so, in case anyone was wondering if it is weird to read your blog out loud, it is. it's one thing to write something and in your head to make it sound good; but reading it out loud makes it sound about an inch deep and as comprehensive as a post-it note. all my efforts, all that listening to NPR radio voices and i can't do a decent reading of a personal essay in my living room. an aspiring blogger - not an easy job. not as easy as it looks, people.
so my question is: does something have to sound good out loud to be a good bit of writing? because i'm wondering that if it only has the dimension of sounding good in one's mind, but not aloud, then perhaps i need to rethink my composition strategies. because right now it feels like that incredibly uncomfortable feeling of hearing a recording of your voice on a tape your mom recorded and you run from the room yelling "ew! that can't be me!"
3 comments:
i'm going to be honest... i don't think that a piece of writing has to sound as great when read aloud than when read in your head. i mean, take someone like dickens for instance. amazing writing, but very verbose, very dense. in my opinion it loses some of its magic when it's read aloud. but maybe that's just me.
I don't think it necessarily has to sound good out loud to be good writing. Good oratory should sound good out loud (and so should podcasts, even though many don't), but I think good writing mainly needs to sound good on paper. That's not to say that I think my writing always meets those qualifications; a lot of my writing that I think is great when I write it doesn't sound at all as good when I reread it, even if I don't read it out loud.
But don't be discouraged! Your blog is a good read (and I don't read it out loud anyway). It's more worthwhile to read than a lot of other stuff out there. By the way, what do you think about the phenomenon of hearing your voice on a tape that you mentioned? I know plenty of people whose voices I personally like to listen to but who can't stand the sound of their own voice when they hear it.
here's the truth of it.... poor writing can sound good read aloud and great writing can sound awful read aloud. it all depends on the presenter. i had a poetry teacher who had this gravelly-deep voice and he would read every line of poetry with such intensity that you couldn't help but think "this is the best poem ever written." now, if you heard me reading st. crispin's speech aloud, then listened to branagh's version...there's no comparison. same text, but the reader changes everything.
it happens to me all the time, jan. i'll compose the most beautiful text and when i read it back to jes...the spell is gone. it falls flat. but it's not the writing, it's the reading.
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