STEP 1: ROUGH DRAFT
If you’d like to produce an audio essay, the first step is to write a rough draft the same way you would for any other kind of essay project. You might find it useful to start with an outline or cluster map that helps you identify key moments in the story, or you might simply start drafting and see where the writing takes you, keeping in mind that what you’re working on is a rough draft that may need substantial revision.
Once you have a draft you can share with classmates, you’ll do so in a word processing document rather than in storyboard format, which is what your classmates will use for audiovisual or visual projects.
Here are a few writing tips:
Write in a conversational style.
You might find it helpful to imagine that you’re writing your story to a friend by email, so that you can break free from the typical academic essay style you may be accustomed to with other college papers.
Use vivid details that paint a movie in the listeners’ mind.
Listeners are far more likely to pay attention to your essay if it’s grounded in vivid, concrete details that enable them to imagine what you’re talking about, almost as though they can see it as a mental movie. Keep abstract observations to a minimum as these are harder for listeners to pay attention to. Concrete details might include descriptions of appearance, sound, smell, taste, or touch, as well as dialogue and observations about people’s behavior and personalities.
Use a simple and very clear method of organizing your essay.
Listeners can’t follow a complex organizational structure as easily as readers can, so keep your structure simple and easy to follow, and make generous use of topic sentences, transitions, foreshadowing, recaps, and other “sign posts” for your listeners.
STEP 2: ROUGH CUT
When you’ve made further revisions to your essay, you should try making a “rough cut” recording, both so that you gain some experience using audio recording and editing tools and so that you can hear for yourself how well your writing has translated into audio format. When you listen to your own first audio draft, you’ll most likely immediately recognize areas of strength and areas in need of improvement.
For help with the technical details of producing a rough cut, view the handouts under Working with Audio and Composing Audio Essays on FutureOfWriting.net
STEP 3: REVISION
The next step is to further revise the essay so that it functions more effectively as an audio essay. That includes working on its structure as well as on the level of concrete details you offer.
You’ll also want to work on your delivery, so that the audio recording sounds natural and conversational rather than like someone reading a paper out loud. If you’ve never listened to audiobooks, you might browse Audible.com for the kind of books you like and listen to a few samples, which will help you identify ways to effectively deliver a written text.
At this stage you might also want to consider whether you’d like to incorporate some sound effects, like short segments of music in the opening, between major sections, and at the end. Music can help establish a mood or tone or signal a transition. It also gives listeners a brief moment to pause and reflect on what they’ve just heard.
If you’ve never listened to This American Life on National Public Radio (NPR), you might want to listen to a few stories to see how music and other sound effects can be used to provide effective enhancements to the audio narration.
STEP 4: FULL DRAFT
After you’ve polished the essay and improved your style of audio delivery, you’ll produce a full draft that should represent a fair amount of work, so that you can get feedback on a version of your project that is as close as possible to what you’re aiming for as a final product. Of course, that doesn’t mean you won’t continue to revise it, and in some cases you may make substantial revisions, but you won’t be able to imagine those revisions until you’ve tried to produce something close to a final product.
You’ll share this draft with classmates for feedback and then revise further for the final version.
