Text-to-Speech Software is a Valuable Editing Tool

I don't think that anyone disagrees that having an editor is an integral part of your writing process. (Well, maybe some people do, but that's an argument for another day.) (Here's a great one for hire, in case you're looking.) But there are times when you will have to do some editing yourself. Maybe it's to prepare a piece before sending to an agent or publisher. Maybe you're so embarrassed at your awful grammar that you want to polish it a little before sending it to your real editor. Or maybe you're just starting out in self-publishing and can't afford a real editor yet and you're not convinced your cousin Eddy did a good enough job proofreading.

What was my point? Oh yeah, every writer needs to edit their own work. Which is really hard. One, because every word is a like precious little baby (hint: they're not), and Two, you stare at those words so hard for so long that it's impossible to look at them objectively and notice mistakes. As you read, you hear them in your head the way you think they're supposed to sound, not the way they're actually written.

Oh man, I am such a brilliant writer...

Having someone else read it is a big help, because they will pick up lots of things you don't notice. Having someone else read it ALOUD is even better, because they will very quickly pick up (and stumble over) things that don't sound right. Of course, most of us don't have friends and family members willing to sit down and read our manuscripts out loud to us (I'm sure my loving wife would, if she didn't have a million other better things to do than humour my obsessiveness). But you know what? Most of us have a dear friend in our pocket right now that can help us make our editing easier, and our writing better.

Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology is a really cool feature that I'm sure your smartphone possesses. It does exactly what it claims, converting printed text on the screen into audio. Technically it's meant as an accessibility feature for those who have trouble visually, but it has many other uses. The biggest one is having it read your manuscript back to you, forcing you to experience your work in a new format, which will allow you to pick up on typos, incorrect grammar, weird sentence structure and a multitude of other errors in your writing. These errors become painfully obvious when read out-loud, errors that you would glaze over when you're reading it, because again, your brain and your eyes are telling you what you EXPECT to be there, not what's actually there. It's much, much harder to do that when you're listening to the story in someone else's voice.

No, my book is awesome. You're just not reading it properly.

I find it's also helpful for picking up on plot inconsistencies and bad word choices. For some reason I pick up on things better when I hear them, and realize "oh, hey, I said that here, but I said something contradictory a few pages previous." The best one is noticing when you use the exact same adjective or verb three times in two sentences, which for some reason I never notice when reading it, but sounds SUPER obvious and terrible when read aloud.

Sure, the audio quality is often terrible and mechanical. Honestly it sometimes it sounds like Stephen Hawking tripping on really bad drugs. But this is actually a good thing. The computer is not trying to make the words sound good - it's just repeating back exactly what's on the page in a consistent, monotone format. There's no way you can get lost in the story or listen to the poetry of it or whatever. It's just the words, and whether or not they're the right words. If it hits a snag, it will IMMEDIATELY become apparent. Sometimes painfully so.

I'm sorry. This manuscript is so terrible, I refuse to read another word.

On my Android phone, I use a free App to convert the book to an Epub (I currently use Ebook & Document Converter), then open the file in Google Play Books, which comes with the phone and has a built in TTS-reader. It's really simple, and Android comes pre-loaded with dozens of different voices in various languages and accents, both male and female. Plus you can download numerous other voices on Google Play which are often of higher quality (but be forewarned that the files are HUGE).

The system will work very similarly on your iPhone, though you will probably need a slightly different app to convert and possibly read your files (I'm pretty sure you can get Google Play Books on iOS).

I like using Google Play Books because it will continue reading the book aloud while I do other things, but if I hear something I don't like I can quickly pause it, highlight the offending section and then continue. When I have time later I can go back and easily go through my highlights, fixing the problems. It's all terribly convenient.

No, seriously. I'm editing my book, right now.

Speaking of having multiple voice options, I've discovered that after I've listened to the document and made my edits, it's very helpful to go back and listen to again with a different voice and accent. Because of the variety of ways people/programs pronounce the same words, you will actually notice different errors depending on the voice. I put a recent short story through the process three times, and found new mistakes each time. For instance, I used the word "expense" where I meant to use "expanse," but the first two voices said it so similarly to "expanse" that I didn't notice it until the third pass. (I also can't solely blame the computer, because I had read it a dozen times without picking up on it, too.)

I'm sure you can use TTS technology on your desktop computer for similar effect, though I've never done it myself so I can't speak to it. If anyone has tried this, please let us know in the comments.

What do you think? Have you tried using TTS as an editing tool? I love it, but I'm sure there are detractors. Let us know in the comments below!

IWSG January: A New Awakening

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group here.

* * *

“He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool.” – F.M. Knowles

"I know. I'm lazy. But I made myself a New Years resolution that I would write myself something really special. Which means I have 'til December, right?" – Catherine O'Hara

* * *

Writing-wise, 2015 was a big year for me. I self-published my first book. I expanded my writing circles. I made mistakes and I (hopefully) learned from them. I started to build momentum that I hope will carry me into an even bigger and better year in 2016. For some reason, I couldn't see any of that last month when I wrote my very short and miserable IWSG piece. I was bogged down and slowed and though I had lots of promising projects and prospects on the horizon, I just felt stuck.

Today, one month later, I am feeling much more optimistic.

It wasn't that the holiday break provided a rest. Far from it - my kids were up at 6:00 every morning so I certainly didn't catch up on any sleep. It wasn't that I got any writing in because I didn't write a word after the first or second week of December (though I did narrate someone else's story for a short Christmas special, which was a lot of fun). It's not the changing of the season that reveals the hope and promise of a new year, because we got DUMPED on with snow a couple of days after Christmas, and this morning it was -28 degrees. It's impossible to be optimistic when your eyeballs are frozen. Hell, it's not even the revelation of the first good Star Wars movie in over 30 years.

The singular event that improved my mood was getting my manuscript back from my editor.

This son of a bitch right here.

I've been waiting for this for awhile. I felt frozen and paralyzed, anticipating getting it back, unable to continue but also unwilling to seriously commit to something else and get too deep into it. It's such a relief to get back to work, like finally pulling that nail out of your hand.

It's not even that the book came back with glowing reviews or anything. It has improved, certainly, but it still needs work and I'll probably have to tweak the ending again. But the important thing, the empowering thing, is that I now I can actually go back to work on it. I can finally feel like I'm moving forward once again, that I'm making progress and moving toward that finish line.

There will be another round (at least) of edits, and I have to get to work on getting the cover art nailed down and start thinking about promotion. There's a ton of work yet to complete, but I finally feel good about it because I'm getting it done. Stuff is happening.

It reminds me of when I used to work in a print shop. There would be times when I had dozens of orders on the docket and I would have to come in on the weekend and run five printers at once to get them all done on time. I would have juggle all the paper and collating and binding to keep all the machines running because if anything stopped I would miss deadlines. I loved it.

This is one of my favourite places in the world when the customers are locked out.

I don't care much about how much work I have to do, as long as I feel like I'm accomplishing something. Actually doing work is the best motivation in the world to get more work done.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a book to finish.

IWSG November: It's a Spectrum

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group here.

You may recall from last month I was feeling pretty good and hyped about writing. Actually, I'm sure you don't remember, but you can read about it here, if you like. Anyway, some of that luster has come off in the last 30 days. I'm not saying I've switched a full 180-degrees and am now wallowing in self-loathing, insecurity and depression, but I've definitely slipped a few notches on the excitement spectrum.

Editing on Hell Comes to Hogtown has not progressed as well as I had hoped thanks to normal life busy-ness. I have done quite a bit of work outlining my next projects, which is a good thing, but neither are quite ready to be dived into yet. I was hoping I would be farther along with all of those things, especially Hogtown, by now, but it was not meant to be.

I am not participating in NaNoWriMo. I'm in a pretty good place with reasonable writing habits so I don't need it for that reason, and I don't need to do it to prove anything. I know I can write 50,000 words in a month, and I don't need to do it right now. Pushing myself to try would just be unnecessary stress. Right now I'm in revising/outlining mode, which for me is much harder than racking up word count. I don't need a special month as an excuse to vomit words into my computer. I am quite capable of literary regurgitation, thank you very much.

This is what writing is like for everyone, right?

So good luck and godspeed to all my fellow writers out there, but know I will be watching you from the sidelines this year.

The one thing that saved the month for me and put a little boost back into my step was the release of Tentacles Under a Full Moon on October 31. I didn't mention it during last month's IWSG post because at the time I had no idea when or if I was would actually put it out. It was the story I wrote as a joke in response to an episode of The Grim Tidings Podcast (which, if you're a fantasy fan you should totally be listening to). I thought it turned out pretty well though, and I needed something for the Halloween blog hops I had signed up for - thanks again to Patricia Lynne and Wittegen Press for setting those up - so I hired someone to do a quick edit on it, slapped on cover on that baby and made it available to the world.

I actually got more downloads of the story in 2 days that I've got of Ten Thousand Days in almost 6 months, but to be fair it WAS free (though 3 people bought it, for some crazy reason). It's now available for only 99 cents US pretty much anywhere ebooks are sold, but if you want a review copy let me know and I'll hook you up. So far the only feedback I've received is that it's "crude," "funny," "weird," and "depressing." For the record those are all things I was going for, so I take those as compliments.

Available at:

AMAZON US | AMAZON CANADA | AMAZON UK

KOBOBOOKS | SMASHWORDS | BARNES & NOBLE

and more!

Just to clarify, the story IS NOT tentacle porn (mostly). It's what I call "grimlark," that is, comic dark fantasy. It is crude, weird, funny and depressing. It's about a werebear fighting a land octopus (which is right on the cover!) and features filthy dwarves, pervert wizards, foul language and Greek-levels of tragedy. It's certainly not everyone' cup of tea, but if you like explosive volcano drake diarrhea and candid discussions about the genitalia of elves and dwarves, it's worth checking out.

So yeah, all-in-all, I'm feeling okay, and I would feel even better if you check out my story. ;-)

IWSG October: Wake Up, September's Over

So another month came and went. As you may have guessed, I DID NOT win the Nerdist Publishing contract. Several cools books did win, however, and you could do worse than to check them out. I ordered all of the top 5 myself, and I'm looking forward to checking them out when they drop in a couple of months.

I started the month hot and heavy, still with a some shreds of hope my book my catch on. I made a "cool" preview trailer:

I also did a fun interview, talking about my book, Inkshares and writing in general:

Sadly, neither of them lit up the Interwebz. Winning a contest like that, or crowdfunding a book (or anything) in general takes a ton of marketing, promotion, networking and selling that I just did not have the time or the energy to do right now. I accepted that weeks ago and moved on.

While the contest is over the crowdfunding campaign is still technically ongoing. The book is still available for pre-order until mid-November. If you sign up you still get a digital copy of my first book, Ten Thousand Days, and you'll get added to a mailing list to to be updated when the new book is officially (self-)published. Since there is probably only a 0.01% chance of the book getting funded at this point, you're basically getting that all completely free.

Outside of my misadventures in crowdfunding, it was actually a pretty cromulent month for writing. I re-wrote the ending for Hell Comes to Hogtown at least four times, but I'm finally feeling pretty good about it. After fixing that I took some time off from Hogtown to write a short story in response to a challenge from the Grim Tidings Podcast guys that I took far too seriously. Ten thousand words is way too long for a joke, by the way. I think the story actually turned out pretty good so you may see it pop up somewhere. With that out of the way, I dove headlong into hardcore editing (with the help of my fabulous, beautiful and talented editor, of course) for Hogtown which is slow but I think will ultimately make the work a lot better.

Slowly going through this baby with a chainsaw.

On top of that I've also made some concrete decisions and started outlining my next two projects, which I'm hyped about, but at the same time I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself.

I'm excited to finally unleash Hogtown upon the world, but I'm reining in my impatience and holding off on dropping it prematurely like I did with Ten Thousand Days. I really want this to be a better, more polished book than my first one. I'm taking time with the editing and getting more feedback before rushing off to Amazon to hit the "Publish" button. I want to put a bit more thought into marketing and advertising. I want to get some review copies out early to hopefully grab some release-day reviews.

I originally wanted to have it out before Christmas but I've now accepted that it will probably be early next year. I have a date in mind but I'm not revealing it yet, just in case. Who knows what could happen, right? Right now I could almost believe it might be something good.

Like getting one of these awesome suits under the Christmas tree.

TL;DR version: Today, I'm not actually feeling insecure. I'm cautiously optimistic, and feeling productive and excited about my work, at least for the moment. I'm sure that once I'm knee deep in notes from the editor in a couple weeks, or when I'm struggling to convince people to buy and/or review the book in a couple of months, those feelings will be long evaporated. But for now, just for today, let's look on the bright side, m'kay?

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group here.