Dictating my Way to 2026 Tonight

I received the feedback from mentor this morning. It’s one of the reasons I look forward to Wednesday mornings. She set up a scenario and had me write a short story around it.

This was the first time she sent back the manuscript not only with a written note but also with a markup.

I use a three phased approach to getting criticism from my mentor and other teachers. First, I read the response and let myself feel however I need to, and then Iet it go.

Second, I reread her comments, this time trying to understand what she really said to me. Often, I find I didn’t truly understand her meaning the first time around. On the second read there is no emotion involved its purely curiosity.

On the third read-through, I strive to understand any parts that confused me, or perhaps I have misread.

If there is a fourth thing that I do it is to it is to agree to follow the advice given, first with no thought as to whether it is correct, and second to reevaluate after applying her comments. So far this has worked out for me as I am usually better served by doing and questioning when it comes to writing. And that’s because I’m still new at this whole thing.

Having said all that, there were things I did right and there were things I did wrong. Sometimes getting things wrong is the best way for because you see your mistakes. You become more aware of the things you’re doing, it will push readers away.

Last night I took a break from the long short story I was writing and decided to pick up on a piece I had started last year. It’s a police detective, based here in Oakville, who investigates murders. I’d only written the first little part of this first scene and saw it was fun to pick it up and continue with the story. I didn’t get around to finishing it, as I have little experience writing crime or mystery stories, but I would like to get it done by the end of February.

My next mentor assignment sounds like another fun one where she stopped me starting the action right from the get-go. One of the comments on my last short story assignment was that I took too long to get the story rolling. Or, more importantly, it took two pages of what she called “who cares” to get to the story. This is something I’ve sensed about my work, and I think this next assignment is a great way to learn to deal with it.

As soon as I saw she was having me start the action right off the bat something clicked in my mind, and I understood why she was asking me to do this.

I put off writing all day, as I was feeling burnt out. I still have to make my quota of 2026 words. So, I thought tonight will be a good time to practice my dictation skills. In fact, this entire blog was written through dictation. I suspect there will be many spelling mistakes and punctuation errors as a result. But that’s all part of the learning curve and I need to get used to talking to myself down here in the dungeon.

I picked up Chris Fox’s book, ’5000 Words Per Hour’ that deals with writing faster using various techniques. I think the fundamental technique to truly reach 5000 words per hour is dictation. One of the other things he talks about is creating a daily writing habit. Which is something I’ve been trying to do for the past two weeks.

I remember when I started blogging every day and wanted to make it a streak, so that it would be difficult for me to skip a day. Now writing a blog daily is just something I do, like breathing. And to be truthful, I kind of enjoy it.

As with everything on trying this year, my initial attempts may look underwhelming to you. But what I’ve learned over the years from all my various hobbies/cooking, and crafts is that the first thing you do is always terrible. You take 10 times longer for the first one that it does the third one. I have the mindset that when I try something new, my first two attempts will be failures. The third attempt will at least be passable.

With writing, the third attempt may not be passable. There are so many aspects that make writing good stories elusive. The one thing that seems to work is to read a lot and write a lot.

And speaking of reading, I read the third novella in Mick Herron’s book standing by the wall. Other than being entertained by the writing and a good story, I like how each novella carries over some aspects into the next novella. And although these are novellas, because they are so connected, it feels like you’re reading a novel.

There are also some interesting words that Mick uses, due to his British citizenship, that I often must look up. There is a lot of similarity in Canadian English to British English. Yet I still often come across words or phrases that I don’t know. He also often comes up with wonderful turns of phrase which is like candy to a writer. Well, a want to be writer. As one of my writing coaches called it an aspirant. One who hopes.

One thing that’s change for me is the use of Microsoft words one drive to work on my documents on various platforms. It’s becoming a usual thing for me to write on my laptop, and continue on my phone, and then also use a desktop. I’ve even dictated while out on a walk using my phone. Although for an iPhone, note that still seems to be the best free software to dictate into. I did try the Dragon mobile app and found it to be very good. I just didn’t like the monthly subscription as the only option.

To write this blog, I’m using Microsoft Word with Dragon Nuance because it uses dictation to add the proper punctuation marks. It feels a bit strange saying things like open quote, comma, and period when dictating. I assume I’ll get used to this as time goes on.

My copy of Mythago Wood arrived today from Abebooks. I couldn’t find a copy here in Canada, so I had to get one from England. There have been quite a few English authors who have mentioned Robert Holdstock as being an influence, or for having written the type of story they wish they had. I believe one of those people is Neil Gaiman, who did the introduction to the 30th-anniversary copy I have. But it was an interview with science fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky that finally got me to buy it. His Children of Time books are very good.

Okay, this blog is running long. Time to go try some dictation on an actual story.

Wish me luck!