Writing for an Audio book. What are specifics?

Question

What are specific requirements, a writer should follow, when writing something that is going to be (or just can possibly be) not only read but listened as well?

Answer 1

Well you will probably want to avoid very long place or character names. A lot of the names used for fantasy novels don't really lend themselves to spoken expression.

Answer 2

The best advice I can give: read aloud what you've written. When you write a book, you're writing for the eye. When you write an audio piece, you're writing for the ear. If it doesn't sound good when you read aloud, then it won't sound good to the reader.

Some specific tips

• Be concise and keep sentence structure simple. We're listening, not reading so we've got to comprehend quick and fast.

• Write the way you speak.

• Write as though you're communicating with one person at a time, that's how people will listen after all.

• Use more present participles than you would for a book or text-on-paper kind of piece. For a book, it's good to avoid the verb "to be" -- but for an audio piece, it works because we use "to be" in speech constantly.

Answer 3

An interesting story.

I've heard both fiction and non-fiction audiobooks. The only thing that's really required is interest. The reader can add a lot, but if there's nothing worth knowing or experiencing then people aren't going to want to listen.

Answer 4

Straightforward sentence structure will help. Try listening to some radio drama or the BBC Radio 4 "Book at Bedtime" (a slightly abridged version of a existing novel).