The stretch

In my 'day job' I am often talked to about the stretch, and this got me to thinking.

There are stretches every day in life some of which are normal and others are not, we all have things which we are more comfortable with and things which we aren't but we still sometimes have to 'stretch' ourselves to achieve them.

At work it is normally around confrontation or putting myself forward as I tend to thrive in the back ground being quiet and getting on with things without fanfare which for a manager is strange I know we normally want to be in the forefront showing what we can achieve.  Personally I prefer to empower my team to deliver the role for me without me having to wave a flag showing how great I am.

Now strange I know for a Narrator to be talking about the stretch, but for me Narrating really is a stretch.  If you think I prefer the back ground, the 'shadow' as it were and here I am narrating audiobooks and releasing them alongside the rights holders to the world through the biggest audiobook portal in the world Audible and iTunes.

The stretch is real, and believe me I still find it completely unbelievable that over 100 people have listened to my voice reading various authors works and hopefully enjoyed them.  Me heard by 100 people across the world wide web and immortalised in the digital realm.

Having said all of that I love every minute, the stretch has turned into my joy, relax and pleasurable activity.  I love the feeling of reading the words on the page adding a dash of an accent, a touch of pitch and emotion and watching the written world come to life in my mind while reading.

There is nothing like it in my eyes, sure actors probably have something similar but they have the use of facial expressions, scenery and effects.  We the voice actors only have the words and sound of our voice as our tools of trade.

So I guess what I am saying is thank you to everyone who has heard the books I have produced, thank you for choosing the books I have produced and I hope to see you in the download cue again soon.