lgbtq+ WRITING

I’ve written a bit before (e.g. here for aspiring narrators and here for self-publishing authors) about audiobooks. I love them. They provide a different way to understand writing. I fall asleep to them, I walk to work to them, I do exercise to them, I do laundry to them.

I’m currently publishing my first book, and part of that is working with an excellent voice actor who is currently preparing his draft narration of it.

Obviously, part of my listening is to pick up points on which I wish to comment: I wrote this sentence meaning it to convey this emotion rather than that one; could you redo this paragraph etc etc yada yada.

But I completely underestimated the sheer thrill and joy of hearing my book read professionally. It’s like experiencing somebody enjoying your book for the first time, hearing their emotions as they read it, yet hearing it so powerfully and evocatively because of their skills as vocal actors.

Good audiobooks can take your writing to a different level. They can take a character’s momentary thought: a word, a phrase, a paragraph, and transform it into something extraordinarily special.

I don’t know that I’m a wonderful writer. I suspect when I publish the book, that should people actually read it, I’ll discover through reviews that I’m not. But an expert narrator can persuade me that, at least on occasion, I can write something powerful.

So yes, read books. But consider audiobooks too. They’re brilliant.