Transcribing

[idontknowyet]

I write about half of my words old school. It allows me to slow my pace and think about my words more. (That's what i'm telling myself atleast, I only type 500 words an hour so i'm pretty slow there too.)

I finished my first notebook today and decided to start transcribing it. Which for me seems like quite an accomplishment. One notebook hold approximately 35k words.

My plan was to add on to the story as I transcribed. Hoping to turn 35k into 50k or more as I fleshed out details and descriptions more since I write dialogue heavy.  The opposite seems to be happening. In the first 750 words I've cut almost 250 words. Many of those being the little description I had.         


Do you tend to add more when you transcribe or cut more from your writing?

[CoraBuhlert]

When editing/revising a first draft (and in many ways, that's what your transcribing process is), some writers tend to add additional words, while others tend to cut words. I'm part of the former group, since my books always get longer in the second draft, while you seem to be part of the latter. Everybody's writing process is different.

[Vijaya]

I tend to write a lean first draft (it's a habit that's carried over from magazine and picture book writing) and then add flesh, layers during revisions.

[dikim]

Have you tried Dragon Naturally Speaking for your transcription? Reading your work aloud is a great way to spot ways for improvement so you'd be killing two birds with one stone.

[dgcasey]

I use Dragon Naturally Speaking and use it to get about half to three-quarters of my first drafts down by voice. And I find that I tend to add a lot during my rewrites. My use of DNS tends to be somewhat factual, meaning a lot of the time it reads like, "he said, she said, they went there, they found this, all hell broke loose" and so on.

It's in the rewrites that the story starts to become readable and at the same time, starts to expand. "They went there" suddenly expands to a couple hundred words, starting off something like, "As they raced through the night, the darkness stretched out in front of them. The headlights of the Land Rover tried to pierce the gloom, but it seemed to be threatening to swallow them whole."

[idontknowyet]

I use Dragon Naturally Speaking and use it to get about half to three-quarters of my first drafts down by voice. And I find that I tend to add a lot during my rewrites. My use of DNS tends to be somewhat factual, meaning a lot of the time it reads like, "he said, she said, they went there, they found this, all hell broke loose" and so on.

It's in the rewrites that the story starts to become readable and at the same time, starts to expand. "They went there" suddenly expands to a couple hundred words, starting off something like, "As they raced through the night, the darkness stretched out in front of them. The headlights of the Land Rover tried to pierce the gloom, but it seemed to be threatening to swallow them whole."

I need that!!!

So far transcribing I went from - She sat a the table staring at me before saying, "..."
to  she said, "..."   

It's like I hate detail.


I might try the Dragon, but I'm afraid I'll just read it quickly to get it done. This way I'm actually thinking about the words I put on the page. It doesn't feel like a real edit, because I'm not worrying about grammar, spelling or any of that stuff  just story flow.

[dgcasey]

So far transcribing I went from - She sat a the table staring at me before saying, "..."
to  she said, "..."   

It's like I hate detail.

Sounds to me like you're not just killing your babies, but your whole damn family.