Two Strips Of Bacon, Half An Avocado And A Protein Bar

Two strips of bacon, half an avocado and a protein bar was dinner last night around 10:45pm. I got caught up in recording and tweaking and perfecting and finally looked up out of my voiceover induced haze and realized I was hungry. By that point though I was also exhausted, so preparing something was out of the question and doing anything more than scavenging was nigh preposterous. So I scavenged.

I’d love to tell you that I was lost in flow - that the time melted away because I was deep in the trenches of doing what I love to do. I’d love to paint a rosy picture that time flew by while I gleefully created an amazing project that I’m proud of - buuuuuut no. That’s not the case. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had days like that - days where everything seems right on point, I can control my voice well and everything flows out of my mouth like sparkly rainbows and everyone is as hap-hap-happy as can be. Ahhhh, those are the good days. This was not one of those days.

I’d record, I’d listen, I’d record, I’d listen. I could hear all of the tiny little details of everything that wasn’t going as I had planned it in my head. I’d think, “Ugggghhhhh! Why did I SAY it like THAT?!” Every stress was coming out too stressed, every emphasis somehow seemed to be on the wrong word, and the emotions I was trying to convey either weren’t there, or were too much and sounded over the top. But the deadline was fast approaching and I had to get it done.

I am by far my own worst critic when it comes to being a voice actor, but we have to be, don’t we? Especially if we are recording something without live direction. These modern days when it’s just me and the booth and the only director is the one in my head are both incredibly freeing and frustrating at the same time. I know what I want to hear from me, but whereas a director can hear what needs tweaking as the words come out of my mouth, I have to take the extra step of pressing stop, cueing up the track and listening to what just came out of my mouth, and then recording and doing the same process over again to see if I hit it on that take. Sometimes I do, but often I don’t so I have to try again and again until I hit it the way I want it to sound. And that can take a while, especially if I’m having an “off” day.

But I keep going, because voice acting is the only job in the world I was to be doing, and if I’m going to be doing it, I’m going to be doing it right. And if that means focusing so hard on doing it right that I forget to eat dinner until 10:45pm, so be it. Because I’ll tell you what - that dinner tasted like victory.