Listener's likes and dislikes

[Alan]

As an audiobook listener, what are your strongest likes and dislikes about what narrators do?

[Scott S.]

It's supper time so this will be sloppy:
I mostly just want my narrators to not be Casey Affleck. Aside from that, a quality soundbooth is important. Breathing or smacking noises are offenses punishable by death. If voices are done, they must be consistent.

Lastly it is important to realize that some people just aren't cut out for narrating.

[Sandra]

J. wrote: "It's supper time so this will be sloppy:
I mostly just want my narrators to not be Casey Affleck. Aside from that, a quality soundbooth is important. Breathing or smacking noises are offenses punis..."

LOL, blunt as usual, J, but I have to agree with all that except the Casey Affleck part, who I've never heard.

[Liz]

I want the narrator to sound like the character. For example, if the character is a 25 year old girl, she shouldn't sound like a weathered older woman. I also like when they read with emotion.

Dislikes - dry mouth/swallowing, not pronouncing places right.

[Briar Rose]

Dislikes:
- Music which the narrator has to talk over (it's too hard listening to competing sounds).
- Male narrators doing silly falsettos or breathy Marilyn Munroe-style voices for women. Female narrators doing silly voices for men.
- A flat delivery with little variety.
- Shouting, even if that's what it says the character is doing in the book. It's seriously painful to the ears and interrupts the flow of reading. If you can't get across shouting in any other way apart from massively increasing volume you don't know how to use your voice.

Likes:
- Crisp, clear delivery.
- Good distinguishing between character voices without going overboard (i.e. do character voices rather than cartoon voices).
- Matching the narrator to the book in terms of accent and gender, e.g. having a good female RP accented voice for Jane Austen. Ideally, if it's a first person they should be the gender of the character; if it's 3rd person they should either be the gender of the main character or the author, whichever suits the book best. My big bugbear is English books with English characters read by American narrators. (Although I don't care about the narrator's gender and accent so much as good delivery).

[Paul]

All very interesting likes and dislikes. As a storytelling teacher/coach of both emerging and experienced narrators, and a Grammy winning audiobook producer/director, I'd argue there's a vocabulary listeners can acquire that assists in characterizing their responses to audiobooks: emotional connection. The fundamental responsibility of the storyteller (narrator's aesthetic nom de plume) is to connect the text's emotional consequence to the listener. When that connection occurs, it places the story in real time, and it's as if the listener is experiencing the story in the here and now. Bottom line: As a listener, am I emotionally connected to the characters and events by the narrator? Do I feel involved in the narrative? Or do I feel as if I'm sort of hearing an emotionally neutral news report, being 'read to,' albeit by a person with a pleasant, modulated voice?

Finally, all consumer dislikes can often be aesthetically summarized by the following: lack of willing suspension of disbelief. That is, when the listener doesn't believe an accent is authentic, doesn't believe a character is realistically portrayed, is introduced to a noise, an affect that emotionally disconnects them from the narrative, they can no longer willingly suspend their disbelief, and remain involved in the story. They are emotionally removed--out of it.

[[deleted user]]

In other words, we can't lose ourselves in the story if the narrator won't "let us".

[Briar Rose]

Paul wrote: "All very interesting likes and dislikes. As a storytelling teacher/coach of both emerging and experienced narrators, and a Grammy winning audiobook producer/director, I'd argue there's a vocabulary..."

Totally agree with you Paul. Everything should be tending towards helping the listener connect emotionally to the material.

[John, Moderator]

Moderator notice: Please be careful in posting in the correct area. This topic had nothing to do with technical aspects of audiobook listening.