Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Yesterday I wrote about my own challenges with writing; today we’re going to talk about what others have dealt with.
Prior to fifty years ago, blindness was a common problem in many parts of the world. You may not be surprised to know, therefore, that one of the greatest works of English literature never actually was read by its author.
John Milton wrote his definitive Paradise Lost over a ten-year period in the mid-seventeenth century by dictating to whomever was available to transcribe–most notably his daughters. They read back his work, and he edited by voice.
Other notable blind writers include Homer, Jorge Luis Borges and Helen Keller. To write blind in the past, you needed someone with a pen in hand or supreme confidence in your touch typing ability.
These days, however, better tools are available, and we can experience Scotty’s attempt to dictate to a computer in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. How many of us snickered when the engineer spoke to a screen and expected it to start typing? Today, such behavior is possible. My physician urged me to purchase voice-activated-software when I first visited with hand problems. “I use it all the time for dictation,” he explained. “It’s a life saver.”
I bought it, I read aloud into the microphone for several hours to acquaint the program with my voice and syntax, and then I went to work.
Forty-five minutes of slow, carefully enunciated syllables produced…three paragraphs. When I read through the work, tapping my toes in my urgency to get moving, nearly every other word was a homonym of misspelling. Obviously my dragon needs further training.
My personal engineer (i.e., husband) assures me technology should be harnessed to serve our needs. I can e-mail my own manuscripts to my Kindle and then listen to the machine read it back with expression commonly found in the most stultifying GPS voice. Still, it enables me to hear when things don’t sound right and then return to the scene of the verbal crime. I need my eyes to do the work, but being able to listen can ease the strain.
The eye doctor also has weighed in on the use of computers. “Make sure you blink often. Stare into the distance frequently. Get special glasses if need be. And make sure your screen is at the proper height.” Both my Kindle and the computer will allow me to make the letters larger and thus easier to read. If it helps, who cares if the kids laugh.
What else do you do to enable your eyes to work well with your writing life? And hey, make sure you blink once or twice before you comment!
Just read your post Michelle and didn’t realize how many writers out there were blind.
Sometimes you forget the most obvious things especially people like myself who take their eyes, hands etc for granted.
It reminded me when I go to medieval re-enactments and the only men who didn’t have to ‘fight’ were the musicians because their hands were the most important instrument they have to make a living. It’s the same with writers and other artists.
If you’re passionate and have a dream to write, go for it, even in the face of ridicule. I’m glad you’re doing all you can to keep doing what you love.
A member of my critique group recently lost his vision and is thrilled with some of the contraptions now available to help him like JAWS and SARA. I blogged about them here: http://tinyurl.com/25bucvh
My husband is totally blind, and, surprisingly, he doesn’t use voice-activated software. He has a PowerBraille. It’s a device hooked up to the computer that transposes the text into Braille. He has a Braille display that he reads and instead of using the mouse to get around the computer, he uses the keyboard. I’m sure most of you know that you can get around the computer sans mouse, you just need to know the keystrokes to do stuff. He has all the keystrokes memorized since most blind people don’t use a mouse. In my recent book, that I’m trying to find a home for, the main character is a blind man, and I focus on a lot of this in the story…
I will admit, I have never thought much about this. During my pregnancies, I would develop severe carpal tunnel (from all the swelling), but it would go away a couple weeks after delivery. To always be dealing with hands you cannot feel would be very hard indeed.
Keep training your dragon! I bought a better microphone and learned to speak with longer, more normal sentences. It learns to heed its masters voice! It’s especilly great for a first draft. Edits are a bit harder but possible.
I cannot imagine what it might be like to be blind and write. Great examples of courage and fortitude.
I’ve learned to keep on no matter what. If God wants my words out there, He will help me find a way.
Thanks for all your encouragement to train the dragon better. My problem is actually humorous. After reading aloud for 30 years, it’s hard to read in a civil, quiet tone. I put in inflections, change the accent, speed up, slow down and we all were laughing as I tried to train the machine.
The samples I got to read into the Dragon caught my attention, absorbed me and the inflection and drama just increased as I spoke the words. No wonder the poor machine couldn’t even recognize MY name when I tried to write!
I see my new I-Touch also has a Dragon ap. I’m wondering how that could possibly work–but laughing at the image of walking around whispering words into a hand held device with the hope of some day seeing it all in non-editing-necessary print. Oh, to bring Scotty back and get the machine working to my standards!
If only I didn’t have a 65,000 word deadline looming in September . . .
I suppose my ultimate point is, the need to communicate ideas and words can be so strong even an obvious disability like blindness cannot stop the author. And we all have John Milton’s estranged daughters to thank for the glories of Paradise Lost.
Thanks for sharing.
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