I've heard it said that you should read your work out loud at least once during the editing process. It helps to catch repetitive sounds, over-used words, awkward or overlong sentences, etc. I'd never tried it until today, but I'm finding I like this technique.
One reason for reading aloud that I haven't heard discussed is the fact that it slows you down and forces you to focus on each word throughout the story, beginning to end. I think I have a bad habit when rereading my work of just going too fast. I know what happens, so my eyes start skimming over the passages and I lose track of what it is I'm supposed to be editing. Speaking the words makes me pace myself and give just as much attention to chapter 12 as I gave to chapter 2.
There's an unexpected downside to reading a 79K word book out loud, though. At least for a heavily introverted person such as myself. My voice isn't used to talking this much! I'm barely halfway through and my throat is incredibly sore. I've had two cups of tea, two cups of coffee, and a bunch of water, but nothing has managed to soothe my throat enough that I can continue for the day.
*sigh*
I'll probably have to save the other half of the book for tomorrow, or risk losing my voice for a week. I wouldn't mind losing my voice if I didn't happen to have a day-job that requires human interaction. No one at the office knows I'm trying to get published, and I'd like to keep it that way for now. Explaining that I lost my voice from editing my manuscript will lead to a conversation I'm not ready for. Though, that's a post for another day.
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