Getting to the 'Success' Point

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what it means to achieve success as a Voiceover Artist, or in fact in any performance career. The impetus for this was how mixed I felt when I won an award for Audiobook Narration recently, combined with the reading I've been doing for a forthcoming NLP Practitioner course I'm completing soon. NLP means 'Neuro -Linguistic Programming' and the practice of it allows people to make fundamental changes to how they catalogue their responses and thoughts about the world in their unconscious mind. The idea is that if you can find what triggers feelings of limitation such as disappointment, you can set about changing your language to counteract or even eradicate those feelings of not quite matching up to your ideals.

On discovering I was an Award Winner, I was delighted. I could see that my hard work and dedication to my career had paid-off in this badge of recognition. However, quickly I was consumed by doubt - had they really listened to me? Had they got the right person? What if others listened and thought I was terrible?  These insecurities and doubts triggered off feelings of 'Well I might have won this, but I'm nowhere near as good as.....(insert other Voice Actor)...., and I haven't won a (...insert other Award)...yet, I'm not even nominated.' I pretty much imploded with self-talk, and my head was not a positive place to be!

What it caused me to do was stop and think, reassess where I am, and what I now want my life to be about, not just in my career, but my personal life also. It is no bad thing, to hold a mirror up and take stock. It forced me to look at the journey I have had to get where I am today.  It forced me to recognise that my model of 'success' had changed so many times since I first became aware, almost 15 years ago, that I could make money with my voice. Back then, my dream was to create a good demo, to get an agent just to listen, and to land one single, little job. It is good to remember what it was like before I got started. The 'Anna' of 2000 would be astonished to see how far I have come, and yet (until now) the Anna of 2015 had always looked for more and thought it wasn't enough!

As a freelancer, ofcourse it is important to strive for more business, new clients, other networks to join and contacts to make. However, I 've had a wake up call that tells me it's ok to slow down once in a while, and view the journey, and decide 'Where next?'. It's also made me see that the giant leaps I have made in my career have been when I have had regular contact with an inspiring coach or mentor. And it makes me see that what I want as part of the future I am building, is to use my own successes to inspire others starting out in the Voice world to build their own model of success.  It is why I have set up my coaching website www.VoiceoverCoachUK.com, and why I am excited about helping each of my clients achieve their own goals and dreams in this industry.

If you are interested in learning more about my Voiceover Coaching, please visit www.VoiceoverCoachUK.com.

Motherhood: Being a Girl, and making Voice work, work.

The summer holidays have got me thinking about what a great job I have, and how blessed I am to have created an environment for my children where I can be around for them all the time, and still be successful in my work. As a mother of three children, I can work from home whilst they are here too. No paying for expensive childcare, no hours spent commuting to someone else's office.  The overriding reason why Voiceover work is for me is that I choose to be first and foremost, a 24/7 mother to my children. I have chosen to work freelance and mostly from home so that I can be there for every school pick up and drop off, every school holiday. Every assembly, every Sports Day. And I know that there are many other VO girls out there, with talent and real ability, who make it work from their own studios because of the perks of the job in terms of motherhood and childcare. 

 

It is not to say that I don’t love my job for other reasons, because I do. I love the creative nature of my work, I love developing ongoing client relationships, I love the entrepreneurial element of my job, I love the sound of my own voice….! Yet, when I am chatting to other working mothers from more traditional type jobs at the school gate, and on play-dates, it strikes me that I am getting the balance right (or at the least, right for me. I place no judgement on other arrangements for parenting and childcare – I can only know what is best for my personal situation). I can book jobs flexibly- I can arrange ISDN sessions for when the youngest of my three children is at pre-school, and I can record any additional mp3, wav’s and material that doesn’t need direction from someone in another studio in the UK after the kids are in bed. It also leaves me the evenings for ISDN, ipDTL and Skype sessions with the US, and other places with different time zones. 

The glory of modern technology means that I can do my social network marketing whilst on the school run, I can send out quotes and invoices from my iPhone between chauffeuring my daughters to theatre school (performing runs in their blood, or so I like to think!). I can arrange coaching sessions whilst my son watches Bob the Builder, and I do the ironing. I can read blogs in between watching swimming classes, and I can do last minute short sessions whilst the fish fingers are in the oven.

In addition, I am close enough to swan into London at short notice when a face-to-face session is required in a studio, which also enables me to feel less isolated than a home booth can at times feel. And I can still be back in time for the school run.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t always plain sailing. The long school summer holidays can be a particularly tricky juggling act (fortunately Granny and Grandpa are a stones throw away in any ‘I have a session booked for 30 minutes time and the kids are WILD today’ emergencies). As they get older though, my children do understand that they need to be particularly quiet in short blasts from time to time. Bribery helps. (For those in similar situations, I have found that a packet of crisps allows me more ‘silent time’ than sweets or a chocolate bar!). Other sticky moments have been when they were young babies, and I had tight deadlines to reach, and my ‘fail-safe’ plan to record once they had GONE TO SLEEP backfired on me.  But on the whole, it works, and it works well. And increasingly, they are very proud of my work and my achievements and show off to their friends about it, which is just brilliant, to be honest.

So to other women interested in Voiceover work, that’s maybe the message I want to spread. That it can work, if you work hard enough to make it work. You can be a full time VO, and a full time stay-at-home mother. I know because I’ve been doing it successfully for years. So any of you VO girls who are lucky enough to be new mothers, wondering how on earth you can fit it all in, please know that you can, and it may just be the thing that saves your sanity during the baby years!

I provide coaching for Voiceover Artists via Skype. Visit www.VoiceoverCoachUK.com, and let's get the ball rolling for your stay-at-home career.

A recipe for sore throats- Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy?

Over the past 12 months since my recording schedule has become busier and busier with long form narration, I’d been using the tried and tested method of drinking hot water with lemon and honey on a regular basis, convincing myself that this would be a sure fire way to do all I could to prevent sore and tired throats. And I felt fairly smug that I was doing the right thing to help myself.

But guess what? My throat became worse and more uncomfortable despite steaming, warming up thoroughly, taking rest days, resting when I wasn’t working, and of course drinking cups of lemon and honey. I began to panic - I love Voice acting and I became concerned that I couldn’t sustain this as a career owing to discomfort. I became tense, and my neck and shoulders tightened, which consequently had an impact on my throat and larynx, which no doubt made the whole situation worse!

I booked in to see and ENT specialist (Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist) and waited for my appointment date to come through.  A few months later I met the Consultant who whisked me promptly to have an investigative Endoscopy (yes, a teeny, tiny camera shoved up my anaethastised nostril), freaked out with how weird it felt and with a mild reaction to the anaesthetic spray, hyperventilated  and fainted. Oh the glamour. Came round to find myself on the floor in the recovery position. Oh the shame! Luckily though, the doctor had had a thorough look around my insides before I swooned, and the results showed something that surprised me.

Whilst my vocals cords were perfectly fine  and healthy (thank goodness), the doctor was convinced that the back of my throat was inflamed due to acidic reflux irritation. His first question: Did I have anything especially acidic or citrus regularly in my diet? Well, I have to say I was shocked. All my vocal coaches at drama school had sworn by lemon and honey in hot water. The doctor’s advice to me was to avoid the lemon  drink like the plague for a few months, along with anything else especially acidic. Take some anti- reflux medication for a couple of months to neautralise the effects this had had on my digestive system, and ensure I drink plenty of milk before bed, and avoid eating late at night.

The result? Within just three days, all inflammation had healed. I then had a particularly hectic fortnight of recording on a very tight schedule, and I was fairly convinced the symptoms of sore throat and tiredness would return. But no. Nothing. Of course, the knowledge that I haven’t done anything damaging to my voice and that I haven’t being doing anything ‘wrong’ with my voice, means that I am more relaxed and less tense must have helped too. And whilst I’m sure it isn’t the case for everyone experiencing sore throats, it must be worth stopping the lemon drinks for a while if you are a regular drinker of lemon and you are experiencing sore throats. 

Audiobooks - A Narrator's Job (Part Two)

Some months ago, I posted Audiobooks -A Narrator's Job (Part One), thinking that a few days later I would compose Part Two. But that's the thing about a Narrator's job. Sometimes it doesn't rain, and then it pours. I have been practically locked in the booth, creating incredible audio versions of some astonishingly well-written books for endless weeks! And now that the storm has subsided to a reasonable British kind of drizzle, I finally have time to write the next segment.

So. After all that preparation of reading, researching, character and accent study, it is time to hit the booth. But first things first, WARM UP! I have learned the hard way that not warming up thoroughly before long audiobook recording sessions can have real consequences down the line, both in terms of the quality and the consistency of my work, but also in my vocal health. As a result, I begin my recording days with a lot of humming, trilling, stretching out and steaming my vocal cords. I bought the best steamer I have come across recently, as used and recommended by many West End singer- leading-lady friends of mine, who swear by them in their dressing rooms. The Dr Nelson's Inhaler  is great as you can steam the vocal cords without having to get your chin or nose wet like with so many other steamers (plus the vintage style is very en vogue). I now consider steaming as an integral part of the narration process - prevention rather than cure for vocal strain symptoms.


I stretch. I consciously loosen the muscles in my shoulders and neck. Sometimes I start my day off with a few yoga-style poses and stretches to prepare. Sitting or standing for long periods of time can greatly affect you physically, and I like to be ready to combat or avoid those discomforts. I recently reacquainted myself with Alexander Technique classes too, as it is now (cough) a few years since I last took them at Drama school, where they were compulsory. They help me be mindful of not carrying unnecessary tension as I speak and stand.

If part way through a book, I listen (as I steam) to the last 5 or 10 minutes of audio in the last chapter I recorded, to remind me of tone, pacing, and emotional intensity of the part of the story the listener will currently be experiencing. If I am working from my home studio, then I check that all of my levels on my mixing desk or audio interface are the same as the previous day, and I check that the microphone is still at the same height and distance as before.  (Sometimes if I have been working on commercial work using my ISDN line/Source Connect/ipDTL these need to be adjusted quite significantly). I always keep a written note of what all the settings are at the start of a book. If working in an outside studio, I am thankful that this is one part of the process that the engineer can look after.

I tend to use Pre Sonus Studio One as my preferred recording software for narration work, as it works, and it is free! From time to time I consider swopping to PRo Tools, but an engineer I work with closely keeps reminding me that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I know this software well, and it works for my purposes. I set Studio One to allow me to Punch and Roll record, (or Pre-Roll as some refer to it), and I'm ready to go.

And then the narration begins!

If case you missed it, Audiobooks- A Narrator's Job (Part One) is available here.

Audiobooks - A Narrator's Job ( Part One)

When I tell people that I'm an Audiobook Narrator, I often get the response, 'Oh, so you just read books then?'.  There's just a teensy bit more to it than that!

I thought I'd share with you the steps I take in producing an Audiobook, beginning with the all important Preparation.

My prep work begins with downloading the manuscript onto iAnnotate on my iPad, whilst I make a cup of tea (I'm British through and through). iAnnotate is a fantastic App that enables you to read, mark up and add comments to PDF's and other Word documents. It even has the function to record your own voice, and leave the recording over a particular word for you to listen to later on. It has streamlined my prep processes, and leaves everything in one place. I haven't worked off a paper  copy of an actual book in a long time. Utilizing my iPad means that when I come to record, there are no pages to turn, and if you are careful, little sound from scrolling the page.

Before I get stuck in reading the book, I'll try to find out as much as I can about the Author, and any other books in the series if they exist. This gives me an insight into their common readerships, which may inform my interpretation of the book. I'll most often reach out to the Rights Holder or Author to find out if there are any preferences for pronunciation, and to build a rapport (which really helps when it comes to marketing and promotion).

Then I get settled comfortably, and begin to read. As I read, I mark up any words I am unfamiliar with, and I can access a dictionary, thesaurus and even a sound file of pronunciation, right from iAnnotate (although these are not 100% accurate). I then check for further info on Forvo.com, Howjsay.com and Audioeloquence.com. If I'm working on a US title, I use Merriam-Webster.com, and if I am working on a British book, I use the Oxford English Dictionary online. More info about these can be found in my guest blog for Voiceover Herald.

I'll mark up my findings on the iAnnotate file, usually by spelling them out phonetically, and leaving a comment about where I heard the word said. Occasionally with place names, I have to do a real dig around on Google, and YouTube to find exactly what you need. I have been known to call a local tourist office for advice on how to correctly say a town or little known village in some far off place in the world.

I keep beside me an A4 pad, where I list every character that I come across, and any characteristic
details I can find about them throughout the story. I can't stress enough how important it is to read the whole book. In one of the first books I ever worked on, the author revealed in the final chapter, that one of three female first person narrators in the book had a 'light Russian accent!'  I get all the characters down in my list, and when I have pieced together all the clues left by the writer, I then look at who appears when and with whom throughout the story. I try to work out which accents or speech rhythms or intonations would suit who, and how to balance these out so that they are all distinct. In many ways it is like creating a score of music - what sits where and when. I give a lot of consideration to where the 'narrator' of the book will sit in my vocal range, to try to ensure that it is fairly close to my usual speaking voice, as this is the voice that will be with me for many hours in the booth, and I want to ensure I minimise any potential vocal strain.

Sometimes it is necessary to employ a researcher if I am short on prep time, or if the book contains technical, medical or religious jargon that I am unfamiliar with. I will get them to do all the leg work on finding out about place names and pronunciations, and add them to the file for me. I will always do the character work though.

Once I'm done reading the whole book, I give myself time to think and absorb the story and characters before I dive in, if my schedule allows. Often I'll prep a book in the evenings, whilst I am focusing on recording another during the day. I think about what the author is trying to say, and to whom. I give thought to the sub text of the conversations, and on how to create the emotional mood of the story from one scene or chapter to the next.

Once I've completed my read, I sometimes need to reconnect with the Rights Holder or Author to check in with any queries I have. I have been known to have Skype sessions when jargon or names have been particularly unusual. Once or twice I have asked them to record themselves saying the names, so that I have something concrete to remind me when I begin in the booth.

In an ideal world, I would have time for a second read, but being booked out so much already this year, I am going to have to make sure I am extra through first time round.

Before I begin the whole book I might have a play around with recording some of the character voice ideas, and saving the files for reference. This can be particularly useful if I narrate a book which later becomes a series- I can return quickly and easily to the character audio file and delve straight back in to how they sounded in Book One.

And then I'm ready to get recording.

Read more in Audiobooks - A Narrator's Job (Part Two)