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Post by spearcarrier on Apr 6, 2017 15:17:11 GMT -8
I've slowly been recording one of my novels into audiobook form. The book has a lot of flashbacks in it. It kind of depends on them, actually.
In post production, what ways can I set them apart from the regular narration? I don't want to do a echoing voice... it sounds weird... and am short on ideas of what to do. Google has yielded me no answers.
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Post by cbdroege on Apr 7, 2017 1:05:24 GMT -8
If it's indicated well in the text, you shouldn't need to do anything. You introduce it as "x years ago:" or however you do it in the text. If it's not well indicated, you have a lot more options than just echos.
In one of my stories I have some flashbacks that are indicated in the text in italics,and bounced between flashback and present in some sections, which was not indicated in the text, so rather than adding new words when I recorded the story, I did the flashbacks in a much more sinister and feral tone, though that worked well mostly because we were going back to a much more sinister and feral time for the character. Just using a different tone can be very clear to the audience. Switching between an adult and child-like voice for example could be effective if the flashback is to childhood.
You could also do some different effects, like limiting the frequency range of the section to make it sound more hollow and distant, or even make it sound like a radio broadcast or phone call. If it's a flashback to a very distant time and it's a first-person narrator, you could add hisses and scratches to the passage to make it sound like a very old recording. I did that once for a story that was flipping between the pages of an old journal and the modern commentary about the journal.
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Post by spearcarrier on Apr 7, 2017 11:07:07 GMT -8
Yep, the flashbacks are all italicized. That was how you could tell it was a memory. At the time I wrote this, turning it into an audiobook was the farthest thing from my mind.
I've got a light and scratchy voice, so reading in a more dark tone doesn't happen. LOL. I've thought of the following ways to maybe do it.
1. Echo or some sort of voice effect. It might work with a male voice in this case but not mine, so it's out.
2. Fairy twinkle sounds at opening of flashback sequence! Yeah, that's dumb and ill-fitting to the book.
3. Saying something along the lines of, "Yo, listeners, so we're... um... gonna do a flashback sequence now..." Yeah, I thought that was dumb too.
4. The husband suggested I wriggle my fingers and say, "doo doo doo doo" but I was pretty sure I wouldn't get away with that.
5. Background music soundtrack during the opening of the flashback sequences. This is the one I'm currently experimenting with.
6. Hire someone else to be my flashback reader. I seriously thought about this one, but knowing that listeners really appreciate when the author reads their own stuff I have went in another direction.
I'm guessing my opening "copyright section" will need to say that the background music is referencing a flashback just in case or something.
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Post by Rebekah Amber Clark on Apr 7, 2017 17:44:40 GMT -8
It might help to know a bit more about your book and its "personality" here. Is this in first person, third person? Present tense, past tense? Are these things the same between normal narration and flashback, or different? What is the genre of the book? How far back are the flashbacks? 6 months, a year, 10 years, 10,000 years? Do the flashbacks involve the same characters, their parents, friends, or distant ancestors? Total strangers that are related through the plot in another way? The details might or might not each end up mattering in the end on their own, but getting a sense of the book and its overall style as a whole, could help get more tailored advice for what might work best for *your* particular book.  A first-person psychological thriller with flashbacks to a 40-something's college years when she stalked and killed her lover, for example, might use a different approach to flashbacks than a children's fantasy book about an 11 year old in the modern day that finds Excalibur, and flashbacks to King Arthur in his 50's. |
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Post by spearcarrier on Apr 8, 2017 7:16:17 GMT -8
H'lo Razzle!
The book is written in the third person, being as I had way too many main protagonists at the time. (I learned my lesson.) The flashbacks are written in the same way.
The book is epic fantasy: four elves and a dwarf are assassins. They decide maybe they don't want to be assassins anymore. Maybe.
And the flashbacks? Well, they're in the characters' pasts but the book isn't clear on if it's been 10 years or 10,000 years because, well, they're elves and dwarves. And they've lived longer than most. So long they'd nearly forgotten when the story first begins. They sometimes involve strangers that don't show up in the present. They usually involve some event that touches on just why the character has made the choices they made that has put them to where they are now.
I've actually toyed with turning this story into either a visual or graphic novel, too. Not because it's super popular or anything. I just have always seen it with camera angles, and I feel the way it's expressed right now doesn't say everything. To do either I'd need folks to work with, so it's not happening soon.
I see your point on how flashbacks would be handled differently according to the book itself. Either's neither of the two genres you have mentioned, naturally. That would be too easy. =^-^=
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Post by Rebekah Amber Clark on Apr 8, 2017 19:00:36 GMT -8
Hmmm...
It sounds like you're on the right track with using a bit of music to shift from the scene to the flashback. Either that, or just a bit of a pause, maybe, if you can't find suitable music? Another possibility is maybe using background sound effects (like, say it's a flashback to a scene in a forest, include birdsong and leaves crunching underfoot) more like a radioplay in the flashbacks. That could make them seem more intense/immediate, but could be labor intensive, especially if they make up more than about 10-20% of the total story length...
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Post by spearcarrier on Apr 8, 2017 19:56:05 GMT -8
Well I certainly hope I'm on the right track. This has proven to be quite the challenge. =^-^=
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A first-person psychological thriller with flashbacks to a 40-something's college years when she stalked and killed her lover, for example, might use a different approach to flashbacks than a children's fantasy book about an 11 year old in the modern day that finds Excalibur, and flashbacks to King Arthur in his 50's.
