A Year of Reading Aloud

For twelve months I read every sentence I wrote out loud before keeping it.

The experiment began as a way to catch clumsy rhythm. It became something larger. The ear is a stricter editor than the eye. It will not forgive a sentence that stumbles, no matter how correct it looks on the page.

By the end of the year my prose had grown shorter, plainer, and — I hope — a little more like breathing.