In William Zinsser’s excellent book On Writing Well, he makes the point that you should read your work aloud, and suggests you don’t commit anything to paper that you wouldn’t actually say. That’s great advice on how to write memoirs. But how does it work?

Essentially, you need an audience when you read. That audience could be a person or a tape recorder. The important thing is that you get feedback, either from your own ears, or from someone who knows you well. When you listen to yourself on a tape recorder, you hear yourself differently than when you are reading. Your friend will also be able to tell quickly if it sounds like you telling a story or you reading someone else’s story.

In Lesson 7, you made any necessary factual corrections to your memoir, so now you should have the story the way you would tell it. Find a comfortable place where it feels natural to be talking. This could be your favorite chair in the living room or a spot at a local coffee shop. Just be aware that you may garner strange looks in public places if you are telling the story to yourself. Simply smile and go on.

As you read aloud, make a note of sentences that are uncomfortable, places where you want to say something different than what you’ve written, or even misspelled or incorrect words. Listen to your own (or your friend’s) feedback and note places where it sounded unlike you. After you have your feedback, set about the process of rewriting the story where needed to make it sound more natural. Read it aloud again after you have rewritten it.

Keep in mind that the intention here is to create a natural-sounding memoir, not to memorize or rehearse. When you have finished this step, you should have a clean draft of your story that truly sounds like you telling a favorite story.