Reading aloud is so important that I’ve gathered some writing quotes about it to inspire us all to take advantage of this helpful writing tool:
“The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.”
Robert Frost
“Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken.”
C. S. Lewis
“Ever since I was first read to, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn’t ‘hear.’ As my eyes followed the sentence, a voice was saying it silently to me. It isn’t my mother’s voice, or the voice of any person I can identify, certainly not my own. It is human, but inward, and it is inwardly that I listen to it. It is to me the voice of the story or the poem itself . . . .”
“My own words, when I am at work on a story, I hear too as they go, in the same voice that I hear when I read in books. When I write and the sound of it comes back to my ears, then I act to make changes. I have always trusted this voice.”
Eudora Welty
“I still read everything aloud. I have a fundamental conviction that if a sentence cannot be read aloud with sincerity, conviction, and communicable emphasis, it’s not a good sentence. Good writing requires good rhythms and good words.”
Richard Marius
“Every book should have its own voice — what you hear in your head as you read to yourself.”
Mary Lee Settle
One easy way to use reading aloud to improve your writing is to make a recording on your phone or with a tape recorder as you read part of a draft aloud yourself or ask a friend to read it for you. You can learn a lot if you have a “recording session” with a reader because you’re standing outside your work listening to it. That sense of distance can be so helpful and revealing! Ideas to ponder and apply as we all write on!
