This year Terry bought me the Dragon Voice Recognition Software for my computer. It has been a very good tool in getting my books written quickly. When I first got it, I set it up to recognize my accent as coming from the Southern USA. Even with this help, some of the words are funny.
When I first got it, I had to speak into the microphone that was provided with the software. There were several paragraphs I had to read aloud for it to gage the cadence of my voice and all sorts of things.
Then I allowed it to go through my book documents to know the words I use on a regular basis. I also let it see the vocabulary I use in emails and things like that.
People use it for writing books and documents as well as sending emails and doing social networking. For the most part, I use it for writing my books.
Getting used to speaking the books as I think of the next sentence and paragraph takes a little getting used to. I told Terry that I think through my fingers most of the time. It is a different process, but I am getting used to it.
For now, I have to watch what the Dragon thinks I am saying. I speak two or three sentences and then look the document over to make sure that the words are right. Sometimes it thinks I am speaking in plural and it uses similar sounding words. This changes the meaning. If I wait to check what was written, I sometimes have a hard time figuring out exactly what it was I wanted to say.
It turns out to be very funny sometimes. This week, I sent some pages to my editor and hadn't looked at what the Dragon had written. After I mailed them, I read over a couple of paragraphs to pick up the story. Oh dear, it was crazy. I don't know what my editor will think when she reads it.
I have several emails from the Dragon Naturally speaking people that say I need to train the Dragon. They are right. I need to follow through. I have been able to write many more pages with the help of the software and it will continue to be a great tool to use. I am looking forward to the recognition part of the program getting better and better.
It is time to "Train the Dragon".
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