Verbal Interaction

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is actually facing the empty page.

Sometimes sitting at the keyboard doesn’t trigger your creativity.

One way of dealing with those problems is dictation. Many writers speak into a recorder for later transcription, or use speech recognition software to capture their words directly into text.

Hearing my fellow writers talk about such tactics, I’m struck by the ways in which a collaborative writing arrangement offers the same benefits automatically. It’s natural to read fresh passages aloud to your partner, and hearing things aloud is one of the fastest ways to identify areas for improvement. (You could also treat your partner like a secretary on Mad Men, but that’s getting a bit personal.)

Kidding aside, we routinely give each other dictation. We work on two separate copies of the text, each on our own machine, and then sync up the changes. If the passage is long, we’ll usually swap files around to accomplish synchronization. But our revision process often consists of small edits, and these we trade verbally. It keeps the process a conversation, literally.

This conversation begins in the brainstorming and outlining stage, continues through the composition stage, and on through all the stages of editing. In future posts we’ll talk in more detail about our joint approach to the various stages, and how having an ally can make all the difference.