“If you see a person walking along engaged in a vigorous conversation with no one else around, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s escaped from the nearest asylum. It could be me talking to myself. But don’t be concerned, don’t interrupt me, don’t bother me at all — I’m writing.
It’s been about fifteen years since I gave up the keyboard and took up a recorder for my first drafts. Since that time, I’ve dictated nearly fifty novels on an innumerable number of microcassettes, speaking the words aloud, rather than typing them into my word processor.”
– Kevin J. Anderson, Talking to Myself, https://kjablog.com/dictating-writing-hiking/
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“In the low bookcase beside my blue chair, where I sit watching sports, I have secreted a Sony dictator. Every night at 7:30 I fit myself to the TV’s sound by way of an earplug, pick up the day’s mail, and address myself to friends. To Paul Minnie Avenue in Santa Cruz, I say “Dear Adrienne …” I average five thousand letters and postcards every year. Once when the mailman was late I bit his leg.”
– Donald Hall, Life Work
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What is the difference between writing and talking?
Or more precisely, writing with our speech or our hands?
Do our index finger and thumb make a better tool for composition than our vocal chords?
Because they are both tools for writing, not the originators of ideas and sentences.
The writing is done in our minds.
I can write a sentence without it appearing in the physical world.
That is a risky business, as there is a high likelihood of loosing the words forever.
How do they find themselves onto your screen to read?
I can tap away at a keyboard or a phone screen.
But I can just as easily talk them into existence.
And I am beyond a dictaphone.
Mine is more like a transcribaphone.
I can talk and an app converts speech into text.
I can copy and paste straight into this blog.
Talking words feels informal and free.
Another option to reach my daily publishing target.
The same words, different tools.
Conversations With Quotations 