VO Q&A #006: How To Cold Read Audiobooks

This is the transcription of VO Q&A with Brian Wiggins #006.

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All right. Good morning. And this question. Marjolein Bell of Wichita Kansas. How do you learn how to cold read? I've heard you talk about this in the past, what is it? And how do you do it? It's actually something I was thinking about the other day. Mmm. All right, so when There's two, basically, two different ways you can attack an audiobook. And this is what I'm assuming she's referring to, because I've talked about this in the past, there's two different ways to attack an audio book. There is reading ahead and there's cold reading reading ahead as where you're reading the next chapter. The next couple of chapters, maybe even reading the entire book ahead of time and making your notes and doing all that. And then cold reading is basically open the book and you just

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start narrating it. I say open it could be and I just have it on the screen but whatever you get the point. There's advantages and disadvantages to both the advantages of reading ahead means that you get a chance to really plan your attack. You get a chance to really decide how you want to do your delivery. If there's a little change ups that you need to make here and there to let you see what the author's intent is. So you can then go back and maybe put more of that intent in your narration. And the choices you make it also helps. If it's a case where are the author for whatever reason drops a detail later that might change how you were doing a character voice for example, I've had it where I was reading and then like three chapters later as I go and they have an accent. I will. Now I need to go back and rerecord that.

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So you avoid that if you read ahead. So there are a lot of advantages to it and there's a lot of folks that do that. The downside is that it takes you a lot longer, because it means you're basically having to read that book twice, and I don't mean that as a derogatory thing and just it's it takes time depending on how fast you read but regardless you're still spending time doing it and with audiobooks One of the big challenges is, how much time it takes and for it to be financially viable. As a means of making money to pay the bills, depending on what your bills are time is of the essence, because it's not like commercial reading narration, like short form narration where you're getting paid a lot more for a much shorter period of time.

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It just requires a lot more. That's a whole other question. We'll get to that later. But anyway, Way then you have cold reading. The upside to cold reading is that it takes a lot less time to do so you just open the book and you just start reading. So it takes you a lot less time. I also feel that there is an advantage that as essentially, the audience surrogate Which is what I really feel like. What I'm doing as an as an audiobook. Narrator? I am the audience, surrogate. I'm not the author surrogate. Yes, I'm telling you it's a hybrid but I really feel like my job is to make sure that I am Sitting in the same place as the audience and bring the story to them. But anyway, I feel like reading it and having that initial reaction is for me, I feel like that makes it better.

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I feel like I'm giving a more genuine performance for me. I want to make sure I'm clear on that. The downside to it is that like I just said, if there's stuff that comes up later, it could mean that I need to go back. Back and fix it. It sometimes means that it takes a couple paragraphs, it's like, oh, this was what the author was doing, and it's not that the author, did anything wrong? Just maybe I didn't pick up on it, so I need to go back and I might need to re-record a line. The other downside is it's the first time I'm seeing it, so it might take me a little bit longer. Whereas if I had already read it I'm kind of like prepared for what's coming up. I called read. That's what I tend to do that is what I do a cold read again because it's a Time Saver for me and it's just something that I'm able to do. I'm able to pick up a text. I'm able to start reading aloud and I'm able to pretty much

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nail the or I don't see any other kind of sounds pretentious, but I am able to get the tone down. How did I learn how to do it? And that's a tougher question. Because this actually came up during one of my coaching sessions with one of my students. How did I do the cold reading? As best I can figure. It is an amalgamation of skills. It is a, I read voraciously and I've been reading voraciously since I've been five. When I got the kindergarten, I was already reading. So, I think that helps the fact that I've been reading just, and it was constantly reading just consuming books. So I think just kind of having that experience, if you want to call that, I'm just reading reading reading, just absorbing material like that, and being used to doing that.

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I think, then you add in the fact that I was an English, major English communication, I double majored in college at LaSalle University. So, There was quite a few classes where we had to do literary analysis, where we're talking about intent, where we're picking out Clues, where we're learning how to suss out, what the author is trying to get across. And I think that might be sitting somewhere in the background. I don't know. I don't know how much that plays into it but it might in that when I read something I have an idea of this is what the author's intent is based on their word choice based on their syntax based on the overall writing style, whatever you want to call it. So again, does that come from just reading a lot? Maybe, I think that definitely helps but that I will say that having some experience having some education in literary analysis has definitely helped. I'm going to actually say that now.

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Now, as I'm talking this out, that is definitely helped in that. I mean, I know what to look for. I know how to read something and find something a little bit deeper. So it's more like the mechanics of not just being able to read but read meaning. And then I think you add in one other skill which is I have done very little but I have done some work on stage. I have done public speaking. I have done the act of speaking. Allowed to other people with the intent of delivering a message. And I think that has helped as well. So I think when you bring all three of those together, now there's a lot of people out there that are doing voice acting narration, all of that, who have that third one who have spent time at some way, shape, or form. I'll call it performing whether it's public, speaking being on stage, being in front of a camera, whatever. And that is definitely a skill that comes in handy.

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So I think if it's something you want to learn how to do, if you want to learn how to code read my vote. Is to develop those three things one read, read, read, read. And if you haven't been a big reader, your whole life, then just start. Now the more you read, the more you consume, the more you get used to being able to absorb that information. I definitely think that helps. I think part two is if you don't know anything about literary analysis, it's worth doing that. And I would say, it's, yeah, you could get a book on it, a little A little ironic. I'd say, get, maybe a new Demi course or one of the online courses about literary analysis, maybe audit, a class at Community, College book club. Maybe there's a bookstore around you. That does that maybe there's a meet-up around you, maybe a

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friends that do that, just find a way to discuss What the deeper meanings of. Words are in terms of reading Pros, I think that'll definitely help. Because then after a while all those, it's a muscle you're developing, it's all it is. It's a mental muscle, but it's a muscle that you're developing, that as you're reading, you don't have to think about it as much, and you were able to pick out, okay? This is what the intent is. And then again, with all voice acting stuff, the acting side, right? Just that's the performance element, and you should always be practicing that anyway. But again, this is only if you want to learn how to code read, do you have to know? You don't one's not better than the other. It's just what's better for you. Cold reading works for me. So I do it.

But it doesn't mean it's the best way to do it.

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There's lots of other authors. Lots of other narrators out there that I'm sure do read ahead. Maybe they're more successful than me. I don't know. I don't really care for one. Does it mean that there are projects that I have not gotten because I have not developed a skill. I don't know, maybe, but people keep hiring me so I must be doing something, right? So it's not wrong, it's not right. It's just what is its what works. So. But if you did want to learn how to use that, how to develop that skill, I think those are the three things, I think, just reading as much as you can learning about literary analysis and learning about that. And I'd say them practicing that with people, that's the other side of that. Practice that with people so that we have a chance to not just internalize it but you have to externalize it, which is the process. So, Yeah, yeah, hopefully, hopefully that is helpful. I hope that helps.

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I'm happy that I was only very recently able to kind of get down into How that skill got developed. Because I don't think it's talent. I think it is skill. And I only very recently was able to kind of dive in and figure out how that works. So hopefully hopefully that's helpful to him. Have a nice day.

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