By Rondi Sokoloff Frieder

Ever since I made the decision to become a serious writer, members of my family have asked me to edit their writing projects. I have said yes to college essays, business presentations, and even a Master’s thesis. But before I ever agree to do this, I always require the writer use one important self-editing tool – they must read their work out loud! They can read it alone in a quiet room or give a dramatic presentation to the dog. It doesn’t matter, as long as they do it. This may sound like a common revision strategy to those of you who have been writing for a long time. But believe me, many people skip this step.

 You can begin by reading whatever you have written out loud to yourself. It’s amazing how helpful this is, particularly for creating snappy dialogue and getting rid of repetitive words. You should also record yourself, using the Voice Memo app on your phone, and then listen back. I use this for first pages and sections with high tension. If you are writing a picture book, listening to yourself read the manuscript  will give you a good sense of rhythm, flow, and word choice.

It is also helpful to have someone from your critique group read your story out loud to you. This will help you hear how easily the book can be read by a parent, teacher, or child. But if you are writing something longer, you may want to have your computer read to you.

That’s right, your computer can read!  If you use “Microsoft Word,” this tool can be found in the “Review” section. Just click on “Review” and look for the “Read Aloud” icon in the top menu bar. Most versions allow you to adjust the speed and gender of the voice. I must warn you though, the voice of this reader is quite flat. There will be no emotion expressed, except for a slight shift when the computer comes to a question mark. If this monotone voice annoys you, there are other programs that have more versatility. My son recently bought one called Speechify. Speechify gives you the choice of a variety of voices and accents and has a much more human tone.

Despite its lack of intonation, I find the Microsoft Word “Read Aloud” feature to be surprisingly helpful. My middle grade novels range from 40,000 to 60,000 words. It would be almost impossible to have another person read an entire book out loud to me. And when you read to yourself, you miss things. Your brain is ahead of your voice and you are much more focused on plot, rather than word choice and repetition. I just finished having my computer read my latest WIP  before sending the manuscript out to my critique group.

Here’s what happened:

1. I eliminated 4,000 words. Seriously, 4,000!!!! Many were words I used too much throughout the manuscript, or used too many times on a page. The biggest culprits were: I mean, that, you know, today, right, around, about, on, up, down, back, really, but, pull, nod, smile.
2. I got rid of unnecessary sentences. One of my worst habits is saying something is going to happen and then have it happen. The actual action is almost always enough.
3. I got rid of entire paragraphs that DID NOT move the story forward. These were mostly over-descriptions of a setting or character, or a conversation that went on for too long.
4. I omitted adjectives, especially colors, sizes of things, and over-descriptions of food.
5. I tightened up punctuation, mostly eliminating and adding commas, and getting rid of exclamation points!!!!

I also added things:

6. I enhanced emotional reactions to action, but made sure they were not overly physical.
7. I added details that clarified information for the reader. Sometimes, these things were in my mind, but not on the page.
8. I made sure that changes to the story were consistent throughout the manuscript, especially when I eliminated characters.
9. I added small words that I had accidentally left out, particularly a, the, in, on, to.
10. This story used to be in past tense, but is now  in present. When the computer read it to me, I picked up on places I missed making the  changes.

As you probably know, this is not the final version of my book. I will be getting another round of feedback from my critique partners in early July.  And after I review their comments, and input the suggestions that resonate, the dog and I will settle back into my studio and have that Microsoft Word lady read the book again to me. OUT LOUD, OF COURSE!

Authors note: I used the “Read Aloud” feature for this blog!