Hey there,
I don't know if here is the place to ask that, but I thought I might give a try.
I love soooo many of the stories here, like Stupid Boy or Wilhelm Sonata (even though it is not finished). But life is so fast paced and I really don't have the time to stop and read, and when I do I fall asleep in 5 minutes.
I take really long commutes and I really would appreciate if there was a place for AUDIO STORIES like the ones found here in SOL. Any recommendations?
Text to speech software?
I'm sure there's ways nowadays. Sure, a mechanical voice could be little dull for the content, especially at some places... but still a possible solution.
Use a browser with a "read aloud" function?
I just checked out this function of MS Edge with Chapter 1 of G Younger's new story Sister Swap: Wrong Side of the Track.
English isn't my native language and I read more in English than I hear it spoken, so for me she spoke way too fast.
Clear pronunciation, but the timbre slightly grating on my nerves.
Didn't look further into this option, there may be additional settings.
HM.
I love soooo many of the stories here, like Stupid Boy or Wilhelm Sonata
Having trouble finding a story named Wilhelm Sonata. DOes "here" not mean on SOL? Or is it my frequent misuse of search term?
Having trouble finding a story named Wilhelm Sonata.
Wilhelm Sonata is the character in a story by Clee Hill:
https://storiesonline.net/s/19705/greyshough-redux
Probably unlikely to expect the story to conclude. Clee Hill posted a blog entry in May 2020 saying "not really able to get into the mood for writing Wilhelm at the moment," then in April 2021 announced an "Open-ended sabbatical" due to "real life getting in the way too often and too dramatically".
I enjoy downloading epubs from this site and opening them in @voicealoud on my Android phone. I listen at 1.4X normal speech and adjust the pitch to my preferences. Easy as pie and very satisfying.
Do you convert your own stories to epubs or do you rely on SOL's conversions?
It seems to me that having an audio version of your own work available before you submit it to SOL could provide a valuable aid to editing and proofreading.
AJ
If you're using Word it has text to speech built into it. That's probably true of other word processors.
Do you convert your own stories to epubs or do you rely on SOL's conversions?
AJ, I use SOL's epub just as I download them. They open up in @voicealoud and are added to its list of books.
It seems to me that having an audio version of your own work available before you submit it to SOL could provide a valuable aid to editing and proofreading.
I also do this. I work in Scrivener, and one of its "compile" options is "epub3." I compile to that, then listen as I walk, do chores, or even just sit on porch if I want to look at nature.
I take really long commutes and I really would appreciate if there was a place for AUDIO STORIES like the ones found here in SOL. Any recommendations?
Like others suggested, just use a text to speech utility.
For myself, Cool Reader is my e-book app of choice on my phone. And it has a pretty good text to speech capability. I just use that and set it about 10-15% faster and it's just fine.
And trust me, as somebody that has done both voiceover work and audio editing, there is not a lot out there really that is worth listening to when it comes to "audio porn". Doing even a relatively short story as a narration you are probably looking at several hours of work.
A couple of years ago as an experiment I used a text to voice app to try transcribing one of my stories. And just a single chapter in an 8 chapter story came out to just over 40 minutes.
And if I was even to convert a single chapter to proper text to voice, that would easily be several hours all by itself.
