Reading aloud to your wife/husband/S.O.

Prawn · Oct 30, 2006

I finished my rough draft in Spetember, and have spent about a month revising it. The first revision is almost done. I have asked my wife to read it, but she wants me to read it to her aloud. Anybody ever done this? This idea rasies some questions.

Should I read it to her from a printed version or from my laptop?

Should she have a copy and follow along?

Should we stop as we go to make corrections and clarifications or should I read a chapter and then ask for feedback?

Any suggestions from those of you who have used this method would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
P

PeeDee · Oct 30, 2006

What a wonderful thread. Yes, I frequently read to my wife. Not just my stuff, I read all sorts of stuff to her; interesting poems, childrens books, books in general (Coraline by Neil Gaiman; A Christmas Carol by Dickens).

This teaches me a lot, because I start writing with an eye toward how it'll sound read out loud to her. If you write with that in your mind, you'll find tighter fiction.

How do I read to her? I have a hard copy (because it's generally my editing copy) or I use the laptop. Either way, I have my reading glasses on. She's usually in bed, I'm usually sitting next to her (in a chair, or on my side of the bed) and I just read. On a good night, I read for an hour or two before we quit. on bad nights (after long days) I read two sentences and she's asleep...

Don't read for technical details, don't drill her with questions (hem! hem!) just read for enjoyment.

Carrie in PA · Oct 30, 2006

Prawn said:
I finished my rough draft in Spetember, and have spent about a month revising it. The first revision is almost done. I have asked my wife to read it, but she wants me to read it to her aloud. Anybody ever done this? This idea rasies some questions.

Any suggestions from those of you who have used this method would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
P

I think my DH would be asleep by page 4, but I do read aloud to my cats.

My suggestions:

Should I read it to her from a printed version or from my laptop?
I would use a printed out copy. You're going to need a copy printed out anyway to edit yourself. Besides, it's more portable and easier to be snuggly while you read.

Should she have a copy and follow along?

No. If she's anything like me, she'd start reading at her own pace and not be devoting her full attention to your reading.

Should we stop as we go to make corrections and clarifications or should I read a chapter and then ask for feedback?

I'd make minor changes as you go - comma here, crossed out line there, etc. I'd also encourage her to pipe up when she catches something, because she may forget by the end of the chapter.

HTH!

cree · Oct 30, 2006

Huh. My husband is one of my beta readers, mostly because he doesn't want to be left out.

He actually has offered some great story enhancements in the past...
But I have never read aloud to him.
It's really never occurred to me. I read much of my work out loud to myself, but I do it during editing and have to pause when I catch something funky, to make a note of it. So to do that and read aloud to someone else at the same time would cause a lapse in the reading that my hub probably doesn't want to wait through. (while I mutter to myself).
For me, I think it would be too time consuming to include him on my read-throughs, and I'd rather give him a manuscript and move on to other work while he reads it at his own pace.
Interesting though.

aghast · Oct 30, 2006

reading aloud is a wonderful tool to see if it reads well and to catch errors - it takes time though and dont interrupt the reading, your spouse should have a copy and a red pen and mark down anything that doesnt feel right or typos or grammar etc but dont let him read from the page - then you can review them later

Bufty · Oct 30, 2006

I did that, too, Prawn. If she's asked you to read it - terrific. Use pages - it's easier on the eye, and keep a pencil handy. Don't give her a copy - you want her to drift off into the story.

Each time, I made sure she knew I was going to stop after x pages, or say an hour. If at that point she glanced at her watch and said there was still time to read some more - that was a good sign.

Speak CLEAR and don't rush.

Make certain she knows she can interrupt and if she does, no matter what you think, just thank her and say 'Yup, that's a good point, I've noted that and I'll check it.'

It's so very easy to become defensive - resist it.

And good luck. Enjoy - you're an actor! You'll discover a lot by reading, and observing her reactions, too. But don't stop to ask for them. Just read - there's nothing to compare with the satisfaction of realising you've read non-stop for half-an-hour or more and her eyes are closed, while she smiles or laughs or nods or whatever.

One odd thing I spotted while reading - I could easily omit/add or alter something and make a rapid scribble or X mark without disturbing the flow of the reading. Several times I realised a pronoun wasn't clear and substituted the proper name.

PeeDee · Oct 30, 2006

Mostly, just have fun with it. They're not going to kill you, they're probably safer than an audience of fifty people. Enjoy reading your work. Can I say it again? HAVE FUN. If you're being defensive and reading-to-work-on-your-story then you're going to be miserable and so are they.

I do voices, I do accents, I let myself get completely lost in the story so that if there are exciting bits, I'm excited to be reading them, and it comes across in how I read it. Just have fun, please. Let the prickly-*** writer take a breather.

Amiton · Oct 30, 2006

I don't read to my wife out loud, but it's mostly because she won't sit still for that long. She's reading my ms at her own pace (which means that she either won't finish it or I'll be waiting at least two years), but that's okay!

I would definitely recommend reading the text out loud, and if you can have a willing listener then go for it. I'd also say that using a hard copy is easier, so you can annotate changes on the fly. All opinion, of course.

Amiton.

PeeDee · Oct 30, 2006

Go to a park, or somewhere outdoors to read, too. It helps, because while you may get lost in your story, there's a whole world full of stuff happening around you that you have to pay attention to.

The important thing, I think, is to keep very strongly grounded in the world around you. To make yourself as much an outsider as possible.

icerose · Oct 30, 2006

When I was on the editing grind, I read it aloud to my husband. I read it from a hard copy where I could make notes, on the computer would work just fine because you could change it as you went. Then anything he found was awkward or didn't make sense he would chime in. It helped a lot. He doesn't want it to be a common occurance as it isn't his thing, but he was gracious enough to do it.

ChaosTitan · Oct 30, 2006

I don't particularly like the sound of my own voice, so if I'm reading out loud to anything, it'll be the wall.

Or the cats. As long as they are fed on time, they don't complain.

Shadow_Ferret · Oct 30, 2006

I hate reading aloud. I can't stand the sound of my own voice.

oswann · Oct 30, 2006

My wife speaks French. She thinks English sounds like cats being strangled. Pfffft the French.

Os.

Pisarz · Oct 30, 2006

I've also read aloud to my husband from a hard copy. I find that it's very beneficial because I'm able to pick up errors or awkward phrasing that I would probably gloss over on the monitor. My husband also finds it useful, as he can concentrate on the sound of the words.

See what works for the two of you--good luck!

LeeFlower · Oct 30, 2006

I read aloud to friends during road trips. I find it very helpful. Reading your work aloud is just a good idea in general, because it forces you to look at what it actually says versus how you're perceiving it.

It's also nice because most of the people I end up reading it to are also my betas. When they read the written work, I get very useful commentary, but it's often general: "dialogue is good;" "forshadowing slightly heavy-handed in places;" etc. When I read aloud, they tend to interrupt me mid-read with specific comments like "ooh, that was a good burn..." and "THWACK! That was the sound of you hitting the reader upside the head with a two-by-forshadowing." I can use that to mark down the specific lines that need improvement. I can also mark down their unintentional feedback, like where they laugh and where they ask me to go back and repeat something, neither of which I get from written comments.

I just read off my laptop, usually. I tried the print-copy thing, but it slowed me way down.

PeeDee · Oct 30, 2006

LeeFlower said:
"THWACK! That was the sound of you hitting the reader upside the head with a two-by-forshadowing."

Tracy · Oct 30, 2006

I've never done this, but will in future. What a brilliant idea! Thanks so much for that.

I just have to break the news to my DH that he'll have to sit through this.

I know, I could say, "Darling, let's talk about our feelings, hmm, and our relationship. On second thoughts, would you like to listen to my novel?" That'd work, no doubt.

and LeeFlower - LOVE the reference to the 'two-by-foreshadowing'!!

PeeDee · Oct 30, 2006

Tracy said:
I know, I could say, "Darling, let's talk about our feelings, hmm, and our relationship. On second thoughts, would you like to listen to my novel?" That'd work, no doubt.

That'll definitely work. It gave me hives from way over here...

Thomma Lyn · Oct 30, 2006

Prawn said:
I have asked my wife to read it, but she wants me to read it to her aloud. Anybody ever done this?

Yup. I've done it with each of my books. My husband heard all the revisions of my first novel (trunk novel). These days, though, I read him only the (near) final versions of my books.

Should I read it to her from a printed version or from my laptop?

I read from a printed version, red pen in hand. You'll catch things on hard copy that you missed reading on the computer screen.

Should she have a copy and follow along?

Nah... IMHO, it's better that she focus on listening instead of dividing her attention between listening and reading.

Should we stop as we go to make corrections and clarifications or should I read a chapter and then ask for feedback?

Do both. If there are things she needs clarified immediately, make a note on your hard copy with your red pen. And every time you finish a chapter, ask her for her overall impression.

Good luck! Hubby and I have a lot of fun with this.

Thomma Lyn · Oct 30, 2006

PeeDee said:
I do voices, I do accents, I let myself get completely lost in the story so that if there are exciting bits, I'm excited to be reading them, and it comes across in how I read it. Just have fun, please. Let the prickly-*** writer take a breather.

Yes, excellent advice! I do the same thing with the accents -- I vocally act the story out. Great fun for both hubby and me.

Reading aloud to your wife/husband/S.O.

Prawn

Writing is finite,revising infinite

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Carrie in PA

Write All The Words!

cree

aghast

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Amiton

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

icerose

Lost in School Work

ChaosTitan

Around

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

oswann

Grumpy

Pisarz

LeeFlower

Lurker Extraordinaire

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Tracy

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Thomma Lyn

Cat Wrangler

Thomma Lyn

Cat Wrangler