All the Transcribing

The Archivist
11 minutes ago
4 min read

Transcribing has required most of my attention this past week as I race to catch up on the myriad of side scenes my partner and I have done in preparation for continuing the main campaign. My wrist is still tender, so for the most part I've kept to the schedule of transcribing for an hour and a half, two hours max each day. I've transcribed about 8 hours' worth of content and still have roughly an hour and a half left, which I should be able to finish within the next couple of days. While I cannot give an exact word count, I would estimate somewhere between 40k - 45k words typed.

One of the pros of a transcribing project is that it provides an easy metric to measure. You know how long the file is, roughly how long it will take you to transcribe, and there's no ambiguity surrounding whether or not you're finished. Despite the number of hours it consumes, once it's written, I can reference it at any time, whether that be for journals, correspondence, or my own planning. The transcription may not be as compact and easy to access as my notes, but at least it's still there, and with a bit of digging, I can find most pieces of information I need.

If I were any slower a typist, however, I don't think the time and effort would be worth the results. The times where I fall behind on it certainly makes me wonder if it's worth the trouble, but still I persevere, because I know I would regret it if I didn't. A part of me will always scream and rage at how time consuming a process it is, but for how I want to approach the development of the story for readership, I know that in the long term, transcribing will ease the process for telling the actual story.

The Breakdown

For those curious about how much transcribing I actually did, here's the breakdown by session.

Session 113

Part 2: 16:39
Part 3: 41:48
Part 4: 44:24
Total time: ~102 minutes / ~1.7 hours
Since I transcribed part of 113 last week, I don't have an exact word count, but I'd hazard a guess close to 10k words.

Session 114

Part 1: 38:31
Part 2: 33:06
Part 3: 30:56
Part 4: 34:16
Part 5: 37:56
Part 6: 25:22
Total time: ~199 minutes / ~3.3 hours
Word count: 17,763

Session 115

Part 1: 37:47
Part 2: 35:11
Part 3: 30:30
Part 4: 24:38
Part 5: 28:00
Total time: ~155 minutes / ~2.6 hours
Word count: 14,711

Session 11(8)

Don't know yet if it's really session 118, since we're not entirely done with "downtime" yet and this is a continuation of the main campaign
Part 1: 37:03
Word count: 1,777

Returning to Normalcy

Once the focus returns to the main campaign, the chunk of time needed to transcribe will decrease drastically. I might have 4 hours max to transcribe in a given week, more likely 3-3.5 hours, which means I'll be able to shift my time and attention back to Teyr'loch Delter Pach, which has remained in the back of my mind despite the lack of noteworthy progress. I haven't been entirely idle, but the work I've been doing has been more in preparation for the task to come.

You didn't think I was completing music composition assignments and sharing them purely for the sheer enjoyment of it, did you? Don't worry; I would have totally thought so as well. While I do enjoy sharing what I've done thus far, I have ulterior motives.

It's taken me a while, but I've come to realize that I learn as a means to an end: how do I tell a story in a unique way, even if the story isn't the most 'original' by today's standards? First, I needed to find my rhythm for journal writing. Now, it's getting closer to time for me to add in a dash of music. Eventually, a return to drawing will be in order. Composing music for a portion of Teyr'loch Delter Pach is my challenge to taking that next step forward.

Other Notable Accomplishments:

BWS Intermediate Days A & C
Skillshare's Music Composition I: Section 4, Types of Rhythmic Phrases assignment
- I mentioned last week that if I could go back to the other assignments, I'd add in tuplets. Well, I couldn't help myself from following through with that here in this assignment.
- Though looking at it now, for the 3rd assignment, I should've added in duplets. Ah well.

Watched the videos for Section 5, took the quiz, and set up the document for the assignment

Questions for Contemplation & Discussion:

Out of curiosity, what's your average typing speed and percentage of error? What program did you use to learn how to type, if any?
- I still remember learning to type. The first year of lessons, I was like most other kids, looking down at the keyboard and pecking at letters regardless of the program's instructions. At the time, we used Type to Learn. In 4th grade, I decided, 'You know what? No, I'm going to master typing so I don't have to look down at the keyboard.' The rest is history.