Writing and Reading

I'm not talking here about the kind of reading that you do as a writer. I'm talking about what your third-grade teacher would have called "reading aloud." I have a special place in my heart for reading aloud and do it every chance that I get. If I'm at a party where there are children present, I'll sit down and read them a book. That way I'm doing something I love, interacting with the most-ignored party guests and avoiding the grownups who are normally more boring anyway. I volunteer to read my work at open mic events and workshops. When I get the chance to read on the radio or on someone else's podcast I'll take it.

You should seriously considering working more reading aloud into your routine as a writer, and I'll tell you why.

Here are my Top 5 Reasons to Read Aloud:

1. Reading your work-in-progress alound is the best way to find where it needs tightening up or smoothing out. If, as you're reading, the words don't flow easily from your mouth - if you find yourself correcting the words on the page to what your mouth thinks they should be - you've found a place in your writing that needs editing. You might find that even as you're reading, your attention is drifting. There's another spot that needs editing.

2. Reading to others (especially others who are significantly shorter than you) helps invest them in reading. Both my children are now avid readers, and they came by it honestly. I have a three-pronged approach: we have no television at our house (we live in the mountains without television reception and don't have cable), I read for pleasure and so have mountains of books and magazines of all descriptions littering the house, and lastly, I read to my children every day. Bedtime's sacred ritual is snuggling up and playing "You read to me and I'll read to you." The more children love to read, the more adult readers there will be later.

3. Reading your work on a podcast opens up an entirely new audience. I would never have "read" Moby Dick, War and Peace, The Iliad or any of the other weighty classics if not for audio books. My commute is pretty huge, and it's great to know that I'm not just wasting an entire hour - I'm spending it wisely by investing it in great literature. You can do that with your own work. If you record yourself and offer it up as a podcast, those people who normally don't have the time to sit down with a paper book or magazine will suddenly be able to listen to your work while they jog or do the dishes or drive to work.

4. Reading aloud gives you the opportunity to be the actor you've always wanted to be. Or the mug, the clown, the goofball, the Victor Borge, whatever. When you read, even if you're only reading to yourself, invest in the voices. See how giving each character its distinctive voice lends nuance and richness to a reading. Be loud! Be expressive! And don't forget to bow once you've finished reading.

5. Nobody can tell your story like you can. Have you ever heard David Sedaris misread a word? Probably not. Because he's not cold reading words that he's never seen before, or memorizing lines. He's giving voice to the story he gave birth to - putting the emphasis where he heard it in his mind as he wrote it. It's the same with all authors who read their own work aloud. Every time I've listened to an audio book, if the author doesn't read his own work, there are always errors. They're mostly small, but they pull me out of the flow of the story and make me remember that it's all an illusion. But when the author him/herself is reading, I'm caught up in the flow of the thing and listening to the story the way the author heard it while it was being written. It's an amazing thing.

The next time you're sitting somewhere in public with a book in your hand, put your mouth where your words are. Read your book out loud. Someone will listen, and be happy.