The article proposes that at the core of Brazilian literature pulsates an aural writing elaborated by authors who “write by ear.” To prove this hypotheses, I relate “writing by ear” to two procedures found in Clarice Lispector, Machado de Assis, and Guimarães Rosa’s works: 1) a multiplicity of authorial voices—where the author is no longer the one who writes but the one who listens; and 2) a validation of improvisation (effective or pretended) as a method of literary composition. If the above description is valid, I propose that “writing by ear” is a concept potentially useful to understanding literature produced in a culture where orality and musicality predominate.