Software Cursing
November 16th, 2005Yesterday I managed to dictate 2000 words of bad dialogue using my voice input software, Dragon.
“Damn you carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ll see you in hell!â€
The problem is that I lose the words as I speak them. I have a decent vocabulary but it often rests on the tip of my tongue as I struggle to find it. That is, I used to struggle. Now I simply stop talking and wait for the word to come. It usually takes about five seconds of silence. My family and friends have adjusted to this odd, staccato-like form of speaking. Other people just think I’m a stroke victim.
It’s a big problem when *writing* with Dragon because when I lose the word, I lose the flow. And I then I curse. Unfortunately, words such as damn, sonofabitch, and shit are not part of Dragon’s resident vocabulary so when I say *Oh Shit,* the program types *on pit* or *off sit.* Not at all satisfying.
Now I’m training Dragon to swear. It’s necessary for my novel and, well, it’s fun in a look-up-butt-in-the-dictionary kinda way.
In other news, my word count is still low but I’m picking up speed. WriMo radio gave WriteNow a nice plug yesterday (except the URL was wrong — off sit), as did Mur’s I Should Be Writing podcast and Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s Inkygirl site. It’s great to be valued by other writing-specific productions. Much obliged.
November 25th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Love this one!
If you want Dragon (other other such programs) to learn cool phrases, have a dog or two bark in the background. Interesting! Is it translating for them?