Richard Powers Uses Tablet PC Voice Recognition To Write Novel

Wired Magazine talks with author Richard Powers about his latest book, The Echo Maker. What’s intriguing about this is that Powers uses voice recognition on a Tablet PC to do some of his writing.

I’ve always wanted the freedom to be completely disembodied when I’m writing, to feel as if I’m in a pure compositional state. Typing is a highly unnatural activity, and your writing style ends up reflecting the cognitive shackles. When I started to use the tablet, things that are extremely difficult to do on a word processor opened up to me. I could also make drawings to see what a character looked like, and these sketches would be integrated into my research. Part of the mystery of The Echo Maker hinges upon what happened on a certain stretch of road on the night of the accident. I figured that out visually by drawing the scene over and over and seeing how all the elements moved in relationship to one another.

What I love about his approach is the combination of voice recognition and using the Tablet PC to make sketches along the way. Tablet PCs and the creative process. A natural in my opinion.