Today I would like to share a free writing time saver tool and technique with you that I use to at least double my writing output. I make a substantial part of my income providing written content to small business owners needing original written work for their websites. It's a very competitive market and the need to provide original quality reasonable prices is imperative.
I don't want to work for peanuts and I refuse to do so.
That means I am constantly looking for ways to improve the efficiency of my writing, so that I can compete with the cutthroat operators in the business.
Obviously, the more I write, the more I earn
So, if I can increase my writing output by say 50% I should be able to earn 50% more.
When I discovered the voice to text tool in Google Docs I was pretty excited.
I have trialled various voice-to-text software before including the disaster on Microsoft Word and I was somewhat sceptical about this tool’s effectiveness.
After a little bit of trial and error, I was really surprised by the quality of work that this particular tool provides.
It isn't 100% accurate and sometimes it translates my words in humorous ways, for example the word apparent often is spelt as a parrot.
Notwithstanding these imperfections I can put together a 500 word article in about 10- 15 minutes, simply by using voice-to-text. I take another 5 minutes to edit the article and am still way ahead of touch typing my article out.
This is a really good tool and can be used in a number of ways including
- Writing my own blog posts for publication on my website, Hive and Medium
- Writing PDF reports
- Writing commissioned freelance work for my clients
- Writing email follow up letters and broadcasts for auto-responders
- Drafting content for web pages
- and any other writing task that crosses your mind.
I'm no expert with this tool yet. There are ways to enter punctuation which I haven't quite mastered and will get the hang of in due course. Nonetheless I am really excited by the potential of this tool. I completed three articles this morning that ordinarily would have taken me all day.
I highly recommend at least trialling the product and see if it suits you. It is free.It is easy to use and it makes my job easier. I suspect it could make yours easier too.
Here’s all you need to do to take advantage of this writing time saver
- Open a google account. If you have an existing gmail account you’re good to go
- Head over to the Google Docs app in your chrome browser ( the tool will only work in Chrome - which is a minor drawback)
- Create a new document
- Click on tools and select text typing tool
- When the microphone icon appears, select your language (there are a dozen or so variations of English - the default setting is English USA
- When you are ready to commence your article, start talking. Currently, I’m manually entering new paragraphs, headings and punctuation, but I thik with a bit of experimentation you should be able to do even this by voice commandhttps:
- Be sure to proofread your work and correct any errors (there will be some)
Give it a go.
P.S. this article took 5 minutes to dictate - it's a real writing time saver
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts about the Voice to Text tool. Please share it on Facebook, Twitter or any other platform that you hang out on. Please leave comments. I read them all.
As a freelance writer I need all the help I can get. To support my writing please visit my about/support page to find out how you can help ( I don't expect you to put your hand in your pocket)
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://markhodgetts.com/free-writing-time-saver/
Voice to text saves me with little kids and a ton of house work! I just ramble into the mic and edit after :) Great tips, thanks!
Really need to start trying your suggestion. An article of 1.000 words cost me at least two to three hours to write. Guess am not so much of a writer anyway, since the 15 minutes for 500 words will not be possible for me at all, not even with voice to text I'm afraid...Or I'll surprise myself. Did you try to delete a word in voice-2-text? Is that possible somehow? Am pretty sure I can't write in my head without errors, probably I'll make many errors :)