Let's Try This Again

Sorry - earlier today I published this with the Comments turned off and to only Paid subscribers. Same post, correct approach (I hope):

Hi George,

Do you read your story drafts aloud? If so, how often do you do that (i.e. every writing session, halfway through the story, once it’s fully drafted, etc.)? Do you have a process or technique (e.g. record and listen back)? And to what extent does your spoken reading affect your revision process?

I ask because, as part of my MFA program, I am reading aloud my work more than ever, and I’m figuring out how to reconcile the spoken with the written. Of course, some things “sound” great written, but maybe don’t sound great read aloud and the “necessary” edit reveals itself. But I also find myself resisting some edits/suggestions just because it literally sounds better.

Thanks very much for any insight.

A.

Thanks for the question. I know many great writers who swear by this, as a way of getting clear of the text – of hearing it anew.

One of the advantages of reading a work-in-progress aloud is that it’s easier to identify word repetitions – suddenly you hear that you’ve used “irreparable” four times in the last three pages, say. It also helps with larger-scale repetitions – reading something silently for the nine-millionth time, we might be inclined not to notice that the point we’re making, we’ve already made. Speaking that section aloud – the labor required to do so, I suppose, as well as the slower pace forced by speaking aloud – might bring the repetition to our attention.

I’ve heard of people who record themselves reading their work, or who will ask a friend (or AI) to read it aloud.

This reading aloud is, of course, a time-honored tradition that began with the first-ever literary reading, around some ancient campfire, with certain tribe members coming in late on purpose and others drifting off to sleep during, and, at the end, some long-winded guy asked a question that isn’t really a question, but just an opinion essay he wants to get off his chest. (But seriously: Chekhov and Tolstoy used to read aloud to groups of their friends and family).

But I honestly don’t do it.

Partly, this is because I don’t love the sound of my own voice. I’ve got this sort of Chicago thing going on that tends to