Audio DA fanfic !!

[scarylady]

It occurs to me that the lovely, and altogether too modest, msbarrows has not linked her latest work here.  She mailed me a link over a week ago and I intended to bung it up, but press of events stopped me.

Therefore, I present to you the dulcet tones of this lovely lady, reading 3 short DA fanfics, including one of my own.  I'm proud to have been included in her selections.

http://msbarrows.tumblr.com/post/18983216080

PS.  This exercise also got me thinking about how differently I would write if I was writing for audio as my primary media.  There were a few things - in the story of mine that she picked - which worked well as the written word, but didn't translate perfectly for a voice file. 

Hmm.  Anyone had any experience of writing for audio and fancies chipping into a debate?  Would love to hear your thoughts.

Comments

[msbarrows]

I haven't been the only person doing readings, either - there was quite a burst of them being done for a while on Tumblr, to the point that one of the Tumblrites made a community to round them all up in:

http://chantsmanifestosandsongs.tumblr.com/

It also contains links to the KnickerWeasels DA Podcasts, which are interesting to listen to.

It's currently a little behind on updating as the mod for it is involved in finals and ME3 play, I believe, but hopefully will resume updating soon.

[darkrose]

I've done some podficcing, and my overall impression is that it's a hell of a lot harder than it looks--or sounds. For every five minutes of reading, I put in about 30 minutes of editing.

It can also be tricky to distinguish voices without falling into the trap of trying to sound like the characters, which I think would be even harder for me with DA, because so much of the characterization comes from the voice actor's interpretation of the character, and because my normal accent is so far removed from that of most of the characters in game. In SGA, it was easy for me to convey different voices with subtle changes: speaking a little faster for Rodney, going slightly more nasal in that Western U.S. drawl that Sheppard's actor uses, or removing contractions for Teyla. I'd find it much harder to read, say, Alistair or Zevran.

[scarylady]

The main thing I noticed, in the reading of my little dwarven tale, was that switches in speaker, and thoughts, weren't clear. We rely on tricks when we write: a speaker has obviously changed when there's a new paragraph in the dialogue (or if not, the punctuation informs you). An italicised sentence is a thought, we all use the same formatting for that.

For voicefic you need a different set of tricks, and I have to confess, I don't know them. It would to be fun to try, though. I'd need a reader, as my Lancashire accent isn't a thing of joy for the listener.

[the_morningstar616]

I always think people who record audiofics are incredibly brave, I'm not sure I'd dare to, I hate the sound of my voice when it's recorded and played back.

As far as writing for audio is concerned, I imagine it would be very difficult - everything has to be fairly explicit or things would get rather confusing.

[le_monde]

I have a terrible time with what I call brain lightening and therefore must read my stuff out loud to catch even half of my errors...waist into waste and don't get me started on pictures and pitchers...or dropped words that I think are there, until I read it aloud and find that I've left out a subject or a verb.

Most of my real life I do legal writing, so it's all very formulaic and expected - read no creative thought - yet even there, I will read something difficult to an empty room or the other gal in the office because frell, we gotta get it right.

All that said, yes, give voice to the characters dialog <- most especially! It helps to get their style of speaking right. Yes, we've all heard Alistair or Zevran, but even your own personal Wardens have a voice that's important to keep stable.

[jannifer]

I used to advise my students to read their work out loud if they didn't have someone else to look things over. It's much easier to catch a mistake when it's being processed on two levels.

It seems to me that reading fiction does involve a certain amount of acting. Even a subtle change in tone or inflection can be enough to signal a change in speaker.

As to how one would write for audio, I'm with Scary -- I haven't a clue. Would be an interesting exercise, though.