Reading Out Loud
ManuscriptsSince I had a little extra time today after some beginning revisions of Chapter 5, I decided to trot out a tried and true technique for editing. I went back to the beginning of the manuscript and read the story out loud. I did not, by the way, invent this technique. I read about it in an article about Tamora Pierce, who in turn, was told to do it by her editor. I am sure it's been around for a long time, but I only began using it a few years ago. What a difference it has made in my writing.
Reading out loud makes your eyes slow down. (For me, significantly. I can read about 100 pages an hour of a "Harry Potter" level book.) Slowing down means that you are more likely to catch errors that your spelling/grammar check didn't remark on. Reading out loud also means that you have a chance to hear how smooth your words sound. It's funny how many times a clever turn of phrase actually catches on the tongue when it is oral rather than in your head. Long sentences that are punctuated correctly but still make the reader pant to get through in one breath are another find when you read out loud. Words, particularly proper names, that are tricky to pronounce get found. When I am composing, I rarely notice these things, and my brain skips over them when I am skimming through my manuscript later.
There are other ways to slow down, of course. I have heard of using a ruler to go line by line. I have heard of reading only until you find your first error and then walking away for 5-10 minutes. I have also heard of reading and editing only one paragraph at a time (which is an agonizingly slow process, let me tell you). Few techniques compare, though, to the simple act of reading your manuscript out loud to hear how it sounds.
What do you do when you are editing?