I've been busy today and won't have time for a 'real' post. Instead, this is my apology to regular readers.

The work is important, I assure you. It involves tedious transcribing of recorded interviews for a story I'm working on. Writing stories is what I do and until I can get around to finding a local shorthand course, I'm tied to the voice recorder, my trusty Olympus VN-960PC.

There's nothing worse than transcribing, and because I'm such an anal freak there's no option but to get the whole thing - or as much of it as makes sense - down into the WP program. I basically transcribe everything. One interview was 30 minutes long, which meant a transcription running to four pages.

It's boring but necessary work.

Once you've got the words down, it's easy to isolate the best parts to use as quotes in your story. This step is usually done very rapidly, within minutes in fact. After cutting and pasting the quote into the story it's just a matter of re-reading it to make sure it's got the qualities you look for in a quote - ease of reading, impact, colour - and then you go searching for the next one.

I've written 400 words already and there are five more interviews to do.

But I probably won't get around to transcribing them until I return from Sydney. I'm heading off tomorrow morning with my mother, who turns 80 on Saturday. We're stopping at a small town near Taree, where I'll stay the night. Then I leave my cousin's house and continue south to meet with friends in the Big Smoke. I'll be away for about a week.

Until I return, have fun. Please don't forget to check back in a week or so, as I'll resume regular blogging as soon as I return to Queensland.