October 2, 1950 – The renowned comic strip “Peanuts” began on this day in seven U.S. newspapers.

October 2, 1879 – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Wallace Stevens is born.

October 2, 1945 – Songwriter and singer Don McLean is born.

October 3, 1900 – Author Thomas Wolfe is born.

October 3, 1916 – Author James Herriot (James Alfred Wight) is born.

October 3, 1925 – Writer Gore Vidal is born.

October 3, 1949 – Musician Lindsey Buckingham is born.

October 3, 1954 – Guitarist and singer Stevie Ray Vaughan is born.

October 4, 1884 – Journalist and scriptwriter (Alfred) Damon Runyon is born.

October 4, 1941 – Author Anne Rice (Howard O’Brien Rice) is born.

October 5, 1952 – Writer Clive Barker is born.

October 7, 1993 – Author Toni Morrison is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

October 7, 1849 – Poet James Whitcomb Riley is born.

October 8, 1970 – Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in literature.

October 8, 1992 – West Indian poet Derek Walcott is the winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in literature.

October 8, 1998 – Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Reading your work out loud can help you catch errors you might otherwise miss.

Why is it so helpful? There are a number of reasons, but one of them is that vocalizing your writing actually allows you to hear it the way another reader might. This is why it’s so easy for others to catch mistakes in your work when the errors fly right by you. Since you can’t “forget” your words in order to experience them anew, reading aloud is as close as you can get.

I’ll take this bit of good advice one step further. When you read out loud, make it a bit of a performance, as if you’re giving a speech. (You might want to avoid doing this in public, by the way, unless you’re lucky enough to have a group willing to listen to you.) As part of your performance, take your time and enunciate your words as deliberately as you can. If you have the time, you might even consider recording yourself, waiting a couple of hours, and listening. This will allow you to concentrate on hearing without having to worry about anything else.

One last tip. When you read, pronounce contractions as if they’re separate words; this can help you catch common spelling errors. Let’s say you write the contraction “it’s” when you really mean to use the possessive “its”; alternately, you put down “you’re” when you should have “your.”

Removing your contractions when you read out loud will help you catch these right away. If the sentences “My dog lost it is collar” or “I borrowed you are book” don’t set off alarms, there may be larger issues at work than spelling.

Check it out here.

Check out Anne’s website.

On a somewhat related note, Anne will be signing copies of her book on Friday, July 29th, from 11:00-1:00 at the C.A.R.E.’s building in Charleston, Mississippi.

If you’re going to be anywhere in the area, go by, say hello to Anne, and pick up a signed copy of Stories from the Hart. You’ll be glad you did.