Ok so this isn’t the experiment I was planning to try out today, but never mind. That’s part of the fun of trying new stuff and seeing what works and what falls flat on it’s arse.
New paragraph; having been considering if it was possible to dictate a blog post I downloaded a couple of apps this morning. I realised on the way in to work that it wasn’t feasible to get a reasonable recording for transcribing whilst haring down the motorway in rush hour. I returned to the car for a short while during lunch and recorded a couple of minutes of me blathering on about said experiment.
It’s much harder than you think to string multiple sentences together in a cohesive manner without ers, ums, stammers and long pregnant pauses. Seasoned podcasters such as Tim Ferris make it seem so easy (ignoring those who are clearly reading from a script). Having rambled on for what I thought was a sufficient amount to get the transcription service enough material to make it a reasonable test, I duly uploaded my audio file.
As of eight-thirty this evening the transcription is still “processing”. Admittedly there was no indicator as to the turnaround time but having passed the 6 hour mark it’s not exactly speedy. Yes the app I’m using is in trial mode but I’m hardly likely to sign up if this is the normal service level. Setting expectations (and then meeting or exceeding) is what good customer service is about. Just because your product offers no personal interactions between you and your customers, they are still your customers and you should care what they think.
The plan b is to keep trying out similar apps and services for the next few days and to see if I can find one that can offer me a time saving (and RSI-reducing) way to get longer posts drafted. Hopefully on this quest I will learn to refine my verbal output and hone it to a level where minimal editing is required. Onwards and upwards
Earworm nirvana beckons tomorrow.
Donovan.
PS. Today’s modified experiment was to complete this post with no post write editing. There has been no paragraph shifts, cut or paste, just a few typo corrections along the way*. I am not going back today, only forwards 🙂
*and hyperlink inserts which are hard to do “mid-flow” and the insertion of the asterisk linking to this addendum to the post script.