I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this: what is the difference between a great narrator and a good-enough narrator? What’s that magical quality that happens where with the same material, one narrator can make the story explode into color in your mind, while another narrator has you thinking about adding alfredo sauce to your grocery list?
And the answer is…
I don’t really know.
Ha! I’m so sorry to disappoint, but there’s a bit of mystery in audiobook performance. I don’t know why some people get cast, and some don’t. I don’t even know why I don’t get cast as much as I used to. I wish we’d get feedback on our auditions, our performances, etc. but we don’t. We get the next audition, or the next gig, and sometimes we get a review, and that needs to be enough. (Please do not read Audible reviews to judge your performance.)
What I do know is that the narrators who are the easiest to work with, the ones that seem to have a rootedness and confidence in their performance, have one thing in common: they trust themselves. They trust their talent, their instincts, and they trust their process. They don’t need a lot of input or to be told what’s right or wrong. They can feel what is right or wrong for them. This intuitiveness results, I think, in performances that sound organic. Their performances are from the heart, instead of from the mind.
For narrators, I would encourage you to trust your gut. If you think a character should sound a certain way, go with that. You don’t need permission. Follow what you know. I think our minds operate on different levels and you may be picking up something in the text that isn’t obvious to others.
If you don’t have any instincts or feelings about a piece, you might need more practice as a narrator, or maybe you’re reading a piece you just don’t connect with. If that happens, then you need to trust that your practice of the craft will inform your performance so it’s believable.
I do believe in coaching, but I think the best coaches work with what you have and encourage you to go deeper into your own choices. Coaches that tell you to do something entirely different than you’re comfortable with, might be great coaches, but they might not be a great coach for you. Experiment. Try it. Test it. But when you’re in the booth again with your own work, trust your instincts. Lean into the story as you feel it should be read.
My favorite readers perform the text as if it’s their story to tell. Those are the narrator I connect with the most, and this is the type of narrator I’m (still) trying to be.
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Tanya is a narrator, casting director, and writer. Like her work? Please subscribe, leave a comment, and share with others.
Have a question about audiobooks that you’d like to ask Tanya? Ask her, and maybe she’ll write a column about it.
Wow. This is gold!--the most centring thing I’ve read yet! 🙏🏆🧘♀️Thank you!! ⛹️♀️
Could you speak to “subtlety”... although this is a bad time to ask because you already beautifully answered with develop & trust your instincts, but anything you might want to add? Like how to avoid convincing ourselves that our over the top reads are completely all right for the author or project? I’m so used to over the top fiction that I don’t know 🤷🏻♀️ if I have good instincts or not! I hear what you’re saying when I listen to the two narrators in Scorpio Races, for example, but that’s easy--it’s somebody else! When it’s me... I’m not sure I know... so I am tattooing your comments here on my brain (I hear this) and I work for that day that I “know”! Maybe it’s just when I’m satisfied and feel proud regardless? 🍉☺️🌻