First, who I am? I'm a storyteller. In the commercial arena, I help to create branding and marketing campaigns for global companies. In the personal sphere, I've written stories and books and won a few awards here and there, but nothing wildly successful. I am a completely ordinary person, but I have this awesome dream. I want to create VR audiobooks and audio story experiences. I want to see the writing come alive in a tailored audio/visual environment, as if I'm stepping into the world of the story.
But is there a need for this? For VR audiobooks? For more than what Meta and others are currently doing? At the moment, there are options to read digital books in VR with a choice of horizons or a static 360 space that doesn't follow the story. But I'm more interested in a bespoke and tailored experience---an animated 360 environment that puts you in the world of the story as you're listening to the narration and the dialogue.
It's a crazy amount of work. An insane amount of rendering. And maybe AI will swallow it all up before the human-designed versions of VR Audiobooks can take hold, but still... I want to try. But for who? Just for me? Will anyone else grow to enjoy this kind of experience?
At the start of this project, I had to accept that maybe they wouldn't. After all, many people like listening to audiobooks as they do other things, and wearing a VR headset doesn't allow for that. There's also a very good point to be made about not needing or wanting to watch another screen when the world is already too crowded with screens.
VR is not fresh air. It's not sunshine. It's not the people you could and should spend time with when you have those precious minutes to spare.
All of this is true. But for me, it's simply getting harder to slow down and concentrate during those times when I want to enjoy a good story. I'll never stop reading (paperbacks because I need the sensory stuff) but it's getting harder for me to delve into a world and not think about everything else I need to do, and all the other things I need to worry about. I need stories. I need that restorative time away from the world and an opportunity to explore someone else's heart and mind for a while--but getting there is not always easy.
Honestly, some days it's impossible.
That, I think, is the niche that VR Audiobook experiences fit into. A niche within a niche. For those specific times when you need to block out the world, but you can't because your mind keeps drifting off to things you have to do, or the perpetual grimness of the news cycle, or the people-drama around you.
That's where VR experiences shine. Placing someone in an environment creates an instant emotional connection to that place, real or not. When used in combination with environmental animation, rich-language storytelling, music, and effects, it creates a space for focus. There's less of a tendency to drift away.
So, I'm now on a journey to make this a thing. To realize it in the best way that I can. Because I need it, and I think some other people might need it too.
As our normal screens are slowly replaced by more immersive technology, translating written fiction into spatial experiences also seems like a worthy goal, as fiction (whether read or listened to) has been shown to improve mood, memory, and cognitive function. It also promotes empathy, which is something I think we need.
These are all benefits of reading and listening to stories. Films and video games are simply not as effective in helping us to feel things, or try to understand others.
Rather than being a tool for SEO mastery and hard selling, I intend to use this blog to document the journey of trying to create something. I'm not an influencer. Not young, or stylish, or crazy good at selling myself. I am, however, a decent writer (or at least I've been able to make a career out of it) and I've taught myself to use the tools I would need to test this concept out. In this blog, I will go over everything--all the times I failed, and any successes along the way to... making a thing.
Without knowing whether other people are going to love it, or absolutely hate it. The adventure is on. And it's worth saying that if a completely ordinary person like me can create an adventure for herself, anyone reading this can do the same.
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