best voice recognition software for writing a book

Having to start and stop as I correct the VRS errors, and try to get it to write what I want it to write, interrupts my flow, throw me out of the story I’m trying to write, and makes me forget the gorgeously crafted sentence that was in my head ten seconds ago. Most of my first drafts are written in a gush of words as the characters and story come flowing out of me. “I’m going to eat a big, corpulent mango” works fine for an e-mail. Won’t recognise how I say “fat”? Fine, I’ll say “rotund” or “corpulent” or whatever synonym I can come up with that VRS does recognise. The almost right word is fine for an e-mail. Recently it refused to recognise the word “ashy.” Now, I could have said “grey.” But guess what? I did not mean “grey” I meant “ashy.” I cannot keep banging my head against the stupid software getting it to understand that the word that I want is “wittering” NOT “withering.” THEY DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING. The almost right word is the wrong word for fiction. But mostly I don’t chat much anymore.īut I gave up almost straight away on using it to write novels. But I usually end up switching to typing because it simply cannot keep up with the pace of those conversations and I can’t stand all the delays as I try to get it to type the word I want or some proximity thereof. I use VRS only for e-mails and blog posts. And sometimes its mistakes are so funny I fall over laughing. I know my posts here about VRS have been cranky so I’ll admit now that there are moments when I almost don’t hate it: VRS is a much better speller than I am. Also remember one of the hardest things for VRS is for it to distinguish between the speaker’s sounds and other noises.

And even then there are mishearings and misunderstandings.

We humans (and other sentient beings) are also recognising context and bringing together our extensive knowledge of our own culture every time we have a conversation. 1 The way we make sense of what someone says is not just about recognising sounds. Recognising spoken language and reproducing it as written language is crazy hard. I am well aware that what VRS is trying to do is unbelievably complicated. For them VRS is a wonderful transformative thing. There are people who literally could not write without it. And though I hate it I know that it has transformed gazillions of people’s lives. Every time I mention my RSI people suggest that I use voice recognition software.

Best voice recognition software for writing a book