: Re: Writing for an Audio book. What are specifics? What are specific requirements, a writer should follow, when writing something that is going to be (or just can possibly be) not only read but

@Berumen699

Vote Up Vote Down

When listening, it's not a simple matter to flip back ten pages when you've forgotten who the heck Character X is again. One thing that may help is to remind the reader of a trait or profession or other identifying sign once in a while, especially if the character hasn't been seen much yet/lately. (Everything in moderation, of course — doing this too often can result in so-called "Burly Detective" Syndrome.)

I used to be big on very naturalistic dialogue, complete with ums and ers and half-finished sentences. After several years of listening to audiobooks, however, I'm starting to lean the other way. Having characters stammer and constantly interrupt one another can be tough for a reader to pull off well. So yes, write sentences that people might actually say, but also let them get their thoughts out, at least most of the time.

Similarly, snatches of dialogue, as some authors use to capture crowd scenes ("It's her!" "...hasn't been seen in seven months..." "...swore up and down she was dead!") or dialogue that's only half-audible to the viewpoint character, can sound silly even in the hands of a good narrator.

And it probably goes without saying that very visual devices like online chat or computer code, while they may provide some nice flavour in print, don't translate well to audio.

Addendum: Text that's only set off typographically is tricky too. There have been a couple of books where I've been confused by a paragraph-long flashback that was set in italics, or by a stream-of-consciousness passage without attributions. (The audio versions of several of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels used reverb on the voice of Death, whose dialogue was always set in small caps, but this sort of thing is rare.)

(0)

Login to post a comment!