REWRITING? READ IT ALOUD!
By Nancy Marie
It's been said that the writing process is about 25 percent
creative work and about seventy-five percent plain hard work. Of that
old-fashioned hard work percentage almost all of that time is spent on something
most writers hate, rewriting. It has become a hated part of most writers
vocabulary but unfortunately good rewriting skills are as necessary if not more
necessary than the creative skills most writers strive to enhance.
Noah Lukeman, in his book THE FIRST FIVE PAGES, published by
Simeon & Schuster, copyright 2000, ISBN 0-684-85743 has an even bleaker
assessment of the creative/rework process. "There is no such thing as a
great writer; there are only great re-writers. As you've heard before, 90
percent of writing is rewriting," writes Lukeman. If this analysis of the
writing process is correct then most writers are faced with the dilemma of
spending long, dismal hours reworking their manuscripts until they reach the
point where if they have to look at it one more time they are going to throw-up.
But there is a solution. Read it aloud.
There are, perhaps, many reasons why this technique is
overlooked and forgotten. No one wants to hear their spouse say, "She's
talking to the walls. I think this time she's really lost it." Or,
"Haven't you learned to read silently, yet?" For similar reasons, it's
not exactly something you want to do in public. It would prove to be quite
uncomfortable to sit in a restaurant reading your manuscript aloud while diners
and waiters look at you askance and wonder if they should call the paramedics.
Reading your manuscript aloud, also eats time, lots of time, but in the long run
it will prove to be time well spent.
In this technological age many writers have come to depend on
their computers to do their rewriting and editing for them. Spell-checkers and
grammar checkers need only a push of the button, and Presto-Chango, it's all
fixed, right? Wrong? Computerized editing tools are only as smart as the person
pushing the button, and sometimes that is not very smart. Spell-checkers
routinely miss homonyms and grammar checkers, while grammatically correct, can
not tell the writer when a sentence sounds awkward. But the human ear can and
does.
There is a good reason why reading it aloud catches things the
eye misses, and that reason is time. It works like this: the eye sees an image
and sends it to the brain where the writer's little gray cells interpret the
information. However, when information is read aloud a whole series of more
complicated steps are needed before the information is processed back to the
ear. The words are conveyed to the larynx, the voice box, the tongue, the lips,
and finally ear hears what is written. In addition, the words are exposed to the
brain twice during the enunciation and listening procedure. Once by sight and
once by hearing. This double exposure almost guarantees that homonyms and typos
are spotted. It is amazing what the eye does not see, how writers' brains will
see what is supposed to be there rather than what is actually there. This
becomes especially true when you've reread the same material ten times and are
getting reading to read it for the eleventh time.
Catching homonyms and typos, however, is not the greatest
advantage reading your manuscripts aloud has to offer. The most significant
contribution reading your manuscript aloud makes to the rewriting process is
that of finding awkward sentences, unnecessary words, and pointing out the
dreaded prepositional phrase. If your tongue stumbles over a sentence, if it
automatically wants to stop speaking at a particular place in the sentence, or
if your mind stops listening before you get to the end of a sentence, then you
know that your ear has heard something your computer and your eyes didn't catch.
For example, in my most recent novel BENJAMIN'S BRIDE, I found
the following sentence as I was reading it aloud. "He folded inward as
three of his ribs cracked beneath the blow." My tongue automatically
began to twist and turn as I read this sentence and my ear groaned with
displeasure. The words, "beneath the blow" although grammatically
correct were a dreaded prepositional phrase and were unnecessary as I had
already described the actions taking place in the previous scene.. I
immediately rewrote the sentence to read, "He folded inward as three of
his ribs cracked," pleasing both my aching ears and hopefully my readers.
Thus by reading my manuscript aloud, I caught both a prepositional phrase and
several unnecessary words.
Sometimes, a sentence can be both grammatically correct and
contain no prepositional phrases and still sound awkward. Take this sentence
from BENJAMIN'S BRIDE, for instance. "The satisfied gleam in his eyes,
however, was quickly replaced by a look of horror as his gaze landed on the
helpless form of the sharpshooter, now nearly lifeless in Father Jacob's
arms." It is correct, but it is also lengthy and awkward. As I read it
aloud, my mind was already asking me, "Isn't this sentence ever going to
end?" In addition, it uses a passive voice, another writing no-no.
I wouldn't have discovered its awkwardness with a computerized
grammar-checker. I did, however, discover it when my tongue was forced to go
on, and on, and on. I rewrote the sentence to read like this. "A look of
horror quickly replaced the satisfied look in Casey's eyes as his gaze fell on
the sharpshooter's nearly lifeless body." By reading it aloud I was able
to eliminate ten words and change the sentence's passive voice to an active
one.
Reading your manuscripts aloud does not require any unique
tools, a simple pen will suffice. It does require time and it also requires
paying attention to what you are reading. You must focus your mind on the
words written on the page rather than the words you thought you wrote or the
message you think your words are conveying.
Sol Stein, who has edited the works of James Baldwin, Elia
Kazan, and Daniel Keyes, author of FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON, uses reading aloud as
a teaching technique in his university-level writing classes. Stein, who is
also the author of nine novels and numerous books on the craft of writing,
instructs his students to read their work aloud in a single monotone voice
devoid of dramatic emphasis. This, he believes, forces the reader to focus his
attention on the words as they are actually written rather than the message
the words are trying to convey. The ear is forced to pay attention to only the
written words when they are not underscored by theatrical devices. For
example, "Help! she cried," becomes "Help, she cried" when
spoken in a voice devoid of dramatics. Thus the ear hears only what is written
and not the desperate plea for assistance.
Although, reading your manuscript aloud is a time consuming
and sometimes embarrassing procedure, I have found it to be an essential tool
in my rewriting process. In addition, I have also found that, in the long-run,
the time spent reading my manuscripts aloud, saves me valuable writing time as
the errors my eyes miss by ears surely hear, thus avoiding yet another
rewrite.
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