As you surely know, there are many ways to tell a story, we are no longer just talking about visual or interactive formats such as video games and cinema. And we are not referring to animation or drawing either, but rather, within the writing itself, there are several formats with which your story can be told. It is likely that you have heard of the audio book, and surely when you say sound novel the first thing that comes to mind is that, but no, it is not an audio book that we will discuss here.
Sound novels are essentially visual novels with built-in sound effects and background music. They are generally novels created with the same structure as a visual novel, but with the peculiarity that they have audio or sound incorporated during the reading of the writing. Sometimes they even add voices to the dialogues of the characters, which is an extra immersion addition to the reader.
And yes, the sound novel has the support of sound with the sole purpose of generating greater immersion for the reader, as the story progresses. If you are someone who comes from audiovisual formats such as cinema, TV or video games themselves. You will know that the sound section in a work can mean a greater or lesser immersion. I don’t even tell you what a good theme can cause in a work.
How to create a sound novel?
Since these are literary works that incorporate sound into their narrative. These are formats that are only reproducible by digital means. In fact, as we mentioned at the beginning of this post, sound novels are created in the same way as visual novels. Which means that an engineer or graphics engine such as repay can be used to create a sound novel?
Knowing this, sound novels can have the same structure as an electronic book, worse with its sound feature. And this is important to keep in mind because when we make a novel of this type, the only sections that you should prioritize are writing and sound. Although beware, never abusing the latter, because remember that you are only looking for immersion, not to bother the reader.
Generally, leftovers tend to be read in absolute silence, in order to be able to concentrate better, and that is why you should know how to balance the sound well so that it is not uncomfortable for those who read your work. Here not only the volume must be taken into account, but also the tones and the way in which the sounds must be introduced to cause the desired effect.
If you consider the introduction of voices to your novel as an option, here you must prioritize the quality of the tone of the dubbing actors. Make sure that their voices do not bother and correspond to the character. The subject of the voices and their synchronization with the character will be discussed in detail later.
How to choose the voices of the characters.
People tend to underestimate how important it is to choose the right voices for your characters. Knowing that sound novels are made with the intention of generating greater immersion. It is logical to think that selecting the voices that will double your characters well should fit not only with their appearance, but with their personality.
The use or not of illustrations in a sound novel is something optional, so in case of not resorting to its use, we will find ourselves in the need to correctly select the voices. And when I say select, obviously I am talking about hiring the person who will perform the vocalization of the dialogues. Or even if your intention is to incorporate a single narrator, make sure that it has a good tone.
As you can see the voices play a very important role in sound novels. Therefore, its incorporation into any work requires a certain effort to make it work well.
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What advantages exist with this format?
I personally consider sound novels to be a middle ground between an E-book and a visual novel. For this reason, many times the authors opt for one of its extremes and rule out the possibility of developing an NS. However, the fact that they are not as popular or well-known means that they are wrong, on the contrary, this is a point of originality for those who choose this format. And to point out that sound novels are not bad, we will share a list with some of the advantages that are acquired with this format:
- Greater immersion of the reader in the work, given the participation of sounds.
- Portability, since it is a digital format that can be reproduced on mobile devices.
- Dynamism when telling your story, you no longer let only the letters and the imagination include.
- Originality, because not everyone dares to make a work with these characteristics.
Tanner Abraham
Data Scientist and Software Engineer with a focus on experimental projects in new budding technologies that incorporate machine learning and quantum computing into web applications.
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