Have you ever felt like life takes pleasure in making you eat your words? Hahaha… well, it’s part life and part lack of planning – at least for me – that made me eat my last blog’s words. I was so sure I was going to increase my contact with the world and start making more blogs about things other than VO. I had visions of all the different topics I would tackle. Hahaha… the joke was really on me the following week after I made my last post when I realized… I don’t do anything else besides VO! I’ve got a laundry list of things I’d like to do, such as calligraphy (I’ve been wanting to do that since high school), drawing, painting (both watercolor and acrylic – oil seems like such a pain to clean up after), pottery (but that would require the materials, which is costly), embroidery, sewing (I love hand sewing but have a sewing machine I’ve been meaning to learn how to use), photography, woodworking (but I’m scared of power tools). I could go on. I made a long list of all the things that interest me back when I was bed bound and had no energy (before Benlysta, which is my miracle drug). I made the list with a promise to tackle them once I had the chance. I just haven’t made the chance for myself. And writing about things I have only an interest in and don’t actually do makes for a poor blog both on my part and yours.
Unfortunately, there’s only so much energy to go around when you have a chronic illness, so you must weigh what takes priority. Right now, I’m still developing my skills as a VO artist. There’s only so many hours in a day that I can sit or stand, or even pay attention, so it’s all been going to voice over and a bit to house chores (a girl’s gotta eat) and basic hygiene (always a good investment). My hobby and profession right now, is voice over. So my non-VO blog was a flop before I even got a chance to write it… what about my regular one?
This summer, I auditioned and then later took on my first fantasy book, complete with accents that weren’t in my arsenal. Even more, it was hours longer than any of the other books I’ve narrated (It’s over 8.5 hours). I was so excited to take up the challenge (since I read a lot of fantasy books) and thought it was a great chance to grow through experience as a narrator (it was, but it was more challenging than I anticipated). Let me just say that a lot of VO professionals will say that the length of the book doesn’t matter, that it’s all the same. But it does matter, as does your health condition, your recording and editing process (if you are changing said process during recording –cough, cough), and most importantly if there are numerous accents in the book.
Unless you have a total knack for accents – don’t try to learn more than one at a time for a book. Because you’re not just trying to learn an accent, you’re trying to master it. To lay that accent on top of your character(s), and then to lay their situation and feelings not just on top of but into all of that. Do you know how many layers that is? Okay, four but that’s beside the point. To the outside observer, learning more than one accent may seem foolish but when you are offered an golden opportunity, it seems so feasible. One, maybe two. But any more than that is foolish. And yes, I was foolish!!
That’s all good in well but it basically all boils down to even my regular blog was thrown to the wayside to focus on narrating the book and learning accents. Recording a book that up until this year was outside my skill level was both exciting and intimidating. But that’s for another blog. It would be this one but I’ve decided to make my blog extra-long blogs shorter so that I can actually tackle one if my schedule is tight. (I avoided writing one this whole time and only now realize -duh- people like short blogs anyway.) Now if I can only cut them down to 500 words or less…
Oh, the pic is from Day 2 of Mel Robbin’s High 5 Challenge!