It feels really good to be back to writing. I cannot tell all of you how much I’ve missed writing posts on this blog. Now, I’ve got plenty of time on my hands, time to get to work.

PERSISTENCE:

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The above audio is a good example of persistence. One of the words I have the most trouble with is indignation. For some reason, every time I run across this word, I just can NOT pronounce it. I think I’ve formed some sort of mental block in my mind that keeps me from pronouncing it right.

Persistence as defined in the dictionary “to continue steadfastly or firmly in some state, purpose, course of action, or the like, esp. in spite of opposition, remonstrance,”

We as voice over artists have no choice but to continue. We have to get to the end of a project in order to get paid. But, the goal is not to be paid, but to be hired again for another project, thus continuance of pay. If every client you ever have loves your demos but hates the production, you’ll quickly run yourself out of business.

So, in what must we persist?

The most important thing would be concentration. In another post, I talked about the best tip you’ll ever receive. Without concentration, this technique becomes impossible. You must persist and keep concentrating, or else the end product will suffer and you, most likely, will not be rehired for another project. There are a lot of things that can break your concentration, and most of them are visual. I find removing anything visually interesting from my studio (basically everything but the mic, myself, and the copy) really helps with concentration.

Also, sit or stand up straight, I know that sounds silly, but if your posture is off, your focus will be too. If you’re really having a hard time concentrating, take a short break and do something else for a little while, then get back to work, but don’t let the break go longer than 15 minutes.

We also must persist in perfection. This is awfully broad, I’m aware of that, but it applies to every aspect of your work. Your standards must be set high and everything you do must meet those standards, no matter how many takes it takes to get there. That’s going to take some persistence.

Insist upon and persist through warm ups and warm downs. Your voice is an instrument and if it is not correctly warmed up and down, you’ll suffer later in the session or later in that day when it’s time for project #2 or 3 or 4. Tongue twisters are awesome. Find some you like and commit them to memory and say them before you start talking. Change the speed, pitch, and rhythm at which you say them to make them more persistable. *crosses fingers and hopes that’s a real word*

Finally, persist through tough copy. I’ve read some awful copy, but still had to make it sound good. Try to find a way to make the copy interesting (see Spicing Up Boring Copy) without changing the script. During a recent, really long project I spoke in a lower pitched voice to make the copy more interesting (and slightly more challenging). I didn’t do this to any extreme whatsoever, and neither should you, just do something, because if you’re doing nothing, the copy remains “bad” and that, in turn, makes you sound bad. Your clients will love you if you can make their script come alive. That’s our job, after all, so we should do it and persist through it.

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