August 17, 2011

One oft-repeated bit of writing advice is to read your work aloud when editing. It’s a good idea–up to a point. Beyond that point, you can be hurting your manuscript.

An example of that happened yesterday in my critique group (where we read our manuscripts aloud). Two of us totally misinterpreted a story’s ending until the author read her chapter aloud. Her voice inflection and humorous tone gave the last line in the chapter an entirely different meaning than what we had assumed.

Therein lies the problem.

More Harm Than Good?

Reading your work aloud near the end of your revision process is helpful. It can ensure that your dialogue flows well and sounds like real people speaking. It helps you catch where you’ve used a word twice in the same paragraph or sentence. But for editing’s early stages, reading your manuscript aloud can do more harm than good. Why is this?

According to editor Pat Walsh (78 REASONS why your book may never be published & 14 REASONS why it just might): “Even books with a conversational tone suffer when recitation is used as editing, because the flow needed to sound ‘right’ differs from the flow needed to read ‘right.’”

This editor dealt with a writer who constantly revised using this “read aloud” method, and his work was over-written and full of excess verbiage. He would call and read it aloud over the phone to the editor. One time Pat reversed the process to make a point:

“I read it to him [instead]–in a monotone. I left all feeling, emphasis, and cadence out. He was silent for a moment and then stammered, ‘But it doesn’t sound good when you read it like that.’ I told him that is the way it reads on the page and unless he wanted to follow every person who bought his book home and read it to them himself, he had better get to work on improving his writing.”

On Its Own Two Feet

The written word and the spoken word are related, and reading your work aloud can be beneficial during final stages of editing. But beware of using it early on and throughout the revision process. It can mask weaknesses you need to correct.

Even when you do read it aloud, force yourself to read in a monotone. You will get a much clearer picture of the quality of your writing. The words on the page need to do the work, not your vocal interpretations. As the editor said, you won’t be following your readers home and reading your work aloud to them. It has to stand on its own.

[Hopefully no one will remind this repeat post. Life and health issues have interferred.]

4 Comments »

1. 

   This post is timely – I’m thisclose to finishing my book and just spent this past weekend reading it out loud – and I certainly don’t mind the repeat.

   Hope everything is ok.

   Comment by Yvette — August 18, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

2. 

   Yvette, yes, I am feeling better finally. Thanks for asking!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — August 18, 2011 @ 9:09 pm

3. 

   Hope you’ll be feeling better soon!

   PS… Have you read “Show, Don’t Tell: Secrets of Writing” by Josephine Nobisso? My friend, a teacher, recommended it to me. Said it’s really a good book!

   ~MizB

   Comment by MizB — August 19, 2011 @ 6:10 am

4. 

   MizB, I haven’t heard of that book, but I’ll check it out. I appreciate when readers give me good tips like this!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — August 19, 2011 @ 8:10 am

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