McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
"Read. Your. Shit. Out. Loud." Quothe the Wendigo.
Paynesgrey:
Chuck Wendig was preaching some straight up gospel when he advised printing and then reading your work out loud. I could have saved my betas sooooo much needless work if I'd been doing so from day one.
You spot not just clunky, unnatural language, but typoooos two. I think what happens when we read silently to ourselves is that our brain's will auto-correct for us, skimming over the missing words or wrong words to focus on the meaning. But when you read your material aloud, you're bringing more parts of your brain into play, to convert thought to speech.
Also, I had a number of lines in this last bit that just didn't quite sing. Not clunky, not bad, just not great. But when I was doing an actual reading, better ways of saying them just tumbled right out of my mouth.
So.
Read. Your. Shit. Out. Loud.
You'll be amazed at the mistakes you find, the improvements you'll make.
And I cannot recommend strongly enough his blogs on writing or his books, which are compilations of his writing blogs with additional thoughts, notes, sarcasm, vulgarity, and tequila thrown in.
OZ:
I have always thought this was a good idea even on something as simple as a report in school. It makes even more sense for something meant to be read by others and if popular enough read out loud for audio versions.
Where are these blogs? Are they already listed in one of our writers' help threads and I have overlooked them?
Paynesgrey:
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/
That's his main blog. He is NSFW, btw. Nor healthy for children, flowers, or other growing things.
Thing is, he's a prolific blogger, and his writing advice is scattered all through his blog. I'd suggest grabbing 1 of his books as a download. They're cheap, and so you'll be able to see if you think they'll be of use to you.
I've found he says a lot of stuff I knew already, but didn't realize the importance of, a lot of stuff I "knew", but didn't really understand. He's got a way of pointing things out that makes you slap your head and say "D'oh!" a lot, of making you sit back and analyze why this or that worked so well, and something else you tried or read didn't. But you will come across phrases like "a meth-laced acid tripping ride in a bucket of flaming rhino semen" with terrifying regularity.
I've found that the he, along with Jim's blog on writing, and Brandon Sanderson's writing workshop podcast have been a great help to me. Kind of like that first art teacher who explained the importance of seeing not simply the entire object that I was to draw, but the lines that made it up, negative space, shadows and such... understanding each component.
Paynesgrey:
His "250 Things You Should Know About Writing" is a handy one, only $.99 so if you want a taste, that's a low-risk option. Many of these items'll be "Well, duh!", yet still serve as a good reminder. Kind of like when you know you shifted your weight wrong, and your judo instructor tosses you anyway just to make sure you really understand exactly what you did wrong...
Dresdenus Prime:
--- Quote from: Paynesgrey on December 19, 2012, 04:42:13 AM ---His "250 Things You Should Know About Writing" is a handy one, only $.99 so if you want a taste, that's a low-risk option. Many of these items'll be "Well, duh!", yet still serve as a good reminder. Kind of like when you know you shifted your weight wrong, and your judo instructor tosses you anyway just to make sure you really understand exactly what you did wrong...
--- End quote ---
I have this book, and I must say that not only is it informative, it's pretty funny at times too! ;D
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