S.M. Butler's Blog, page 2

As I work toward completing Bloodlines 2 edits, I realize that I can go days without working on books, but when I get into the zone, when I get into a book, it’s all I can think about. Learning to balance this with the other things in my life has been difficult. I think that was my biggest takeaway this week.

https://youtu.be/gXrFkonChGg

I’ve long known that publishing has been a rough business for writers. There’s a lot of NOs and REVISE THIS and IT’S NOT WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR, BUT THANK YOU. It’s not for the impatient, or the faint of heart. For those of you that have followed me for a while, you know which one of those categories I fall under.

When I started voiceover, I did what everyone else did. I GOOGLED. So many things, did I google, having to deal with voiceover topics. Because I’m an all-in sort of person. I take a new challenge and I jump in with both feet.

You know what I found?

Voice over work is a lot like writing. It’s a sister to acting. NO and IT’S NOT WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR, BUT THANK YOU are common answers. You send out auditions and you wait and maybe you get a response and maybe you don’t. You assume it’s a NO when you hear nothing. You’re thankful when you get that email that tells you NO so you can have closure.

But every once in a while, you get a YES. You get I LOVE YOUR VOICE. You get LET’S WORK TOGETHER. And that feels good. It makes it seem like the grind is worth it. Sometimes, they’re few and far between. Other times, they come on you like a rainstorm.

I’m reminded this week as I start a new project of this. It’s not always steady, but the YES’s are out there, just waiting to be sent. It’s worth the grind to do what I love. It’s been many, many years since I last felt like I was on the right path. Mostly, it’s been going through the motions of life, and waiting for the moment when I can finally do what I want to do, what I’m passionate about doing.

What will be that moment for you? Has it come already? Or are you still waiting?

I can’t say for myself. I don’t think I’ll know if that moment has come until after it’s already passed. It’ll be one of those things where I look back and I can say, “Ah, yes. It was THAT moment.”

I’ve been continuing to make some changes and improvements on this website. The biggest is that I moved my blog from my author site over here. I started thinking about it earlier and I don’t want to manage two different blogs. I’m one person, and while the experts suggest you stay in a singular niche, I’m not that kind of person. I do a lot of different things and I enjoy the variety.

So I hope you do too, because there’s going to be only one blog. Eventually, I’ll add in some Patreon-only posts and I think having them all on one blog will be a lot easier for me to keep at the right access level.

I’m not deleting the other blog, just hiding it for now, because I may decide that I don’t want this to be my blog. Who knows. But I think I’m making the right steps here. Keeping things easy is important and trying to change that website was a nightmare task that I didn’t need to get into. I found a way to make what I needed to happen work, even if it was a little bit of a workaround. Someday, when I am rich, I will hire someone to simplify my website. But for now, this works.

That said, I have edits to do, so I’m going to go work on those, because they’re due… very soon, and I have a lot of work to do on them. I’ll be back in the booth on Monday to record some more auditions, even while I obsessively check on the ones I already have out for consideration.

I hope you all have a fantastic day.

…for my VTuber avatar. I had so much fun making this video and I was so nervous, so go check it out and leave a comment on it or like it. Share it. I’d appreciate it so much. It’s a brand new channel that’s completely separate from my vlog channel, so it’s going to need some love.

Also, welcome to the website! It’s a work in progress, but I’m super happy with how it’s turning out.

Photo licensed from Depositphotos.com

So, I’ve been sending out auditions for audiobooks for the last few days. So, I’ve been drinking a lot of water, because I drink while I’m recording and it cuts down on mouth noise. But the thing is, I’m still having trouble with it.

Mouth clicks are little clicks or pops that are before, during, or after speech. We all have some sort of mouth noise when we speak, caused by tongue, teeth, saliva. It’s fairly common in dehydrated folks and I have a major problem with it. Mouth clicks actually gross me out, so I’ve been trying super hard to cut down on them in recording sessions, both so I don’t have to edit as much, but also so it doesn’t make me sick to hear them.

I’ve been drinking more water outside of recording sessions. This is both to keep me hydrated and healthy, and also so I don’t have to pee because I downed a half-gallon of water before I started recording. The body needs time to distribute water through its systems (and this includes the mouth as well).

I stopped drink any diuretics before recording… This means no coffee, sodas, dairy, tea, energy drinks. All that stuff. Just water. I suffer a little when I decide to record first thing in the morning. I do miss that morning cup.

I’ve also found that projecting my voice and being just a hair louder in the recording cuts down on the mouth clicks. I mean, no matter what level I speak at, those mouth clicks and noises don’t change volume. So when the sound from my mic gets compressed and sent to my computer, they’re a lot quieter than my voice and thus, easier to edit out. So teaching myself to back off the mic and project more has been super helpful.

And I keep drinking sips of water while I record, too. We dehydrate ourselves when we speak a lot, so audiobooks are the same beast.

Hopefully, the auditions I did today will bear fruit. Auditioning is scary. No is a scary word when you really need to work. But I’m choosing to stay optimistic.

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