Hey Space Cadets, I just wanted to share another blog recommending some good stories with you! All of these are listed at $0.99 USD, so get them now while they’re still on sale. While I own all of them, I haven’t gotten around to reading them all. But I vet before I buy, thanks to the sample feature on Amazon. I thought they we’re all worth my money, so I’m happily recommending them to you!
Hey Space Cadets, how are you guys enjoying your Cyber Monday? I’m fine, spending time with my family and writing. I wanted to share some awesome deals with you, in honor of the Day of Epic Interwebs Sales! Hopefully, you manage to find your special deals, without ending up in some Dickens Novel poor house! Continue reading Cyber Monday Sales
Hey Space Cadets, how’re you all doing today? I’m doing great, not as consistent on my walks as I would like but the constantly changing temperature and rainy weather is playing heck on my sinuses. I also made the excuse to myself that I needed to write because I’m behind on my book three goal but that strikes me as missing the forest for the trees. I did manage to walk a mile today, which is progress. I was tired, but I managed it in 29 minutes. A far cry from my Army days but I’ll get better again.
I’ve slowed down on Operation Breakout, but I’ve re-committed to using my Nuance Dragon program to write it. In the end, it will pay dividends for me even if it slows me down just a little bit. Ultimately, you have to evolve your writing style to suit your needs. I injured my hand in my infantry days and it’s been bothering me, which has slowed down my typing. I’ve also changed how I write my novels over the course of two novels, a novella and a short story. My writing style has grown and my process has evolved, but my inability to get it on the page quickly wasn’t keeping up. This has forced me to adapt my approach to my new reality, ergo the Dragon text-to-speech approach.
As I struggled to find a way to make it work for me, I consulted the Dragon Nuance Support Center for help. I realized that part of the problem was that my older version of Dragon wasn’t interfacing as effectively with Windows 10 and the newest Microsoft Word. Because I have faith that I’ll make the Dragon work for me, I plopped down the $150 and bought the latest version. I didn’t have to pay full price, because they gave me a 50% discount for having the older version. The newer copy arrived on Monday, and I’ve been using it since. I like that it doesn’t have the same issue with my Word document freezing that my older version had. I’ve only used the latest version on a few blog posts so far, but I’m impressed.
I then started doing some active research on how to make the Dragon work better for me, not the “using it” part but the more practical applications of it. I researched how to think the story out loud, and have my creativity become a verbal process instead of fingers clacking on the keyboard. During this process, I ran across Scott Baker’s YouTube channel. It has loads of great advice in there on how to practically use several of the Dragon’s features. Additionally, I found the Dragon Riders – Authors Dictating group on Facebook which was jampacked with helpful posts and practical tips (Thank you Terry Mixon for showing me this group!). If this sounds like something you’re interested in, be sure to check out both of these resources.
Finally, I recently found out that Scott Baker has a book coming out soon on how to work the Dragon into your creative process. He’s been pretty helpful on the Dragon Riders group so I’ll be buying this when it comes out and I’ll let you know what I think. Otherwise, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so I’ll keep this post short and sweet. Instead, I’ll leave you with some cool pictures of dragons!
Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!
JR
–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are images owned by JR Handley.
J.R. Handley Blog 