Greetings from Eau Claire, one day before we’re supposed to be socked with a snowstorm that could bring anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snow. And, for good measure, my snowblower decided to die on me.
Unfortunately, these things happen. Snowblowers break, computers crash, mic inputs might not have been turned on, or you sent off a chapter for a completely different book. I’ve had them all happen. And you deal with them. I had to buy a new laptop after the old one died (learned to back up my work better), went talking through almost a whole chapter before realizing that I hadn’t turned the correct mic input on, and had to apologize to a more than understanding client that I sent them the wrong thing.
It happens.
Growing pains are part of life, and definitely part of building a voiceover career. I listen to some bits and pieces of my older audiobooks, just to hear the difference, and MAN. The first one I did sounds like I was speaking into a can of soda (this is proof that the mic is a MAJOR piece of hardware when getting into the business, and a Blue Snoball mic won’t get you professional level work), the next couple sounded less bad, then eventually, the sound was good, but the technique needed some work.
The technique will always need work.
My Achilles’ Heel is my reading speed. I started off reading like I needed to get it done ASAP. Enter Johnny Heller. First thing he told me to do was to SLOW DOWN, BUDDY. The point that I was getting paid by the hour and talking like a rabid jackrabbit made no sense, if I was looking to make money in the industry.
You can tell from the audiobooks I’ve worked on where it was before I trained with Johnny and after. It’s a pretty big difference. And my mistakes went down immensely.
The point of this blog is how you deal with the minor adversities that you have to go through. Sometimes you need to get creative, sometimes you need to get a kick in the pants letting you know that you’re doing it wrong. Us narrator types are fragile souls, so a kick in the pants is more like a light reprimand from a mentor.
Ok, signing off, and hopefully the neighbor kids have room on their schedule to snowblow my driveway.
L