7 Reasons Why You Should Read Your Book Out Loud

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.