As a person who loves to create art in various media—music, poetry, prose—I have this mechanism inside of me where I will start laughing when I witness my most outlandish dreams, for a certain piece, coming true.
It happened a few times when I was younger and guys who were much better musicians played on my stuff. It happened when I listened back to my song “Cold October Night” after Jamie Saft laid down his Hammond B3 organ track or when Don Grossinger mastered my whole album, “Burst.”
The point is that it’s a beautiful happenstance and it has happened so infrequently, I can remember nearly every time it has. Each one of these times will always be a cherished memory.
I have a tendency to record myself reading what I write, because my brand of ADHD makes the written word difficult, at times. I never realized how this could be an advantage until my agent told me that my writing style is so conversational, that she wished all of her clients would do this. As a nonfiction agent, she said she has signed many dry professors whose manuscripts have put her to sleep–something that generally won’t happen if one listens to what they’re writing.
As usual, I digress.
By the time I finished the first draft of my novel on my birthday, I hated my first chapter. I chalked it up to the fact that I hadn’t gotten into the flow yet. I really couldn’t stand reading or listening to it anymore. The stuff I was writing in the middle and toward the end felt so much more realized.
But the other night I received an audition reel from a voice actor that I was interested in working with. I originally wanted to send him an excerpt from the better sections but a friend of mine suggested I send him the chapter I was most insecure about. That was easy. Chapter one.
I downloaded the file and hit play and started laughing like a madman. To hear my words brought to life by a talented voice actor was as joyful as Christmas morning to me. I even had a hard time sleeping that night and did what I regrettably tend to do when I get a mixed version of a new song that I fall in love with–I played it a hundred times until it lost its magic.
Could this be another ADHD tendency? Maybe.
But the larger point is that it helped me to hear what the chapter really sounded like. While it was true that I did not have the flow of writing down before I rewrote the first chapter, it was also true that much of my harsh judgement came from the fact that I would listen to it from the beginning more often than I should have. It was something I would do while I was working to help myself envision where I wanted the novel to go the next day.
The funny thing is that what this great voice actor did for me was not too different than what Rainer Maria Rilke did for Franz Kappus in the seventh letter from the life affirming collection of epistles, “Letters To A Young Poet.”
“You see, I have copied out your sonnet, because I considered it to be beautiful and simple and born in the form in which it runs with so much quiet grace…And now I give you that copy, because I know it is important and makes for new experience to find one’s own work again in someone else’s hand-writing. Read the verses as if they were someone else’s, and you will feel in your innermost being how utterly they are your own.”
This excerpt came to mind after about the third time I listened to the great Jason Dempsey’s narration. So I make this suggestion: have someone record your words before you judge whether they are good or not. As writers, we have a tendency to become so inured by our own voice that we lose the ability to really hear what we are doing.
Besides, there are many great voice actors out there who could use the work. I mean, with what’s going on in the world right now, who couldn’t ?
And I don’t know what you’re doing at 5 am on this particular Saturday, but I know what I’m doing: listening to that first chapter and laughing like a madman. (I’ve included a sample of this first chapter by Dempsey above.)
Fascinating Billy and thanks for including the voice actor's reading. I too was laughing. I do try to remember to read my piece out loud and it helps. I need to get it as a habit to do always, but recording it sounds even better. Thanks for a weekend smile.
Hi! As someone who obviously collaborates with others, would you be willing to mention my memoir, "How I Got a Horse Out of a Toilet" to your agent? My writing style, too, is very conversational. My book was published under my penname, Alana Christine. I'd love to discuss that and future projects. TIA!