Audible Originals

 by Sybil Johnson

In the last few months, I have been listening to a lot of Audible Originals. I got the Audible subscription because I wanted to listen to Mistletoe Murders. And, they had a three month deal I couldn’t pass up. 

Hallmark has a TV series, which I really like, based on the Audible Original series so I was curious how they compared. Both are good. They are their own things, equally enjoyable IMHO. 

That’s how I got started on my Audible journey. 

Audible Originals, or at least the ones I’ve listened to, are stories that are more akin to the radio dramas of the 1930s and 40s, than books. I’ve listened to a lot of those old radio programs and have enjoyed them. All of the AOs I’ve listened to are full cast narrations (multi actors). They rely heavily on dialog and background noises (soundscape) to tell the story. The background noises like horns honking, people talking help orient the listener to where they are so narration like “Ron and Amy were in a bar” isn’t necessary.

So far I’ve listened to all of the Mistletoe Murders plus its spin-off as well as a couple of Agatha Christie stories featuring Hercule Poirot that were adapted for AO. I have enjoyed all of them. I’ve even recognized some voices of actors that I’ve seen on TV shows. 

All of this got me thinking about what it means to write an AO story. Dialog is key. Some of the ones I listened to have some narration here and there, but mostly it’s dialog and background noises that tell the story. I found this 27-minute audio in a blog post on writing for audio that I thought was interesting. 

Worth a listen even if you have no intention of writing for audio. 

Has anyone written something specifically for audio? I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are.