OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
I have just submitted my novel, Pentecost to my editor for review.
Before I sent it, I read the entire book out loud which really helped me pick up some problems. It took me a whole day, from 7am to around 9pm and I was pretty hoarse by the end of it! Watch the video or read the text below for details.
In the video, I explain:
- You can find inconsistencies across the story and continuation issues e.g. a character is drinking tea and then coffee, or you've described a scene and then you realize it's night-time.
- It improves dialogue to hear it spoken out loud. When your characters are actually speaking, you realize they wouldn't say it quite that way.
- You find typos and misplaced words that your brain skipped over when reading on the page.
- You realize how long some sentences are when you can't say them without a deep breath in the middle.
- You can see where punctuation is wrong and where it needs changing.
- You get a sense of pacing and can check if it is appropriate for the novel e.g. mine is a thriller so needs fast pacing, short sentences
- You get a sense of how long the podcast novel will be!
I put this idea out on Twitter and Facebook and pretty much everyone thought it was a great idea and most writers are already doing it.
View Comments (26)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1 2 3 Next »Hi, I staggered here via Livia Blackburne's blog and this is the first post I have read. Never would have thought of it. Not that I have a book in the works - yet! - but this advice could apply just as well to short stories, magazine articles and blog entries, obviously with a few different standards to measure up to in each case. I'll definitely try it next time I write. Cheers!
Glad you found it useful!
I have been told this is a very important step in the revision process. I have not entered this stage yet, but I plan to as my last stage of revisions.
Awesome that you finished another draft! Man, I really need to buckle down :-) Let us know how things go with editor!
Thanks Livia, I'll be posting about my feedback very soon. I am just digesting it :)
Last year when I started revising the draft of my historical novel, Maids of Misfortune, I attended a writer's convention, and the one consistent piece of advice given, by writers, editors, agents, was to read your work out loud. So I did, but not just to myself. I had a friend who had never read a version of the book, and who suggested I read it out loud to her. I did this (it took 4-5 sessions), but I would highly recommend it. Not only was it a fun time for us (I so miss reading out loud to my daughter who is all grown up), and not only for all the seven reasons listed in the post above, but because it gave me immediate feedback.
When my friend laughed out loud-at just the right places, or said, "just one more chapter," when I ended a session-so I knew the pacing was working, or when she said, "now who was that character?"-and I knew I had to put in a character tag, I was getting feedback that often goes missing, even from your beta readers. And because I was reading to someone else, I didn't start to get bored, and stop paying full attention, which is what happens when I read my work out loud to myself.
So, good post Joanna, and I hope everyone takes your advice.
That's fantastic Louisa, and I am so glad I'm not the only one recommending it. Reading to someone else is something I may consider later when it is the story I am happy with - great idea!
I read my writing outloud for all of the above reasons, except for the podcast. I never thought of that:-)
Podcasting is tremendous and very rewarding. I highly recommend it!
I definitely agree about reading your work out loud. Everything you said is so true. I always tell my writers to read their stories out loud before submitting them to me. Sometimes, if it's a special project we are working on, we'll go into a small conference room and I will do the reading while they mark up a hard copy. By having me read instead of them, the awkward sentences, dialogue etc. are even more pronounced. They are not automatically "filling it" something when they read without realizing it. Does this make sense? Anyway, very good tip that we all should be doing if we aren't already. Have a super night, Buffy
I don't usually read my work aloud, but perhaps I should!
I'm a big fan of reading my work out loud, however, I've never had the stamina to read the whole thing aloud. Fantastic! Recently, I was reading a selection of my novel out loud to friends and even though I'd gone over the whole manuscript a million times, I found a couple typos. It is amazing what a different perspective reading aloud gives you.
Great post! I began reading my YA novel, Raven, out loud last week and I was amazed at how many little mistakes I spotted that I missed before. It also helped me see which sentences weren't flowing as well as they should.
This is clearly something every writer should get into the habit of.
Hi Joanna - I've been reading my chapters or passages out loud ever since I saw that advice in Noah Lukeman's The First Five Pages. Lukeman is a literary agent and the subtitle of this book is A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. Something we would all love to do!!
He says that "prose can be technically correct but rhythmically unpleasant" and that writers, like poets, should pay "close attention to the sound of language, to its rhythm, breaks and to subtle elements like alliterations and echoes". He dedicates a whole chapter to the sound of writing. Great book which might interest some of your readers :)
That book's been on the list for a while now - I don't think it's available on Kindle - I'll have another look!