Why I make every client read their dialogue out loud, no exceptions

Dialogue that reads fine silently on the page frequently sounds nothing like a real person when spoken aloud, and writers can't hear the difference until they force themselves to actually say the lines out loud in an empty room.

The tell is almost always the same: written dialogue defaults to grammatically complete sentences, while real speech is full of fragments, interruptions, and words trailing off. Reading aloud exposes every line that sounds like a court transcript instead of a conversation.

I've never had a client do this exercise and come back saying nothing needed to change. Every single manuscript improves, usually within the first page of trying it, once the ear catches what the eye kept missing.

Part of the deeper dive: The Complete Guide to Actually Finishing What You Write.