I have a little story for you.
Last week I set out to do handiwork around my house. This is my second summer here. When I was looking to purchase a house, I had a certain list of wants. This was not your HGTV style list of wants in a home. I have a number of allergies, so my list was a lot of do not haves. For instance, any house of mine could not have carpet in it.
Thus, it became a great selling point when the house I liked also came without grass! No grass and no trees. I am allergic to much of the outdoors, and grass just seems like a silly waste. It’s an irritant to me, and then I would have to spend too much time caring for it and trimming it, thus thrusting irritants out around me in a fashion in which I could not escape. Not to mention, the heat and the gasoline. Ugh! Instead, I have a pretty backyard with fantastically designed stone pathways, crushed stone, a bed for planting and four decks. It’s an easy oasis.
However, the sum of all those lounging spaces, added to the large front step, three lengths of fencing around my bigger than the office shed, and two retaining walls in my driveway means a lot of refinishing. That is to say, scraping off all the old and peeling stain, then putting on new stuff. I’m willing to guess, it’s like painting an entire floor or more of the house itself. It’s a lot! This is my first house too, and my first shed/workshop. I don’t have a lot of tools yet. No sander, no pressure washer (not that I’m sold on the water usage idea), etc.
I’m a bit cheap, but mostly I’m just really old school. Which probably makes my neighbors chuckle, or at least raise some eyebrows. That’s alright. I mostly enjoyed the hard labor of scraping those decks. Why? Because I was in great company! I love the radio, and I love podcasts. I decided that while I was hard at work, it would be a great time to get acquainted with Joanna Penn, who a friend had recommended to me and other podcasters widely praise.
Click here to check out the Creative Penn Podcast.
Joanna is always interested in finding the pulse of the indie publishing industry. She makes sure to ask each of her guests what they feel is the next thing to take off in their world. I’m going to take some leeway and say that she’s put her weight behind the rise of dictation. Due to RSI she has dabbled and is even refocusing her workflow toward learning dictation and training dictation software. Yeah, took me a while to get my head around training a piece of software too, but it makes sense to a certain extent. It’s a personal preference in the end.
I have to agree with Joanna and many others. Dictation has long been the most important tool for some of the most prolific authors in the industry. It had been credited for doubling word counts as well as its health benefits. As someone who suffers from diseases that affect my hands and joints, dictation has definitely taken my interest. Especially since my usual day jobs are heavy on the typing. Furthermore, as a fitness enthusiast the chance to stand up or even walk places while writing would be amazing.
So the romance has begun. I’m testing out dictation and dictation software. First off I’m trying free avenues before I make any big investments. As a lover of Google docs, my tests are being conducted with their dictation option which is included. So for the next few weeks I will be updating you on lessons learned, advice and tips found throughout this romance. Who knows? Maybe next year I’ll be gardening and writing at the same time.
A.J. Ryan 