Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

voice-to-text

Voice to Text: 5 Reasons to “Speak” Your Life Story

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A year or so ago I was editing a memoir for one of our Write My Memoirs authors who had requested our editing services, and I realized that something was different. The language and sentence structure sounded natural, as if a native English speaker were telling you his life story. But the many misspellings were odd, not the typical spelling errors that people make. I came to the conclusion that this was a “voice-to-text” manuscript. The software didn’t get everything correct, but it was close enough for me to figure out the words.

I never asked whether my hunch was right and, if so, why the author chose to speak his life rather than to write it. But this got me thinking about all the reasons someone might use the increasingly sophisticated voice-to-text software on the market today. Here’s what I came up with:

  1. It’s quick. You almost certainly can speak faster than you can type, even if you’re taking the time to enunciate clearly or specify punctuation.
  2. Look, no hands! The advantage to this is obvious if you have a condition such as carpal tunnel syndrome or anything that makes typing difficult or awkward.
  3. Sitting not required. Even if you don’t have physical limitations with your hands, other body parts—your back, for instance—may ache after you’ve been sitting for long periods. When you use voice recognition software, you can walk around speaking into a laptop or phone, killing two birds with one stone—getting in your walking steps while writing your memoir.
  4. No keyboard. With voice-to-text software, you don’t need a desktop or laptop. You can use a tablet.
  5. Accuracy. A skilled speller and typist will, at best, break even on this, but someone who isn’t that great at spelling and typing will find a big relief from letting the words write themselves.

So think about it! Blogger Clifford Chi @bigreddog16 identifies eight worthy voice recognition software programs.

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Then just set up a chapter and start writing your memoir. Don’t worry about rules. There are no rules to writing your memoir; there are only trends. These trends are based on techniques and features identified in current top-selling memoirs. At best, they’re the flavor of the month. If you’re capturing your life in print for your family, for your own gratification or to inspire readers, rather than aiming to set off Hollywood screenplay bidding wars, these trends don’t even apply to you. You’ll write the memoir that suits you best, and it will be timeless, not trend-driven.There are no rules, but there are four steps:

1. Theme/framework
2. Writing
3. Editing/polishing
4. Self-publishing

You’ve researched this, too, and you’ve been shocked at the price for getting help with any one of those steps, much less all four. That’s because most memoir sites promise to commercialize your work. They’ll follow a formula based on current memoir trends, because they want to convince you that they can turn your memoir into a best-seller. These sites overwhelm you with unnecessary information not to help you, the memoir author, but to address Search Engine Optimization (SEO) algorithms so they can sell more.

That’s not what we do at Write My Memoirs. Our small community of coaches, writers and editors are every bit as skilled as any you’ll find, and we charge appropriately for their expertise and the time they’ll spend helping you craft a compelling, enjoyable read. But you won’t pay an upcharge for other websites’ commercialization, the marketing that follows, and the pages of intimidating “advice.” You can sell your book if you like—we have ISBNs available for you—but our organic process of capturing your story takes a noncommercial path.

If you want help with any or all of the four steps above, choose from our services or save money by selecting one of our packages. If you’d like to talk about what’s right for you, schedule a call. One year from now, you can be holding your published memoir in your hand. And at that point, it will be a big deal!

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