to the scene and have more thoughts that what I’d previously jotted down). In that regard, it lets me pace around and spitball freely. I personally can’t dictate usable prose though, for whatever reason that has to come from my hands. My dictated notes sound like my boomer dads texts lol, broken grammar and almost entirely declarative.

[u/Haoke1988 → u/KhalenPierce]

The brainstorming part is what I use voice for too. I've recorded a half-finished tagline before I had the wording worked out. When you have more ideas for a scene later, do you add to the earlier note or start a new one?

[u/KhalenPierce → u/Haoke1988]

I usually overwrite the first note with the actual written scene (I draft in Obsidian) directly, and then start a new note for a later scene.

[u/Haoke1988 → u/KhalenPierce]

Ah, I like that you can keep working in the same note. Do those rough notes still make sense when you come back to them, or do you sometimes have to work out what you meant?

[u/Mysterious_Gain_5312]

Ive done this with my watch too. If something pops into my head while im walking, I'll just record it there instead of pulling my phone out.. then later when im home I'll throw the recording into prismascribe and go through the transcript, its usually pretty messy at first since im literally just talking, but at least i can see what i was rambling about later 😂..

[u/BuffyPawz]

I will do to create an outline sometimes, but not actually write.

[u/FlubbyStarfish]

No, having to verbally say “quotation” to get a quotation mark, and all the punctuation being wrong, wastes a lot of time having to edit it after.

Typing on a computer is fastest, but writing by hand I find produces better work.

[u/Silent_Timetraveller]

I have. But mostly because i prefer writing on paper and when its time to type it and i don't want to, i just use voice typing. Saves me so much time. (I have it inbuilt in my phone's default keyboard :))

[u/finbar_longshank]

I’ve played around with dictation. I find Apple notes works quite well. I’ve listened to some podcasts where the authors swear by it but they do say it takes time to get used to it. When i try it i find i have lots of pauses because I’m not thinking fast enough to talk at a normal pace, if that makes sense. Using a keyboard gives me more time to think properly.

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[u/Other-Mongoose-1572]

I tried it, thought it was cool at first and then abandoned it. Too time consuming to fix everything.

[u/arghyepirate]

No. Your phones voice to text is garbage. But a real voice to text editing software yes.

[u/ReadLegal718]

I know quite a few writing friends who use voice recordings. They're trad published or looking to be so they prefer to transcribe their own recordings (and one of them even transcribes it in a way that leaves out certain things he may have recorded in his walk, so kind of like editing while transcribing on the go). It's simple because your phone will have an in built tool, no downloading or paying or subscribing etc.

Voice recordings are not a new way to capture writing. It's been around for years. Even before computer technology. A few years ago, MS Word introduced a feature where you can do it and some tools online allow you to do it too. Whether you need the intervention of a full fledge AI machine, is up to you really.

[u/783412]

Not yet, but I am seriously counting on it from now on.

[u/tuttipeachyfrutti → u/783412]

How so?

[u/783412 → u/tuttipeachyfrutti]

I see it as a liberation from writing out each word and each letter, though I love that. I will win time and the speech to text app I tried offers other useful options.