One of the ways I find my voice – character voice and author voice – when writing is to read aloud. Actually using my voice helps me get a feel for the words I’m writing, and find the places where my sentences are a little awkward, or where a character sounds a bit trite.

Read the following paragraphs aloud.

First draft

The women from the boab trees shook themselves, shaking free their leaves—falling into the water, the leaves flashed, becoming river fish. The fish swam away, eating, cleansing, and purifying as they went.

Re-worked second draft

Then, seeing what they had done, the women from the boab trees shook free their locks and leaves, letting them fall into water—flashing silver, the leaves became river fish. The fish swam away, eating, cleansing, and purifying as they went.

I wrote the first version when working on the first draft of this story, which, for me, is really just about filling in the details. Then, once I’d sorted out all of my plot issues, I went back and read The Women from the Boab Trees aloud, listening to each word, and how each word fitted into each line. In music, this sort of listening is called ear training.

For most people, ear training is a very difficult thing to learn; it can take years to become truly good at it. But the time is well-spent – learning to listen to a piece of music, to see how and why it works, makes for better musicians. Similarly, reading aloud makes for better writers.

Here are  five tips for getting the most out of reading your work aloud.

1. Read slowly. Don’t rush through each line. Let your voice find the natural breaks in the text. If there are none, it’s a sign you need to revise.

2. Listen to the words. Watch out from awkward rhymes, or over-used words.

3. Think about the way the words feel on your tongue. If you get stuck on a particular word, or stumble through a sentence, it’s probably a red flag.

4. Use your natural speaking voice. Sometimes, it’s tempting to use a character voice, or to read as if you’re presenting to a room full of people. While both these techniques have their place, reading in your natural voice can help you better connect to your characters.

5. Ask yourself – does this sound like me? If not, think about why.

How do you find your voice when writing?

Monday: a trick for writing realistic dialogue.

[Miss yesterday's post about using first person present tense to find your voice? Read it here.]