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Sunday, May 15, 2011

RTW: The Audio Book

Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival, where YA Highway’s contributors and readers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s take on the topic.

This week, Road Trip Wednesday the prompt was: If you could pick a celebrity to read the audio book of your WIP or your favorite novel, who would it be?

The problem with audio books is that even the best ones can be ruined by a bad reading. Okay, maybe not ruined, but definitely reduced in overall awesomeness.

I read The Road on paper and loved it. (If you haven’t read this, I highly recommend it.) Since The Man drove hours to work every day, he bought the audio version. I was in the car one day while he was listening and heard something that didn’t make sense.

I paused the book to explain it to The Man. The reader, who had been changing his voice to either fit the man or the boy, switched the two in scene. Anyhow, I’m not saying the audiobook of The Road is bad by any means, but was it as good as the real book? No.

Which is why I like to hear author’s reading their own books. You’re not getting someone else’s interpretation of when to pause, what to yell, when to emphasize a word.

That said, the ideal narrator for my WIP would be a mix of Natalie Portman and Emma Stone.


The main character is a girl who is grieving the loss of her sister. She’s quiet, insecure about her physical disability, and feeling out of place as she returns to a home she lived in before her sister’s death. I think Natalie Portman would do a good job showing the character’s insecurity, vulnerability, grief and, in a way, her irrational desire to bring her sister back to life.


But she’s also strong and confident. My main character’s sister outshone her for most of her life, but she also loved her. And because of their bond my main character is self-confident. Once she gets to know people she’s no longer shy, but animated. Emma Stone would be great for when my character is around people she trusts—because she’s much less guarded with them. Her tough voice would also be perfect for the parts of the book where the main character is fighting for her life and the life of those around her.

Which celebrity would you pick to read your WIP (or your favorite book)?
 

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