When Peachtree Publishers agreed to publish “Charlie Bumpers vs. the Teacher of the Year” my first question was, “Can we do an audio book, too?” Happily they said yes. As a storyteller, I’ve done over a dozen audio recordings of my stories, and was looking forward to doing the audio version of the book.
How hard could it be?
Well, harder than I thought. Also deeper, and more exasperating, and more interesting. I learned a lot from doing the recording, and will use what I learned it in my future recordings. The process of doing the audio version has also changed the way I look at the story and the characters in it. Now, working on a major edit of the second book, I’ve applied all that to the writing process. Recording the audio version has, I believe, made me a better writer.
Not that it’s easy. First, I should say that I also served as recording engineer and producer for the recording. I am a better artist than I am an engineer. The final product sounds good, but I know that another more seasoned engineer would have been a lot faster than I was. I will never confess how many hours it took. Good engineering requires meticulous work and I’m more of a big picture guy – not so good on the details. Keeping track of which track is being recorded, adjusting levels, making good edits, and simply pushing the right button requires a lot of attention. I got better at that. Still, I’m not in danger of becoming a type A person.
In terms of performance, my biggest challenges were pacing, character, and keeping to the written page. Those aspects kept me going back for one more take, trying to get it right.
My mind works overtime, and pretty quickly, and one of my biggest challenges in the studio is to slow down. An outside ear helps with that – reminding the performer to take his time. But I didn’t have that. With me, hunkered down alone in front of the microphone, and pushing the buttons in solitude, I constantly had to redo passages. Rilke wrote, somewhere, “Meaning comes when images have time to ripen in the mind.” Who knew he was speaking about audio books? Finally I took some advice from my pal, engineer extraordinaire David Correia – I hung a sign over the microphone – “SLOW DOWN!!!” I still have work to do on that (and not only in the studio), but I got better at it.
The voices for the characters present another challenge. I had no intention of being Jim Dale, the magical voice of the Harry Potter audio books, able to develop a distinct voice for each of the hundreds of characters he represented.
But I did need to distinguish different characters and have a very approachable, believable voice for the narrator. “Charlie Bumpers vs. the Teacher of the Year” is told in first person by Charlie, and so in some sense, all the voices come through Charlie. I don’t think it would do to have complete personification for each character. Over the course of the recording, the characters became more and more clear to me – and that will serve me well in the following five recordings.
In the process of the recording, I found myself thinking a lot about how much emotion we should put into a performance. As a storyteller, I am aware that it’s really the words doing the work – if we fill each passage with emotion, or too much character, we don’t leave room for the audience to hear the words being spoken. Many times, a more neutral delivery is called for – being emotional doesn’t really help the story. There’s a fine dance required in balancing the emotional undertones of the characters and the meaning of the words. Generally, a narrator’s job is to get out of the way, and let the words do their work without emotion. Characters can be more emotional, but even when a character speaks, a reader needs to be careful about over-acting.
One of the greatest challenges I faced was to say exactly what I had written. I was reminded by the publisher that every word in the audio had to be in the book. As a storyteller who tells any story differently at any performance, and as a writer who never quits editing, this was beyond excruciating. I’m reminded of the apocryphal story about a famous painter who had to be searched before he went into any gallery holding his work, for fear that he might be bringing his brushes to make some adjustments. Through the recording process, I was reminded that reading text out loud is a very important part of writing. Over the course of the time spent in the studio, I became even more convinced of the importance of rhythm in language.
There’s much more to chew on here – I’m only scratching the surface. I’m particularly interested in the difference between hearing a book and reading it, and wonder how the method of intake influences the reader/listener’s perceptions.
Any comments about all this are welcome.
Here’s the first chapter of the audiobook of “Charlie Bumpers vs. the Teacher of the Year.”
Enjoyed getting a taste of your new project – what fun!
Oh, yes, reading one’s writing aloud is the real litmus test of readability. It’s how I proofread al my writing. Doesn’t catch everything, but it helps. Great fun walking along with you through this process, Bill. Thanks for sharing!
I listen to dozens and dozens of audio books each year. I have learned that a good reader brings those words to life, and an especially good reader makes for an unforgettable book. Often, if I see an audiobook read by someone, whose talent is on par with a good author, I will chose that book over some other.
You are right in that Jim Dale made the audiobook versions of the Harry Potter series special. But then so does Lisette Lecatt for Alexander McCall Smith’s Number One Ladies Detective Agency series, and so does Dick Hill for Lee Child’s Jack Reacher Series and so does Roy Dotrice for George R. R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice (e.g. A Game of Thrones) series. And on and on and on.
Like you, I am never through editing something I write and, if I were a painter, someone would have to take away my brushes as who would want a painting a foot thick? So I can imagine how tough it must have been to be your own recording engineer. Still as a technical person (retired scientist), I enjoyed reading your blog about your learning curve on engineering a for-real-audiobook recording.
But now that you have done that and know how difficult that job is, consider having someone else do that for the next book. You and the book will be the better for it as you will be able to spend that extra time doing the things that only Bill Harley can do! Namely, putting your voice to work without distraction so that your magic comes through.
How fondly I remember your performance in Decatur, GA one evening in February, 2012, when you enthralled both myself and my wife with your talents! Just yesterday, I was in a store and the Muzak in the background was the song, “Build Me Up Buttercup.” I grinned as this immediately took me back to that rainy night in Georgia, so that I can never hear that song again without thinking of you and your “Build Me Up Buttercup” story that you wove into and around it. Bravo!
Just my thoughts, for as the artist and performer that you are, the world is a better place for your efforts in bringing us wondrous musical delights, stories, and experiences. I buy your CDs and will buy Charlie Bumpers too. But truth to tell, Bill, if I saw that you were just a recording engineer on someone else’s work…well, maybe not so much.
P.S. I am still holding your guitar pick, you gave me to remove the wrappers from the CDs I bought that night — just in case, if you ever have a guitar pick emergency, you can let me know.
Walter-
Thanks for your very kind words. One of the benefits of recording the story by myself is that the clock isn’t running, as it is in some other studio, so I can try things out I wouldn’t necessarily do somewhere else. Also, engineering and editing is fun – for the first thirty hours.
But a good engineer – great to find, and great to work with.
Best,
Bill