Writing for the Inner Reading Voice

Why we’re always writing a script for a narrator

Have you ever heard a favorite nonfiction author speak on an audiobook or podcast, only to be surprised by the way they sound?

“That’s what Mary Roach sounds like? Heh. Not what I expected.”

Why would you have any expectations for their voice?

Perhaps it’s because you hear their voice in your head as you read. When the voice you create doesn’t match the real one, it surprises you.

“I hear authors…”

If you “hear” voices in your head as you read silently, you’re not alone.

According to a study by a psychology professor Ruvanee Vilhauer, then at NYU, as many as 80 percent of us might listen to voices in our head as we read. (Alas, the study appeared in the journal Psychosis. I repeat, though, it’s normal.)

Vilhauer referred to this as an “ inner reading voice.” Sometimes that voice belongs to us (the reader). Or, we may assign a voice with recognizable gender, emotion, and timbre.

(If you read older works, you can whisper to your family “I hear dead people.” This only works if they have seen the movie The Sixth Sense.)