0695 – Audiobook Character Voices

2022.11.26 – 0695 – Audiobook Character Voices

Character voices

(This is in addition to the in-depth look at character voices in the ‘animation’ section previously.)

The main character – Create a voice that you can use in various emotions and one not so strong that it exhausts or hurts you.

Individuality – having said that, each main character’s voice must be somewhat distinct from each other (and from you as ’narrator’), and consistent from page to page, matching any ‘character clues’ in the text (their attitude, age, background, looks and so on – we have looked at all this in some detail already). Consider how that character sounds in different situations and with different emotions:

·        Arrogant

·        Patronising

·        Smarmy

·        Sexy

·        Embarrassed

·        Secretive

·        And so on…

What are their gestures? How do they move when they speak, are they hunched, where is their breathing coming from (the stomach or the chest?), is it quick and snatched or low and slow and deep? How do they walk, how would they run? See the image of the character: where they have got their hands, you have them too. How they have their eyes, you try too: small, beady, shifty, wide-eyed? Your voice will find the appropriate sound almost naturally. Be careful of stereotyped accents of characters which may cause offence.

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