Does It Sound Like Writing?

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
— Elmore Leonard

Over the years, this has become my #1 piece of writing advice… especially for writing fictional podcasts (a.k.a. audio dramas).

The human ear is fine-tuned to discern what is “real” from what is “fake”. The fake is easily recognized and dismissed, and when this happens in a podcast, it takes us out of the world the podcast creator has so carefully designed.

Don’t believe me? Listen to a bad B-movie that uses punching sounds whenever a sword hits someone. You’ll find yourself giggling uncontrollably — the fight will be literally impossible to believe, no matter how real the swords look.

This is why we put so much time and energy into our sound design — to create the most real and immersive worlds for our audience as possible.

But realism is often overlooked in the writing — especially the dialogue.

As much as I hate to admit it, I’m not half as clever, eloquent, or witty as I’d like to be in real life. When I speak, there are a lot of natural “uhh”s, fumbles, tangents, and hand-gestures. If you witness or participate in enough actual human conversations (not the carefully threaded conversations in movies and TV shows), you’ll realize how true this is.

Now, it might get annoying to hear characters say “um” or “like” every other word like so many people do in real life. (GUILTY AS CHARGED.) But a scripted “um” here and there in a perfectly eloquent monologue might add a bit of believability or realism to the narrative.

The same goes for what I call “tennis match conversations” — dialogue where each character waits politely for every other character to finish. In these scenarios, no one interrupts each other, and no one talks over anyone else.

In a very formal setting (e.g., a lecture hall or military training), this might be the norm. But a group of coworkers, friends, or (especially) family members talking in real life are often less patient with and gracious to each other. So a bit of over-talk or cross-talk might lend authenticity to a conversation. 

Similarly, not everyone has a full thesaurus committed to memory. A very well-read character might “prevaricate and pontificate on these existential breathings”, but most characters will just need to “sit for a minute and think.”

The best thing you can do for your writing is read it out loud (YES, ACTUALLY OUT LOUD, LIKE WITH YOUR MOUTH) to yourself. It’ll feel weird at first, but it’s really one of the best ways to figure out if your writing sounds natural… or like writing.

Or have someone else (a friend, family member, or, if it’s for a podcast, maybe even the voice actor who will eventually read the part) read it aloud, and listen in. If they continually stumble over a phrase, rewrite it.

I still slip in fun one-liners and snappy comebacks, just because they’re fun (for both me and my audience). And often our heroes are a lot more fun and snappy than real people in real life.

But if it starts to sound too much like writing… I rewrite it.

Words & warmth,

Sarah