Nuance - I Speak Dragon

dragonstories2011 Posted: 06-16-2011 3:55 PM | Locked

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I just finished writing my first book “Pacing with Gerry- Walking that Last Mile with my Dad. A Son's Alzheimer's Journal”, the tale of my father's fight with Alzheimer's disease. I tried to begin it 13 years ago after Dad passed away. If it hadn't been for Dragon Dictate I might have never finished the book at all. Using Dragon Dictate has allowed me to finally get serious about my book projects.
I am an embarrassingly slow typist (I only taught myself to type a decade or so back when I first started using computers regularly.) Because I typed only briefly and sporadically, inputting text into my graphic design layouts, I have never developed any speed or much consistency. I started trying to use voice recognition software six or eight years back and the two or three I had tried before Dragon Dictate were disappointing to say the least. After endless hours of training with the various software, none of them were more than 50 to 60% accurate in interpreting my dictation. Useless, really. A total waste of money and a serious impediment to my motivation.
When Dragon Dictate was available for Macs (as a graphic artist, I've always used Macs) I was skeptical to say the least. A long time friend and fellow graphic designer e-mailed me and suggested that I give it a try. I resisted for nearly a year, unwilling to throw good money after bad. When I finally got it and began the training read-through, the software prompted me after only 3 minutes, saying it had heard enough.
Right out of the gate it was 80 to 90% accurate. As I learned to dictate better it has improved. I am now powering through my book projects with gratifying speed and ease, having developed a pattern where I scribble notes on a pad of paper longhand, input the text by voice through Dragon Dictate, and ultimately, edit and elaborate while typing on the keyboard.
Without Dragon dictate my first book would still be rattling around inside my head and God knows how long it would have sat in limbo.
Next month I start in, in earnest, on my first novel, part of a three book series I had been envisioning for nearly two decades, that I now know will actually come to pass.
I couldn't have done it without Dragon dictate.

Jesse Bilyeu,
Designer, Instructor, Writer