A Beginner’s Guide to Writing, Recording, and Editing Narration, Part Two
Click here if you missed Part One of this series.
The script is the obvious first step in creating your voice-over. Once you’ve got your learning objectives locked and you know the flow of your content, it’s important to write voice-over that will engage the learner. You need to be informative, but don’t be afraid to make the tone conversational. It can be much more engaging to feel like you’re conversing with a friend, rather than listening to an old college professor slowly drone on about his craft in his monotonous monotone voice monotonously motononying the topic without ever seeming to take a breath or pause for questions. It’s only been three minutes and literally half the class has fallen asleep, Mr. Thornhill!
Sorry—flashback.
But if you write how people actually speak, you’ll find learners will have an easier time absorbing what is being spoken. Not only that, but your narrator will have an easier time recording the script, with less stumbling over awkward phrasing and terminology. And they’ll probably have more fun with it too. And if they’re having fun, it’ll rub off on the listeners. But of course, reign in the fun times a wee bit if we’re talking about…heavier subject matters. I’ll let you figure that out on your own.
If humor is “allowed” (stakeholder-willing), it can be a great way to help hold learners’ attention. Just be careful about offending others with certain types of humor that might involve crass or controversial topics. Always get additional opinions when it comes to humor to make sure you’re covering your bases. You never know when something you’ve written could be misinterpreted as being offensive, so we’ve got to help each other cover our blind spots. You see, together we can do more than any one of us could do alone. That’s the Converging Solutions mantra.
You see what I did there? Shameless self-promotion, baby! Buy our t-shirts!
Then on a more technical level, while writing for a voice talent, you should include phonetic pronunciation within your script for difficult vocabulary, words that could be pronounced multiple ways, or proper nouns whose pronunciation is unclear. Common names like Steven are usually no cause for alarm, though Jake at Starbucks certainly caused me alarm when I told him my name was “Steven with a V” (as opposed to “Stephen with a P”), and he wrote my name as Vteven on the cup. What the huh…?
Before all is said and done (and I mean said literally here), remember to read your script out loud. This crucial step will allow you to catch typos and awkward phrasings before they reach your narrator (whose time might just cost more than yours), and can save you some pain aches in your head.
See, I just read that last bit out loud and realized I should have just said, “headaches”. Pain aches in your head…sheesh.
Well okay, now we’re ready to record.
Maybe.
Okay, no we’re not. Sorry for crushing your hopes. But let me at least build your confidence by saying “you’ve got this, stranger!” and asking you to join me in our next installment where we’ll discuss how to choose the right voice talent for the job.
Sincerely,
Vteven
TLDR: When writing narration, be as conversational as you’re allowed. Use humor when appropriate (and get a second or third opinion). Include phonetic pronunciations for difficult vocabulary for your narrator. Call your mom because she misses you. And read your script out loud to catch obvious mistakes!