| 0 plays |
But how does your story sound?
I recently began editing my stories using a text to speech application to catch any obvious flaws; words repeated in the same paragraph, tense, errant letters, misspellings, etc. Then I realized I could kick back, listen to story and dig a bit deeper; flow, dialogue, character development, missing elements and then finally, how does the story really sound? Because I want the story to sound as good as it reads - or better.
Text to speech is one tool I use for editing my work; I like Voice Dream with Paul doing the reading. But…when the story, as now told by Paul sounds right, there remains the problem with his rushing along, missing paragraph breaks, using the wrong word (is it “live” as in a live recording or “live” as in live and let live) and not stressing or going sotto voce when I need him to. Paul is a real person, but his voice is programmed to read words, not interpret a story or make you laugh. He just rattles along competently until he is finished - a one trick pony but the one trick is pretty amazing.
My appetite whetted, I decided it would be better yet to have the stories narrated by a real human being - anyone but me! Even Paul does a better job of reading my work than I can hope to. I drone, slur words, read too quickly and lose my place. That is why I searched for and found a professional voice artist and voila an audio book was born. (More on that later). My stories in Descending Gods as narrated by Bill Brooks sound not just better than they read, they come alive and frankly make me laugh where before a smile would suffice to mark my satisfaction.
The market for audio books is booming. And for writers who work in short fiction or novellas, a two hour break with a good read fits in well with a commute, a plane trip, or those last minutes of the day as you settle in for the evening, perhaps to dream.
So ask yourself,how does my book or story sound?
