I love when children read their books to me. They admire the pictures, add their opinions, and point at what stands out on the page for them. If they stumble over a word – they either take a stab at it or ask for help. And then on one sad day, kids stop reading out loud. But when you write – you need your inner kid to read your writing out loud!

When did you stop reading out loud? I know it isn’t polite to read out loud on the subway, bus or in a car as people may think you’re rude (although I did read James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small to my sister on an eight hour road trip once. She kept begging for another story. Did I mention we were both in our 20s??)

A writing tip you need to do TODAY?

Read your writing out loud.

When we’ve worked on a piece of writing for a while – it starts to blend and we become accustomed to our own words. But that isn’t helpful for editing.

So read your writing out loud. Read at the pace you intended when you wrote it.

Does it feel rushed? Wordy? Do you take a run at the reader with a 1/2 ton punctuation free truck or are there are too many p’s popping in a sentence?

Read out loud and you’ll catch a bunch of slippery little mistakes. And you’ll also hear the stuff that shines.

Thought I’d point it out to you, kid.

*Did you love this? Then check out Scribbly – my quirky writing program that we snail-mail right to your house. We have Scribbly writers reading out loud in three countries. WOOT!