Weekly Writers: Polishing The Draft, Tip #6

The final tip

Read Aloud

Reading your work aloud – the whole thing! – really helps to pick up on awkward constructions, too-long sentences, and repetitions that you miss on the page. Write down every clunky phrase and fix it until it flows like olive oil.

I started doing this when I was preparing my novels for audiobook versions, but now do this on everything I write. If it reads well, it flows well. However, it does take a lot of stamina.

I remember one time when I had done all my usual checks and edits, but upon reading my draft aloud to myself – performing as if I was creating an audiobook – I picked up almost a hundred small changes. Most of them were not errors, just improvements. I’d missed them while doing edits on paper and on the screen, because my eyes had glossed over the issues – but my ears didn’t lie.

There are also text-to-speech software options. I purchased a professional SAPI voice from Cereproc in a half-price offer, and use it with the free software Balabolka to generate an mp3 file of any document. The quality is excellent and I can listen to the book on a portable device anywhere (even walking or exercising) and make notes of phrases to change. Lots of improvements will be spotted this way. A final tip – I purchased a Scottish voice. The accent makes me hear the novel in a new way and it becomes unexpected and fresh, so that I hear the words spoken, not the words I expect.

Rinse And Repeat

None of the tips I have given in recent posts are one-offs. Some of them you will do multiple times across the whole work, or for specific problem scenes as you rewrite them.

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