Dictating, being interviewed or typing: which way should you write your book?

Three ways to get words out

Typing is the default: you sit at a keyboard and write. You see every sentence as you make it, which helps with structure and precision and hurts if you edit yourself into silence.

Dictating means speaking the book's sentences yourself, alone, into a phone or dictation software, more or less as you want them to read. You are the writer; your voice is the keyboard.

Being interviewed means answering questions in conversation and treating the recording as raw material. Someone, possibly a professional, turns the answers into prose afterwards.

They are different skills. Plenty of people who freeze when dictating to an empty room talk for an hour without effort once a person asks them a question. Others find interviews slow and would rather pace the room and talk in paragraphs.

Side by side

Typing suits you if…

• You write clearly already, in emails, posts or reports, and people say so.
• Your book depends on precise arguments, data or step-by-step instructions.
• You like to see a sentence before you commit to it.
• You can protect a regular block of quiet time.

For pace, The Scribe Method, Scribe Media's free book on writing, estimates about 250 words an hour for a typed first draft, and a 30,000-word first draft in about four months at 250 words a day.

Dictating suits you if…

• You give talks or presentations and can speak in finished paragraphs.
• Your calendar has gaps you cannot type in: walks, drives, travel.
• You are willing to outline each section in detail before you speak it.
• You can listen back to your own voice without wincing.

Dictation's weakness is momentum without structure. Cameron Herold, whose books include Double Double, dictated his first book while walking around his home and sent the audio files to a transcriptionist. His story on scribemedia.com describes how that book took 27 months, with chapters that ranged from 30 pages to two, and how his calendar eventually caught up with him: "I had six chapters done and knew the other 12 I wanted to include, but I could no longer find the time to record my thoughts."

Two lessons from that: dictation needs an outline that keeps chapters in proportion, and it needs a schedule, because nobody else is waiting for you to show up.

Being interviewed suits you if…

• You are at your best answering questions: on podcasts, in client meetings, at dinner.
• Your book is built on stories and experience more than on data.
• You have tried to write before and stalled.
• You have someone willing to interview you, or the budget to pay someone.

The weakness of interviews is the editing they leave behind. An hour of good conversation is not a chapter. Someone has to cut, reorder and rewrite it, and if that someone is you, budget real time for it. The transcript to chapter guide shows the work involved.

A quick test before you decide

Spend one week trying all three on the same chapter-sized topic:

1. Day 1: type for 45 minutes on the topic.
2. Day 3: outline the same topic in ten bullet points, then dictate it alone for 20 minutes.
3. Day 5: have a friend ask you ten questions on it from the question bank for 30 minutes, recorded.
4. Day 7: read all three outputs. Which contains the best story? Which sounds most like you? Which would you rather edit?

The answer is usually obvious, and often surprising.

The hybrid most authors end up with

Pure methods are rare. A hybrid that works for many busy professionals:

1. Type the outline

   The reader, the promise and the chapter list need precision. Write them on the page. The worksheet helps.

2. Get interviewed for the stories

   One session per chapter, focused on stories, examples and mistakes. This is where conversation beats every other method.

3. Dictate the in-between

   Short gaps in a chapter (a transition, an explanation you forgot) can be dictated in five minutes on a walk, outside of sessions.

4. Type the edit

   Turning transcripts into chapters is keyboard work. Cut, reorder and add structure at a desk.

5. Read it aloud

   Reading the finished chapter aloud is the best test of whether it still sounds like you.

Mistakes to avoid

• Dictating without an outline. You will produce a lot of words that do not form chapters.
• Interviews with no follow-ups. A list of questions read in order produces a list of short answers. The follow-ups are the method.
• Counting words instead of chapters. Speaking produces words easily. Finished chapters are the only measure that matters.
• Choosing the method you think you should like. Pick the one where your best material actually shows up.