Reading Your Work Out Loud
A common approach to editing is to read your work out loud. Many people believe this is one of the most critical steps in the editing process because you will hear awkward sentences, repetitions, grammatical mistakes, and more easier than if you were reading in your head. However, I’ve found a major flaw in this approach—at least a major flaw for me, personally.
When I read anything I’m familiar with, whether it’s out loud or in my head, I tend to read what I meant, not what is on the page. So, when reading out loud, I might catch a few issues, but more often than not, I will end up reading my story the way I meant for it to sound and I will even insert words or fix grammar without realizing it as I read. Because of this, reading out loud hasn’t been as helpful for me as I think it should be.
Luckily, while browsing Threads, I found several posts from authors who recommended using Microsoft Word’s read-out-loud feature. This feature uses simple AI to read the words on the page. The problem is that the AI is so simple that its reading is robotic. When the reading is robotic, you can’t possibly pick up on whether your writing sounds awkward or if the robot reading it just sounds awkward. I liked the idea of someone else reading my work to me though. I had a suspicion that it would allow me to pick out issues much easier than if I read it myself.
So, I started looking for better text-to-speech tools. Unlike the modern generative AI craze, text-to-speech is one of the older uses of AI. And because it’s been around for a long time, I figured there were good tools that would create more natural-sounding reading.
Through my search, I came across Speechify. The technology was developed to help people with dyslexia and ADHD have a better reading experience. It was then expanded to more general use cases. Because of its initial focus on helping those with neurodivergent conditions, I believe the quality is significantly better than most tools on the market. With that quality, though, comes a price. Speechify is not cheap. At $29 a month, it might not be a tool many writers want to pay for, but I wanted to give it a shot.
I subscribed and downloaded the macOS app and the iOS app. There are simple keyboard commands that allow you to have any text read to you when using the desktop version of the app, and that’s what I used the most. I opened my manuscript in Google Docs and highlighted the text in the first chapter. I chose the voice I wanted to use for reading and the speed of the reading. And then I hit play.
While it’s not perfect, Speechify reads in such a natural way that it feels nearly like an audiobook. This means I was able to find issues with my manuscript much easier. When someone is reading something naturally, any unnatural flow in your writing will be obvious. This is especially true of dialogue. Speechify doesn’t always read the dialogue with the right intonation, but it’s close enough to get a sense of whether or not your dialogue works.
I just finished having Speechify read my entire novel to me as I edited along the way. It absolutely helped me improve the book in ways I couldn’t have done on my own. That means, even at $29 a month, this is a tool I’m keeping in my writer’s toolbox. I highly recommend it if it’s something you can afford.