Dragon Creating

It's been a while since I mentioned my struggles with taming my new dragon, George. Technically, George is a fine, fine dragon. The problem is with my memory difficulties.

Writing--the act of creation--is a slow process at best. Backing up, changing your mind, choosing a different phrase or word from your initial one, rearranging the sentence structure...all of that is part and parcel of the writing process.

Then you add in an entirely different set of skills when you use voice-to-text software. A simple sentence such as ' "Take the ball and run across the field," Rachel shouted. ' becomes something like:

New paragraph.
Open quote.
Capitalize.
Take the ball and run across the field
Comma.
Close quote.
Capitalize.
Rachel shouted
Period.

First of all, I have a LOT of trouble remembering the commands. Second of all, remembering to speak the commands while trying to remember what I want to actually CREATE is...a very slow process for me. And frustrating.

I haven't given up. But I suspect it's going to be a while before I smooth the process out so it's worthwhile to use. This is for ME, for my personal drawbacks. For an individual whose memory is good, I suspect things would be different.

In the meantime, I found this review today and thought I would just tack that one here for the curious. Click on the caps below!

Dragon Review

Here Be Dragons

Yesterday I had my second post-op visit with the ortho man regarding my finger. Recovery is on schedule... for an individual who doesn't use their hands more than a normal-living-way. I, on the other hand (hah!) do depend on my hands for numerous occupational/hobby things (writing, typing, calligraphy, crochet/knitting, drawing).

After a brief discussion with the doc about why my hand--not just the finger, but all the knuckles, etc.--is generating considerable pain, he very gently broke the news. Other than normal day-to-day stuff, the hand needs a rest. A loooong rest. He estimates it will be completely healed around the six month mark. In my efforts to compensate for the non-use of the finger, I'm really aggravating my arthritis and delaying the healing process in the finger.

So. Peace.

I actually own a voice-to-text computer program--Dragon. And now it appears I'm going to learn and implement its use. I've heard good and bad and really ugly things about it, but that's all right. I'm persistent and I'm tough. If it will allow me to do ONE of the things I love, that's reason enough to do it.

So a couple people have been gracious enough to share some tips and pitfalls. If anyone else out there has experience with Dragon, speak up!

And for the curious, I'll be reporting back on my experiences. Now I'm off to tickle the dragon. I believe I'll call him Herb.

anny