Last month I published my memoir, Dr. Beare’s Daughter, in paperback. Earlier this month, I published the Kindle ebook version. Since my goal was to give the voice of my young self the biggest megaphone possible, I knew I had to publish an audiobook. There are people who love books, but don’t have time to read. There are those with visual impairments, and those who like to lie in bed in the dark and listen to a story. Because of them, the audiobook market is exploding. But where could I find a female narrator who could echo my personality in her voice? My daughter said, “It’s your story and you should tell it.”
I didn’t have the confidence. Then I realized that my self-doubt was a carry-over from my child-self, who believed that her own voice was not valuable. While I had long ago stopped playing the role of Dr. Beare’s Daughter, my childhood beliefs had continued to rule me. I became determined to narrate my story.
I practiced by recording myself. I tried talking as little-girl me, but I sounded like a frightened toddler. I tried talking as teen me, but I sounded like an excited, chirping bird. It took several more tries for me to realize what my problem was. I was acting and I needed to be real. So, I let my voice do what it felt in the moment. Bingo! I can do this!
I searched the internet for sound studios near me. I finally settled on Elaire Studios, where sound engineer, Nick Morris, was willing to sequester himself with me in a sound booth and guide me through reading 372 pages into a mic.
Progress was slow during the first couple of sessions. I had to learn to time my breath to make it to the end of very long sentences. (I hadn’t realized before how fond I was of long sentences!) When I swallowed, Nick would stop the recording, and we would have to redo that part. I learned that when I felt a swallow coming, to finish the sentence and stop. Then I would swallow, and we picked it up from there without wasting time backtracking.
I hadn’t realized how much I love onomatopoeia. I had to pronounce words like, “woosh” and “shush.” I had titled one chapter: “Pffttt, Pffttt, Pffttt!” Just when I thought I thought I had everything figured out, I came to the passage where I had to yodel!
It took twenty-four hours of studio time to produce a finished audio book with a run time of eight hours and twelve minutes. Whew! The sense of accomplishment I felt was amazing.