The Importance of a Good Narrator

Whenever I go out of town, I always get an audio book for the road. Nothing passes the time better than falling into a story as the monotonous terrain whizzes by.

Here's the thing...I have heard some books that would be great.  But the actor who does the voice over work just doesn't get it right and the book is essentially ruined.

There are also some favorites of mine.  I mean, who can resist Zachary Webber and his velvety voice?  Recently, he did the voice of Christian Grey in E.L. James' "Grey" and I was a happy camper!

But it goes beyond a good voice.  Inflection, tone and the ability to change characters voices are all just as important.

I was wildly impressed with the voice I listened to the other day and I think she's the epitome of what happens when voice work is done right.

I was on my way to Holidays with the Belles and listening to "Not Yet" by Laura Ward.  It was narrated by Lisa Zimmerman.

The book itself is a really nice story.  One of the things that stands out about Ms. Ward's writing is that it is very important to her to always have a character who has special needs.  In "Not Yet" that includes a character who has Down Syndrome.

Here's the thing, when a narrator has to use an accent, especially an accent that is for one character only, it can go terribly, terribly wrong. And in this case, if the narrator wasn't careful, it would have bordered on disrespectful as well.

Fortunately for us, Ms. Zimmerman nailed it.

I actually rewound by about thirty seconds when this character showed up because I was so blown away by how Ms. Zimmerman portrayed her.  She added an aspect of realism that a lesser actor would not have been able to do.  It was wonderful.

I spoke with Ms. Ward about this at HWTB and told her how very impressed I was with the Audible.  She informed me that she and Ms. Zimmerman had numerous conversations about this particular character and really worked hard to be true to the character in the best way possible.  

Well it showed.

If only all authors were as nitpicky as Ms. Ward was.  Far too many books have been ruined by a bad narrator.

I hope you'll give "Not Yet" a chance on Audible.  Get it by clicking here.  This is a perfect example of how the perfect voice can take a good book and make it something excellent.