Narration Creation: Character Voices

Narrators bring the stories we love to life. But what does it take to prepare and record an audiobook? I asked a group of narrators four questions about the audiobook process. This series is based off of the Blogger Confidential series.

When you're creating character voices, is it a conscious effort or do you just vocalize what they sound like in your head?

"It's a little of both. I get a general idea of what they sound like while I am reading the book for the first time. After I see the full list of characters I've made, I start re-thinking the voices to make sure they are different enough. Then, once I get in the studio, the Director helps guide me to fully realize the voices and keep them all consistent. Many times I have an idea in my head what a character will sound like, but once I get in the booth it comes out a whole different way and I just roll with it!" Tara Sands, narrator of The Dead-Tossed Waves; Revived

"Both. Most often, when I read a book, I have a solid idea of what the character sounds like in my head. These voices come from characters in movies that I’ve seen or voices that I hear in every day life. I will be walking through the grocery store and over hear a unique voice from the person in line at the check out and think “oh! That has got to go in an audio book!” That being said, often times the author will spell out exactly what a character should sound like in their description of that character. Things like accent, tone, cadence, and the like, are frequently given in the book itself. So I can then put those pieces together to create the voice of the character." Nick Podehl, narrator of the Chaos Walking trilogy, Shelter

"To sustain many characters over a 20-hr session you have to remember where you’ve placed each of them vocally and then adjust to how they respond in different situations. I’ve been a character voice actor for years, so I’ve developed the ability to quickly hone in on specific characteristics. I try to use subtle adjustments in vocal quality to make my characters as realistic as possible. I’ll make a reference file if a character turns up infrequently, or if I’m going to need to match the characters in a sequel." Amy Rubinate, narrator of Shadows on the Moon; The Selection

"It is definitely a conscious effort. I try them out when I am prepping the book. I am not a super gifted mimic so getting the voice in my head to match what comes out of my mouth is not always successful. So I just try to make sure the characters are different from each other and have a distinct sound of their own so the listener doesn’t have to do a lot of work to keep track of who’s speaking. And I try to get my impression/interpretation of the characters across." Amanda Ronconi, narrator of How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf; the Soul Screamers series

When I was little, my father worked as a professional storyteller and he used to take me to storytelling festivals. It was at these festivals that I first learned how people could create different characters with just their voices. Since then, when I read a story or a play, I immediately hear the character’s voice in my head. When I’m narrating a book, I try to recreate the voice in my head. Sometimes when prepping for a book, I will record myself ahead of time and practice a particular voice until I get it the way I want. I will often practice switching between characters before I get into the recording studio, especially when there is a tricky bit of rapid-fire dialog that involves several characters. For books that are in a series, I save audio clips of each character’s voice so that I will remember what they sounded like for the next time the character appears in a later book. Caitlin Davies, narrator of Awakened: A House of Night Novel; Little Vampire Women

"Character development involves a kind of alchemy. There's an emergence of the person's sound based on gut instinct, there's an evolutionary deepening of vocal choices gleaned from getting to know the character as the story unfolds, and there's finding the voice by doing research, picking up clues the author leaves which inform the kind of voice that's "right" for the character."  Carol Monda, narrator of The Seven Realms series; the Cass Neary series

"A bit of the both; some characters are easy to 'hear', and others need a little more conscious thought and effort. For instance, if a character has an accent, a certain vocal pace, or a speech impediment, it's important to keep consistency in mind while recording. It's really a lot of fun, and I'll keep telling stories as long as I can get away with it. I'm grateful every single day to be able to provide for my family doing something that brings me so much joy." Kate Rudd, narrator of The Fault in Our Stars; Tithe

"This is an awesome question. When creating character voices, for me, it's not so much creating but resonating with what the character already IS. I don't make the voice UP, as much as I create a geometrical vector to the best of my abilities against this very rich wall of language on the page. So, like a sun reflecting a beam of light off a mirror that then bounces back into the sky, I aim my energy at the book and see what bounces back.

Some portions of it are logical, this character is old, he needs to have a slight accent - there's a clue to that in the text, I'll differentiate the two friends by making the main narrative protagonist very close to my natural voice and then making her best friend lighter, this is an older distinguished man, this is a young kid who still lives with his parents so his voice doesn't carry so much wear and tear yet. But this is all information I am articulating to you backwards; I can usually do this in split seconds super subconsciously inside my head. Accents are really really fun." Jessica Almasy; narrator of The Summer I Turned Pretty, Unraveled

"Both. I’ve been voice acting for a while now and so I’ve got my “stock characters” in my repertoire. Then, as I said before, the author will sometimes tell me exactly what a character sounds like and then I do my best to bring out that sound. If I’m lucky, the author will give me great physical descriptions of a character that’s unlike anything I’ve got in my bag-o-tricks and then I get to discover something new. But, if I’m being honest, most of my characters come from my life. Just me riffing on the wacky people in my world. Soooo… that 'mom' character… that’s my mom. That 'best friend' well that’s my best friend, and so on. So if you hear something a little scary or creepy or just plain weird… that’s me." Khristine Hvam, narrator of Daughter of Smoke and Bone; Iron Fey series

"I would say both! When I narrate books that have many characters...women, men, young, old and creatures :) I want to bring them to life, tell the story that the author created and do it in a way that feels authentic to me! At the heart of it for me is being a story teller. I love the thought of being a story teller to so many people from around the globe and hope that the audio books bring whatever the listener needs them to bring; comfort, inspiration and entertainment." Ilyana Kadushin; narrator of the Twilight Saga; Glow

"I'd say it's a conscious effort, but that effort is rooted in my gut instinct and deductive reasoning. First I look for the clues the author gives about the characters. Old, young, tough, lazy, etc. all of these character traits affect a person's voice; and that voice in turn should reflect all of those traits to the listener. And then some of it is based on technicalities. For example, if my main male character has a deeper voice and there's dialogue with another male,  I've got to differentiate who's talking, so I may choose a voice that makes that easier for the listener. I also don't want to take the listener out of the story by choosing an arbitrary or distracting voice.  But the bottom line is all of my character decisions are made bearing in mind how best to tell the author's story." Luke Daniels, narrator of This Dark Endeavor; Unwind

"The author does a fabulous job of creating the characters for me and that coupled with my imagination brings these people or creatures to life. In "Firelight" I saw Jacinda very clearly in my mind as a Kristen Stewart type teenager. Sophie Jordan gave me all the information about Jacinda, describing her moods and clothes and attitudes in detail so the picture of her in my mind brought her voice out of me perfectly. Its a group effort:-)." Therese Plummer, narrator of the Firelight series; The Immortal Rules

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