Intentionally an Audiobook
From Experiment to Process: Refining the Story in Sound
When I created an audiobook for Book One, Embers of the Forge, it began as an experiment — a way to read and edit my book in the medium I know best.
For Book Two, Chains of the Past, it wasn’t accidental. It was part of the process from the start.
The process
By the time I began writing Book Two, my workflow had settled into something more intentional:
Gameplay (for some scenes)
Expansion of ideas
Writing scenes and dialogue
Multiple text editing passes
Generating audio from text
Listening in full
Editing as necessary and synchronizing text and audio
Formatting the ebook and final audiobook
Release
While this series began with a tabletop roleplaying game, there was far less gameplay behind Book Two than readers might expect. Two friends, James and Bruin, joined me through character creation and a Session Zero, and we played the early events on Crag with Tamiko Takara and Valerian. Life intervened, and the campaign never progressed further.
But that small beginning — the characters, the relationships, the developed history — told me there was more here than just a single session. With their permission, I kept writing and crafting the story forward. Even now, with more than 200,000 words across the first two books, there is still more ahead.
The Text Editing
The beta readers who joined me for Embers of the Forge shaped Chains of the Past more than they probably realize. Their feedback, questions, and quiet observations helped sharpen the writing while Book Two was still being written all before I ever sat down for a full revision pass.
Both beta readers for Chains of the Past told me they had fewer notes this time. Not because the book was smaller or simpler, but because it was clearer and better written.
That was encouraging, but it didn’t mean the work was finished.
The Audio Editing
I still did substantial self-editing before and after the beta reads, much of it driven by the audiobook editing pass.
Because this is now Book Two, continuity mattered more. Listening to the story exposed places where terminology didn’t quite match what had already been established … or where a word technically worked, but didn’t fit the tone of the world. Those moments were revised.
As with the first book, I also found places where my writing drifted into repetition or became a bit preachy. Hearing those passages aloud made them impossible to ignore, and they were trimmed or removed.
There were also moments where I caught myself thinking, “What was I trying to say here?” Those sections were rewritten for clarity. And in a few places, listening revealed gaps in my own logic, jumps that made sense in my head, but not in sound. In those cases, I added new paragraphs or scenes to bridge the missing steps.
All of these issues might have been caught through visual editing alone. But as an auditory reader, this process is how my brain recognizes them.
Your Free Audiobook
As with Book One, I’m sharing the AI-generated audiobook of Chains of the Past here, free for all subscribers.
Thank you for reading, listening, downloading, and supporting this work.
If you enjoy the audiobook, the best way to support the project is to purchase the ebook on Amazon or read it through Kindle Unlimited.
And as a reminder: Substack does require paid tiers to exist, but they don’t unlock anything extra here, and never will. These audiobooks are just a thank-you for being part of this space.