Audiobooks discussion

What are your thoughts, as narrators or listeners, about how to handle dialogue with different characters within a first-person narration? A narrator asked if we wanted to stay with the narrator's voice or use character voices, and I realized I'd assumed character voices—but I realize now that someone telling a story isn't naturally going to use different voices while telling it. This one's actually a little bit of a special case--in the book the narrator is supposed to be writing a murder mystery that ends up being the book--but only in one case does she actually quote something she's written.

There is quite a lot of dialogue, which is a strong point of the book (it's quite funny, and would make a good screenplay), with a good range of characters--both men and women in a range of ages and accents (lower and upper British classes; it's set in the 1940s).

How's this kind of thing usually handled? I'm so new to audiobooks, I don't know the conventions. I got such great advice and suggestions when I asked about narrators for this book, I thought I'd ask here!

I'm fairly sure that it's usual to still have different character voices, even if the book is written from the first person POV. I've never noticed a distinction between the way different POVs are handled in audiobooks. I suppose the logic is that the person telling the story would have heard the other characters speaking, and is reporting that when telling the story.

I'm not sure that I completely understand the complication of the book being written etc., but even in that case one could argue that an author "hears" her characters speaking.

I think one of the main reasons narrators use character voices is to make it easier for the listener to know immediately who is speaking (since they can't see "X said" out of the corner of their eyes as they can when reading). If so, that's an argument for using them in any event.

I think different character voices are essential, especially if the dialogue is low on tags (he said, she asked, etc.) It matters little whether the story is told first-person or third-person.

I also think that different voices are important. When reading you get the beginning and ending quotes, plus line breaks, that aren't there in audio.

Thanks, everyone. I think you're right--I was just a little taken aback. The good thing is that it works fine if the other voices sound like the main narrator doing impressions of other voices, since she actually is doing that (that is, male voices don't have to be so realistic).

Thanks for bringing up this topic, MMP! I'd like to chime in, in support of using character voices. My audiobook, which just went live today on Audible, takes place in Hawaii. It's written in first person, and it really needed a narrator who could do credible Pidgin as well as Continental voices. In this scene, for example, the student is local and male. I don't think using a mainland, female voice for him would have worked as well.

Another point, in first-person POV, we see the scenes through the main character's eyes, but we also hear it through their ears--a point which is irrelevant in print but critical for audio. There is a small minority preference for no character voices among audiobook readers, even in third person POV, so you'll never please everybody,, but the vast majority prefer good character voices regardless of POV.

On the question of the FIRST PERSON narrative voice: As an actor I try to find the character of the first person and narrate the book in the voice I find for him. The first questions I ask the author are "Where is he from?" "What is his age?" and "Any information about his social background or up-bringing?" With that information, by reading the book and by making informed acting decisions based on that character-study, (intelligence, sense of humour, affectations, rhythms of speech... etc) I come to a voice which I hope is close to the one the author heard in their head when creating the character. Other characters are assigned their own voices in the same way as in any narration in the way that character would hear them.

Jeanie wrote: "Another point, in first-person POV, we see the scenes through the main character's eyes, but we also hear it through their ears--a point which is irrelevant in print but critical for audio. There ..."

Yes!

If your doing the same voice all the way through it is just a straight read and that gets boring I always enjoy an audiobook narration where everyone has their own voice.

A differentiation should also be made when the first person character/narrator is speaking versus thinking, as dialogue won't always be tagged with "I said" and "I thought". Italicized type, as well as quotation marks, hypens, parentheses and much more are what a reader "sees" but a listener cannot see, unless appropriate hesitation or other voice changes are made. Author's put these tools in to communicate and if the reader/narrator doesn't provide that information for the listener, then the story is not being "told" as it was intended to be told.

I wholeheartedly agree Kimberly. Much of that differentiation can be achieved by lowering the volume of speaking to a semi-whisper, changing the tonal quality of the voice and moving closer to the microphone thus creating a more intimate, "in the head" quality. I remove breaths from thought as well.

Kimberly wrote: "A differentiation should also be made when the first person character/narrator is speaking versus thinking, as dialogue won't always be tagged with "I said" and "I thought". Italicized type, as wel..."

I wholeheartedly agree Kimberly. Much of that differentiation can be achieved by lowering the volume of speaking to a semi-whisper, changing the tonal quality of the voice and moving closer to the microphone thus creating a more intimate, "in the head" quality. I remove breaths from thought as well.

Very interesting, from an editor's point of view. I tend to avoid speech and thought tags—"she said," "John thought"—wherever possible, and I was wondering how that would play in an audiobook. It seems like if the narrator is good, and careful, they're a little beside the point when you can hear the difference in the narration, so avoiding these makes even more sense for a book that will be recorded. (Of course it has to be clear to the narrator.)

Manor Minor Press wrote: "Very interesting, from an editor's point of view. I tend to avoid speech and thought tags—"she said," "John thought"—wherever possible, and I was wondering how that would play in an audiobook. It s..."

A narrator must read the book as written no matter the redundancy. I've seen this mentioned in many audiobook discussions with narrators.

MissSusie wrote: "Manor Minor Press wrote: "Very interesting, from an editor's point of view. I tend to avoid speech and thought tags—"she said," "John thought"—wherever possible, and I was wondering how that would ..."

Again, absolutely right. The book is the authors work and no narrator should take it upon themselves to change it. I've also had this conversation with other narrators and point out that there is a flow of rhythm and cadence to an authors "Voice" which, even with permission to alter assignments of speech or thought, must be considered and respected.

Of course. I didn't mean that the narrator should change the book when reading it, or leave anything out. I see that my comment could be misread as suggesting the narrator actually drop speech tags, which seems obviously a bad idea (and complicated!). I'm paid to alter the text, while a narrator is paid to interpret it.

What I meant is that the fewer dialogue tags and descriptions of how things are said in the manuscript, the less the narrator has to go on, so the narrator has to be careful to keep track of who's speaking, and judge how a line should be spoken from the actual speech and the context, not stage directions like "she whispered intensely."

But it doesn't hurt for me, as the editor, to think about how *my editing* might affect how well the final audiobook reads. Unnecessary overdescriptiveness in dialogue tags (she whined, he bellowed)—something that's rarely a good thing anyway—really jumps out when someone's already read the line aloud. I know some of the best writers read their writing aloud for rhythm, and I like to think about that, and also try to think how a sentence is spoken when I'm in doubt about punctuation. I can see how bad punctuation (signaling pauses or shifts in the wrong place in a sentence) could really trip a narrator up.

Manor Minor Press wrote: "Of course. I didn't mean that the narrator should change the book when reading it, or leave anything out. I see that my comment could be misread as suggesting the narrator actually drop speech tags..."

Right, Manor Minor, I was referring to the suggestion that a narrator might not read the book as written made by Miss Susie. I understand how as a writer and editor that keeping in mind that a book may be recorded for Audio might be tricky. Especially when even in it's printed form one wishes to avoid the "He said" "She said"" style.

Manor Minor Press wrote: "Of course. I didn't mean that the narrator should change the book when reading it, or leave anything out. I see that my comment could be misread as suggesting the narrator actually drop speech tags..."

Ok I see what you are saying now.

While there are different tastes, i think the most popular and sought-after narrators, like Jim Dale, George Guidall or Barbara Rosenblatt always differentiate the voices of the various characters. It's astounding how many different voices they can do. Apparently Jim Dale kept recordings of each character when he was doing the Harry Potter series to be sure he did them the same way when they came back 2 books later. It's this talent that makes me love audiobooks. If they were all read in a flat continuous voice, I might still use them when driving but otherwise I would read in print, since for me it's faster. But there are some series where I deliberately do only audio because it's just so entertaining (Bloody Jack, #1 Ladies Detective Agency, Chet & Bernie mysteries for instance)

Then there is the option of having a different narrators read the lines of different characters. That is sometimes done but I find it distracting myself.

Yeah. So do I.