Here’s a writing tip that has worked for me:

Try reading your work out loud.  Having an actual listener is even better, but if this is not practical, pretend you are the listener as well as the reader.  Why is this beneficial? 

First, reading aloud allows you to claim your voice as yours.  Not only your words, but your voice.  Second, and somewhat paradoxically, it allows you to let your voice go free.  Those words no longer belong to you – you have let them go out in the world, to whoever is listening, to do their own work.  You no longer need be attached to them, they no longer have to weigh you down. And third, the practical reason for reading your work aloud is that you will find the mistakes that your eyes miss when you read to yourself. You wrote this stuff and you know what it’s supposed to say, so that’s what you read. But when you get your mouth involved, your eyes sharpen.  I don’t know why this happens, but it’s true.

Words are meant to be heard. That is their original, ancient function.  Give them back their roots.

I sometimes share writing tips that have worked for me or my clients/students. Do you have a writing tip you’d like to share?  If so, leave a comment here.  You might win something!  At the end of each month  I’ll gather up the “Writing Tip” comments from the month and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing one of my e-books: your choice of “How to WOW Your Readers” or “You Can Be An Author, Even If You’re Not a Writer.”

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