In my quick daily perusal of the audiobook narration community chatrooms – there was an interesting question that whizzed by me this morning – I looked for it again just now, but it wasn’t coming up fast enough, so I’ve moved on…. symptomatic of life these days and it goes to the heart of the question I think I saw… Are you still having fun in voice narration?
I didn’t get into voice narration via the technical field – as did many highly reputable narrators: Karen Commins comes to mind. I came in through voice acting, essentially through the right brain stem… and according to Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind, our time as right brainers (intuitive, conceptual, connecting people and ideas, creative and highly interpersonal) is coming…..just doesn’t feel like it’s here quite yet. Until then, we and our ilk have been on learning curves of various steepness in our dogged determination to learn audio production so that we can, yes, have fun narrating again. I’m at the mid-point in my 3 book audiobook producing commitment with ACX. And I find my challenge is to re-connect with the joy I had as a narrator; blissfully ignorant of mouth noise and breaths I have to edit, and what is that weird hum happening in the room? I find myself not re-living the author’s fabulous story, but having to listen as I read with 3 sets of ears: Narrative, of course, but also Directive (I could have done that better – I have to do that section over, I think I lost her accent!) and Productive: (That was a gasp not a breath! Did I just whistle my “th’s” again? What the….?!?) You get the idea. I take solace that I am having more fun now than when I began, but there is so much to think about and pay attention to the more I know about production, and I have to work hard to keep faith in my abilities. And to keep faith that on the other side of this steep hill I’m climbing….. this will get fun again.
I love lists! The illusion of having it all under control – neatly printed out and organized and checked off. It’s fun, and I invite you, if you haven’t already, to take stock of your audio progress…and do a little dreaming. Especially at the end of the year – the turning of the earth incrementally towards the sun and all of that – new possibilities and chances to once again – get it right. Or at least better…..
A few Audio Voicing Victories this year: I have
2012 – Here’s some Voiceways I’d like to explore….
How to get some portability into my recording set-up. I’ve had some lovely opportunities to record oral histories with people in their 70′s and 80′s – something I set out to do early in the year to really hone my editing skills. Talk about mouth noise! But it has been delightful, and somewhat lucrative – to create multi-generational audio for families to enjoy…. I’d just like a more streamlined set-up than what I currently have….love some ideas!
Here’s my dream: I want to do regular audio narration/production for a magazine publication. And I want an opportunity to do that in 2012.
And of course, get a few more voice clients and get more audio work in e-learning programs, web promotion and commercials….
It all looks do-able at the start of the year doesn’t it?
May your holidays be filled with peace and joy – and your New Year full of Discovery!
Audiociously,
Kym
I’m working with a client who has a great voice – you know – the kind of voice where everyone says “You have a great voice – you should record audio books!” He’s in the legal profession and yes – his voice has a natural – what used to be called a “radio-fry” quality to it. And so he started working with me because he likes to read out loud and he has a great voice.
Well OK. We started on fiction of course. That’s where many people who have been told they have a great voice want to start. But for most of his adult life, whenever he read fiction out loud, he was reading to his kids. So it didn’t matter if I asked him to read Dr. Seuss or Stephen King, his association with “Fiction as a Child’s Realm” was just really strong. The range of pitches would become extreme and forced, the rate of the narrative would slow down, and suddenly I was two years old and sucking my thumb.
We worked with an actor’s approach – Who/What/Where/When/Why are you telling this story? Sensory imagery: see/hear/taste/feel/smell the story. But no matter the choices he made in his head, the audience was still under 12. What to do?
We went on the ACX site and looked for a male, middle-aged adult, non-fiction audition. He chose a narrative set in the Civil War, and suddenly – maybe because the story is “real”, he could tell it with authority and expression. We worked to give the factual text a POV, some drama, an escalating sense of narrative action – and hey – he started to sound like a Narrator. Now, I know plenty of professional narrators who will not touch non-fiction material. The challenges of bringing it to life are just too daunting….all those pesky facts and dates and place names and God help us – scientific terms! The need that so many non-fiction authors have to cram their sentences full of historical research and scientific asides, which, for a narrator, can be tricky to voice and difficult to “breathe through”. I know from two non-fiction texts I voiced last year as a way to learn editing – that the experience was really a trial by fire. You can know that, at the end of it, you have survived, and learned much along the way. And if you have found the pace and flow of this narrative and managed to bring it to life… you have accomplished a great deal against significant odds.
All that said – I have a fondness for a true story. And apparently, among narrators, non-fiction has a reputation for being difficult to voice. A producer called me recently and asked if I would be interested in narrating a non-fiction book written by a particular politician campaigning for office. He asked primarily because he knew that I have a background in training and development, and maybe therefore, some “street cred” in the non-fiction realm.
It has a reputation as a different planet – nonfiction. But with many similar elements to the more imagined world of fiction: the energy and thrust of a story may be more of a challenge to find, but it is there – lurking under those pesky facts. My client and I worked on what facts to “throw away” – to de=emphasize in favor of the more active notes in a narrative. He’s progressing. So he may have a future in non-fiction narration once he retires from the legal profession….should he so choose.
What’s your preference – non-fiction or fiction? And why?
The last few weeks have been filled with all things Steve Jobs – and as it should be really – his were amazing contributions to our way of life – he was a true maverick and a catalyst for change on a major scale. One of the pieces that came out recently was by Carmine Gallo titled “Steve Jobs and the 7 Rules of Success”. I was struck by number 4: Say No to 1,000 things….especially in light of some recent things I have said Yes to this week.
“Jobs was as proud of what Apple chose not to do as he was of what Apple did. When he returned to Apple in 1997, he took a company with 350 products and reduced them to 10 products in a two-year period. Why? So he could put the “A-team” on each product. What are you saying “no” to?”
Well… When 4 out of 6 ACX auditions for stipended book projects came through with offers – I did say “no” to 1 of them. And “yes” to the remaining 3. I’m going to be a busy bee for the next few months – and that’s just fine by me. In addition, I will get at least $100 per recorded hour along with whatever Royalties may come through.
There is a lot of controversy about taking on Royalty share projects. The narrator takes on the bulk of the work at sizable risk. There is also the larger picture: it seems as though “A-team” narrators won’t touch these projects, hoping to force the industry to start coughing up real money for real quality. And that’s completely understandable. These narrators are saying “no” to their 1,000 things.
Personally however, I don’t know whether I can really consider myself “A-list” and not because I am not good enough as a narrator. I’ve won an Audie Award, I’ve had fabulous reviews and done my share of narrating, and I’m proud of my skills – and if voice acting were all that is currently required, I could sit out this phase in the industry too I suppose. But I truly want to perfect my technical expertise in audio production, as Malcolm Gladwell says – I also need to put in my 10,000 hours toward mastering my skills. And without opportunity for refining those aspects of my work, all I feel I am doing by saying “no” is posturing. I’m speaking only for myself here, of course.
I really want to work as a narrator and a producer. Consistently. For Good Money. And so do you. We all need to start the ball rolling someplace, to build our 10,000 hours, and I have chosen to start by saying Yes to 3, and No to 1. A step towards my thousand, and 3 more towards my 10 thousand. How far along are you?
