For the last three weeks I’ve been on the road with my sister Debbie, visiting family up and down the East Cost. It’s been a blast.
We bought an audio book for our trip, a thriller by an author we both love. This particular story, however, did not live up to our expectations. (I won’t name the author or title, because I’d hate to meet him at a conference and have a drink flung in my face). 🙂
As we listened to the story, I was reminded about a few key writing lessons:
* Don’t let the reader out-think the narrator.
After listening to the first story CD for five minutes, Debbie and I knew that the thing that was buried under the sea floor was A Very Bad Thing. However, it took the main character five more discs to figure this out for himself. By then, Debbie and I were throwing imaginary popcorn at the CD player.
* Keep raising the stakes and the suspense.
In this story, the suspense question was raised at the outset: “Is the Buried Thing good or evil?” But after that, the author didn’t raise the stakes or suspense. The reader merely encountered a succession of characters who repeatedly raised the same question.
* Provide a satisfying payoff for the suspense.
After the long tease of discovering what was buried, we never got to see the Bad Thing do anything. It merely shot a warning round over humanity’s bow, and the good humans got away. (The bad humans didn’t make it to the escape pod.)
When it comes to creating bad guys in a thriller, you’ve got to have some real action. Imagine watching The Thing and having it end when they first unfroze the monster. To have an enjoyable movie, you’ve got to see the monster tear apart a laboratory or two. Then you can kill it off.
* Don’t repeat phrases.
This is a Writing 101 point, but when you’re listening to an audio book, you really notice repetition. I started counting the number of times a character “stared thoughtfully down the hallway.” It was in the double digits.
* Don’t start a secondary story thread, only to drop it.
There was actually an interesting secondary story line that got started, only to be dropped mid-way through the book. It was as if the author had started an entirely different book concept, couldn’t pull it off, and wove in the leftovers as a subplot.
* Provide enough motivation for your characters’ actions.
None of the characters in the story, not even the protagonist, were written in a way that explained their actions. One secondary character became a hero, another a villain, and we never understood why. It was as if the writer spun a wheel and let the character actions go wherever the ball landed. Not a good thing.
* Have a competent voice narrator.
This book was voiced by a male. Whenever he had to read dialogue by a female character, he would make his voice go all quavery and soft. Ick.
After listening to the entire book, Debbie and I decided that the author had never clarified his story objective. He never figured out how to pull the story components together in a way that made sense.
I’m going to read the printed version of the book, just to see if it comes off better on the page.
Have you listened to many audio books, and found them to be a different experience than reading? Is anyone aware of any special requirements for crafting an audio book that “reads” well?
Kathryn, I love audio books for road trips! I get just as hooked listening as I do reading. I enjoy audios because they take less time to “read”. Your observations are excellent–and just the perfect reminder for me as I start this new book project. Thank you!!
Unless it is Vincent Price, I don’t think I could listen to someone read to me, especially fiction. It would be weird I think.
Reading is a very personal experience to me, so I feel like it would be like (please excuse the visual) a threesome. Weird?
Kathleen, despite the fact that this particular book didn’t go well, I do love listening to audio books on a long drive. Makes the time fly by! Diane, I don’t know who would be a good reader–Richard Burton but as they say, he is “temporarily unavailable.” (grin)
As one who both listens to and creates audiobook I can definitely agree that the effect is often quite different than the written word. Much like a movie version of a book, the scene in an audiobook has been at least partially painted for you versus allowing your imagination to put it all together completely when reading.
There are some narrator who do a splendid job and don’t even seem like they are reading as much as living the story. There are others who drove me to switch off the player within a few minutes. Their performance was like watching a play put on by the International Society of Dull People and Bad Actors.
I hope my narration style grabs and holds folks, but in the end it is up to the listener’s tastes.
Oh,and doing the opposite voice is a challenge for sure. I’ve tried many things to help make it convincing but still come out sounding like a drag queen. Of course if a male, or for that matter female, narrator came off sounding convincingly like the opposite sex that would be weird…creepy even.
Kathryn, for years I used to listen to audio books during my commute to work. It really helped pass the time and allowed me to read more books than I normally would. What I found was that if I listened to the abriged version, it could be quite disapointing since a great deal of text was thrown out to put the book on a minimum number of CDs. If I had the funds to buy the unabriged version, the experience was much better but the cost was sometimes out of reach.
Thanks for the tips! They definitely help.
I don’t listen to audio books often, mostly because I like reading the book better. The experience is different. I agree that reading the written book does call your imagination to work more.
I love audio books and have listened to hundreds. My local library has a great selection and I’ve plowed through a lot of it. I love being read to. It stimulates different parts of my brain.
A few of my observations:
1. Voice actor and narrative style is everything. If you haven’t done so, get the full Harry Potter series on audio. The narrator is the same for all seven books and brilliant. Hearing the story read in a proper british accent that knows how to pronouce and accentuate the slang makes the series come alive in a whole new way.
Same goes for John Grisham. I find I prefer the audio versions to book because the narrator always has the perfect southern accent and nails the dialogue cadence for my Midwestern tin ear.
On the flip side, I got an American military thriller only to find a british voice actor. Take about a FAIL.
2. For some writers I actually prefer the abridged audio. I can name the writer. He won’t know me at a conference. He’s huge, he’s mega-successful and he overwrites every book: Vince Flynn.
In abridged audio, they take out all of his wordy (and often silly) descriptions, such as what the MC’s girlfriend is wearing to look sexy and cut to the chase. Then, his brilliant premises work, well, brilliantly.
3. You are dead on. To work in audio, the story, especially a thriller, has to be honed to a razor’s edge with no fat on the bone at all.
Great post! Terri
Good points, Kathryn. I love audio books. I got hooked on road trips, but when I lived in Alaska, I brought spooky ones with me for around the campfire. And I liked listening to them as I fell asleep at home. Hearing a great voice in the dark is like a flashback to someone telling you a bed time story and strange as it might seem, crime fiction is a comfort read for me.
Audio books are amazing diversions on a long road trip. They make the miles go by painlessly without distracting the driver too much.
I dislike narrators who fake an accent badly or mimic the voice of the opposite sex in a miserable fashion. A narrator who I love to hear is Scott Brick. This man can do really subtle shifts in dialogue, from accents to slang, that totally keeps you into the story. He doesn’t distract the listener at all.
And so far, I have not liked authors doing their own books. I’ve heard some really bad ones, who shall remain anonymous.
Good authors can write bad books. Often the publisher can’t tell. What I can’t get, Kathryn is why you’d read a book you hated in audio. I can’t see myself doing that.
I have listened mainly to kids books and the audio books for Harry Potter are excellent. Jeremy Irons reading Roald Dahl is amazing. I recently discovered Richard Armitage narrating Georgette Heyer and, though the books have sadly been abridged, he is sublime:) it’s a rare feat for a man to be able to read a book that adopts a predominantly female voice but he manages it without the quavering ick factor. I think an audio book is quite a different experience to reading but I agree it can magnify a book’s faults as well!
I don’t like being read to by anyone. I can’t listen to audio books. I tried once, but it was too frustrating. When I read, the characters’ voices that are established in my mind are distinctive and are part of my visualization of the characters. No matter who reads an audio book, or how, the voice belongs to the same narrator throughout, and that deprives me of the imagining that’s part of the reading experience.
I understand not mentioning the author or title of the disappointing book because you would not want to meet him face-to-face after making disparaging remarks about his work, but I believe authors should willingly accept constructive criticism and use it as a part of their continuous improvement process. (On the other hand, criticism by griefers, who just want to cause harm and pain, should be ignored.) I think that anyone who has read the book, and maybe even the author himself, will recognize it based upon the description you gave; therefore, you may get that drink in the face anyway.
There are two ways to learn: from your own mistakes or from the mistakes of others. Your descriptions of the problems in the story have helped me learn from the mistakes of someone else. Thank you.
I enjoy audio books when I travel. For one book, I was in the middle of reading it when I had to go on a trip. I borrowed the audio book from the library to listen to as I drove. The “unabridged” audio book was missing a scene, a scene I thought funny in the printed book. I listened past the point where I had read, coming to a scene that I did not understand. When I reached that point in reading the printed book, I suddenly understood. The word that had caused the confusion was a homophone. Once I saw the printed word, the metaphorical light came on.
As I write, I read what I write aloud. One of the reasons I do this is because I want the audio book to sound good, with the words flowing smoothly when spoken, and not just when read in the head.
Wow, what a post, Kathryn! Not often you hear such a review of the audiobook experience.
I’ve just done an audio version of my latest novel and I can tell you, you hit the nail on the head when you mention repetition. I repeated a phrase (only once) within two pages and it jumped out at me. I had to go back and correct it.
Also, I found a major timeline error (!!!) during my recording. Believe me, I pride myself on not making such elementary mistakes. I have timeline charts, calendars, the whole shot, all laid out when I write my novels. But this one slipped by me somehow only to emerge as The Thing From Another Time during the recording process. Now I have to make the correction in the Kindle and print versions. {:>(
Again, great post! Keep it up.
I bribe myself to do otherwise unfun things — ride the subway, do laundry, clean, etc. — by listening to audio books. Although I love reading mysteries, they often sound overwrought. The best books I’ve heard are One Day by David Nicholls (better on audio, I think), Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby, and the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. It’s the combination of the narrator and the book that makes these. Sadly, many books I’d love to hear on audio are read by voices that I can’t listen to for more than 30 seconds.
I was on a plane today until well after midnight, getting abused by the airlines, and didn’t get a chance to respond to most of these good comments. Joe, your point about the abridged version is a good one. This actually was an abridged version we listened to, so maybe that was part of the problem. Clare, the male/female thing is tough, but I think both genders should be read normally. I wouldn’t try to make my voice faux-gruff for a male character, so why do some narrators read women like they’re breathless wimps? John, the only explanation I can offer for reading a book I hated in audio is that I’m a glutton for punishment. I also am obsessed by craft, so I want to see what (if any) differences there are. Especially because I normally enjoy this author. I’m wondering if somehow the audio version butchered the prose.
Terri, I may try HP in audio. I’ve actually never read those books because I don’t care for sorcerer stories, but the audio sounds like an entertaining diversion.
Lester, reading our own work aloud is something we should all do. Often I’ll bring pages of work to my critique group before reading it aloud to myself–I instantly spot glaring issues as I’m reading to my group. Sometimes I’ll change the words as I’m reading to the group, which causes endless confusion. Carol, I totally understand not liking audio books. I only use them during long trips, when I find they make the hours go by faster. Mike, yours is an excellent example of how audio can “out” problems in the text. Sucks that you have to redo your Kindle and print versions, though. Shizuka, your comment underscores how important the narrator is to an audio book. It’s an entirely new element that can destroy the listening/reading experience. Maybe that’s why I’m willing to give this book another try in print. I suspect that the narrator actually had much to do with the reason why I didn’t like the book.
That comment about not repeating phrases is an apt one for all of us. I was recently rereading through some work of mine and noticed the characters quirking their eyebrows an awful lot. But you can’t usually see these favorite phrases until you gain some distance on the work and go back for another edit.
A breather does help us spot all kinds of flaws, Nancy. I also do global searches for my “serial offenders.” I tend to use phrases such as “By the time…” used as a transitional time reference, and flabby words such as very, just, apparently, obviously, suddenly, and surely. Once I spot an overused word or phrase, I add them to my search list to be removed.