Why I Listen to Every Word I Write (And Why You Should Too)

I'm going to be honest with you: this process is tedious.

But it's also the most important part of my editing workflow, and I won't publish a manuscript without doing it.

I listen to every chapter of my books—sometimes once, often three times—using text-to-speech before I call them finished. For The Documentation, that meant hours of sitting with headphones on, catching things I'd read past a hundred times.

Reading vs. Listening: Two Different Brains

Here's why it works: reading and listening engage different parts of your brain.

When you've edited a manuscript for months, your eyes see what you meant to write, not what's actually there. You know the story so well that your brain fills in gaps, smooths over rough patches, and skips right past repeated words. You become blind to your own work.

But when you hear it? Everything changes.

The Method

The method is simple:

I use Revoicer, a text-to-speech tool with natural-sounding voices. I choose a voice that's pleasant to listen to but also enunciates clearly—because if a TTS voice stumbles over a sentence, a human narrator definitely will. And since most of my books get narrated for audiobook, I'm not just editing for readers. I'm editing for sound.

I go chapter by chapter. Some chapters sail through in one listen. Others need work. I'll listen, catch errors, fix them, re-export, and listen again. Sometimes it takes three passes before a chapter feels right.

What Listening Catches That Reading Misses

Subtle things. The way we enunciate a word on the page versus how it actually sounds when spoken. Sentences that look fine in writing but feel breathless or awkward when read aloud. Dialogue that seems natural until you hear someone say it. Repeated words or phrases you didn't notice because your eyes skipped right over them.

I see everything in pictures when I write. Imagine a film running through your head at all times—that's how I experience story. I see the scenes, the expressions, the movement. Hearing my writing for the first time makes it real in a different way. It's deeply satisfying and, honestly, emotional. This is the story I saw. Now I'm hearing it.

Is It Worth the Time?

If you're a stickler for a perfect manuscript, yes.

If you want to give your work your very best, yes.

If your books will be narrated, absolutely yes.

It's tedious. But so is every part of this work that actually matters.

When you catch an error you never would have detected in writing—when you hear a sentence that doesn't land the way you thought it would, when you realize a word choice felt right on the page but sounds wrong out loud—that's when you understand why this matters.

The Bottom Line

Your readers might never know the difference between a manuscript you only read and one you also heard. But you will. And if you care about craft, that's enough.