To Read or Not To (merely) Read · 5:42am Feb 8th, 2015
I first began this journey into story narration with "Eternal." Yes I know it is often perceived as being overly wordy in places, but that is just what I needed. My background was in radio work, doing promos and ads and producing those insufferable ad-on-hold messages (read "covert advertisements") one gets while waiting on the telephone for someone to impart some other useless bit of information to you.
Doing that is nothing at all like reading a story, and reading a story is not exactly like telling a story. I had the diction certainly but I was totally clueless on how to effectively tell a story. If you listen through "Eternal" (brave soldier) you will see how my technique evolves as I go along. Having that one long story to begin to hone my skills was essential to learning the craft and endless listening to it (which one must do if one is to provide any measure of self-critique) as well as discussing its progress with Device Heretic (when one could actually catch up with the fellow; he seemed a tad elusive at times) taught me things about how I think a story ought be told (aloud).
From there I moved through a couple of one-shots "All the stars in the sky" "And the Temptress Came Unto her" and finally into "Past Sins" where I feel like I finally got a good sense of the pacing and timing needed. From way back then up until now I have changed a number of things like Microphones, de-essing techniques, de-breathing and software to try to build more of the story-telling aspect of the thing, to reduce things which take the listener out of the story.
I used to think I needed to do all of this with my own voice, as silly as it sounds for me to voice Pinkie Pie or having nothing more than a half Cockney-Australian brogue to give to Rainbow Dash. Part of that was me wishing to maintain continuity and timing and partly simply because I had not yet met the wonderful friends I have now, including the amazing Scribbler. Seriously if there is a person in this fandom who deserves more accolades for her hard work and giving nature than Scribbler, I do not know who it is.
So then I tried adding in other voices to my pieces, starting with "Apotheosis" (insert squee here for Daetrin's wonderful stories) which I did with Scribbler providing all voices other than mine, and I began to listen more to works by her and other narrators. Some, like me, simply read stories to one degree of competency or another. Some turn them into plays or composite structures with varying degrees of background music, sound effects and commentary. I look at all of their work alike with pride and respect because it takes a great deal of work to produce an audio recording and they each give of themselves to the community of fans, a community of fans I am proud to be part of. To each his own; they are all valid forms of expression.
I have elected to use only bumper music for mine, usually some old royalty-free pieces that I have in my collection from my radio days but sometimes I am lucky enough (as in "Past Sins") to have wonderful fan produced things to add. My personal choice for not using music within the text of the story is simply because I am always trying to hone that 'story around the fire' aspect of the experience. Others who do not feel that way produce equally beautiful work, it is just slightly conceptually different.
The one place I do vary is in sound effects. Most authors do not include them in the texts as dialogue but some do, notably Pen Stroke. When they do I try to include them as well from a sound-effects library since doing them with my voice or leaving them out detracts from the story. When the sounds are part of the description of the story I usually will let the description serve for the listener without adding external effects. as this is usually effective without being detractive from the experience. Occasionally I will ad them anyway when I feel it will add to the climactic feeling of the piece, such as in the eighth chapter of "How to Train Your Pegasus" by L3gion. There I felt it a necessary part of the development of the story, a crescendo if you will.
And herein lies the rub. Do I include sound effects or not? Lots of them, or a few placed here and there? Ultimately I will decide this, most likely with a compromise of sorts, but I get mail on both sides. Some want more effects, some less. I have not made up my mind on this yet. But I am thinking about it. What a wonderful world we live in, to have such decisions to make.
Hm. Good question without a good answer. I can remember vividly the AM radio mystery plays that came on just as my bedtime rolled around back in the 70's, and the absolute masterful work they managed to do with the sound F/X and voices. I'm more of the Less-Is-More school, although there are few things that set the scene of the Amazon jungle better than the overused bird-call featuring the bird that isn't even native to the area and that I can't remember the name of. Arrgh.
These blogs are magnificent.
I like the idea of using sound effects for fic readings, but they would have to be synced in at exactly the right moments. For me, less is more, but It's like adding salt to a cake; too little and it won't accent the sugar enough, but if you add too much, it...won't taste the best.
I still remember that first crack of lightning in your Past Sins reading. It was surprising and really added a lot. I think the occasional counterpoint like that is the way to go. I mean, there's nothing wrong with Scribbler's approach of sound effects for everything, but that's her approach, not yours. :)
Your explanation on why you don't add music in the middle of your story is almost a perfect answer to your question of whether to add sound effects or not. It's almost completely dependent on your style and how well done it is. I've heard it done well both ways and I've also heard plenty of misses. I ca't remember the story or story tellers, but I've heard stock sound effects that have pulled me out of the story because it didn't match the following description of the noise. I can also point to Scribbler's voicing of some yells from Snow Bolt and Cheeky in 'How to Train Your Pegasus' which were disappointing (Although this could be because of how awesome both her and your voice acting and editing is normally)
My answer: do what you think sounds best for the story and how you want to tell it. No matter what you choose, your readings place you in the top three in this community (the others being, of course, Scribbler and Dr Wolf)
2778916
I thank you for your kind words tosety. It means a lot that you think so kindly of my work. I must point out however that Scribbler did not voice Snow Bolt. I was using a new VA named KittenKitoko.
2779015
oops, must've been getting it mixed up with your other works
Things get surprisingly tricky as soon as you deviate at all from just having one voice read all the words on the page. I still don't know any good way to deal with speech tags when there are multiple readers. Having the narrator read any of the voices sounds strange, because then it's like
"I don't know," Twilight said.
Fluttershy sighed. "It's okay," she said, looking off to the north. "I wouldn't have stopped them anyway."
You can't just throw out the speech tags and alternate readers, because there's info in the speech tags. But the tags are more intrusive in a reading with multiple readers, and the voices are more distinctive, so the solution that was right for a text is never right for a reading.
2779461
I deal with this sort of thing constantly when employing other actors. If I am reading all of it then naturally I include all the attributions, or speech tags. But when I have other actors to help differentiate it does get complex. I generally include the attributions when they include descriptives such as "Fluttershy said, frowning in disgust" by try to leave them out otherwise except with the attributions could be ambiguous. The latter can usually only be ascertained by listening to the product. I am more prone to including them if I am doing any of the voices myself as this can help assuage the confusion.
This is something I have had to learn as I have gone along with employing new voices. Actually I am glad there are no hard and fast rules to it because it makes me more comfortable with my choices.
As for sound effects, I've found that most stories work equally well with them and without. The time and effort required to put sound effects to good use seldom seems to be worth the trouble, since the perceived benefit is only nominal at best.
There are notable exceptions: I agree that what you did with "How To Train Your Pegasus" was worthwhile, and certainly Scribbler and TheLostNarrator et al. use them to great effect.
Yes, surely, fitting background music/effects may add a lot to the reading ("Eclipsed" by Scribbler is a great example of that), as well as appropriate actors ("Truth To Be Told", by Lost Narrator + all the cast).
But honestly, your storytellers voice and good writings you select to read/publish make your question not that important. I listened your "Eternal" reading to the end. Twice. Just enjoying the story and toasty feeling of your voice. "Past Sins" even better. Recent "Apotheothis" & "How To Train Your Pegasus" - great ones.
I guess its your feeling you must follow. If you feel like near-the-fire storyteller while reading the story - do it yourself ("Leviathan", "Lost Cities", type of stories, for instance). But if you feel like the story would be great as a theatre play - go ahead with the scenery and actors as far as you can :)
2787475
Thank You Dizzy. I appreciate your kind words. And I cannot imagine my "Apotheosis" Without Scribbler. She was Extraordinary.