Romantic comedy · 声匠原创 · 4:11
Repeat After Me, Darling
A dating-app ghostwriter feeds her client lines on a first date, then spots a man down the bar doing the same. Their six-week flirt was with each other.
Narrator
Poppy Lark
Jasper Reed
Marigold Finch
Theo Park
DevAbout this story
Repeat After Me, Darling is a VoiceSmiths original romantic-comedy episode, written in 2026 as an opening chapter for audio and performed by a cast of six voices. A dating-app ghostwriter feeds her shy client lines through an earpiece on a first date, then spots a man down the bar doing exactly the same for her date, and realizes the best six weeks of flirting in her life were with him. It runs the genre's engine in one scene: a meet-cute, a misunderstanding, a public embarrassment and a twist that flips who is matchmaking whom.
The hook
The hook is a double Cyrano: two ghostwriters at one bar, both secretly writing their bravest lines to each other, and two clients who saw through it in week two. It's for listeners who like quick banter, a heroine who talks too fast, a deadpan bartender and a love story where the side characters are smarter than the leads.
Suits
Teens and adults
Tips for writing this genre
- Let a mistake land the first laugh. Marigold turning bot into boat in the fourth line tells the listener this is a comedy before any joke has to be explained.
- Give every voice its own rhythm. Comedy by ear lives on contrast: a fast whisperer, a laid-back drawl, a deadpan bartender. Distinct voices keep rapid exchanges clear without any he said, she said.
- Leave a beat after the punchline. A short narrator line after a joke, like Plink. Plink., gives the listener room to laugh before the next line arrives.
Questions people ask
- What is a romantic comedy?
- A romantic comedy is a love story told for laughs: two people meet, misunderstandings and obstacles keep them apart, and the story ends with them together. In fiction, rom-coms run on banter, comic set pieces and a strong voice, and readers expect a happy ending.
- How do you narrate comedy in an audiobook?
- Timing matters more than funny voices: keep the setup moving, leave a short pause before and after the punchline, and play the characters straight, because they don't know they're funny. In a full-cast production, clearly different voices let fast back-and-forth dialogue land without dialogue tags.
- What is the Cyrano trope in romance?
- It's when one character secretly supplies the romantic words for another, named after Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, in which Cyrano writes love letters to Roxane on behalf of the handsome Christian. Modern rom-coms update it with texts, dating apps or earpieces. Repeat After Me, Darling is a standalone VoiceSmiths sample episode and stops on a cliffhanger; there is no part two yet.
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