How Recording Audiobooks Changed My Writing

The unintended consequences, the benefits, and how I've leaned into both.

The Father of Shadow and Death, now available on Audible

“No writing today. Look, Steve, I get it — keeping up the habit is important. But if it sounds bad on audio, what’s the point? I need to practice for when I record the audiobook anyway, so get off my case, will ya?”

That was me a few months back, on the day after I finished writing Chapter 8 of 9 for my newest book, The Father of Shadow and Death.

Normally, when I’m that close to the end of a story, I can’t stop writing.

But things have changed since I started recording audiobooks.

I tried something new with this book. After writing each chapter, I went back and read it and every chapter before it out loud, either later in the day or the next morning before my daily writing.

Helps that the book is relatively short — I will NOT be doing this for chonkers like my upcoming sequel to The Fall of Selvandrea 😅

So, naturally, by the start of the final chapter, this new practice meant close to six hours of reading to go through Chapters 1-8 (the finished audiobook is just over 7 hours, for those interested). I decided to make a day of it, practicing how it would sound when I recorded the full book, or making tweaks where I noticed the text wasn’t “optimal” for reading out loud.

Awkward phrasing, lack of rhythm, flat dialogue… things like that.

I also fixed any errors I found along the way, so by the time I finished the full draft, this story was already pretty darn polished.

It made starting new chapters way easier too, since I was so immersed in the story and each reading session acted as an in-depth refresher.

For longer books, I’ve set a cap of 3-4 chapters to read aloud every day while drafting, and the benefits are still holding strong. And when the book is done, I’ll do a complete read-through out loud as part of my final editing sweep.

Actually, I now consider audio recording part of my editing process. You catch so many things while recording that you don’t catch while casually reading, even more so if you play the audio back to yourself while following along with the text. And it’s way more fun listening to yourself than those pesky bot voices everyone always recommends (I can’t stand 'em).

These new habits aren’t the only things that have changed for me as a writer.

For better or worse, my individual chapters are now way longer.

The reason: scene breaks.

Scene break by Wyndagger for my novella, Skyfold

I started using scene breaks with my novella, Skyfold, and fell in love. And more to the point, I noticed they made recording the audiobook infinitely easier (natural breathers worked into the story). So it’s rare now that I write more than 1,500 words without a scene break unless the chapter ends soon after. It wasn’t so much a conscious choice as just what feels far more natural to me now, and I have no intention of going back.

What’s more, those breaks make me feel far less rushed in any given story sequence, letting me flesh out exposition and character thought or backstory, or closing off action with shorter scenes where I can make those tense moments hit harder in less space.

All without fear of any one sequence or chapter dragging on.

The result: longer chapters that feel short (because each “scene” feels like a short chapter).

It’s been a huge overhaul of how I organize my stories, I think for the better.

Also, the more I do this, the more my writing style changes, shifting from just what reads well off the page to what sounds good when read aloud. I find my writing has far better rhythm and an overall more dramatic feel to it than before, and I tend to notice the absence more when I look back on earlier works or while reading new authors with styles similar to my old one.

Anyway, it’s been a fun journey. Gonna go do some of that daily reading now (working on a pretty epic “dark god waking up causing continent-wide earthquakes and demonic monster mayhem” chapter at the moment). My WIP stands at 112K words so far (aiming for about 160 but could be longer).

In the meantime, if 7 hours of Lovecraftian+slasher+creature fantasy horror sounds up your alley, check out my newest audiobook on Audible: The Father of Shadow and Death.

And as always, may you find purpose in play, and master your world! Cha’vielle!