When editing an audio segment, Julia Barton recommends envisioning a mood board full of emojis. These facial expressions — hysterically laughing, shedding a tear, or beaming — can help an audio editor identify their emotions at any particular point. The key to audio stories is noticing your reactions.
Barton, the founder of RadioWright, former executive editor at Pushkin Industries, and 2024 Nieman Fellow, has spent her career writing and developing audio stories that keep listeners engaged. Her newsletter, Continuous Wave, dives deeper into the history of audio.
At the recent Power of Narrative Conference at Boston University, Barton offered tips and tricks for anyone who wants to create a compelling audio story. “If a piece is really well-done and your imagination is engaged, you'll just remember it for years,” Barton told me afterward. “You're engaging with people in this way that is really powerful.”
Here’s a breakdown of her advice:
- You are the first listener. While a microphone, a quiet space, and a recording device will capture the audio, the most important tool for creating an audio story is your ears and your ability to listen. As Barton does with her mood board, you should track whether you’re confused, distracted, or not laughing when revising your audio. That’s a good time, Barton said, to ask yourself: “What is happening?” A good trick is to notice if you’re physically leaning forward or backward. Awareness of your natural reactions will only make you a better storyteller, she said.
- Avoid the “Wheel of Pain.” Boredom, confusion, distraction, and impatience are an audio producer’s enemies. Barton calls it the "Wheel of Pain." Podcasting has more freedom than the down-to-the-second timing of radio broadcasting, but if a listener gets thrown onto the Wheel of Pain, “it’s over,” Barton said.
- Invite the audience in. Use the power of friendship. When your audience feels connected to a host, “the brain is responding to the same stimuli that you might have in a friendship,” Barton said. These "parasocial relationships" can keep your listeners coming back. “Over time, you start to feel like you belong in this show,” Barton said. We all listen for cues, and that includes the host inviting us to listen. “Cautionary Tales” is a more subtle example of this relationship, with Tim Harford welcoming the audience through narrative storytelling, while “The Mel Robbins Podcast” uses a more in-your-face tactic with Robbins introducing herself as “your friend Mel.”
- Keep it lively. People crave the feeling of a live show, even if it is taped, Barton said. The audience wants their host right here, talking directly to them. It’s no easy feat. The feeling takes coordination, trust within a team, and the constant question: “What does the audience need?”
- Write for your host. Barton spends time finding her host’s voice. Even when she writes a script, she prefers the host to rewrite it in their own words. “Does anyone hear ad reads that are just, like, cringe?” Barton asked. That’s how a host sounds when reading someone else’s words. Most listeners can tell, and they lose trust in the host.
- Grab onto moments of change. Don't be afraid to have fun with format. “The dilemma that especially news producers face all the time is, is it bad that I'm making this fun to listen to? No, it's not bad,” Barton said. An audio story can jump from a host or reporter narration to an interview clip, scene-setting, a mic check, a chatty conversation, or archival speeches. Barton describes it this way: one second, the host could be talking to you, and the next second, you’re eavesdropping on their conversation with someone else. “Our ears are so good at picking up that stuff, it's mind-blowing,” Barton said.
- Write for the ear. Be clear and to the point. Keep your sentences short and direct. The listener is walking their dog or doing the dishes — each thought needs to sink into their distracted brains, Barton said.
- Avoid clichés. “The listener starts to tune out,” Barton said, if they start to hear clichés or common phrases that feel like padded filler. The same goes for “pre-peats,” or repeating an idea or phrase in the host's initial narration that the listener will hear again just a few seconds later in the story itself.
- Be transparent and mindful about edits. Edited audio stories often include polished speech. “We know listeners are distracted, and we just want to make it easier for information to get into their brains,” Barton said. So filler words like “ums” are removed and pauses can be tightened up. Tell your audience and the person you’re interviewing about these edits. Talk about the editorial process. “We can't hide it,” Barton said. “We can't pretend that we don't do it.”
- Sometimes you can even do "backflips" in audio. Barton coined the term “backflip” for when the interview tape comments on the narrative. For example, in a piece Barton worked on for Radiolab called "Neither Confirm Nor Deny," as the host, she introduces an idea to the audience. Her interviewee responds, even though they're not in direct conversation. Here's how it's scripted:
JULIA (NARRATOR): The way Walt sees it, the CIA's job is to keep secrets, and keeping secrets keeps America safe.
WALT LOGAN: Yes.
Logan's “yes” (answering her question even though she didn't include her portion of it) is a way to cross the boundary between narration and reporting, and it creates a playful moment for the listener. Sometimes, you can get “a little cheeky” with your audio, Barton said.
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Ava Berger is a senior at Boston University studying journalism and Spanish. She has worked as a correspondent for The Boston Globe’s City Desk, where she covered crime scenes, fatal fires, court cases, Salisbury Beach, and the Boston Celtics’ 2024 championship. She now contributes to the Globe’s social media coverage. Her byline has appeared in the Cape Cod Times, the Greenfield Recorder, CommonWealth Beacon, and the Boston Business Journal. Ava will be joining the Globe’s City Desk again this summer as an intern.
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