Reading it out loud

This week I've been performing yet another of my stories with spoken word group T'Articulation, and it's got me thinking about the value of reading work aloud.

I've always done that at the last stage of editing my novels and short stories.  Reading a whole novel our loud is hard work, and often results in me nearly losing my voice.  But the benefits gained from it far outweigh that inconvenience.

Reading work out loud allows me to see where I've missed repeated words close together like. It's easy to skim past these when reading silently, but they stand out when you're reading aloud.  Your ear instantly hears the repeat.  And reading aloud shows you the third rhythm of your sentences too.  When they don't flow, that's revealed by reading out loud.

It also helps me to check the pacing of my story too.  If I have a suspicion that a chapter is too slow-paced, reading it out loud will soon reveal where that suspicion is true.

I started reading stories with T'Articulation because I needed experience of performing my work.  I had a decade's experience of teaching creative writing, but that is a very different experience.  That's about the measured delivery of facts and ideas.  Being a good creative writing teacher isn't so much about expressing emotions.

But that's often what's involved in reading out my own work. As a quiet introvert, my emotions are felt quietly too, so I will never be a performer full of sound and fury.  But I don't believe that's necessary to be a good spoken word performer.  Sometimes sound and fury can mask a mediocre piece of work.  With a quiet delivery, people have time to absorb my words.

I've  had people come up to me after these readings and say how much they liked my story.  That's valuable feedback for me.  Submitting into the publishing void, I rarely get useful feedback on my work.

And experience of performing spoken word helps with the bigger events too.  My next appearance will be at Portsmouth Bookfest, where I'll be giving a talk to a large lecture room full of people. My talk is about keeping going with submissions when nobody wants to read your work.  My storytelling experience will be combined with lecturing there, a perfect marriage of ideas and experience.