Now, after an inital edit, followed by spelling and grammar checks, it is time for me to listen to the novel. I’ve done this on all my works and it’s helped out quite a bit. Other writers read the text aloud, and I’ve tried that. But talking constantly for hours on end is something I never do. I’m quiet. As a result, I don’t have the voice for extended reading. (Does this sound like rationalization to you? Me too.)
What I have found that works for me is to run my manuscript through a program called books2burn, which splits the text into chapters and then uses the Mac’s speak text function to create an audio file for each. I then listen to each, while following along in the manuscript, changing the text whenever I hear something horrible. It’s surprising how often that happens, even in edited and re-checked text.
Here is a sample, a little less than three minutes from the end of chapter 1.