For the love of nancy! I'm stuck at a speed.

[Natalie Mikolajczak]

I have been stuck at 120 for a few months.

Was there any speed that you guys were stuck at for a long time?

[Cathryn Bauer]

Oh h*** yes.

What you have to do is just keep trying to find the very next thing that you need to work on. Just knock down the barriers one by one. Is it inattention, your mind wandering? Is it a particular key combination? This takes self-observation. Do you always hesitate over numbers or fingerspelling?

One problem at a time.

Blessings, Cathryn

[Natalie Mikolajczak]

wowza. And your a pro now, right? Okay, that means I can do this! Thanks Virginia.

[Glen Warner]

Well ...! It's a few years later, and Court Reporting Help is gone (see the 12FEB12 update on Cheap and Sleazy).

As for "The Plateau," since this discussion appeared, I found a few more chapters ... and Steve Shastay was kind enough to let me put the whole thing on Cheap and Sleazy ... and you can find it (yes, all 77 pages of it) here.

Enjoy!

[Keith Rowan II]

Everyone hits one or more plateaus in the 120-200 range.  Some people get stuck for 2, 3 years or more and still do it.  You certainly shouldn't give up.  You might try different methods.  What I found was the best way to gain speed was to follow Mark Kislingbury's advice and practice above your speed.  If you're at 120, do a lot of 140 and 160.   Do only a little bit at 120 and absolutely nothing below 120.  Shorten your writing by learning principles such as SPW- for int, KB- for imp.  Learn as many phrases as possible.  

Here are two links about what Mark K. says about writing short and practicing above your speed. 

http://markkislingbury.com/7-questions-with-mark-kislingbury/

http://www.magnumsteno.com/writingshort.html

Learning Mark K's methods was the best thing that ever happened to me.  I wrote some things while I was in school about how to follow his methods, how to be brief.  Three of those are attached.

[Patricia Babits]

I was in the 200s for a really long time. Qualifiers was my second longest speed.