Pro tip: That thing about reading character dialogue out loud actually works

I heard an audiobook narrator give a talk at my local library last month. She said she reads every character's lines out loud before recording to catch clunky phrasing. Figured I'd try it with our book club pick for March - it's a thriller with way too many similar sounding names. Read the first 3 chapters out loud and realized two characters basically say the same thing in every scene. Has anyone else tried this for spotting weak dialogue?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_diana6d agoRising Star

Doesn't it feel like everyone's repeating themselves lately, not just in books?

patricia5585d ago

I get what you're saying but reading out loud helped me catch things I never noticed on the page... It's not about everyone repeating themselves, it's about how the same words sound when you actually say them. My book club ended up cutting a whole scene because it sounded fake when we read it aloud.

adamthompson6d ago

My buddy tried this and caught his hero using the same catchphrase in every scene.