Per Amy's suggestion, I've been reading my latest manuscript out loud to myself, and DANG there are a lot of typos. I also abuse certain words. Without plopping the whole text into Wordle.net, I predict that my most common offenders are:
"Even"
"Totally"
"That"
"Ever"
How embarrassing! I'm purging my text of unnecessary qualifiers. I definitely recommend reading your work out loud because you really don't catch the same problems when skimming or reading silently. It's a bit tough and awkward at first, but worth it.
On the plus side, by the time I send it along to my agent it'll be in cleaner shape.
My voice will also be hoarse.
I have a problem with "definitely," so I understand. I like reading aloud too. Sometimes I'll make my husband read my MS aloud to me and that's the best, because he'll stumble over sentences I thought were clear and I'll know I have to make changes.
ReplyDeleteI cringe when I read my work aloud, but it does help! And I like Natalie's idea of having someone else read it to you. I'd probably cringe even more, but it'd be worth it.
ReplyDeleteThat is my word...I read out loud all of the time, but years of reading out loud to kids makes it feel natural. Once you've identified you have a "that" problem it's easier to catch yourself in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt's no wonder I had typos galore in my marketing course. I'm going to go back and reread it. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteLou, I never would have believed that reading aloud would make a difference until I tried it. Thanks for commenting and I hope this technique works for you like it did for me :)
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