You might have noticed that I haven't been blogging as much as I used to. The last six months or so have been really busy and time seems to have slipped away. It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, but somehow other things always seemed to be a bit more important. Just like in the old days, I've had moments standing in the shower, or sitting on the bus, or whilst eating lunch when I've thought “Oh, I must blog that!” and have started the mental process of beginning a blog post. But for whatever reason, the thoughts never made it out through my fingertips, into the computer and thence on to my blog.
I have to admit that I'm slightly disappointed in myself about this. I have noticed other people going through the same fallow period, and I wonder whether this is a natural part of the blogging life cycle or whether we all just got really busy at the same time.
So, starting today, I've made a promise to myself to blog every day for a week. I suspect much of this may turn out to be wedding blogging, which I hope you won't mind too much. I worry slightly that I might turn into Bridezilla if I allow myself to rant too much about the process of organising my wedding, but on the other hand you guys seem to like it. I mean, you keep commenting on my wedding posts and that just encourages me to write more about it than. So you've only got yourselves to blame.
I'm also using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, voice recognition software that allows me to write my blog posts without having to type. I'm hoping that this will speed up my writing and encourage me to write more. So far so good, although I suppose I had better make sure I don't strain my voice. A mute Suw would be a terrible thing.
A week of daily blogging
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I'm curious, how much difference do you think dictation makes to your writing style? I think I probably express myself differently in print and verbally, and I wonder how much of a difference it would make to my writing if I used dictation software…
A Suw that can't speak. Even with my mighty creative powers, I can't imagine that.
That's a good question. When I first tried speech recognition software about 6 years ago, i found that it drastically changed my style. This time round, I'm not noticing so much of a difference, but I'm not sure if that's because the software's better, or whether my writing style is now more like my spoken style – I do a lot more speaking now than i used to. I suspect that as I get used to dictation, I'll be able to switch styles as I do when I'm writing for different contexts. We'll see.
I had a look at this but it only mentions windows, Does it work on a Mac?
Did having a cold make the results less accurate?
A mute Suw? We can only dream…
The above smartarse remark was from me, by the way. I didn't want you thinking that some random straggler weas leaving abusive comments on your blog and I wanted you to know that it was me insulting you 🙂
You're a snarky bastard, Steve, but you make me laugh.
Yes, it's Windows only, so if you're on an Intel Mac you need to install Parallels and Win XP, and you then you can run Windows apps like Dragon. Although I need to get another gig of memory as it runs like a no-legged dog, frankly.
It didn't seem to mind me having a cold, actually. I was quite impressed. I'm not sure how confident I'm going to be using it whilst Kevin's sitting merely feet away, though.
Did you know that you're not automatically updating on technorati? I know I shouldn't solely rely on it but it's just the easiest way of keeping track of my favourite blogs. So I was thinking that Suw hasn't been blogging much recently and blow me there's loads to catch up on. I'll go back to RSS but just wanted to let you know.
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