Table of Contents
Welcome Back (00:00)
Project Updates
Naked Kaiju Woman is Thriving (01:35)
Media Updates
Long Box Punk (02:09)
By The Wayside (02:40)
Comics Asylum (03:09)
Main Story
I'm Not Don Draper, But... (03:43)
Dictation Feels Weird (04:34)
Be Ready for Errors Aplenty (05:29)
There's a Time and Place (06:34)
I'm a Monster (07:38)
Isn't This Cheating? (08:45)
Release Info & Updates
Coming Up on Substack (09:40)
Upcoming Appearances (10:02)
Pesto Comics Release Calendar (11:21)
Instant Ink Comic Book Podcast (13:13)
Super Secret Epilogue (14:04)
Oops (17:14)
Welcome Back
It’s been a personally great week with the release of Naked Kaiju Woman. As of this writing, it’s broken a number of personal records including records for Day One Backers, Day One Funding, Total Funding and it’s within range of surpassing total backers by the time this post is live. I’m so, so grateful to everyone who have lent their support and shared it widely - including the absolute hype machine and colourist JP Jordan.
As great as the week has been personally, on Kickstarter, seeing the chaos out in Los Angeles has me feeling strange. A younger me, one carrying around my copy of Rebel Without a Crew around the halls of the CBC Building here in Toronto, had dreams of moving to Hollywood to make my mark. I never quite made it, but just visiting California always gives me a strange high that I can’t replicate anywhere else.
The devastation the wildfires have brought to the city feels surreal. It was just a few months ago that I was driving up the Pacific Coast Highway, feeling at home being stuck in traffic but with significantly better views and weather.
I’m sure the town will bounce back better than before, but it looks like it’ll be a long road to get there.
Today I want to share my experience with you in how I use dictation, why I use it and some of the pitfalls in doing so. Before that, I'm sure you know what's coming...
Project Updates
Naked Kaiju Woman is THRIVING!
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that this campaign has done better than I ever could have imagined on Day One. That’s been continuing with each passing day and is on track to be the first Pesto Comics project to break even.
It would be an incredible way to start the year and make me feel a lot more comfortable with all of the projects that I have planned through the rest of 2025.
If you're here for the first post of the year, you'll know that I have a lot planned. The only way I get to do these things is with your support. If you haven’t done so yet, now’s a good time.
Media Updates
I’ve been making the rounds on all my favourite podcasts - and plan to do even more this year. Here’s the first three of 2025:
Long Box Punk
Last Monday, before the launch of Naked Kaiju Woman, I was on Long Box Punk with Chris Stall. I had a great time as we spoke for just over an hour about all things comics, pro wrestling and concerts.
Chris is a not only a great host but was also the very first backer on Naked Kaiju Woman, which he promised he would be live on the podcast and held up his end of the bargain.
By The Wayside
In December, Roberto and I did a Christmas Market Spotlight at Wayside Comics and Cocktails in Newmarket, Ontario (just North of Toronto).
While I was there, I was a guest on By The Wayside with Jordan. As Roberto had joined me in tabling that day, he actually made a quick appearance on the podcast too:
Jordan is quite the personality and a lot of fun to talk to. If you happen to be in the Halton region of Ontario, you can find it on Rogers Channel 10 or at waysideshow.com.
Comix Asylum
This evening at 10pm, I'll be live with Steve Bynoe on the Comix Asylum YouTube channel.
We had Steve on the Instant Ink Comic Book Podcast recently and I'm thrilled to be a guest on his show. He's had a lot of huge names on there and I'm honoured to be counted amongst them.
Steve and I have been to a lot of shows together and he just finished his comic series, Atrium. I'm looking forward to getting caught up on that series as I’ve been saving it to read all in one go.
If you’re free tonight, come hang out and pester us in the chat - or watch it later on YouTube.
With that, let's talk some dictation....
Main Story
I’m Not Don Draper, But…
We do have a couple things in common. I didn’t have a “Summer Man” period, but I do write in a journal regularly.
In fact, I have over a decade of journal entries that I've kept for myself. Most of them are just me giving myself crap for not writing enough each day. The journal is really just an opportunity for me to stretch my writing muscles and get my fingers moving.
Though I’ve been using a new skill that I've developed very recently: dictation.
It really does feel like magic. I simply think out loud and the words appear on the page with a wave of my wand (or microphone).
My word counts have absolutely exploded using this method, and I think that's what's allowing me to get more work done than I ever thought possible.
There are only so many use cases for this and it's very far from perfect. Still, any advantage available to you is one worth exploiting if you want to do well in an independent writing career.
Dictation Feels Weird
When you first get started, you’ll question whether it’s worth the trouble. You’ll stumble over your words, find yourself being repetitive and the tool will misunderstand you entirely in some cases. Depending how sideways it goes, you’ll wonder why anyone bothers.
The truth of it is that it really depends on what you're looking for. If you have a clear picture of what you want to write, even if it might take you a bit of writing to figure it out: Dictation is for you.
If you're still in the very early stages and you're not comfortable talking things out, then this tool may actually be to your detriment, as the dictation itself can be very distracting if you're not comfortable with.
Every thought that you spit out being captured can be a scary experience. If you suffer from any degree of imposter syndrome, this will escalate that as your written speech will be subpar at best.
That said, if you're the kind of writer that will type everything out just to delete it and type it again, dictation may be exactly what you're looking for.
Be Ready For Errors Aplenty
If you’re dictating, you can’t be worried about every word you say. It's more about getting the words down and then making sense of it after the fact. If you regularly write a “vomit draft”, dictation will be a gamechanger.
But be warned, the error rate that you'll find with dictation is obscenely high. Even if your pronunciation is perfect and you're using every command correctly, you'll still find that it will mishear phrases, capitalize where it's not supposed to, or break up sentences so you sound like William Shatner.
There's just no telling how it's all going to come out once you start talking. You have to accept that when you launch your favourite dictation tool.
More importantly, you need to be comfortable with editing.
If you're not a writer who thrives in the editing process: dictation is not for you.
You will, easily, spend more time editing than you will writing.
It's arguable whether it even actually saves time, depending on how much you ramble and go off topic. You could always edit as you go, but at that point you lose the advantage of the dictation and you might as well just type everything out.
There’s a Time and Place
I use dictation exclusively for first drafts. I'm only so masochistic and I couldn't imagine using a tool like this for anything beyond a very dirty first draft.
The goal is speed and that not something you can maintain if you’re speaking out punctuation or line breaks. That’s something you want to do methodically and, more importantly, correctly.
If you're in a first draft and you're still trying to flesh at the idea out: dictation is perfect. It removes the barrier of the your typing, or hand-writing, ability slowing you down. You’re not self-editing when you’re speaking aloud if you act as though you’re telling the story to a friend.
I've heard arguments of the opposite, where you should actually do your drafts by hand because it slows you down. I find that my mind ends up moving much faster than is useful. Before I even finish a sentence, I'm already rethinking it, and then I find myself editing while I'm doing my first draft.
With dictation, there's no such threat. I think it, I speak it, it's written.
That either sounds like your nightmare or a dream to you, depending on which side you land on. That's how you decide whether you should use it or not.
I’m a Monster
My first, real full-time job was driving around Hamilton, Ontario replacing dictation pedals, which the work-at-home transcriptionists would use working for the local hospital network, with a new PC with dictation technology.
Much like AI threatens to take the jobs of many today, I was the monster doing that, in person, for those poor transcriptionists.
However, at the time, the tool is extremely limited and only so many doctors could be bothered to use it. Doctors that didn't care to learn the commands and the certain ways to pronounce things to get it transcribed properly were the transcriptionists saviors. Temporarily.
Times have changed.
Much like how AI is injected into everything, even if it shouldn’t be, almost any word processing tool you use nowadays will allow you to do speech-to-text. Some even come with auto-punctuation so you can just speak completely freely, and it'll do a pretty decent job of figuring out where your commas and periods belong.
Needless to say, these tools have been widely adopted. Transcriptionists are a thing of the past. The damage is done.
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t use it yourself if you’re looking to up your game.
Isn’t This Cheating?
Dictation is no more cheating than using a word processor to format your books.
As long as the words are coming from your brain, however they get on the page makes no difference. The microphone is a tool, just like a keyboard. It does nothing by itself.
It's the writer that makes it valuable.
Like any tool, it's only useful in the right hands. Dictation alone won’t improve your writing. It will certainly make you a faster writer, but is faster better? Probably not. This is simply another way of getting to the same result.
The good news is: you might become a better writer faster. The best way to learn is to do it over and over. Write, edit, learn what you did wrong and do it again, better than last time. Rinse and repeat until you’re on the best sellers list.
You can do that risking carpal tunnel or use a little magic to get there.
It’s worked for me. I hope the same for you.
Until next time…
Release Info & Updates
Upcoming on Substack
January 22
Substack Cannibalism
When the best performing articles are about best performing articles.
January 29
Taboo and Kickstarter
Do you need to do an NSFW book to be successful?
February 5
It's Time to Retire Guilty Pleasures
Being cool is overrated.
Upcoming Appearances
Pesto Comics Release Calendar
Instant Ink Comic Book Podcast
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