Fast Efficient Way To Write Articles

[terryrayburn]

Because much of my day is not at my computer, and because I don't want to write articles or blog posts longhand on paper (a waste of valuable time), I "stumbled" on a great method.

I'm sure this is not new to some of you, but it combines elements that you may not be putting together.

Here it is:

1. I find a source of information. Sometimes a regular old-fashioned book, sometimes one or more articles online, sometimes a newspaper or magazine article (online or offline), etc.

Sidenote: if I'm knowledgeable on a particular subject, I skip the "source" and make it up as I go along.

2. I take out my Olympus hand-held Digital recorder, push "Record" and read the book, article, column, etc. out loud. I radically change the wording, which is shockingly easy when reading instead of typing. I may throw in other thoughts, personal comments, even corrections if I see errors in facts or thinking.

The point is, this kind of radical changing is very very simple (try it, if you doubt).

3. When I reach an estimated 350 to 500 words, I stop. If it's a book or a longer article, there is likely another article (or several) from that same source. I just begin a new recording and bam!, another article!

This is SO fast, so efficient, and so easy to avoid plagiarism, I actually can't wait to record more articles.

4. When I'm back at my computer (or even in the public library), I plug my headphones into my Olympus, hit "Play", and type away, "pausing" after a sentence or two to catch up with the recording.

Tip: I record at a fairly slow voice pace, which not only makes it easier to "re-write" as I'm recording, but makes it quite easy to type out the recording without having to use a special dictating machine setup.

'Nother tip: If I record a bad sentence or get confused while recording, I'll simply say, "Cancel that", and begin another sentence. No need to go back and erase or re-record. Simple.

Advantages:
-- I can record a darn good quality article in 5 minutes
-- I can type the article in another 5 minutes at my convenience
-- I can insert proper keywords either verbally or as an addition while typing
-- I can also do further re-writing or editing instantly while typing
-- I can record several over time, and type them all at once
-- It applies to article directory type articles, blog posts, website entries, etc.
-- For me it makes a more conversational interesting article than I would tend to type out cold

Don't use a mini-cassette recorder. Not as handy as these tiny digital recorders, and too troublesome. Digital recorders are very cheap ($29.95 to $49.95 for the basic, which is all you need).

Hope that's helpful. Try it.

[Michael Dominic]

Good strategy to write articles quickly. A common tool that people use for this is "Dragon Naturally Speaking" which translates voice straight into text on the computer.

But nothing beats the compact Olympus allowing you to be virtually anywhere and "write" articles! Perhaps if you have Dragon Naturally Speaking, you can plug your recorder straight into your computer's line-in and "download" all your articles...

[AskJesusLeon]

Great tip, I am going to have to try this myself.

[terryrayburn]

Michael,

Personally, I wouldn't use the Dragon software for this purpose, because it requires too much clean-up editing afterwards.

The very act of typing, in my case at least, provides a "final" clean document with "instant editing", and actually becomes a time-saver over the Dragon option.

Thanks.

[Amira]

Thanks guys for sharing, I'm new at all this and reading your ideas and comments helps.

[Lynn Stivers]

Hi Terry,

That's a great idea - thank you! I've thought about recording ideas and stuff like that but I never thought about recording an article before.

That would make it a lot more conversational and that's something I've been needing to work on - my writing tends to be too formal. My husband was a newspaper Editor and a stickler for "proper" writing and I guess it rubbed off onto me a bit too much.

Thanks Terry!


Lynn

[richinca]

Excellent idea, thanks Terry.

[Derek Pankaew]

Nice! Not only will this speed up writing a large batch of articles, but it'll also decrease the repetitiveness, I'd imagine.

[mobear410]

I love this idea. It might take a bit of learning on your part to be able to record (dictate) at a speed that dragon naturally speaking can use but it isn't impossible. Thank you for posting

[Eric Lorence]

Originally Posted by terryrayburn

Michael,

Personally, I wouldn't use the Dragon software for this purpose, because it requires too much clean-up editing afterwards.

The very act of typing, in my case at least, provides a "final" clean document with "instant editing", and actually becomes a time-saver over the Dragon option.

Thanks.

Yes, the editing takes a little more time, but Dragon NS is a real "wrist" saver for me!

Can't imagine a better tool for this purpose, unless your a speed typist.

[cloudchaser22]

terryrayburn,

hi i wanted to do this for so long but always thought i was illegal to do since you're not writing, you're recording a voice and then copying it, which i thought might be a form of plagiarism. So i ended up tossing my digital recorder in the closet.

[Chris_L]

Originally Posted by terryrayburn

2. I take out my Olympus hand-held Digital recorder, push "Record" and read the book, article, column, etc. out loud. I radically change the wording, which is shockingly easy when reading instead of typing. I may throw in other thoughts, personal comments, even corrections if I see errors in facts or thinking.

My problem has always been changing the wordings of an article. I always get stuck in the middle of a thought and couldn't find words to express it coherently.

Can you share with us how while reading an article, you change the wordings differently? Maybe a side-by-side comparison of before and after?

Thanks for the great tip.

Chris

[terryrayburn]

Originally Posted by Eric Lorence

Yes, the editing takes a little more time, but Dragon NS is a real "wrist" saver for me!

Can't imagine a better tool for this purpose, unless your a speed typist.

Full disclosure...I am a speed typist. But anyone can be. If you calculate the time saved over the next 5 years by typing, let's say, 80 wpm instead of 30 wpm, you can see the value of boning up on your typing.

In any case, I record my articles slowly enough that speed typing isn't as important as it might seem. Still can do an article in 5 min. recording plus 5 min. typing. Maybe a couple more minutes of formatting, preparation, etc., which is why it helps to do them in batches of 2, 3 or more.

[terryrayburn]

Originally Posted by cloudchaser22

terryrayburn,

hi i wanted to do this for so long but always thought i was illegal to do since you're not writing, you're recording a voice and then copying it, which i thought might be a form of plagiarism. So i ended up tossing my digital recorder in the closet.

Just to clarify...it IS illegal if you just read a copyrighted piece and then type it out word for word.

The recording aspect is a side issue. You still have to end up with an original document. It's not the thoughts that are copyrighted, it's the words.

The beauty of my method is that I find it the best way to AVOID the word-for-word plagiarism, because I can THINK and SAY changes and originality much faster than typing them. And the bonus is I can do it almost anywhere, anytime (then type it later).

[terryrayburn]

Originally Posted by Chris_L

My problem has always been changing the wordings of an article. I always get stuck in the middle of a thought and couldn't find words to express it coherently.

Can you share with us how while reading an article, you change the wordings differently? Maybe a side-by-side comparison of before and after?

Thanks for the great tip.

Chris

This is on-the-spot clumsy, but let's take your comment for example. I might record it like this:

"I've always had trouble changing an article's wording to make it my own. It seemed like I would get stuck in the middle of a thought -- cancel that -- It seemed like I would get stuck mid-thought and just couldn't word it in a clear and original way.

Would it be possible for you to give us a sample of how you actually change the words? A side-by-side before and after example would be really helpful."

Hope that helps.

[cloudchaser22]

hi terryrayburn,

thanks for this!

so to clarify this once and for all,

your recording method is 100% legal to do

if so, it's time to bust out that digital recorder again

[bellynoodle]

That's a great tip for writing articles. I'm doing article marketing myself and am fairly new to it. Its tedious writing article after article. I cant wait to try this method myself and see how much time I can save. Thanks

[Ricky Parker]

If you speak slow enough when recording then Dragon can transcribe with decent accuracy. Give it a shot.

[capriliz]

Vista users - You may like the idea of using DNS, but don't have it. Never fear, you have something similar on your computer. Under your control panel, select Ease of Access, then Speech Recognition Options. There you can find a speech to text program that is similar to Dragon Naturally Speaking. If you have never used it before, it will take about 10 minutes to go through the short tutorial. This also serves the purpose of "training" the software to recognize your speech patterns.

DNS can be used with Word Pad. I am not sure about other programs.

I use it, and it can be a great time saver. Sometimes, though,it is just easier to type everything out myself.

Carmen

[Irmscher]

The idea sounds new to me. I even read an ebook about how to write articles efficiently but cant remember there was anything like this technique explained.

Thanks alot for a great tip !

[Marhelper]

That is really cool. Good job thinking out of the box. I strongly recommend DNS.

[LuckyShony]

That's an innovative way of getting articles done fast. Thanks for sharing the tip. Can really work wonders for the article marketers, if done right.

GoodLuck and GodBless,
LuckyShony

[Christie Love]

I have heard great things about DNS. I keep saying I'm going to buy the program for myself, but I keep forgetting. I guess I have just gotten used to writing manually.

I say, what ever makes a writer's job easier... go for it.

[aboutalhah]

Awesome Terry.

Thanks for your excellent post. Hmm... article!

Franck

[Skribblez]

The best thing I've read on WF in a long time.

Incredibly smart idea. I can definitely see how this will work.

Surely going to try this. Thanks for giving this info freely. Much appreciated.

[Bob Monie]

Great post Terry.

The benefits dont stop there. If your recording is clean enough, you also now have a Podcast of your article that you can upload.

Also put the podcast on a video displaying your website URL and upload it to the video hosting sites like Youtube. Multiple sources of traffic with the same content. Hit 3 birds with 1 stone, well done.

[moseleyw1111]

Hi and let me say thank you terryrayburn for your idea to use Digital recorders to help write my Articles I thank this will be a big help for me thanks.

[ecdavis]

Terry,

Right, really liked your post. When I initially read it, I also thought of Dragon. You seem to have come up with a sort of low tech way around the software. Fortunately, hammering out original content, rewrites and so forth isn't a problem for me, but I always have an eye cocked to any way to do it faster and cheap/er.

Again, nice post!

[mark eastley]

What a simple idea this is. I can't believe that none of the article writing gurus have suggested this idea before.

I've just read through a newspaper article changing it as you've suggested and its surprisingly easy to change the wording considerably as you go along plus I guess that being quite a fast touch typist I should be able to turn out quick original articles in a lot less time than I do now.

Thanks for a great tip.

Cheers Mark

[ymon]

great tip man.. thanks a lot!