Spoken Into Existence – Ep. 2: Voice Casting an Audiobook

What if the most powerful rewrite isn’t on the page—but in the voice that reads it?

Spoken Into Existence returns this week with a question that reshapes how we craft character: If the audience’s first experience of your character is through their voice—how does that change the way you bring them to life?

It’s not just a fun narrative exercise. It’s a glimpse into a revolution. And at the center of it all… Voice! Real, resonant, character-crafting, audience-immersing voice.

The Alchemy of Audio

Every author knows the high-wire act of character development. But what happens when that character finally speaks? When Moxie Kirk—the rebellious punk teenager War incarnate—rasps her first line, or Sister Mary Agnes lights up the page with a cigarette and a sermon?

Joseph Nassise and Tom Leveen are in Spoken’s Voice Studio, playing casting directors to a cast of apocalyptic misfits. With Spoken's library of voices—ranging from rich, sonorous narrators to custom-built character voices—they explore how audio can transform the listener’s experience. And more importantly, how it can deepen the author's own understanding of their work.

“You start asking questions you didn’t even write—like where was this character educated? What accent shaped them? It forces you to finish the character in ways text never demanded,” reflect Joe and Tom.

Exactly. And that’s the point.

Voice as Performance. Voice as Tool. Voice as Freedom.

Some authors hear their characters before they even write them. Others are more structure-forward—voices emerge in the remix. Spoken empowers both styles with options:

• Browse the voice library and match a gritty Western outlaw to your space opera villain.

• Generate custom voices that age, twist, and shape your protagonist.

• Clone your own voice, if you dare to go full memoir and narrate with a personal touch.

• Let AI suggest matches, sit back, and enjoy the magic of automation.

The best part? No casting calls. No studios. No second mortgages.

From Page to Performance

In a world where over half of adult readers now consume stories via audio, voice isn’t just an enhancement. It is the medium. It shapes perception, sets mood, and defines tone. The right narrator doesn’t just read your story—they translate it.

This is the power Spoken brings: turning indie authors into audio auteurs, giving them tools previously reserved for Hollywood budgets. As Joseph and Tom demonstrate, casting isn’t about convenience—it’s about connection.

“We need these characters to sound different enough,” Joseph explains, “so they don’t blend into one another. The voice is the listener’s anchor.”

And when that anchor is right? The story soars.

The Future is Spoken

For indie authors carving out space in a growing audiobook market, voice isn’t a luxury. It’s a lever. Spoken gives you grip.

Whether you want to:

• Collaborate deeply like Joe and Tom, casting character by character.

• Keep it simple and trust the top-matching AI voices.

• Or blend both approaches with a personal twist...

Spoken's Studio gives you the stage.

Write the line. Pick the voice. Hit play. With Spoken, your story doesn’t wait to be read—it’s ready to be heard.

Watch Episode 2 of Spoken Into Existence now. Moxie and the nun are waiting.

Learn about Joseph Nassise: https://josephnassise.com

Learn about Tom Leveen: https://tomleveen.com

Try Spoken: https://ihave.spoken.press

Spoken Into Existence – Week 1: Subverting Apocalypse, One Voice at a Time

Last week, we kicked off Spoken Into Existence—our real-time audio storytelling experiment—with authors Joseph Nassise and Tom Leveen. Together, they’re writing, voicing, and publishing a serialized novella series using Spoken’s AI-powered tools. This week, they dove headfirst into the creative trenches, revealing how Sackcloth and Blood is anything but your typical apocalypse story.

Writing From the End of the World

At the heart of Sackcloth and Blood is a bold reversal: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the heroes, not the villains. And their incarnation in this version of Earth? A punk teenager named Moxie Kirk—War herself—who opens the series at an anti-nuclear protest and is anything but eager to take the reins of destruction.

With each novella centering on one horseman (plus a final volume bringing them together), Joe and Tom are intentionally writing against type. The characters evolve over history, passing their mantle from person to person, and this current generation is unlike any myth you’ve read.

Enter Sister Mary Agnes, a chain-smoking, combat-boot-wearing nun with a ruler and a mission. She’s the Harbinger—part mentor, part enforcer—and she’s got no patience for horsemen who won’t ride.

Audio-First = A New Creative Muscle

One of the biggest shifts this week was exploring how the medium shapes the message.

Joe and Tom both shared how writing with audio in mind changes their process. Joe, whose prose leans heavily on visual description, is rethinking how those images come alive when heard instead of read. Tom, with a deep theater background, is leaning into character rhythm, voice, and dialogue to carry the emotional weight.

They’re not writing a radio play. They’re crafting immersive fiction narrated in third person, blended with full character voice work—and that nuance matters. With Spoken’s evolving toolkit, they’re aiming for something between single-voice narration and full multicast drama. A hybrid form. A new genre, even.

As Joe put it: “The act of listening is an immersive experience. We’re not just telling a story—we’re building a world people can step into with their ears.”

Tools Are Changing the Rules

Traditionally, producing an audiobook—especially a multicast, high-production one—was expensive, time-consuming, and often out of reach for indie authors. Joe and Tom have seen both sides: publisher-funded audiobooks that may never materialize, and personal projects too short to justify the cost of narration.

Spoken flips that equation. With tools that let them build, cast, and publish their audio-first work from the ground up, they’re not just writing a story—they’re reinventing the creative and production workflow for audio publishing.

As Tom put it: “There should be literally nothing stopping a creator from making an audiobook on their own. That’s the power of this platform.”

What’s Next?

The story is underway. Moxie has entered the scene. Sister Mary Agnes has her ruler ready. And now it’s time to find their voices.

Next week, Joe and Tom enter Spoken Studio for the first time to start exploring voice casting. They’ll test AI voices, react live to hearing their characters performed, and begin shaping their narration experience.

We’ll be with them every step of the way—and you’ll hear what happens when writers start thinking like directors.

Learn about Joseph Nassise: https://josephnassise.com

Learn about Tom Leveen: https://tomleveen.com

Try Spoken: https://ihave.spoken.press

Spoken Into Existence — A Live AI Storytelling Experiment with Joseph Nassise and Tom Leveen

Ever wonder what would happen if a couple of award-winning and best-selling authors teamed up with cutting-edge AI to cast, voice, and publish an entire audiobook — in real time, as the story is being written?

Yeah… no one did.

Because it’s never been done. Until now.

Until we made that very thing possible.

The team at Spoken is beyond excited to introduce Spoken Into Existence, a first-of-its-kind, real-time audiobook series from New York Times Best Selling author Joseph Nassise (The Templar Chronicles, The Jeremiah Hunt Trilogy) and Tom Leveen (Party, Spawn).

Over the next five weeks, they’ll be co-writing, voice casting, automating narration, and publishing a brand-new serialized story — as it happens, only on Spoken.

Written for audio. Voiced with AI. Published in real time.

This isn’t just about releasing a story. It’s about bringing you inside the storytelling process itself — from story meetings and dialogue tweaks to AI voice testing and live publishing. You’ll get a front-row seat as two veteran authors build an audio-first series from the ground up using Spoken’s studio tools.

The story at hand is a dark fantasy saga reimagining the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — crafted specifically with performance in mind. Joe and Tom are shaping their characters by listening to them as they write, fine-tuning pacing and delivery in real time, and letting sound guide the story’s evolution — not just text.

Each week, we’ll release new behind-the-scenes video content on YouTube and Instagram: early drafts, voice selection, raw reactions, and the creative sparks in between. Alongside the video, we’ll share a weekly companion blog right here on Spoken.

This is a live case study in what’s possible when authors become architects and take creative control from start to finish — writing, narrating, and publishing without barriers.

We’re building something different — and you’re invited to be part of it.

Learn about Joseph Nassise: https://josephnassise.com

Learn about Tom Leveen: https://tomleveen.com

Try Spoken: https://ihave.spoken.press