April's writing progress
Stone & Silence has gone very slowly this month. It's now at 74,000 words, which means I've added only 3,000 words since the last update. I did cut a couple of thousand words, so I've actually written about 5,000, but that's still not very many.
I've made better progress with the audiobook of The Accidental Dragonrider. I've completed the initial edit, putting the words in the right order without any extraneous noises, and I've inserted the different character voices. I ended up doing different voices just for the dragons, not for any of the human characters. There are a few bits I need to re-record, and one I managed to miss out altogether (the About the Author section). Then I need to adjust the volume to make it consistent throughout, so the listener doesn't have to keep raising and lowering it. I should be done with all that by the time of the next progress report. Then I have to see if it'll be accepted by the retailers I've got in mind...
I've made better progress with the audiobook of The Accidental Dragonrider. I've completed the initial edit, putting the words in the right order without any extraneous noises, and I've inserted the different character voices. I ended up doing different voices just for the dragons, not for any of the human characters. There are a few bits I need to re-record, and one I managed to miss out altogether (the About the Author section). Then I need to adjust the volume to make it consistent throughout, so the listener doesn't have to keep raising and lowering it. I should be done with all that by the time of the next progress report. Then I have to see if it'll be accepted by the retailers I've got in mind...
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Grandma
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May 05, 2015 02:08AM
Can't go full bore all the time, Steven. Creativity sometimes takes a break. Even the Muses need a bit of a holiday from time to time. Don't beat yourself up for not adding much, especially when you've been editing and tightening up what's already been written. That's harder than doing the original! And the audio version has to be terribly time-consuming. Cut yourself some slack and enjoy the springtime! I'm sure you'll be back on track with the new book soon, though summer is a time to be outdoors, not stuck in an office. All in good time.
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Thanks for the encouragement :-) The dry spell will end sooner or later. Something similar has happened with every previous book. I know roughly what needs to happen in the rest of the book; it's just a matter of knuckling down and writing it.I have some experience in sound recording, but the audiobook is something new, as I've never used a system that captures this much detail before. With previous systems, all the noise inherent in the electronics would mask any little mistakes. If I turn this one up loud enough, I can occasionally hear myself breathing through my nose...
I'm also maybe not used to the degree of control I have over the output. I keep asking myself whether a pause between sentences is too long or too short, knowing that I can adjust it if I think I need to. If I keep doing this, I'll eventually learn to get the pauses right when I'm recording...
Try pretending you're reading to your child. The pauses and voice changes seem to become more natural in all the right places, and don't try to do too much at a time or you might find yourself reading in a monotone. That worked pretty well for me as teacher, especially if I had to get through a long narrative section. Nothing is worse when listening than to have the reader drop into a monotone and it's really easy to do as a reader if you try to do too much at once! Even a textbook can come alive if you pretend you're reading to a 4 year old! Especially if you sort of stick to that length of attention span in each session, as well. Keeps you from getting bored and allowing it to come through in your voice. Lots of pitfalls in reading aloud, particularly when you're reading something you wrote yourself. Reading aloud effectively is TOUGH!! And even worse when you find yourself wanting to correct mistakes you made while writing. Teachers struggle with it almost daily. If you find yourself not quite satisfied with your recordings you might try talking with a few teachers you know and see if you can get some ideas to help you make it the best it can be. Good luck! Cheers, Grandma Gayle
Just a thought...what about adding a real low level background soundtrack of classical music or something to cover those extraneous noises that bother you? Is that even feasible? I guess the big question is whether it would distract the listener or add to the story if done well. Might require finding and hiring a good professional sound mixer which could definitely be an expensive downside unless you can find exactly the right music and combination to add to the story. As I said, just a thought...
Imagining myself reading to a child would be easier if I had a child, or knew any children well enough to imagine them. I'll bear it in mind for the next book :-)I heard an interview with a radio presenter once, and the interviewer asked him if he ever got nervous speaking to millions of people. He said no, because even though the audience might be huge, most people listen on their own or in small groups. What he did was imagine himself speaking to one person (I forget whether it was someone he knew or a made-up person), and any nerves he might have had vanished. It also helped him with his delivery, as you speak quite differently to a small audience than a large one.
I recorded a chapter at a time, which may have been a mistake with the longer chapters - I should probably have split those up. If I made a mistake while recording and noticed it at the time, I read that sentence again until I was happy with it. I then recorded the whole chapter again, so that if I made a mistake that I didn't notice, I could use the relevant part of the other take. And yes, I noticed some mistakes in the text that slipped through proofreading - very annoying!
Background music would certainly help to hide noises, and can enhance the listener experience if done well, but I'm not sure the site I'll be submitting to actually allows it. Maybe a majority of listeners don't like it, or maybe they've had too many people do it wrong to want to bother with it. Licensing could be a problem - the scores of most pieces of classical music are in the public domain, but most high-quality recordings of them are still in copyright, which means paying for the right to use them. I'd say I have the technical skills to do it - the main problem, apart from licensing, would just be finding suitable music. I'm not a big fan of classical music, though my father enjoys it - maybe I'll ask him.
Classical like Bach is supposed to enhance learning. Perhaps add it to problem sections or as emphasis in certain sections kind of like music leads one into an exciting part of a movie. Maybe take a poll amongst your followers and see what the consensus is. It might not be feasible, but you obviously can't stop breathing as you read and it's the only thing I could think of that might cover those sections that bother you. Might be worth investigating. I know I have difficulty staying awake during audio books and I think for me it might make it more interesting. I can't help but think of music and sound effects and such from old radio broadcasts like Orson Welles and the like. Always kept your attention.
I, um, took most of the breaths out when I edited the recording, as I find them distracting. That's one of the reasons why editing is taking so long...I don't often doze off listening to long speech recordings, but I do sometimes find my attention wandering. I probably shouldn't listen to them while I'm sitting at my computer, with all the distractions of the Internet at my fingertips.
