Most writers treat worldbuilding as something that lives on the page. Liza Jacob hears it.
In this episode, I’m joined by audiobook narrator Liza Jacob to explore how a fictional world affects performance, not just plot. From accents and pacing to how a room “sounds” when you’re acting into a microphone, Liza breaks down what narrators need from worldbuilders and what happens when the text leaves too many blanks.
Worldbuilding isn’t decoration. It’s direction.
Liza’s point is simple: strong worldbuilding reduces guesswork.
If you’ve built a world with real texture, a narrator can make confident choices about:
Accent and social background (who sounds “local”, who doesn’t, and what that implies)
Physical space (tight and intimate vs vast and echoing, and how that changes delivery)
Tone and subtext (what a character means, not just what they say)
When those details are missing, narrators can still do the job, but they’re forced into interpretation that may drift away from your intent.
The common gap: “boots on the ground” without history
Liza sees plenty of books that describe the present moment well, but don’t carry the deeper signals that make a world feel lived-in:
What history shaped this place?
What cultural assumptions do characters carry?
What does a kingdom’s scale and age actually feel like?
Those are the details that help a narrator decide whether the story should sound ancient and weighty or new and compact.
What narration prep really looks like
Before recording, Liza reads the full manuscript and builds a working guide for herself and the author. That includes tracking characters, voices, and decisions that need agreement early, because late changes are painful.
Her approach is built to prevent the nightmare scenario: finishing hours of recording only to hear “that voice is wrong” after the fact.
Narration is performance, not reading
A narrator isn’t simply pronouncing words. They’re making live decisions about pacing, emotional pressure, and character truth on every line. And yes, the material can hit hard.
Liza talks openly about the emotional weight that some projects carry, and the importance of professional boundaries when you’re spending days inside a story in a booth on your own.
A practical tip that costs nothing
If you’re considering audio, Liza recommends one simple test:
Read your manuscript aloud before you pay anyone else to.
You’ll catch awkward phrasing, unclear dialogue attributions, and small continuity slips that can become expensive once the book is in production.
Listen to the episode
If you write fantasy or sci-fi, this is a useful perspective shift: your world doesn’t only guide readers. It guides the performance that turns your story into an audiobook.
Links
Forum discussion: https://richardsonsrubicon.com/community/season-5-speculative-fiction-where-worlds-meet/worldbuildings-unseen-role-in-audiobook-narration/
Lisa’s website: https://www.lizajacob.com/