Writer’s block can be frustrating when you’re facing a blank screen. As the cursor blinks in anticipation of your forthcoming syllables, it can seem a bit accusatory, if not contemptuous.
What would you say if I told you there’s a way to write without writing?
A life hack that I recommend to busy clients when encouraging them to increase their blogging activity is that they use dictation applications instead of writing. People traditionally speak faster than they type. It’s also easier to edit spoken content once it’s out of your head. Physical writing can sometimes represent a barrier to getting ideas out of your head and onto paper (or the computer screen).
Spoken writing can be squeezed into other times of the day when writing may be impractical, for example, during commutes or while walking around the neighborhood. If you’re a busy parent, or have a lot of demands on your time, writing using this method is a great way to get two things done at the same time.
For me, personally, there are a couple additional aspects and methods of “speaking writing” that I find helpful:
1. I tend to compose in my head while walking. There’s something meditative about my daily walk, or time on the treadmill. Thoughts sift to the top of my consciousness easily. Recording them via a dictation app is a great way to make sure that I don’t forget anything by the time I get home and in front of my laptop.
2. Pretend that you’re answering questions. A method of writing that helps me to be thorough is what I refer to as the mock interview style. One of the dangers of writing is that the author tends to assume that her or his audience already understands a lot of the exposition or background of any given topic she or he may be covering. By using the mock interview format, the author can be sure that the subject is covered thoroughly.
For example, by addressing a series of questions (and dictating the answers), a blog post or chapter may be written quickly—if your goal is to write about the top ten gardening mistakes new gardeners make, you would literally just start addressing them aloud. For example:
• Most new gardeners water their flowers too much. Then, via the dictation application, the author could explain why overwatering is bad, why it’s such a common mistake, and how to avoid it.
• Buying the wrong plant for the landscape. Again, addressing landscaping questions and challenges would be easier and faster to answer aloud, as if the author was being interviewed.
• etc etc etc… by answering your own questions using this format, you can “write” an article or even a book easily.
Three dictation options include:
Google docs voice typing. Open a new Document. Located along the top navigation under Tools, choose Voice Typing from the drop down menu or type, Command+Shift+S. This is free for anyone with a Gmail account. You do not need a full G Suite in order to access this option. Punctuation is spoken, and in order to separate paragraphs, simply say, “new paragraph.” There are a few glitches. If the screen goes to sleep, you’ll lose the microphone. If you want something indented, and say “Indent,” a popup menu appears so that you can choose formatting. However, you’ll again lose the microphone. For my purposes, it’s easier for me to go back and manually edit. Your mileage may vary, and so I’d encourage you to determine your own preferences.
Siri dictation. This Apple option works well if you’re out and about a lot. Here’s a link to the Apple support page for the details and functionality/operating system requirements.
Dragon Speech Recognition. This is an incredibly robust offering and arguably the gold standard for speech to text transcription. Here’s their website for more information (plans, platforms and applications).
As a bonus, here’s one more option that few people consider. If you have a moderately-developed YouTube channel, chances are good there’s already a book just waiting to be written, tucked within your clips. YouTube transcribes all of of your videos for search purposes (#ProTip: this is also good for your organic SEO).
In the following video, you’ll find a quick tutorial about the easiest way to download your YouTube transcript as plain text. You’ll still have to review and edit your content, but you’ll have the raw material for writing options.
Do a search for transcription services if editing your YouTube clips is cumbersome or burdensome for your time or accessibility issues.
Those are a few ways you can write without writing. By the way, I do not get any payment or compensation for the links or referrals in this post. They’re just provided as a way to help out a fellow writer.
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