You just might have an invaluable writing tool in your pocket or sitting on your desk right now.
A smartphone.
It’s a modern gadget with a key function that can have a fantastic impact on your life as a historical fiction author.
It has on mine.
From note-taking to transcribing historical documents to writing first drafts, let’s talk about why you should consider adding dictation to your writing life.
The history of dictation
Dictation is nothing new. In the Bible, it says that Solomon, considered one of the wisest men who ever lived, spoke 3,000 Proverbs.
And think about the old black-and-white movies where professionals would dictate to their secretaries who took the words down in shorthand to type up later.
Throughout the 20th century, people used dictaphones to record notes, letters, and story ideas for later transcription.
Today, we have smartphones that serve as dictaphones and our own private secretaries. If you’ve ever said something like, “Hey Siri, set a reminder to start dinner at 5:30 pm,” you’ve dictated to your secretary.
Ways to use dictation as a historical fiction author
There are multiple ways I use dictation in my author life, but we’re going to focus on these:
1. Using dictation for research.
2. Using dictation for writing a first draft.
Clunky and slow research methods
Heavy research is something that sets historical fiction apart from writing other genres. Yes, all genres require a degree of research, but we historical fiction authors are weighed down to a depth only our fellow HF authors understand.
My research adventures have taken me to other states and even other countries. They’ve taken me deep into archives, museums, and stacks of books.
During those adventures, I can get overwhelmed by the data I’m taking in—and what to do with it all. How do you capture, process, and organize it?
If there is a handwritten letter in someone’s personal collection, I snap a picture of it with my phone, but if I want to add it to my Scrivener project research notes, I face laboriously typing it out while struggling to decipher the text.
Some people are really fast at this. I am not.
I’ve also had military records I wanted to include word for word in my manuscript—physical text I captured in-person and in online archives.
Then there are the large chunks of text I want to save in my digital notes from a physical research book I’m reading.
I’ve tried different methods for this: Marking the page up with notes, sticking multiple colored tabs on a page, earmarking the pages (gasp!), making short notes on my phone to refer to a certain page number, and even taking a photo of the page with information I might use in a story.
What I’ve found is, I rarely go back to any of those. Once I’m in Scrivener and working on the actual manuscript, I just don’t return to physical notes or books. I don’t open my research images.
I’m in the story and often don’t find my way back to resources outside the windows I have open. It’s too overwhelming to flip through dozens of tabbed pages to find the one little section I want to refer to.
Dictation has solved these issues for me.
Do you write historical fiction?
Join our email list for regular writing tips, resources, and promotions.
Dictating historical records and reference books
For old letters and records, I start my dictation (or “text to speech”) function on my phone or computer, then read the text right into my Scrivener or digital notes app. (I check the text as I go to make sure it’s transcribing accurately.)
For research books, I dictate entire paragraphs or pages.
When I’m in story mode and can remember one word or phrase from my research, I search my Scrivener research folder and it takes me right to that source I want to draw from.
Dictating historical documents, records, and research books has saved me time and stress. It lets me focus on the story and not the overwhelm of research or the frustration of not being able to find that one little piece that I read…somewhere in the 500 images I took of research books and archived material.
Should you dictate the first draft of your story?
You might have heard of authors using dictation to speak the entire first draft of their books. I’m one of those authors.
I’ve published sixteen historical fiction books with American Indian characters. Ten of those books I wrote solely by dictation.
My top hourly speed for writing a first draft is 4,000 words. My top single word count day was over 11,000 words.
Yes, that’s average for some of the mega word count authors out there, but for me, an author unable to type more than 2,000 words per hour and 6,000 words in a day, it’s significant.
The challenge of dictating your first draft
There are huge blocks that keep authors from dictating fiction. I had to face them down, too:
- I already tried and failed to dictate fiction.
- My brain just doesn’t work that way.
- I can’t afford to spend money on dictation software.
The first time I tried dictating a piece of fiction, I remember it felt so weird! I believed there was no way I could make dictating a regular part of my writing life.
Yet each time I would hear about someone being successful with dictation, I would give it another try.
But my brain just doesn’t work that way.
How could I ever speak words out loud to create a fictional world?
I learned I could train my brain to do it.
Dictation software did sound too expensive…
Until I learned what an amazing job my phone could do at transcribing my words.
In the end, I overcame each of those blocks. For me, dictating a fictional world is as natural as typing. I even think of typing as “writing by hand” now.
And I’ve moved into teaching fellow authors how to dictate their stories. The feelings of relief, achievement, and freedom are extraordinary for them and humbling for me.
Start dictating!
In your current research book, take a paragraph and dictate it into your phone or your computer.
Copy and paste it into your story research notes.
Feel the power and freedom dictation can bring to your writing life today.
And consider joining me for my next live Dictation Bootcamp for Authors!
Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer is a guest contributor to The History Quill. She is an author and digital course creator, whose live event Dictation Bootcamp for Authors takes writers through the process of mastering dictation with easy exercises that lead them to become the master of their fictional worlds. Sarah has been featured on Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn podcast, Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Show, Jane Friedman’s blog, and more. Her signature course, Fiction Writing: American Indians, is equipping authors to write authentic stories that honor Native American history and culture. Discover more at fictioncourses.com.
Do you write historical fiction?
Join our email list for regular writing tips, resources, and promotions.