by Kathy Brasby | Feb 20, 2013 | Stories
If you write at all and own an iPad or iMac, the dictation feature is enough reason to upgrade to the Mountain Lion operating system if you haven’t yet.
What dictation offers you is writing without typing. In general terms, when using any program where you would normally type in text, you can do dictation instead. You can now respond to an email without putting your hands to the keyboard. You can write a report while leaning back in your chair, keyboard out of reach.
Well, not totally. You do need to trigger dictation by hitting either the function key or a custom key (I use F5). Once you do so, a small window containing a tiny microphone appears and will then record your voice for up to 30 seconds before taking a break to transcribe what you said. You can press the “done” button anytime before dictation times out.
The text will appear and you can approve what’s been typed before adding another chunk of text.
For writers who struggle with carpal tunnel or other hand/wrist issues, this can be a great way to give your hands a rest. And if you don’t type very well, this can be a nice tool to allow you to skate by without learning how to type better.
There are many dictation terms which help insert punctuation and minor formatting. You can, for example, say “period” at the end of your sentence and a period appears. The same with comma, question mark, and explanation mark. You can even insert an inverted question mark by telling your device “inverted question mark.”
Apple provides detailed instructions on how to initiate dictation and also a lengthy chart on dictation terms. Note that you do need an internet connection for dictation.
Not only can you use dictation to transcribe words, but the same feature can read the text back to you as well. Proofreading often is more accurate when you hear the sentences rather than see them. Plus the read-back feature allows you to hear the rhythm of your sentences. Some sentences look great on paper but sound clunky when spoken.
First, highlight the text that you would like to hear. On the Mac, right-click to produce a drop-down menu which includes the option, Speech. Select “Start Speaking” and listen to your computer read the text to you. By going to Settings>Dictation & Speech, you can change the “Text to Speech” speaker and the speed at which he or she reads to you.
The more you use dictation, the better it will understand your voice and accent. If you have a Mac or iPad, check it out.
Next week, we’ll look at dictation in the Windows environment.
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 13, 2013 | Stories
My first computer was an Apple II and I sprung for the newest innovation: two disk drives. In those days, there were no hard drives and, in a sense, saving data was simpler.
Your program was one disk and the data on the second. It was easy to save a file to yet a third data disk because we all understood that a document stored on a sheet of plastic was less secure than one saved in a file folder beside one’s desk.
Saving documents has not gotten easier with the addition of hard drives and flash drives. They can fail, too, and we’re forced to do multiple backups to secure valuable files.
Backups have gotten easier now that many of us use multiple devices to write. I am writing this post on an iMac but could be composing on my laptop instead. Or even my smartphone. Â I’m writing in Evernote, which means this document will be synchronized to the Evernote site on the internet so that I can read it on my desktop, my laptop or my smartphone.
Even if my hard drive crashes, this document is secure.
There are a number of synchronization programs available which, although they are designed to allow me to access documents from different devices, also archive the files on the internet as well.
I’ve discussed some of them before in this post but let me review them:
Evernote – I can set up any number of notebooks (think folders) and then place notes within the notebook. Not only does Evernote contain my own writings, but I can clip articles on the internet and save them in Evernote. I can even forward emails with pertinent information to Evernote. This is a nice synchronization tool and one which also backs up my information on the internet. I can access it there from any computer simply by signing in to my account.
Dropbox – Dropbox appears in a folder on my desktop and I save files to the sub-folders. I can check out those folders from any device that’s signed into my Dropbox account.
Sugar Synch – similar to Dropbox and I haven’t used it as much but it also allows synchronization and access from many devices.
Google Drive – this is a new player and an interesting one, since Google Drive accesses Google docs if you have a Google account. Not only can you store documents, you can create them through Google Drive. Â Google offers word processing and a spreadsheet as well as email address. Google Drive, when installed on my desktop, looks just like a another storage unit.
There are more of these but the key is to consider both synchronization and backup. The synchronization across devices only works when the device can access the internet but that gets easier and easier as wi-fi is more common at many businesses.
Do you use a synchronization program? Have you written on the cloud?
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 8, 2013 | Stories
Thanks to a couple of star-gliding teenagers, our family has been lured into watching the most current Doctor Who television series from BBC.
 Doctor Who is a science fiction series, continuing on and off since the 1960’s, about a Time Lord who is able to cross time and space to rescue people from a wide range of villains. The story lines range from creative to bizarre but the creators of the series included a helpful wrinkle with the Doctor. He occasionally dies in action and then renews himself in a new body.
This new body is really a new person, with a new personality and mannerisms and interests. The favorite food of one Doctor may be disgusting to the next, for example. Favored clothing and even goals change with the new Doctor.
The idea is brilliant because, from a practical point of view, it allows the series producers to glide from one actor to another without a glitch. Â New actor, new Doctor, new personality. All’s well as long as the Daleks show up at least once a season.
Fiction writers don’t have this privilege. I’m tired of reading novels in which the main character can’t decide who he or she really is. We might start out with a strong-willed female who is willing to take risks and challenge the status quo. A 100 pages later, she’s cowering behind her new boyfriend, afraid to enter the dark room and screaming at cobwebs.
I know strong-willed women. They don’t change like that.
Or the story opens with the wise-cracking hero who confidently follows his hunches. By the midway point in the story, he hasn’t had a hunch in several chapters and is suddenly afraid of his father. Or boss. Or neighbor.
What’s with introducing traits that evaporate?
A memorable character carries a story. Authors need to trust that fact and craft characters so vivid that we allow them to carry the story rather than allowing the story to craft them.
Only Doctor Who can turn from a handsome heart-throb to a stumbling nerd and we’re OK with it.
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 6, 2013 | Stories
A smartphone is a gift to writers and here’s another reason why.
We had just finished a guitar-led round of folk songs for the local nursing home when Mary turned to me. “Remember the old cassette tape recorders? That sure would be helpful when we learn new songs. We could listen to them over and over.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I always have a recorder with me.”
She stared at it. “I have a phone like that.”
“Then you don’t need a tape recorder.”
It’s easy to forget the tools we already carry with us. Not all writers use smartphones – and a few refuse to carry a cell phone. But most of us carry our cell phone all the time. And if you do, check out the voice recorder on your phone.
My iPhone 4s will transcribe messages as I speak into the microphone. I have collected story and article ideas while on a walk, allowing the phone to write down what I’m thinking. It will convert spoken words into text messages or grocery lists.
Obviously, I can record interviews for articles. Once at a workshop, the speaker announced he would do a special poetic reading. Although I didn’t record the entire workshop, I did record his poem. And I’m glad I did, for he did an eloquent interpretation.
There is a bit of a learning curve but it’s worth experimenting with the feature. Very few of us carry a cassette tape recorder with us all the time but most of us have a cell phone.
Have you checked into your cell phone’s features? Do you have favorites?
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 4, 2013 | Stories
I love a good story as well as any one and a good character is even better.
So let me tell you about Barney. Just for the record, I have changed his name although he’s passed on now. I worked with him over 20 years ago. I was still trying to get life figured out and he was hanging onto whatever life he had left.
White-haired with a big belly and a gruff retort, he was dedicated to his work. And his opinions.
One day, Barney settled into a chair at break time and announced loudly that Major League Baseball games were fixed. “You know that somebody decides who’s going to win every game all season. That’s why I don’t watch baseball. And I can prove it. Ever watched a double header? How often does one team win the first game and the other team win the second? Because the fix was on!”
Um, OK. I leaned forward. “Well, they use different pitchers for each game.”
He snorted. “What the world difference could that make?”
I let him win that one.
Not long after, his opinion gave him another opportunity. Barney had worked in a Ford dealership most of his career and was devoted to Fords. In our shop, we had one Ford delivery pickup and it caused our service guys many problems. It was a chronic lemon. But Barney believed in it because of the Ford thing.
One day he was asked to run some parts to a town about 90 miles away. Barney, of course, opted to drive the Ford. Our service manager told him they’d been having some recent issues with it but Barney squared his shoulders and let his white hair shake back. “It’ll be just fine,” he said.
Our service manager wasn’t going to tangle with that glare.
So Barney and his wife headed out to deliver parts and enjoy an afternoon on the road. Two hours later, our shop got a call from Barney. The Ford had broken down on the road.
The service department guys, once they got done laughing, sent a semi truck and trailer out to haul the Ford home. When the truck returned, we all rushed to the big window to see Barney’s face. Instead, we saw the Ford strapped on the trailer with Barney and his wife still inside the Ford, staring straight ahead.
A little breakdown hadn’t dampened his opinion of Fords one bit.
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 1, 2013 | Stories
If it weren’t for apple pie, I’m pretty sure I would have been a high school dropout and begun a checkered career involving recycled bicycle parts and horseshoes.
But that’s a story we won’t have to write because my mother was an ace pie baker. None of this thawing a pie and sneaking it into the church potluck. My mother wouldn’t even use canned pie filling.
 She would buy 30 pound cans of frozen cherries at the end of summer and re-package them into pie-sized bags, sprinkling the cherries with corn starch and sealing each for the winter pie season. That was as close as she got to prepared pie fillings.
Her children were devoted but naive fans of her pies. If we ever got a bowl of the cherries during re-package day, we’d sprinkle our cherries with corn starch just like Mom’s pie filling. Even though the corn starch squeaked against our teeth as we ate the fruit, we couldn’t imagine cherries any way but Mom’s.
Our Thanksgiving feasts were not much about the turkey and a whole lot about the arrangement of pies, from pumpkin to apple to mincemeat. We saved room for an afternoon of dessert.
Mom baked a pair of pies the day before her stroke. Now her left arm hangs limply at her side and we don’t know if she’ll ever make another pie.
I am going to learn to make pies. I have avoided that arena because Mom’s pies are legend in our family. They were beauties with a  golden crust sparkling with the sugar sprinkles. Mom’s pies were the reason to invite  family and sometimes a lucky neighbor over for dinner.
It seems right to learn. Not to replace Mom’s heritage, for I can’t begin to do that, but somehow to honor it.
