2007.04.25
My neighbours must think I’m crazy
As I’ve discussed before, I’m working on a short story that I intend on publishing in audio format. In fact, in my view the only reason I’m writing it down is so I have something I can read and record. The written version may never see the light of day.
Having completed enough of the research and plot outlining to actually start writing, I’ve now completed the first draft of chapter 1 and roughly half of chapter 2. I don’t have a particular written length in mind for the finished work, but I do have a goal for the audio. Ideally, I would like the story to consist of 60-80 minutes of audio, not counting the front and end matter for each episode. To get a feel for the pacing that is required, I’ve already been reading the work aloud with a timer set (but not recording it yet), and noting the timings.
At least, timing the readings was the initial reason for reading my story aloud to myself. It’s still one of the reasons I’m continuing to do so, but I’ve discovered that reading my story aloud to myself is useful for a number of other reasons.
Foremost among these reasons is that reading the story aloud helps me to pick out sections of text that don’t read smoothly, or that don’t sound the way I want them to. It’s easy to write something that seems to work on paper, but I’m finding it more challenging to get a flow that works well when read aloud. Since the written work is actually secondary to the end goal of recording the audio version in my case, I can focus on the sound of the text as opposed to the read of the text.
Of course, by writing text that sounds good, it turns out that it also reads well. It’s a technique that I never considered using before, and I can already see that it’s helping me to identify passages that need work.
Another bonus is that it gives me practice reading aloud. Silly as that may sound to some, anyone who listens to audiobooks with any frequency will have listened to at least work that was terribly read, to the point of being almost unlistenable. Unfortunately, it turns out that it’s very easy to read something poorly when reading aloud; I have a great deal of respect the people who do it on a regular basis to publish audio versions of novels. I’m aiming to be a passable reader of my own work, which for me primarily means focusing on my pacing (slowing down) and also on enunciating more clearly.
A third, but minor benefit, is that reading aloud gives me a different sort of familiarity with my work; for instance, I know which words need stress when read aloud in order to better convey my intended meaning. In the end, I’m hoping this will translate into a bit less time spent recording and editing, but that remains to be seen.
All of this reading aloud has the side effect that my neighbours might think I’ve gone off the deep end. I’m sitting at my computer when I’m reading my work aloud (from the screen), and at present, that puts me very close to the wall that separates my apartment from the neighbouring one. If they can hear me (though I doubt they can), they’ve been treated to the sound of my voice reading Chapter 1 of my story. Over and over. I’ve probably read my draft of chapter 1 aloud 6 or 7 times thus far, and I’m sure there are more readings to come.
Let’s hope the neighbours can’t hear, for their sake.
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