If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard the tip to read your writing out loud when editing and revising. Reading it out loud can help you hear if there are any mistakes you missed or if something just doesn’t flow right. However, there may be times when you’re not able to read your writing out loud. Maybe people are sleeping. Or maybe you’re socially awkward and there are too many people around for you to be comfortable. Maybe you’re non-verbal. Or, hey, maybe you have a roommate who has a severe migraine and the slightest sound sends them a wave of agony and pain.
It could happen.
Whatever the reason, there are times when you might need an alternative to reading out loud. Well, lucky for you, I have some!
1. Use text-to-talk speech
Though it doesn’t exactly have the flow of a human voice and might pronounce some words wrong (if you’re writing a fantasy novel, I apologize on behalf of the robot for botching up your characters’ names), this is a really good and easy way to hear your writing without actually reading it. You can probably find some programs to use if you do a quick google search, but really, you can just copy and paste your writing into Google Translate and use the speech there. Remember to have it under the same language as your writing! I didn’t check and wondered why my poem was being read in a French accent.
2. Have a friend read it
If you’d like to go for a more human approach, you could have a friend read it to you. There are a few ways to go about this, like having the friend sit there with you and read it out loud. Or you could send your writing to them through email or something and have them record themselves and send the recording back to you. Or maybe have the friend read it to you over the phone. The last two ways are useful if you don’t live near your friends *single tear*
3. Have a stranger online read it
This one is probably going to cost some money, but if none of your friends are available (*cough*oryoudonthaveany*cough*) and you still want your writing to sound human, you could hire a stranger online to read it. I’m sure you can find someone on Fiverr who can do it for you (and, with any luck, maybe it’ll only be five to ten bucks).
And done! Those are three alternatives to reading your writing out loud. Have you tried any of these methods? Did they work for you? Can you think of more alternatives? Let me know!