I‘ve been struggling to write anything for the blog for the last few weeks. SO many half-written and abandoned articles! I’m sorry, you guys, I know you’re just dying to hear from me again.
Well, I can’t not blog on World Voice Day, can I? So, here I am.
I’m so happy to be able to use my voice for a living. Voiceover is an absolutely delightful career, and voice actors are just full to the brim of absolute delight.
I also think it’s pretty exciting that I have opportunities, like this here blog and my social media pages, to use my voice for other reasons. Like complaining about the mice in my house! Asking people for advice about plants. Or ranting about governments being terrible.
I’m only half-joking about that last one. Some people don’t have the luxury of being able to speak up against their government’s atrocities online without fear. So that is actually something I’m truly grateful for.
But back to voiceover! Because this is a voiceover blog.
I get to use my voice to help people advertise their cool new stuff. I get to use my voice to help a company teach its employees new skills. I get to use my voice to educate health practitioners about important new pharmaceutical and medical developments. I get to use my voice to create fun, or terrifying, characters for games. I get to use my voice to pretend I’m a kid again and not even care if I pronounce things prop’ly!
Not only all that fab stuff, but I get to be a part of a really wonderful online (and offline I’m sure!) community of amazing voiceover people. Spend a bit of time amongst voiceover people and I guarantee you’ll wind up feeling full of positive, joyful, warm-fuzzy feelings. I don’t think many industries are as consistently supportive as the voice acting industry.
Of course, I may be biased, and that may just be my own brand of obnoxious positivity speaking.
Whatever. It works!
However, the point of World Voice Day is not to give me a chance to rave about how much I love my job. Although holy whatsit, batman, do I love it.
The point of World Voice Day is to encourage and teach people how to look after their voice – specifically, the physical mechanism of the voice, the larynx and all that lovely pink fleshy goodness down there in your THROAT (hush your dirty minds!).
If you need any tips about looking after your voice, you COULD go to any of the facebook VO community groups and ask the MILLIONTH version of “my throat is dry and sore, what do I do????”…. OR, you could do some research, read some books, find a fabulous voice coach.
Because like I said, the voiceover community is full of amazing people and some of them are experts in this stuff. Try Nic Redman, for starters, she’s awesome.
And drink some water. Or tea. Or, like, whatever you like to drink, but preferably not too much alcohol. ‘Specially on a work day!
Happy World Voice Day, my fabulous and ever-delightful voiceover friends!
Images by me, @estanisbs and @sasha_mande via Twenty20.
Happy World Voice Day, right back at you, my fabulously-voiced friend! Love your voice whether spoken or written. Keep doing that thing you do. 🙂
Thanks, Josh! Love hearing from you, too. Have a super-duper weekend! 😁