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story Do you type, write or talk?

I love writing, but being so preoccupied with so many things, I just can't find the time to sit at a word processor and type. I know, a first world problem for sure. But, I thought a bit deeper, and perhaps, writing limits my thoughts? Speaking my mind may give me an added...creative outlet?

I just started exploring this with Microsoft word, no it is not anything new or novel, but wow...gives me the freedom to speak my mind and format it...

Who prefers to type? Who prefers to talk? Does a script become better either way?

This is just a question, I have zero idea which is better, I personally enjoy the fact of speaking ideas (especially as I go via mobile phone) ...and later revising them for text. Although, I have been too busy to really focus on either or, which just sucks.

EDIT: My best writing, I feel has come from using an actual pen...so perhaps that is the answer to great screenwriting?

Thanks
 
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I ONLY write on a computer keyboard, and always use screenwriting software (Final Draft, Celtx, or whatever a client works). But I'm definitely of the "whatever works for you" school.

I'm rather anti-social, and feel no great need to talk - which may be, in large part, because that was an enormous part of my job for more years than I'd like to admit.

And I'd be happy if I never have to use a real pen & paper again in my life. Seriously. My handwriting is so bad that I struggle to make it out the next day, and my hand cramps within 30 seconds. But again, history is part of that. I always had to take copious, carefully dated notes of phone conversations and ended every calendar year with literally stacks of yellow legal pads full of cramped and illegible writing (and yes, I DID sometimes need to refer back to it, much to my own dismay).

I think voice to text software is an awesome invention, and when my late sister lost her ability to use either a pen or a keyboard, it kept her able to work for quite a long time. So talk on! :)
 
I've read about some authors using speech to text software to write with... Not many. I guess it may depend on what you're used to. People my age are more used to writing... Graduating from a pencil to a pen... Then to a typewriter and eventually to software. I'd never go back and while I do use a digital recorder to record notes and thoughts as .mp3 files... Especially when I'm driving? I'm always better at fleshing those thoughts OUT later on with my laptop.

I assume it could work either way... And if it does? More power to you.
 
Depends on the job in hand. Waaaaaaaaaaay back in the mists of time, I saw my father handicapped (in my pre-teen opinion) by his inability to type when he was completing a PhD - he had to dictate his entire thesis to a girl who came to type it out for him. As, at the time, I fully intended to follow in his scientific/academic footsteps, I decided that I wanted to be able to type my own dissertations, and when the typewriter became free, I was let at it with a "learn to type" book that my mother had somehow never thrown out.

The skill was utterly useless throughout my whole school life, as we were still at the pen and/or pencil stage, but as soon as I got access to computers, I was suddenly light-years ahead of my contemporaries, because I could type properly, and fast, with all fingers and thumbs. Today, if I need to record the spoken word, then I can type faster than I can write (and without looking at the keys, which freaks some people out ... :hmm: ) but if I'm in the "formative" stage of a project, I usually prefer to scribble words, phrases, numbers, symbols, whatever on a page (or several pages).

I've tried speech-to-text a couple of times, but never really found it very helpful. My thinking was that it'd be a great way to get my ideas recorded while I'm pootling about in a vehicle of some kind (which is often when I'm at my most creative) ... only it's never worked out. Either it requires too much fiddling with some gadget to get set up, or the gadget can't cope with the mixture of words from different languages that characterises my rough thoughts.
 
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This is a stupid answer and I'll be the first to admit it, but you might try buying a mechanical keyboard for your computer. Having a good tactile response had greatly improved my typing speed, and it actually does affect my writing, because I can get my ideas out faster. It's hard to describe, but the plasticky feeling of cheap keyboards is just slightly distracting all the time. A good MX switch keyboard just lowers the resistance by 8% or so.
 
Depends on the job in hand. Waaaaaaaaaaay back in the mists of time, I saw my father handicapped (in my pre-teen opinion) by his inability to type when he was completing a PhD - he had to dictate his entire thesis to a girl who came to type it out for him. As, at the time, I fully intended to follow in his scientific/academic footsteps, I decided that I wanted to be able to type my own dissertations, and when the typewriter became free, I was let at it with a "learn to type" book that my mother had somehow never thrown out.

The skill was utterly useless throughout my whole school life, as we were still at the pen and/or pencil stage, but as soon as I got access to computers, I was suddenly light-years ahead of my contemporaries, because I could type properly, and fast, with all fingers and thumbs. Today, if I need to record the spoken word, then I can type faster than I can write (and without looking at the keys, which freaks some people out ... :hmm: ) but if I'm in the "formative" stage of a project, I usually prefer to scribble words, phrases, numbers, symbols, whatever on a page (or several pages).

I've tried speech-to-text a couple of times, but never really found it very helpful. My thinking was that it'd be a great way to get my ideas recorded while I'm pootling about in a vehicle of some kind (which is often when I'm at my most creative) ... only it's never worked out. Either it requires too much fiddling with some gadget to get set up, or the gadget can't cope with the mixture of words from different languages that characterises my rough thoughts.
I can't tell you how many times I thank the Universe for sticking me in a typing class in 9th grade back in the early 70s. The experience of achieving 90 words a minute at some point ended up transferring VERY WELL when it comes to writing.
 
This is a stupid answer and I'll be the first to admit it, but you might try buying a mechanical keyboard for your computer. Having a good tactile response had greatly improved my typing speed, and it actually does affect my writing, because I can get my ideas out faster. It's hard to describe, but the plasticky feeling of cheap keyboards is just slightly distracting all the time. A good MX switch keyboard just lowers the resistance by 8% or so.
I like laptops... I have several desktops -- never even use them. Over the last decade or so, most laptops (I use PC) come with these FLAT square keys. I never really gave it a lot of thought until about 5 years ago. The faster I type, the more mistakes I make with those flat-ass keys. LOL. It finally occurred to me one day that it was the keys screwing up my writing. The typewriters I used back in the day always had keys that were lower in the center so your fingers would -- by default -- sink right down into the middle of the key, insuring good contact and less mistakes.

Took me quite awhile to find a new laptop that had SIMILAR-TYPE keys. For some reason? I could never get used to the flat, square keys. My fingers always found their way to other keys and caused a huge amount of typos.

I now use a Dell Precision M6800 just because of the keys.
 
The faster I type, the more mistakes I make with those flat-ass keys.

:lol: Unlike those superb keyboards you find on the finest smartphones! Jeez, I hate using a phone to type anything more than a quick hello.

I much prefer a desktop-style keyboard to that of a laptop, but having had to re-train my fingers from the QWERTY arrangement to AZERTY when I moved to the non-anglosphere, getting them into the right position on flat-ass laptop keys was a minor adjustment.
 
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