100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019

Read your work out loud
Seven ways to edit yourself

Before you turn in anything you have written—whether to a teacher or an editor—read aloud every word.

Often when you write and rewrite and constantly rearrange information, your ear for the sound of the writing becomes corrupted. Reading out loud will return to you the true sound of your story. You will hear the sour note of the word that’s “just not right,” and the drastic changes in tone will cry out to you for editing. You’ll notice that you are breathless at the end of one long sentence, and you will know that you must break it up into two or three. Listen for the music, variety, and emphasis of your sentences. You will discover that some of them are confusing and need a word added or removed for clarity’s sake. And you will see that a sentence like “Who knew that Lou cued Sue, too?” might not look funny, but it sure makes a funny and distracting noise in the reader’s head.