Dame Cartland (yep, Dame) was a young newspaper reporter who caught the eye of Lord Beaverbrook (yep, THAT Lord Beaverbrook, inventor of “yellow journalism,” the Rupert Murdoch of his day). M’Lord taught her how to write a romance (no record of how he did that), and the rest is history. At her peak, she was turning out 23 novels a year – and no doubt commanding a full regiment of stenographers.

I share your doubts about dictation. It’s foreign to me too, but every now and then I’ve had an interesting experience with it. Take comedy, a hobby of mine: most comics learn that speaking extempore into a tape recorder produces richer and more authentic material than sitting at a keyboard. But you have to come behind that initial blast, clean it up, edit it, or transform it appropriately – meaning ON THE PAGE. Ultimately that’s how I see dictation working. Nanowrimo is all about raw production, so it seems a perfect fit. We shall see. I’m banking on it to throw open a wide gate for my unconscious to romp through, bringing with it plenty of authentic, if unruly, raw stuff. Again, stay tuned.

That process is far from the realm of my imagination. I mean, it’s not writing! It’s speaking! And how do you backspace?

I can’t write without the backspace key. No can do.