This will give you a better grasp on writing.
You’ll learn words you might not have known before.
It will increase your ability to create amazing sentences, deep characters, exciting scenes, realistic dialog, and much more.
If you haven’t figured out what that special tip is, keep reading.
I have loved books for as long as I can remember. The hours I spent immersed in the pages of a book have benefited my own life of writing in more ways than one. But it wasn’t just reading a book which has had such a great impact on me. It was the hours and hours and hours I spent listening to audio books.
Yes, audio books.
Books on audio can be just as important to an author or writer as reading. Perhaps even more so. When you read to yourself, you can unknowingly skip words, skim slow parts of a story, your eyes can jump to the next line without finishing the one before it, or you can skip parts of the story all together. If there is a word you don’t know, you can ignore it. Names which baffle you when you try to read them aloud can be shorted or changed in your mind as you read.
But, when you listen to an audio, you can’t do that. You have to follow at the pace of the reader, be that slow or fast. You can’t skip parts and your eyes don’t get to jump around. If you have a good reader, you get to hear the correct pronunciation of words and names.
Not only that, but your mind will be taking in the syntax of the words, the sentence structure, the plot and sequence of the story, the conversations and more. Audio books give you the opportunity to absorb good writing. You will pick up things you probably never knew before.
As a writing teacher, I not only observed the difference it makes when students read a lot, but I’ve also seen first hand that only reading to yourself can create problems. I’ve had students who had no idea how to pronounce certain words correctly because they’ve never heard them. (They just give me a blank stare when they hear them since they’ve only “seen” them on the pages and not really “read” them.) It was a challenge to them to understand what other words were because all they’d ever done was skim over them in books.
Reading is so important if you want to be a good writer, but listening is also just as important. And no, audio drama’s don’t count. Sorry. I do enjoy a good radio drama myself, but it won’t give you the same benefit as an unabridged audio book. There are so many places these days to find good audio books. Take advantage of them and start your own collection. I promise it will be worth while.
Since audio books are so valuable, I’m going to give away a free copy of both of my audio books to one special winner!
(Only one e-mail address per person, please. If I see that someone has used more than one e-mail address to enter, ALL their entries will be removed. All entries will be verified and unqualified ones will be deleted.)
An added benefit of audio books is you can do something else while you enjoy a book!
I know, isn't audio books amazing? Have you tried Lamplighter Theatre? They have dramatized versions of the Lamplighter books and they are AMAZING!! It's like watching a movie, just without the picture. They're really great for drives, especially long ones 😉
Just wondering, is it okay for me to enter because I live in Canada, or is the give-away for US residents? 😀
Yes, you can enter. 🙂
And yes, I have listened to the Lamplighter Theater. I enjoy them, but not as much as listening to a full undramatized book. Perhaps I'm a bit strange, but I love the real books. Though car trips sometimes need a bit more excitement. 🙂
Okay, thank you Rebekah!! And I don't find you strange at all 😉 Different people, different opinions. Makes the world a whole lot more interesting! 😀
Oh, and I'd love to listen to The Graham Quartet and the Mysterious Strangers!
Yeah. . .I tend to be a fast reader, especially the first time I read a book I tend to skim over a lot of parts because I want to see how it ends. Even in Bible reading sometime and when I read aloud at devotions I have no idea how to pronounce a name even though I "Read" it that morning.
Audio books are sooo good! I love listening to them when I can't necessarily sit and read. I'll listen to them while I'm working in the kitchen, folding laundry, etc. And I agree with Blessing Counter, the Lamplighter dramatized books are really, really good!
One of our favorite audio books is "In Freedom's Cause". We listen to it ALL the time. 🙂
Oh, and I'd like to listen to "The Graham Quartet and the Mysterious strangers". 🙂
I can relate. I've caught myself skipping parts of one line, reading the next and finding my eyes jumping up to pick up the missing words from the line above. Crazy!
I love audio books so much! They're especially great for classics that would take way too long to read. 😉 I'd love to listen to your "The Graham Quartet and the Mysterious Strangers". 😉
I especially love audio books for listing in the car. When you are driving 12 hours in a day they really make the day go faster. And I'd love to listen to "Pirates of Rocky Crag Bay and Other Stories".