by Zoë Sharp
When I pick up a book by a new author – one that’s new to me, I mean, rather than a debut novel – somehow I know within the first page if the book’s going to hold my attention or not. I think most of us, whether we do it consciously or not, make that same snap decision.
And although I’ve talked before on these pages about the importance of opening lines and of finding the right jumping-off point for your story, there’s more to it than that.
It’s the voice.
Every writer has their own distinct voice. You might think of it as their style, but there’s more to it than that. It’s something to do not just with the choice of words, but with the way they’re put together on a fundamental level, the rhythm and the flow of them. It’s the way the writer breaks up sentences, paragraphs, chapters. And it’s something that’s very difficult to assess in your own work.
An old friend from my old writing group has a wonderful lyrical style of storytelling. She could read out of a phone book and you’d sit entranced and listen. But whenever we would go to meetings and she’d bring along printouts of her latest piece of work, my comments would be the same. "It sounds brilliant when you read it out, but what you’re reading is not what’s actually on the page."
As the author, you know where the emphasis should go, the pauses, the inflections. I’ve often said that I’m a visual writer. While I’m writing a scene it’s like I’m watching a movie being played inside my head, and all I do is write down what I see. Then, when the reader picks up that same scene, I hope that they feel they’re watching the same movie I was, when I wrote it.
But how do you know?
Whenever I’ve given talks to writer’s groups and would-be authors, the piece of advice I always include is to read your work out loud. There’s nothing to beat it, not just for checking that rhythm and flow I mentioned earlier, but to pinpoint those sections of dialogue that just don’t quite sound like real words coming out of real people’s mouths, and those chunks of descriptive narrative that just go on for a teensy bit too long. On the page, there’s always the danger they can lurk unnoticed in corners, but out loud they really scream at you.
This week, I finally managed to get hold of a copy of SECOND SHOT in its unabridged audiobook version, read by actress Clare Corbett. I must admit that I put it on the CD player in the car not without some considerable trepidation. It’s a very personal thing, hearing your first-person character brought to life by a stranger. And one whose interpretation of that character is restricted, in a way, by exactly what’s written on the page and no more than that. I remember reading an interview with an author who’d read his own work for audiobook, and was not allowed to make any alterations to the text, even though he was the one who’d written it in the first place.
And then there’s the horror stories, of course. My good friend and fellow LadyKiller, Priscilla Masters, recalls how one of her novels went to audiobook with a Swedish character called Agnetha, which was pronounced as ‘Agg-neetha’ all the way through, when it should be pronounced ‘Ann-yetta’. Another, Chris Simms, was telling me he had described a character in one of his Nepoleonic War novels as a war veteran, because – although he was only in his thirties – he’d been a boy soldier. The narrator chose to do all this character’s dialogue in the voice of a crusty old man.
But Ms Corbett, I have to say, brought Charlie Fox to life almost exactly as I’d heard her in my head. It was quite something. And I’ve still no idea how she managed to do the voice of a four-year-old girl, Ella, quite so convincingly.
The only oddity was Sean Meyer.
Sean has been a mainstay of the series almost since the beginning. He was one of Charlie’s army instructors during her abortive Special Forces training, a rough diamond from a council estate in a gritty northern English city, who eventually left the army to move into close-protection and was driven enough, successful enough, both to start his own agency and then to be taken on as a partner in a prestigious New York outfit, taking Charlie with him. He’s got that killer instinct right the way through, intelligent and cold-blooded, but he loves her to bits, even if – sometimes – he’s got a strange way of showing it.
Yes, he’s a Lancashire lad by birth, but I saw him as having acquired quite a bit of gloss along the way, sloughing off a lot of his roots and, with them, toning down his speech patterns. But I’d never quite got round to actually saying that, on the page. So, Ms Corbett’s interpretation, quite correctly, gives him a noticeably flat northern accent.
And, once I’d got over the surprise, I realised I really quite … like it. And now I’m sitting here, writing the new book, and whenever Sean speaks, all I can here is that voice for him. I’ve even found myself subtly altering his dialogue so it fits better.
What I also found myself doing was trimming more words out than I was putting in. Hearing the narrative made me realise that, although I think I’ve been progressively tightening the books up as the series has progressed, there’s still plenty of room for improvement …
So, my question is, have you listened to an audiobook that really didn’t fit your interpretation of the characters? Did it alter your subsequent reading pleasure? Have you had your own books translated to spoken word format and, if so, how did it match up to the way you heard the story as it unfurled inside your own head? And has it altered the way you write?
This week’s Word of the Week sincere, which means pure, unadulterated, genuine, free from pretence, the same in reality as in appearance. The derivation of this word comes from cere, which means to cover with wax. If a sculptor was working on a marble statue and they made a mistake, they would fill in the error with wax to obscure it – marble being a very expensive material to simply throw away and start again. However, if a work of sculpture was completed without the necessity for this, it was sincere – without wax.
Also, I managed to have a complete brain dump when I put news of Mayhem in the Midlands on Twitter and got the dates muddled with that of another convention I’m attending next year, CrimeFest. Mayhem will, of course, run from May 21st to 24th, 2009, and I am delighted to have been invited to be the first Caroline Willner International Guest of Honor in this, their very special tenth anniversary year.
I couldn’t read Sarah Paretsky for years because my first contact with her work was an audiobook where the reader’s delivery just irritated the hell out of me. She made V.I. Warshawski sound so affected and phony that it set my teeth on edge. When I tried to read the books in print, all I could hear was that godawful voice. Fortunately for me, the memory faded enough that I can now read Paretsky with pleasure.
OTOH, I’ve got a couple of Terry Pratchett’s books in audio form and the couple of readers I’ve heard of his stuff crack me up. I think it’s the Monty Python effect: comedy always sounds funnier when it’s done with a British accent.
None of mine have gone to audiobook so far. We live in hope, since so many people seem to use the audiobook as their exclusive means of receiving literature these days.
Hi Dusty
It can sometimes take a while to get to audiobook. SECOND SHOT is the first of my series to be offered this way, with THIRD STRIKE coming out next year. I even recorded my own extracts for use on the website, but I think Ms Corbett does them so much better!
As for the Brit accent thing, I think it depends on the accent. To me, the Black Country/West Midlands accent can say almost anything and it sounds funny. Think Ozzy Osbourne …
But I know what you mean about some voices grating. I’m a huge fan of Lee Child’s books, but when I first started listening to NOTHING TO LOSE on CD, the narrator gave Reacher a real Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry deep gravelly voice and I just fell about laughing. Either I got used to it, or he toned it down a bit as the book went on. After a while, you do tend to kind of lose yourself in the story.
And I think the narrator has to exaggerate the accents a little at the start of each piece of dialogue, just so you can easily differentiate who’s speaking.
My wife and I just finished Tony Hillerman’s SACRED CLOWNS. I know Joe Leaphorn was always noticeably older than Chee, but he hadn’t even retired yet in this book. Yet the actor gave him the voice you’d expect from a 300 year old tribal elder in Dances with Wolves. It took effort to stay in the story, and I hate when that happens. At the same time, we also tried TALKING GOD (narrated by Mr. Hillerman himself), and all of the characters sounded exactly the same. So I don’t know what the answer is there. GREAT book, though.
I always have my students read each others’ work, so the writer can hear how the words occur to someone else. I even had one of them read my WIP, and it let me know I have work to do. LOTS of work….
I don’t listen to many audio books (and I usually avoid audio books of novels I have already read), but I do adore listening to “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” and “The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul”. There’s something magical about listening to Douglas Adams read his own work.
I don’t listen to many audio books (and I usually avoid audio books of novels I have already read), but I do adore listening to “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” and “The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul”. There’s something magical about listening to Douglas Adams read his own work.
I haven’t listened to an audio book in some time, but used to do it a lot on long trips. Ron McLarty did a great job with some of the eariler Spenser books. The flip side was the reader (I forget who) who read an Ed McBain story and made everything just sound so precious. Events in the Eight-Seven were a lot of things, but never precious.
As a (pre-published) writer, I understand the importance of voice, as it’s the primary thing that makes writers favorites of mine. I’m still struggling to find the happy medium that suits my disparate tastes and still serves the story best, as they are inextricably linked. Imagine GET SHORTY written in James Lee Burke’s voice (though I dearly love the writing of both Burke and Leonard.)
Hi Jake
It must be a nightmare if you’re set the task of making an audiobook version of a book with a cast of thousands. I’m told the Jim Dale spoken word versions of the Harry Potter books are excellent because he does distinct voices for all the different characters.
You’re very brave, letting your students read your WIP out loud! It would be very easy, with only a slight shift in their tone of voice, for drama to become melodrama and that would give you a totally false impression of your own work.
I remember at a Left Coast Crime, someone moderating a panel – and he knows who he is – read out the book jacket flap copy of one of PJ Parrish’s books in the kind of silly over-dramatic voice you get on movie trailers. She looked a bit mortified.
Hi Kathleen
I’m not a big audiobook reader (listener?) because I tend to read a book in fits and starts in the cracks of lots of other things. If I had to set aside special time for it, I wouldn’t get anything read at all.
And I like to see the shape of the words on the page, the balance of the construction, as well as getting submerged in the story.
But, lately, I’ve found that I get increasingly car-sick if I try and word on the lap top when we’re on anything other than a reasonably straight, un-gridlocked motorway. Twisty back roads do it to me every time, so I don’t get as much actual writing done in the car as I used to, and listening to a book is a great way for both Andy and myself to read it at the same time!
Hi Dana
I think you’re right. As I said to Jake – drama can very easily turn into something less if it’s read without complete conviction.
I can imagine that Robert B Parker’s wonderful pared-down prose would be a gift to perform. It’s just so clean and simple – he says so much in so few words – and the different characters are almost entirely rounded out by their dialogue.
Finding a voice is very difficult. It’s especially hard, when you’re just starting out, not to sound simply like you’re doing an impression of somebody else, and instead to find your own unique style, one that feels natural and easy. Good luck with it!
I don’t usually listen to audio books. I love to read. But we are going on a VERY LONG trip over Christmas, and I am going to download a few.
My favorite audio books are done by the author. I can’t imagine anyone other than David Sedaris doing his stuff, or Garrison Keillor. OR Neil Gaiman.
In fact, when I read a book by any of those authors, I HEAR THEIR VOICE IN MY HEAD when I read—really. Their writing is so similar the the way they talk. The same with Sarah Vowel.
Sedaris and Vowel are NF writers, but Keillor and Gaiman write fiction, so it must work for both forms of writing, at least for me.
Some audio book performers are brilliant. The guy who does the Harry Potter books is amazing.
And then there are the full audio treatments. Our family listened to the full LOTR trilogy, as dramatized by the BBC, on a long family trip from MN to the Black Hills, to CO, to IA, to MN. I thought the kids would be awful in the car for a 3 week road trip, but the books were wonderful. We even had to replay favorite parts.
Hi Fiona
I think the car is the ideal place to listen to audiobooks. We had a work trip round Scotland earlier this year, when we listened to an Ian Rankin on audio, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it, but it’s not something we’d do at home.
And yes, anyone who’s heard an author like Reed Farrel Coleman speak, can’t help but have that wonderful voice inside their head when they read the Moe Prager novels.
Trying to write outside from your natural voice must be like trying to sing outside your range – possible for short bursts, but a hell of a strain in the long run …
Congratulations on being GoH, Zoe–how wonderful, and much deserved!
I’ve become great pals with the talented woman who reads my American audiobooks–Hillary Huber. It even turns out that the older sister of the friend on whom I based my sidekick Ellis in A Field of Darkness was Hillary’s babysitter one summer, when she was little.
It’s a little weird for me to listen to her reading my stuff, though, as she emphasizes different words than I do in my head.
My oddest story about listening to an audiobook, however, was when I got sent a copy of Field in German. I popped the first disc into my computer and forwarded to a random section. I speak no German except being able to count to twelve (remnant of a brief sojourn in Waldorf school when I was four). The uncanny thing was that I immediately knew which chapter the woman was reading from, because she had nailed the voice of my mother EXACTLY, and all of a sudden I was hearing Mom talk about hanging curtains, only in Deutsch. Very weird.
I’ve heard rave reviews of audio books but so far have not tried them myself. Your advice to read your work out loud, however, is spot on. I’ve rewritten so much dialogue that way!
Hi Cornelia
How great that you’ve built up a relationship with your audio reader. Does she give you any feedback about the readability of your books?
I know I really notice certain bits in the extracts I pick to do at readings and events. There’s a line in FIRST DROP that reads:
‘Otherwise, although I was unquestionably about to die young, it seemed I was destined *not* to leave a beautiful corpse.’
And, every time, I trip over the word ‘unquestionably’ to the point where I don’t even attempt to say it any more. I say ‘without question’ instead.
You see, if I’d followed my own advice, I would have changed that ages ago …
And yes, I’m thrilled to be IGoH at Mayhem – the proper Guest of Honor title goes to Dana Stabenow. I’m really looking forward to it!
Hi Louise
I, too, have never really got into the whole audiobook thing on a regular basis. But, as I said, they’re great for the car. I like radio plays if I’m driving anywhere on my own, but an audiobook would be even better, because you never arrive at your destination and then have to sit in the car park for ten minutes because otherwise you’ll miss the end.
And yes, there’s nothing like reading dialogue out loud, is there? I mean, if it doesn’t sound like someone talking, what is it?
Louise and I are twins today, because I can’t say that I recall listening to anything on audio. If I’m driving and finally have a block of silence to myself, I’m thinking about my own story. In fact, silence around here is rare, so any block of it, I’m working on story.
But I do wholeheartedly agree about the reading out loud, and it’s a bonus to get someone else to read at least a section. It’s very enlightening to hear how others’ inflections change the rhythm and tone. It can definitely show you a piece’s failings in a hurry.
Zoe,This is a very interesting post and makes me want to listen/read more audio books — especially since I’ve been urging my daughter with the visual impairment to do just that.
I might even get a couple out of the library and listen with her.
Does anyone have any recommendations??? Maybe the Terry Pratchett?
But . . . the one I did listen to was TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. The reader was a woman with a gorgeous Southern accent and I could feel the sun on my shoulders and see the Spanish moss waving in the breeze. I tried to listen to it in the car but got so distracted I wouldn’t notice when the lights changed. 😉
Hi Toni
Time in the car has always been brilliant for problem-solving for me. If I’m thoroughly stuck with a book, nothing ungums my brain quite like a car journey.
I have to admit, though, I’ve only ever listened to three audiobooks – four if you count Clare Corbett’s excellent (please excuse my bias!) version of SECOND SHOT, and I haven’t finished that one yet.
Of those three, the Ian Rankin was great, I got used to the guy reading the Lee Child, and I gave up on another completely after about two chapters. It was an author I hadn’t read at all, and just couldn’t get on with the prose style, nor the reader’s voice.
That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? When you read a book yourself, the voices always fit because you’re relying on your own imagination rather than anyone else’s.
Hi Pari
I haven’t listened to enough audiobooks to comment, but I love Terry Pratchett’s City Watch books, which are sort-of police procedurals, if you accept that members of Ankh-Morpork’s unconventional police force include a 6ft dwarf, a troll, and a werewolf, and if you want to be a hitman in the city you really have to be a member of the Guild of Assassins. Great fun, though. I hope you and your daughter both enjoy the experience, whatever you choose to listen to.
I used to listen to audio books all of the time when I was painting. But I share a studio with my husband and only listen to books now when I’ve downloaded the book to my i-poddy thang (tiny Sansa Clip Mp3 player) and am going on long flights. The latest one was a full cast recording of the British tv series Blake’s Seven. I do love the British ones. The unabridged Terry Pratchett ones have me howling. And of course there are the BBC audiocast plays of Dorothy L Sayers books. But the plum favourite has always been the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters and brilliantly and wittily read by Barbara Rosenblat. 😀
I believe in a good author ‘voice’ appropriate to the text. It can hold me or turn me off when I read. Recently, I began reading a novel that was set in Southern England, but the voice came across to me as very juvenile. I struggled to read to the end, but just couldn’t get the adult protagonist’s little girl voice out of my head. Maybe I just approached it wrong, but it stuck with me and intruded on the story. I have since passed the book along to a friend.
I had the ‘read your manuscript aloud’ advice many years ago, so I do. 😀 It helps…
Cheers,M.
Hi M
Wow, I used to love Blake’s Seven. I watched some re-runs not that long ago and couldn’t believe the shonky sets, though. In one of the ‘special effects’ shots of a spacecraft, you could clearly see where a wing had been snapped off the plastic model and badly glued back together. Ah well.
Plane’s are good. I used to try and work on planes, but find unless you’re sitting up near the pointed end, there isn’t the room to use a laptop, and if I was working on a typescript I found people kept trying to read bits of it over my shoulder, which was very disconcerting …
And I agree, if the voice is wrong, it ruins the story – and that goes just as much for printed page as it does for audiobook.
Pari,We try to go with an audio book anytime we have a long journey in the car, so I can recommend Deaver’s THE COLD MOON, read by Joe Mantegna, Patterson’s SEASON OF THE MACHETE, read by Lou Diamond Phillips, and Kellerman’s TIME BOMB, read by John Rubinstein. They have varying degrees of language, so you may want to check them first.
Hi Jake
Now, the possibility a problem caused by a book containing sex, violence and bad language, when you’re reading in mixed company, is not one that had crossed my mind … until now, of course ;-]
Great topic Zoe. I have to agree that voice can make all the difference in the world. I do try to read my work out loud and it really does help.
As far as listening to audiobooks, voice to me is everything. There was one audiobook (I forget the title) where the woman who was reading made every character sound like they’re whining. I wanted to kill all of them, including the one’s you were supposed to empathize with..
By the way, love the little pic of Grommit. (It is Grommit, right?)
Hi RJ
Yes, voice is everything. And it’s not just a problem when other people read an author’s work out loud. I’ve heard a few people read from their own work and not really do it justice, shall we say. If you’re not a professional actor, don’t do all the onomatopoeic effects, but neither should you read it in an entirely eyes-downcast monotone …
The pic of Gromit is rather nice, isn’t it? I just went searching for one of the classic dog-with-its-head-in-a-gramophone ones, but couldn’t resist this.
Zoe,Understandable that it wouldn’t cross your mind. For me, it’s a constant thing. I’m a guy, so subjects like sex, violence, and bad language cross my mind on a pretty consistent basis.
😀
“‘ve heard a few people read from their own work and not really do it justice, shall we say.”
This is indeed true, Zoe. There is one particular writer who I think is excellent, but his reading voice doesn’t really do his writing skill justice.
“onomatopoeic” — What a great word :-]
Thanks for the suggestions, Zoe and Jake. I’ve read almost all the Pratchett books but haven’t heard any on audio yet.
And I’ll look into those ideas from you, Jake.
Merci.
Hey Jake
“Understandable that it wouldn’t cross your mind. For me, it’s a constant thing. I’m a guy, so subjects like sex, violence, and bad language cross my mind on a pretty consistent basis.”
I have a pretty low-brow sense of humour … ;-]
Hi RJ
‘Onomatopoeic’ is a lovely word, isn’t it? I really should have gone with that one as my WotW, but the derivation of ‘sincere’ just really appealed to me. How many of us can honestly claim our work is sincere when you realise where it originated?
Thanks Pari, but I think Jake had far more good ideas than I did on this one ;-]
I haven’t been able to do an audiobook. My mind wanders, I catch myself losing bits of the story, and suddenly I’m lost. And I made the mistake of getting an abridged version of a novel once, and it made no sense to me. I guess I need the visual. Like with names if I don’t see it written it doesn’t process. My head just doesn’t work aurally.
Fabulous topic, Z!
I haven’t been able to do an audiobook. My mind wanders, I catch myself losing bits of the story, and suddenly I’m lost. And I made the mistake of getting an abridged version of a novel once, and it made no sense to me. I guess I need the visual. Like with names if I don’t see it written it doesn’t process. My head just doesn’t work aurally.
Fabulous topic, Z!
Hi JT
I know what you mean about it being difficult to concentrate. I struggle to sit and just watch TV, but it’s an ideal time to do the ironing. Isn’t that multi-tasking?
But for those twisty bits of road when I can’t make notes or type on the laptop, audiobooks are great. We’ve just had a work trip cancelled for tomorrow because of the snow, and I’m quite disappointed that I won’t be able to hear a bit more of this one …
Hi Zoe,
Blake’s Seven was a lot of fun. I’ve illustrated a black and white calendar and some sophisticated fan fiction many years ago. 😀 The 3 cd set that I listened to came from my last trip to the UK. I have now decided to order whatever followups that they may have done since. Got a couple of Doctor Who ones as well. 😀
Yeah, B7 is hokey fun. Avon’s deadly wit made him all the sexier. 😀
In the past, I have found myself downing tools and just curling up and listening to a good audio book, especially late at night in front of a fire. 😀
Cheers,Marianne
Hmm, this is weird – I don’t think I’ve ever listened to an audio novel. I’ve listened to a few non-fiction books for research on long desert drives.
But last week I was on a signing trip with my signing buddy, Jenna Black, and we had a L O N G night drive, so we got Stephen King’s new book of short stories on disc. Mare Winningham reads “The Gingerbread Girl” and she is FABULOUS. I still don’t think I could listen to a whole book but those couple of stories we listened to that night were lifesaving.
Hi Marianne
“Yeah, B7 is hokey fun. Avon’s deadly wit made him all the sexier. :-D”
Oh yeah, with you there! Why do you think I used to be glued to it on TV years ago? Whatever happened to Paul Darrow?
Oh hell, did I say that out loud …?
Hi Marianne
“Yeah, B7 is hokey fun. Avon’s deadly wit made him all the sexier. :-D”
Oh yeah, with you there! Why do you think I used to be glued to it on TV years ago? Whatever happened to Paul Darrow?
Oh hell, did I say that out loud …?
Sorry about the dual comments, folks. Typepad keeps throwing a wobbly on me!
Hi Alex
Short stories on audio would be great. I picked up a CD from a UK group of writers called Murder Squad a little while back, and they’d each recorded a short story for a an audio anthology.
Perhaps we ought to do a Murderati one? ;-]
Sorry about some of the multiple comments, by the way – Typepad seems to be throwing a complete wobbly tonight. I’ve already tried to post this apology once, but it ate it, or something.
Or maybe it just automatically confiscates anything mildly uncomplimentary about Typepad?
Thank you to everyone who’s posted, by the way, and have a great Christmas!
And don’t forget – books make great gifts and there’s still time …
Pari,De Rien.
Zoe,I think your sense of humor looks just fine, but that could be because it’s eye-level with mine….
Zoe, excellent insights. I’ve recorded a couple audio books, and all I can say is, “Readers earn their money.”
As to Paul Darrow, you’ll be glad to hear a new B7 (a film, I believe, with Darrow) is in development at The Beeb.
Jake – it’s nice to be so sophisticated, isn’t it?
And Tom – sorry not to get back to you last night. I was still working until 3am (again) UK time, but after that I just had to call it a night.
Yes, I can imagine that the concentration needed to read an audiobook for recording would be immense. It’s hard enough to read a short section without fluffing the odd word here or there. I know when I read bits for the downloads on my own website, some of them took a few goes!
Hi Zoe,
Oh yeah, Avon = sexy…
I met Paul Darrow, his wife and the bloke you played Vila in Melbourne many years ago. Loveliest of people. 😀 Paul got to shoot his wife in the final episode of B7 called ‘Blake’.
Yes, they are redoing the series. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with. 😀 Mind you, it makes me want to resurrect the B7 novel I wrote: I did some good writing and plotting in that piece. SIgh. It’s nice to dream.
Cheers,Marianne
Zoe, I think we’re all aware of time zone differences. Not to worry.