Editing Tip #1: Text To Speech - Distant Words Publishing

This will probably be the single best piece of advice I will ever give to any writer, and it's advice that I will repeat over and over until the day I die. When editing your own writing, have a device of some kind read it back to you using 'Text To Speech' while you follow along.

Editing in and of itself is typically hard for most people (to some extent at least). Our brains have an almost sub-conscious 'auto-correct' feature built right-in that tends to alter everything we read. As long as the writing is close enough to what it's supposed to be, our brains will fill in any blanks, or make basic corrections as we read. It becomes even worse when editing our own work because not only do we have this subconscious level auto-correct running, but we also have a fully conscious-level filter running on top; as the ones who wrote the piece in the first place, we already know what we were trying to say.

This makes it extremely difficult to not only edit other people's work, but our own especially. So having a computer reading your own work back to you can be un-measurably helpful.

A computer isn't going to apply any level of auto-correct with anything it reads; it will simply read what is written, as it's written. And hearing incorrect grammar or sentence structure when it's being spoken to you is almost impossible to miss.

Unfortunately this will not solve every self-editing problem, and it will come with its own limitations/issues. First and foremost, it will not recognize where you use the wrong word that happens to be pronounced the same or similar to what you intended; think along the lines of manner vs manor. Computers also have different ways of pronouncing words it does not recognize in the first place; like if you make up a name of a person or a place.

There are also words with the same spelling as another word, but pronounced differently. Read and read for example, or live and live. Even YOU didn't know what I meant there, and neither will the computer. Sometimes it just chooses one pronunciation, and it chooses wrong.

I've also had issues of inconsistency with stops and pauses due to punctuation or even simply moving to a new line, and I don't mean a hard return; sometimes simple word-wrap can cause the robo-voice to stutter (and for me at least, that can get annoying).

I've also been finding the robo-reader making some stupid assumptions on words that also act as abbreviations; on this piece specifically, it turned 'miss' into Mississippi for crying out loud. I don't know whether to laugh, cry or just throw my laptop across the room when that happens. Ok, that was a lie; I simply roll my eyes and move on, but still...

You also do have to pay attention while that monotonous robo-voice is droning on and on; seriously, pay attention!

However, even with these limitations, using 'Text To Speech' has helped me in ways that I can never fully express. And I am sure it can help any writer out there, no matter how fresh or seasoned they may be.

And the good news is that Text To Speech is actually fairly well integrated into today's technology, so you really shouldn't have to go very far to start. I myself use LibreOffice for my word processor, and it has a built-in 'Export To PDF' options. Then opening that in Microsoft Edge, 'Read Aloud' is one of its built-in options (that's literally the only time I even use Edge).

From what I understand, most devices these days have at least some level of Text To Speech built-in. Simply do an internet search using your favorite search engine, and you should be able to find a simple way to get started.

I hope that this helps, and happy editing!