Writing while you drive – Part 1

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You’re probably looking at the the title and thinking “What? Writing while I drive? Do you want me to get killed?” No, I don’t wish you ill (unless you cut me off, then I may feel differently).  But I would like to talk about using some of the most unproductive time you have other than sleep: commuting.

When your driving you’re paying attention to the road, but what about those times you’re sitting bumper to bumper and you can feel the minutes ticking away into oblivion.  Why not use this time to write? Now even when you’re bumper to bumper you don’t want to necessarily take out a notebook or laptop and start banging away at whatever project you have going on.  You need to keep your eyes on the road, so you’ll need to equip yourself with the one tool that will open up this time to you: A digital voice recorder.

We’ll go more into what is a good digital voice recorder, but for now let’s talk about what kind of writing you can do on the road.  Here are some things you can do to put this normally wasted time to work for you:

• Brainstorming: Why not use this time to come up with article or story ideas?  Listen to your radio and let the ideas flow. Although this time, instead of trying to remember it, you’ll have it recorded and ready to go when you reach your destination and hit your computer.
• Research Notes: You can use this time to think about what you need to complete in order to write your article.  Leave yourself a note that you need to finish research on the world’s largest Kiwi.  Ramble on about possible names you want to find out the meaning of for your serial killer nun.
• Write Dialogue: Do you have a scene that’s bothering you?  Or did something in a song you just heard inspire a new one?  With your handy voice recorder you can act out the scene from the comfort of your own car.  Try an make your voice sound like your characters.  Don’t worry if you sound ridiculous, you’re alone.  Although I wouldn’t recommend doing this while you have your children/friends/significant other with you. They might think you’ve finally lost it.
• Write an entire scene or article: If you want to do more than dialogue, go ahead and write the entire scene.  Know what you want to say for an article? Go ahead and talk it through! You can then transcribe it the next time you get in front of a computer.

With your handy voice recorder by your side you can do most anything you could do in front of a computer.  It’s a great way to use this time which could otherwise go wasted cursing at other drivers.  And think of how it would reduce road rage.  You’d be too busy to get mad!

So now you’re ready to get in your car and write, but have you thought about your voice recorder?  Just what do you need to make sure your brilliant article on penguin conspiracies makes it to your publisher?  Because while there are plenty of inexpensive recorders, the last thing you need is to find yourself scratching your head trying to figure out what you said when that semi was idling beside you.  In the next post of this series, we’ll go into what sort of digital voice recorder you should look for.

[Originally appeared at Writer’s Roundabout]