Writer’s block part III
Here are two short paragraphs from my second Nostalgia City mystery:
Lyle Deming braked his Mustang hard and aimed for the sandy shoulder of the desert road. Luckily, his daughter Sam had been looking down and didn’t see the body.
He passed a thicket of creosote and manzanita and pulled onto the dirt as soon as he could.
Here’s how the Windows voice speech recognition program transcribed it when I read it to my computer:
Lyell great use loss think are 10:00 AM and four are being sent the shoulder of the dessert row . Luckily his daughter center had been looking Gould shaw and didn’t see the body The house a thicket of creosote her and send you a toll on two the tour as soon as he caught.
Writer’s tool kit
And people are worried about AI taking over?
In my last post, I explained that I have a tear (seven millimeters long) in a tendon in my right arm. The pain makes it impossible for me to type, and my orthopedist says I have months to go.
Rather than complain—which is silly and pointless—let me quote from an email I got recently from my friend Larry:
It seems unnecessarily cruel that God or fate attacks an author’s fingers. Why not his toes, knees, or ears?
Thanks for the support, Larry, but I already have a bum knee, and I’d like to keep my hearing.
Help is on the way. First, my arm and hand are only slightly and occasionally painful (I still can’t type) and I’m doing PT exercises daily. Second, I’m so excited about the next Nostalgia City novel and eager to develop its quite contemporary plot, I bought professional speech-to-text software.
I purchased the most well known product of its type. I don’t want to plug it here since I haven’t had a chance to use it, but it’s name reminds you of a fire-breathing mythological monster.
It’s supposed to arrive any day now, and I will get started writing— or dictating. This whole article is being dictated—but on my iPhone, then emailed to my computer, loaded into MSWord, then posted to my website. Whew.
Completely unrelated to writer’s block—but completely relevant to the theme of this website—not everyone, it seems, fully understands noir. In my next post—in just a few days—I want to mention a 
friend’s misguided impression that noir films and novels are for laughs. Then I’ll then offer an example that attempts to prove his point: Kiss Me Deadly.
Nostalgia City Mysteries 
Good luck
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That was very interesting indeed! Can’t say I knew that your ‘injury’ involved a tendon tear. Unless simply misinterpreted , you’re apparently ‘on the mend’ as some folks would say. The medical timeline appears to be the mystery. Hey, you can deal with mystery. You’re a mystery writer! Seriously, I sincerely hope recovery is much sooner than you might otherwise imagine.
Not unlike many digital phone users, I’m somewhat familiar with the speech-to-text app, or shortcoming thereof. Upon leaving lengthy messages on my phone, I employ the speech-to-text function. It’s obviously not perfect but saves a lot of keyboarding on the small phone pad.
Don M
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I feel for you more readily because we’re both in pain. But the worst curse that any God could conceive to hinder a human nust have been Beethoven going progressively deaf beginning at age 28. By the time he was 44 he was stone deaf. We can’t ask much more of Beethoven than what he actually produced. But can we imagine his productivity in a world in which he could hear his own music?
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I have this mythological dictating software. It’s good, but there’s a learning curve both for you and for the serpent. I haven’t spent the time to teach it to understand my speech because my wrist problem cleared up after I purchased the software. Maybe it will work its magical healing powers on you. Best of luck.
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I am sorry the software is so bad! I would have expected it to be much better by now. We have closed captions at church and they do a better job than that. The captions are not perfect but you get close to the actual speech.
Mary
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