Dictating a novel is not magic, and it is not for everyone, but for many writers it solves a real problem. If typing hurts, if you freeze in front of a blank page, or if you simply think better out loud, speaking your draft can get words down faster than your fingers can. The trick is learning to speak punctuation, to talk in full sentences, and to treat the result as a rough draft you will tidy afterwards. This guide covers all of that: whether dictation suits you, how to set up, the voice commands you need, a first session plan, and an editing routine. The last section shows how it works in Quillen, which transcribes on your own computer.
The short answer
Find a quiet room, speak in complete sentences with a small pause between them, say your punctuation aloud (comma, period, question mark), use "new paragraph" when you want a break, and fix mistakes in a separate editing pass rather than stopping to correct as you go. Expect to spend a few sessions getting comfortable. In Quillen, click Dictate, talk, and click Stop when you are done. Quillen can also put dialogue in quotation marks for you.
Is dictation right for you?
Dictation helps most if you:
- have repetitive strain or pain from typing and want to rest your hands;
- think best by talking a scene through;
- write a rough first draft quickly and polish later;
- get stuck when you can see your own text and keep editing it.
It helps least if you plan every sentence before you write it, if your home is never quiet, or if your draft needs heavy precision (for example, complex formatting or many invented names) from the first pass. Many writers use both: dictate scenes, type the delicate parts.
What you need
- A decent microphone. A headset or USB microphone is better than a laptop's built-in one, mainly because it hears you rather than the room.
- A quiet space. Background talk, music and fans confuse transcription.
- Software that turns speech into text, ideally one that works offline so nothing leaves your computer.
- A rough plan for the scene. Know who is in it, where it happens and what changes, so you are not inventing everything on the spot.
How to speak so the text comes out right
Transcription software is much better at words than at punctuation, because people rarely pronounce punctuation. So you teach yourself two habits.
- Speak in whole sentences and pause between them. The software works in chunks and cuts them at pauses. A clear pause at the end of each sentence gives it a clean place to cut, and it keeps a sentence from being split in the middle.
- Say punctuation aloud. Say "comma", "period" and "question mark" where you want them. It feels silly for about ten minutes, then it becomes automatic.
- Say the structure too. Say "new paragraph" for a paragraph break, and "scene break" for a scene break.
- Keep going. If you stumble, say the sentence again rather than stopping. You will tidy it later.
The commands you need
Every dictation tool has its own list. These are the ones Quillen understands; most tools have close equivalents.
A few notes on using them:
- Quotes. You can say "open quote" and "close quote" (or "quote" and "unquote") around speech, and "open single quote" and "close single quote" for a quote inside a quote.
- Plain words that are also commands. If you need the word "period" rather than a full stop, say "literal period". The same works for any command word. Quillen also treats ambiguous words like "period" and "dash" as ordinary prose when the surrounding words make that clear (for example, "the Victorian period was long").
- New paragraph. Say it at the end of a paragraph, not at the start of the next. Dialogue usually needs one for each change of speaker.
A worked example
Here is a short passage from The Salt Road, as you might speak it, as it comes out, and after a quick tidy.
| Stage | Text |
|---|---|
| What you say | Mara folded the map comma and tucked it inside her coat period new paragraph open quote you are late comma close quote the guard said period |
| What you get | Mara folded the map, and tucked it inside her coat. “You are late,” the guard said. |
| After a tidy | Mara folded the map and tucked it inside her coat. “You are late,” the guard said. |
The only change in the last row is deleting a stray comma, which is typical: most of the clean-up in a dictated draft is small.
A first session plan (15 minutes)
- Pick a scene you already know well, preferably a short one, so you are testing the method rather than your plot.
- Say a sentence of narration with a comma and a period. Check what appears.
- Say a short exchange of dialogue, using "open quote" and "close quote" and "new paragraph" for each speaker.
- Pause, read what you have, and note the habits that cause errors: speaking too fast, run-on sentences, or forgetting punctuation.
- Do another five minutes, adjusting those habits.
- Finish by reading the whole thing aloud, which shows you quickly whether the rhythm survived.
Editing a dictated draft
Dictated text has its own typical faults, so a short routine helps:
- Names and invented words. Search for each major name and fix variants. Unusual names are the most common casualties.
- Homophones. Words that sound alike (their, there, they're) are easy to miss because they are real words.
- Run-on sentences. Speaking encourages long sentences. Break them up on the second read.
- Dialogue formatting. Check that every quote opens and closes and that each speaker has their own paragraph.
- Filler. Delete "um", false starts and repeated words.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Result | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Speaking without pausing | Chunks cut mid-sentence; odd breaks | Pause briefly after every sentence |
| Forgetting to say punctuation | A wall of unpunctuated words | Say commas and periods aloud, and practice |
| Correcting as you go | You lose the thread and the flow | Keep talking and fix it in an editing pass |
| Dictating in a noisy room | Wrong words and gibberish | Use a headset and a quiet space |
| Reading back mid-session | Dictation becomes slow typing | Finish the scene first, then read |
| Not checking names | Characters spelled three ways | Search for each name afterwards |
Do it in Quillen
Quillen has dictation built into the manuscript editor. It converts your speech to text on your own computer, so nothing is uploaded and it works offline.
- Open a scene in the editor and click where you want the text to go. Dictation inserts at the cursor.
- Click Dictate in the toolbar. The button briefly shows that it is loading the speech model and starting the microphone. When it changes to Stop with a live dot, you can talk. If Windows has blocked the microphone, Quillen tells you and points to Settings, Privacy & security, Microphone.
- Speak in sentences with pauses. Text appears at the cursor roughly every 10 to 20 seconds, at your pauses, so do not expect word-by-word typing. While text is still being typed in, the button reads Stop · typing with a number.
- Say your punctuation and commands as in the cheat sheet: comma, period, question mark, exclamation mark, colon, semicolon, dash, ellipsis, open and close quote, new paragraph, scene break. Say literal before a command word to write the word itself.
- Click Stop when you are done. Quillen adds the closing quote of your last line when you press Stop.
- Undo a bad chunk with Ctrl+Z. One press removes a whole chunk if the transcription guessed wrong.
- Open the Dictation guide with the open-book button at the right of the toolbar. It repeats the commands and holds the dialogue options below.
The dialogue options
The guide has three switches that shape how your spoken text is formatted:
- Put quotation marks around dialogue. A small model that runs on your computer picks out what characters say, with or without a tag like she said, and adds the quotation marks. It is usually right but not always, and it does nothing when you already said the quote commands yourself.
- Start a new paragraph when a different character speaks. Two characters speaking back to back with nothing in between is the hard case, even for a person reading, so say "new paragraph" when it misses one.
- Start a new paragraph after a pause of 3 seconds or more. It only does this after a finished sentence, so stopping to think mid-sentence never splits it.
Dictate is switched off while Read aloud is playing, because the microphone would pick up the playback. After a long period unused, Quillen releases the speech model from memory, so the next start takes a moment to load again.
Checklist
- Headset or microphone tested; quiet room.
- A scene planned, with the beats written down.
- Punctuation and "new paragraph" said aloud.
- Pauses between sentences.
- Pressed Stop at the end, so the last quote is closed.
- Names, homophones and dialogue checked in an edit pass.
Common questions
Can I really write a novel by dictation?
Yes, many writers draft by speaking. Expect a learning curve while you get used to saying punctuation, and plan an editing pass for names, homophones and long sentences.
Does dictation work offline in Quillen?
Yes. Quillen transcribes your speech on your own computer, so nothing is uploaded and it works without an internet connection.
How do I add quotation marks when dictating?
Say "open quote" and "close quote" (or "quote" and "unquote") around speech. Quillen can also detect dialogue and add the quotation marks for you; you can switch that on or off in the Dictation guide.
What if I need the word 'period' instead of a full stop?
Say "literal period". Saying "literal" before any command word writes the word itself instead of the mark.
Why does text appear in chunks instead of word by word?
Quillen transcribes in short chunks that end at your pauses, so text appears about every 10 to 20 seconds. Pausing briefly after each sentence gives it clean places to cut.