Read your draft aloud

Most of us read our own pages too quickly. We know what we meant, so the eye slides over the places where the sentence says something slightly different. Reading aloud slows you down, and it moves the work from your eye to your ear.

You do not need to perform it. Read at an ordinary pace, in a quiet room, and mark the page whenever you stumble.

What to listen for

• Places where you run out of breath. Often a sentence is carrying more than it should.
• Words or sounds that repeat close together, a habit that is nearly invisible on the page.
• Dialogue that nobody would say. If you cannot say it comfortably, a character probably would not either.
• Sections where your attention drifts. If you are bored reading it, a reader may be too.

Make it easier

Change how the text looks before you read. A different font, a printed copy, or a different device is enough to make familiar sentences look new again. Work in short stretches, a scene or a few pages at a time, and keep a pencil in your hand.

Do not fix everything on the first pass. Mark the problem, keep going, and come back to the marks later. Reading aloud finds the trouble spots; the revising is a separate job.

A small next step

Choose one page you think is finished. Read it aloud tomorrow morning, then change one thing. That is usually enough to show you why the habit is worth keeping.