This is also true of most story structure and character “rules” you learn after they tell you there…
I’ve noticed a lot of people advise writers to read their stories aloud. And I absolutely agree. But I’ve also mostly seen people mention it in like a ’you’ll better notice where there are little mistakes, and where the phrasing is awkward’ way. Which, again, is absolutely true.But that’s a ‘read the story aloud to see what’s wrong with it’ advice.
And I think there’s maybe an even more important reason to read your fic aloud.
It will show you all the things that are RIGHT about your story.Because there inevitably comes a point where you’ve read your own story in your head so many times that all the words are a bland mush that will leave you convinced that there’s absolutely nothing interesting or good in your writing.
And if you go back to it many months later, you might realize… oh, this is a pretty interesting fic. And that’s because the brain has had time to forget every tiny detail of phrasing you came up with, and you can actually read it like a reader, not the author.
But that road takes months, and until then, you might be inherently convinced that the story is literally the absolute worst thing you’ve ever written.
But… WHEN YOU READ ALOUD, you automatically start giving the words inflection, inflection that, when you’re reading something that you haven’t written yourself, you kind of hear even when reading quietly. But for your own story, all that inflection and weight has been sucked out by way too many rereads while you were looking for grammatical errors. The fastest way to be able to see it again? To hear it.
Anyway, read aloud to defeat the monster on your shoulder telling you your writing sucks.
This is also true of most story structure and character “rules” you learn after they tell you there are no rules. There’s not much need to make sure you have Plot Point A or Midpoint Reversal or Character Change at Act 3 etc when you write (unless you’re doing a very specific kind of mainstream script or story), but if you look over all that stuff and see if you happened to match up to the conventional wisdom, it can give you hints about what you nailed in a way most readers might resonate with.
Don’t be obedient to such rules, but note when you happen to have mastered them accidentally. It will not only help you see why some people swear by them, but know when to break them and why.
