The Full Find Your Voice Audiobook Performanc
This comprehensive 10 hour course teaches a process for audiobook performance that helps you consistently get inside the heads of your characters, find a profound understanding of the text, discover your authentic connection with the words, and bring the story to life while creating flow and freedom from your inner critic.
Part one, Interpreting the Text, takes a deep dive into text analysis for audiobook narration. It gives tools for deep insight and profound understanding that can be applied to every book and the characters within it. Get inside your characters' heads so you can make them more distinct and real. Make the story come to life by understanding its core and what your listener needs to know at any given moment. You can't make choices about character voices, tone, pacing, or anything else in your narration until you understand why you're making those choices. Learn to mine the text for clues to make more impactful and informed choices that will help your narration sing.
Part two, Bringing the Words to Life, is a crash course on audiobook performance skills. Learn to find the truth of the moment by using your authentic connection to the text and create compelling performances that are uniquely yours. Silence your inner critic and find freedom and playfulness in your narration. Create dynamic and fully dimensional characters who draw your listeners in. Learn to trust yourself, stop judging yourself, get out of your head and get lost in the story.
Since Emily's approach is so different than traditional methods, narrators of all levels will find the course chock full of tips, tricks, and helpful tools. From newer narrators looking for a solid foundation to experienced narrators trying to revitalize their work or just find more joy in it, there's something for everyone.
Testimonials
"For me, it was enormously enjoyable and jam packed with useful information. I know it may be a little awkward teaching over a zoom call vs. in person, but I think you did great. It was amazing to watch you go through the thought processes you were teaching. I could see and hear you changing as you did it, so immensely cool and inspiring. It really comes across that you care about what you do, and care about making the people you are working with better. I really enjoy the process you teach and its simplicity. This class has given me a ton to think about, and I am chewing on thoughts about my path forward."
-Joel Righetti, audiobook narrator
"The course provided actionable information and was directly applicable to my current and future projects. Thanks for sharing your beautifully practical and effective way of analyzing text, Emily. I am a better narrator for it!"- Sarah Brands, audiobook narrator"So just wanted to say that after session three of the class I feel like it finally clicked for me!! I was preparing an audition and found myself asking relevant questions and really deepening my connection to the text! So exciting. Thanks Emily, what a unique and amazing insight into approaching this work."- Anna Caputo, audiobook narrator"I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for a great class! I enjoyed part 1 of interpreting the text. I'm newer to the narrating world and so far have only narrated non-fiction but would really love to get into fiction. I found it really helpful to know what to look for and how to mine the text for helpful nuggets on how to bring the book to life. I'm looking forward to part 2 and learning how to use everything we talked about and put it into action! I think this is going to give me the confidence to really get into those characters and dive into the world of fiction!"
- Cassie Huff, audiobook narrator
What's Included?
In the 4 hour 24 minutes of part one, Interpreting the Text, we'll address:
- Building a profound understanding of your characters to give them specificity and depth
- A universal framework for deep understanding of every story
- Recognizing what each moment in a story's purpose is and the important parts that the listener must know
- Getting to the core of the story and your characters
- Interpreting a story objectively and subjectively and why you need to have both types of understanding
- Tools to avoid judging a story or making choices that aren't serving the author's truth
- Using archetypes as a jumping off point for building authentic characters
- The difference between building main or major supporting characters and small minor characters
- How each genre should affect your text analysis and narration style
- How to use syntax and punctuation to create characters
- And much more
In the 5 hour 41 minutes of part two, Bringing the Words to Life, we'll address:
- Authenticity - finding YOUR voice
- Developing a mindset of freedom and creativity in the booth that allows for flow and focus
- Creating characters and their voices (including of other genders)
- Self-direction while silencing the inner critic
- Tone, pacing, and the effect genre has on them
- How to narrate different POVs (1st, 3rd, non-fiction)
- How to deal with narrating books you don't like
- How to start each recording session focused and in the moment and not feel like you have to warm up to it
Each participant who takes the full course will have the opportunity to submit two recorded samples up to five minutes in length and receive notes and pointers on ways to improve your performance at the end of the course. The samples can be sent after each part, as a check-in to make sure you're grasping the concepts, or can be sent in at the end of the course.