Trade Tips: Proofread With a Text-to-Speech Reader

What's your best tip for proofreading your own work?

I've tried so many tricks: read it aloud, read it backwards, print it out, touch each word with my finger while reading...

But I still miss things. Whole words, in fact. 

My brain fills in everything that I was supposed to type. No matter how hard I tried, I could never be confident I caught every typo (or miss-o, as it were). 

That was until Pamela Grow introduced me to my favourite new proofreading tool: text-to-speech readers. 

(Thank you, Pam. I owe you a beer or your beverage of choice when we get together someday). 

Text-to-speech readers are the coolest thing. You copy and paste your text into the tool, and it reads it out loud. Not only does it help me find missing words, it helps identify clunky portions of text, too. 

I use ttsreader.com. But there are several free versions out there if you Google speech to text readers.

You can choose from several voices, accents, and languages. 

My new proofreading partner is a UK male. And while he may be computer-generated, he's a great writing buddy (plus, when he reads my stuff in his British accent it always sounds smarter).

So, that's my trade tip for you. Feel free to pass it along to your fellow writers.

I'm looking forward to hearing your trade tips, too.

Image by Lorenzo Cafaro from Pixabay 

Wise Words

As I sit, wasting time on social media, the little voice in my head says: "It's time to get off yer ass and do some laundry so you'll have something to cover yer ass tomorrow." Wise words.

Things Hidden

The writing prompt was:

"Give me a story that includes these five elements: a crack in the sidewalk, rat poison, rust-colored corduroy pants, leftover lasagna, and Einstein."

Things Hidden

At the very bottom of her mother’s cedar chest, under a wool blanket, was a faded Polaroid photograph. One glance set the reels of her memory archive in motion.

There was no point begging her mother to let her get pants that actually fit. Better to grow into them than to grow out of them, her mother would argue. She’d just have to roll the legs up.

School was a 20-minute walk. Even if she hurried, she’d be late. Her mother didn’t like mornings, and getting ready was always rushed and unpleasant. Her stomach grumbled. She thought about the peanut butter sandwich in her blue plastic lunchbox.

She was so embarrassed of that stupid lunchbox. It used to be her brother’s and it had a picture of Einstein on it. Why couldn’t she have a Barbie lunchbox like the other girls?

Her brother was sick for a long time. He always had nose bleeds and bruises – lots of bruises. After her brother died, the kids at school would tease her and say her mother killed him with rat poisoning. If she asked about him, her mother would slap her face.

The lunchbox. She forgot it at home. Too late to go back now. And she’d wake up her mother. Maybe her best friend would share.

She’d often daydream about food. She’d imagine the whole world was lasagna and she had to eat a path to school. She loved lasagna. She had leftover lasagna one time at her best friend’s house. Her mother had stomach ulcers, so they never had anything like it at home.

She stopped to pull up her brand new rust-colored bell bottom corduroys, then jumped with both feet on to the line between the squares of concrete sidewalk.

Don’t step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back.

Sometimes she hated her mother.

The photograph: A 9-year-old girl looks into the camera. No smile. New school year. New outfit. Earth tones were all the rage.

The Big Top

The writing prompt was...

"Harvey, supervisor of the Loading Dock and ABC Trucking, hates to delegate. His new employee, Albert, is frustrated. Harvey’s boss, Bert, is getting ready to write Harvey up for poor performance because Harvey’s employee, Albert, who is untrained, keeps messing up. Albert has already sent a shipment of propellers to an obscure warehouse. Bad idea.

Is this a story? (One hint. Harvey shows up with a fake beard one day. Hmmm. Why does he do that? Clearly, this is not stereotypical business behavior.) What happens next?"

The Big Top

"Who knew it was necessary to stipulate ‘trained’ on the job description? Never in my wildest dreams…" Harvey’s voice trailed off. He realized he was talking to himself. What am I doing here? This place is a circus.

Harvey reached for the bucket at his side. What the –? He scanned the floor and turned 360 degrees. He had put the bucket down just a moment ago. Where did it go? He rolled his eyes. So much for that enchanted childhood notion of running away with the big top. He pursed his lips and took a deep breath through his nose. He immediately regretted the deep breath.

Redirecting his attention to the task at hand, Harvey leaned his shovel against the wall near a steaming pile of dung on the floor and went off in search of the missing bucket. As he turned a corner, he heard the handle of the shovel slide down the wall. He waited for the sound of the handle hitting the hard warehouse floor. Instead, it sounded like the handle hit something soft. Figures, he thought. Shit.