SHAZAM! Just like that I'm back for a fifth(?) blog post in what feels like as many years. I've got some serious stamina problems when it comes to writing it turns out, so sorry if you've been anxiously waiting for this one.
My isolation-enforced delusions aside - perhaps, reading this, you're wondering what I've been up to in the last (checks post date of last blog) 14 MONTHS?! Well, if you hadn't noticed, something called a pan-demic(?) sort of happened/is still happening. That's what the goblins I dispatch from my voice booth every day tell me since I locked myself in there in a misguided effort at increasing productivity anyway. Anyway, I hope it hasn't caused too much bother! I hope lots of you found productive ways to spend your lockdowns. Casting my mind back, I'm pretty sure I recorded at least one audiobook in the time freed up by teaching from home, though I lament to report that my lockdowns were not quite as productive as I (or the goblins quite frankly) expected them to be. That's OK though - don't be too hard on yourselves, and all that. Think of this time as practise for the next pandemic.
Success and Learnings
I'm currently part-way through recording my fifth(!) audiobook. The previous 4 are all published on Audible (check them out!! - https://www.audible.co.uk/search?keywords=skullenia&ref=a_hp_t1_header_search), and thought that this would be a good time to write down some rambling thoughts on what's gone right and wrong, what's invigorated and infuriated me and WHY IN STEPHEN FRY'S NAME WON'T THIS DAMN THING RECOR-
Part 1 - Going Rogue
When you start producing an audiobook, its best practice to have a conversation with the author to, among other things, ask for suggestions for the voice of each character. Whether they choose to furnish you with their internal musings is up to them. Often an author is keen to have the narrator's creative input take the floor. What you should NOT do, is deviate from the agreed upon plan once you decide that your West Country accent isn't quite up to scratch and you'd do a better job with Northern Irish. Let's just say that this happened to a friend of mine, and the author was rather confused when reviewing completed work. "Wasn't Mrs Strudel from Cornwall in the first book?" he queried. "Why is she suddenly from Swansea?" (It turned out my Northern Irish might also need some work).
So off I went, re-recording literally all of Mrs Strudel's lines in my best West Country. Incidentally, one can find oneself in very strange corners of YouTube when trying to 'catch' the right accent (my thanks go out to the gossipy Cornish women at the village fete). Not only was this excruciatingly time-consuming, it was a real challenge to edit and 'blend' in the very short recordings of 'Mrs Strudel mk2' with the original recording. I was also of course terrified that I'd miss one of her lines, leaving a perplexing moment in the story where she suddenly comes over all Gaelic. If I did and you spotted it, do let me know in the comments. I'll prepare the hat of shame in the meantime.
Part 2 - You can't fix everything in the edit.
I've flown by the seat of my pants when it comes to editing away mistakes, engineering natural-length pauses between sentences and paragraphs, and mastering the recording (making sure no parts are too loud or quiet) and it really shows when I listen back to my earliest editing. Since then, one thing I've come to realise is that you can't turn a pig into a peacock; meaning there are some mistakes made when recording that you can't make right at your desk regardless of your level of skill (techies please don't @ me). That's why doing a half-hearted/mistake-ridden job in the booth is likely to lead to giant frustrations at the editing desk. For example, sometimes, upon making a vocal error, I might rerecord from halfway through the sentence to save doing the whole thing again, but if that starting point comes too close to (or flows vocally from) the previous half-sentence, you're going to have a tough time stitching them together without there being an audible 'skip' post-editing. Instead - rerecord from the start of the sentence or section to ensure the flow is good. It's been hard work convincing myself that doing this will save me time in the long run, but it does and has done frequently.
And really, anything you can do to make editing an audiobook more palatable, you should do. It can be a slog, especially if left unti-
Part 3 - DON'T LEAVE THE EDITING UNTIL THE END
Oh my goodness I can't believe I didn't put this one first. This is perhaps the strongest advice I would stress. Unless you are a particularly self-ruining masochist, hell bent on making your life as hard as it possibly can be, edit your audiobook alongside recording it.
When you reach the particularly exhilarating point of reading the end credits of the book you've been narrating, you can't wait to see it up for sale and read the first reviews. The ice cold bucket of water to douse your excitement comes in the form of ~40 audio files of lengths varying from 5 minutes to 1 hour that you've got to scour for mistakes, edit, and then re-record various bits you've mucked up. This happened badly with my third book, and it was The Worst. I must have sped through the recording of the book so fast because I was enjoying it so much, and because it was the best of the books I'd narrated at the time (Quest for the Bone Idol, if you were wondering), and though I did enjoy listening to the best parts again during the edit, the gargantuan task you know is ahead of you looms like an ever-present behemoth. The slog to end all slogs that feels like it will never, ever end. It makes progress slow, and the FEEL of progress even slower. Trust me, kids - edit. as. you. go.
Part 4 - Warming up and hydrating
OK a bit boring this one, but it's ridiculously important. Before every recording session I do a relatively quick warm up for my facial muscles, tongue and voice. This includes pretending to chew on toffee (cheek crunches), writing my name in the air with my tongue (toungercise) and vocalising all the consonant sounds I can think of in quick repetition (lip and voice-aerobics). It may or may not be obvious to say, but doing this cuts down on roughly 30% of 'stumbles' I would otherwise make when reading. It is well worth 5 minutes at the start of recording if it saves you some editing at the end.
Keeping hydrated with water (not anything caffeinated - causes your throat to constrict) is also super important in ensuring the quality of your voice remains consistent. No-one likes a raspy narrator (unless you're John Grisham?), so lubricate those vocal folds!
Part 5 - Turn it up to 11
I've performed in a lot of musicals, and a particular director would always say to me 'Do what you're doing, but at 100% intensity. It's easier to dial back to 70% from there than to dial up from nowhere'. I'm shy and retiring by nature, so my default stance when acting is always quite a small, understated performance. Even in a quiet, somber scene though, your intensity should still be high. Even though you're not being loud that internal intensity will show through your movement and speech.
In voice work, you don't have the tool of physicality to convey that same intensity so you've got to make sure your voice is really engaged with what you're reading, and that you're not just coasting along as if you were reading to yourself. This is an area I would love more training in, as I'm really only applying the experience I've got from stage work. And the difference is remarkable when you listen back to recordings where intensity has not been in the forefront of your mind. As a narrator, the goal is for the listener to be transported into another world. Its hard to achieve that if your voice is as flat and dry as a dehumidified pancake.
I hope you found something in there that was interesting to you. Please leave a comment if there are any other insights into audiobook production you'd be interested in reading about, and tell me your best tips! I (and the goblins!) would love to read them.
First published 11th June 2021
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