"Read. Your. Shit. Out. Loud." Quothe the Wendigo.

[Paynesgrey]

Chuck Wendig was preaching some straight up gospel when he advised printing and then reading your work out loud.  I could have saved my betas sooooo much needless work if I'd been doing so from day one.

You spot not just clunky, unnatural language, but typoooos two.  I think what happens when we read silently to ourselves is that our brain's will auto-correct for us, skimming over the missing words or wrong words to focus on the meaning.  But when you read your material aloud, you're bringing more parts of your brain into play, to convert thought to speech. 

Also, I had a number of lines in this last bit that just didn't quite sing.  Not clunky, not bad, just not great.  But when I was doing an actual reading, better ways of saying them just tumbled right out of my mouth.

So. 

Read.  Your.  Shit.  Out.  Loud. 

You'll be amazed at the mistakes you find, the improvements you'll make. 

And I cannot recommend strongly enough his blogs on writing or his books, which are compilations of his writing blogs with additional thoughts, notes, sarcasm, vulgarity, and tequila thrown in.

[OZ]

I have always thought this was a good idea even on something as simple as a report in school. It makes even more sense for something meant to be read by others and if popular enough read out loud for audio versions.

Where are these blogs? Are they already listed in one of our writers' help threads and I have overlooked them?

[Paynesgrey]

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/

That's his main blog.  He is NSFW, btw.  Nor healthy for children, flowers, or other growing things. 

Thing is, he's a prolific blogger, and his writing advice is scattered all through his blog.  I'd suggest grabbing 1 of his books as a download.  They're cheap, and so you'll be able to see if you think they'll be of use to you.

I've found he says a lot of stuff I knew already, but didn't realize the importance of, a lot of stuff I "knew", but didn't really understand.  He's got a way of pointing things out that makes you slap your head and say "D'oh!" a lot, of making you sit back and analyze why this or that worked so well, and something else you tried or read didn't.  But you will come across phrases like "a meth-laced acid tripping ride in a bucket of flaming rhino semen" with terrifying regularity. 

I've found that the he, along with Jim's blog on writing, and Brandon Sanderson's writing workshop podcast have been a great help to me.  Kind of like that first art teacher who explained the importance of seeing not simply the entire object that I was to draw, but the lines that made it up, negative space, shadows and such... understanding each component. 

[Paynesgrey]

His "250 Things You  Should Know About Writing" is a handy one, only $.99 so if you want a taste, that's a low-risk option.  Many of these items'll be "Well, duh!", yet still serve as a good reminder.  Kind of like when you know you shifted your weight wrong, and your judo instructor tosses you anyway just to make sure you really understand exactly what you did wrong...

[Dresdenus Prime]

His "250 Things You  Should Know About Writing" is a handy one, only $.99 so if you want a taste, that's a low-risk option.  Many of these items'll be "Well, duh!", yet still serve as a good reminder.  Kind of like when you know you shifted your weight wrong, and your judo instructor tosses you anyway just to make sure you really understand exactly what you did wrong...

I have this book, and I must say that not only is it informative, it's pretty funny at times too! 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

This is great advice if what you're trying to do is something that works read aloud in the first place, which is only mostly true.  Not everything that written text can do, or that is worth doing in written text, translates directly into something that can be read aloud.

Short-form example:

There was an old man
From Peru, whose lim'ricks all
Look'd like haiku.  He

Said with a laugh "I
Cut them in half, the pay is
Much better for two."

Read that aloud and hardly anyone sees the point.  Show someone it written down and it's a sight more obvious.

[Paynesgrey]

Understood, but there's always going to be something specialized that the process doesn't help.  For prose and dialogue though, it's done a great deal to help me out. 

Mileage may vary, I guess.   

[Shecky]

Yup. Nothing is 100%, but you use what you can when appropriate and useful.

[DominicJ]

Also
Read drunk

It wont help you check for errors, but its so much fun 

[LizW65]

Sound advice (pun intended) especially for dialogue.

[OZ]

Thanks. I'll check out the 250 things.

[Torvaldr]

Very sound advice. As a professional story teller nearly all my work is meant to be spoken out loud. And many of my stories were created without ever having been written down. Now I am having to work opposite of my normal routine, but I still stop and read what I have written out loud to see how it rolls off the tongue. If you can't speak it, re-write it.

[meg_evonne]

His "250 Things You  Should Know About Writing" is a handy one, only $.99 so if you want a taste, that's a low-risk option.  Many of these items'll be "Well, duh!", yet still serve as a good reminder.  Kind of like when you know you shifted your weight wrong, and your judo instructor tosses you anyway just to make sure you really understand exactly what you did wrong...

Just bought. Thanks for the rec.  And yes to read. your. shit. out. loud.  Too easily overlooked. Even better is to record it and listen to it. You'll groan so often that you'll toss the recorder out the window.

[meg_evonne]

Just bought. Thanks for the rec.  And yes to read. your. shit. out. loud.  Too easily overlooked. Even better is to record it and listen to it. You'll groan so often that you'll toss the recorder out the window.

bought it. Love it. Wanna calendar. . . I want a tear off the days type calender.

[Bones]

I just bought it. And since "500 Ways to Tell a Better Story" was only $2.99, I got that too. I'm such a soft sell.