Whether you're an aspiring writer or a published author,
you know that character development is one of the most essential writing
skills. Without interesting and credible characters, even the most intricate
plot is likely to fall flat on its face. If you want to improve your writing,
you need your readers to believe in the people you're describing and care
about what happens to them.
In character development, consistency is essential. If you find that your
characters aren't quite believable enough, the key to improving them could
be to make sure they behave and speak in a realistic and consistent way.
If your protagonist speaks with an Irish accent and uses plenty of colloquialisms
in the beginning of the story, you must make sure he sounds the same every
time he opens his mouth. Each character needs a clear, distinct identity,
and this should be apparent when they speak - your readers should never
be left in doubt as to who is saying what.
Of course, it can be almost impossible to spot
consistency errors and problematic areas in your own text. You've probably
already read and re-read it countless times, so you're likely to be quite
blind to things that first time readers might spot. To improve your writing,
you need to approach your text as if you weren't familiar with it at
all - and the easiest way to do this is to hear it read out loud. However,
most writers aren't keen to hand their writing over to somebody else
before they know it's perfect - and this is where TextAloud can
help you. This award-winning text to speech software reads out text on
your PC, but can also be used on your iPod or Pocket PC. You can choose
between a variety of different voices, and you'll be amazed by how natural
sounding they are. You can download a free trial version of TextAloud,
or purchase the full version right now for only $29.95.
Writers all over the world use TextAloud
to listen to their texts and discover where improvements are needed. Here
are some of the comments we've received:
In the July 2004 issue's Guide to Writing Software, Writer's Digest Associate Editor Jack Clemens called TextAloud a "surprisingly useful proofreading tool" and noted that "hearing someone else read your writing aloud is one of the best ways to identify clarity problems".
"I use TextAloud to edit and proofread my writing; it can be easier to hear mistakes and awkward phrasings than to see them on the page. I love this software :). It's kept me awake at work more times than I can count." - Katherine
"I like TextAloud very much. Since I've used it, my writing have become
better since I can detect all my mistakes and even change those sentences
that doesn't sound right. Even my readers notice the improvement. Thumbs-up
from me!" - A Writer
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