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Stories Behind the Story

The world of voiceover and audio production is constantly evolving. This blog covers a variety of topics to help both first-time clients and experienced content creators.

Some stories begin onstage. Some begin behind a microphone. Others begin with a book, a person, or a moment I never expected to remember. These are the stories behind the work—and sometimes, the stories behind me.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Follow me on Facebook for The Story Behind the Story—reflections and stories from my life in theatre, voice acting, books, and the moments behind the microphone that have taught me how to bring your words to life.

Purpose of the Series

Every story has another story behind it. “The Story Behind the Story” is a continuing series of short reflections drawn from my life in theatre, voice acting, books, narration, and the moments behind the microphone that have taught me how to bring words to life. They are stories—personal, reflective, sometimes humorous, and always connected to the work of storytelling.

The following are representative posts from the series.

The Story Lives Twice

Every great story is told twice.

The first time, an author puts words on a page. Characters are born, places take shape, and a story begins to live in the imagination.

Then something remarkable can happen. A narrator sits down before a microphone, opens that book, and the story lives again—this time through breath, rhythm, silence, character, and voice.

That second telling does not replace the first. It serves it.

That is one of the things I love most about narration. The words are already there. My job is to listen to them closely enough to discover how they want to be heard.

And then the story begins again.

With one word.

— Roger Arnold
Actor • Director • Narrator
Roger Dodger Audio

Every Story Deserves Its Best Voice

Before an audiobook ever reaches a listener, someone has already spent months—or years—living with those words.

That matters to me when I step behind the microphone.

Narration is not about showing off a voice. It is about serving the story: understanding its rhythm, respecting its characters, and giving the listener room to enter the world the author created.

The story belongs to the author. The experience belongs to the listener. The narrator stands somewhere between the two.

When that relationship works, words on a page become something another person can hear, feel, remember, and carry with them.

Every story deserves that opportunity.

— Roger Arnold
Actor • Director • Narrator
Roger Dodger Audio

The Props Table

A few years ago I was playing Claudius in a production of Hamlet.

Backstage, as in countless productions before it, sat the props table—the carefully arranged collection of objects that would eventually find their way into the hands of the actors and onto the stage.

There is something wonderfully theatrical about a props table. Before the curtain rises, those objects are simply objects. A cup. A letter. A sword. A book. Then an actor picks one up, walks into the light, and suddenly it belongs to a story.

I have always loved that transformation.

The same thing happens with words. On a page they wait patiently. Then an actor or narrator picks them up, gives them breath, intention, history, and feeling—and they become part of a living moment.

That is what years in the theatre taught me, and it is what I carry with me every time I step behind a microphone.

The prop may belong to the theatre. The voice may belong to the actor.

But the moment belongs to the story.

Because it’s your story.

— Roger Arnold
Actor • Director • Narrator
Roger Dodger Audio

Make the Words Vibrate

One of the lessons the microphone keeps teaching me is that I do not have to force the moment.

The microphone hears more than we think it does. A small change in breath, a pause, a thought that happens just before the next sentence—those things are there.

The temptation is to perform the emotion. Experience keeps teaching me to trust it instead.

The words already carry much of what they need. My job is to understand them, get out of their way, and give them enough voice to vibrate.

That may be one of the great differences between simply reading aloud and narration.

You do not push the words toward the listener.

You let the words reach them.

— Roger Arnold
Actor • Director • Narrator
Roger Dodger Audio

The Lines We Almost Miss

Some lines announce themselves.

Others barely whisper.

They may not be the line the author expects us to remember. They may not contain the great revelation, the dramatic turn, or the quotable phrase. Sometimes they are only a few quiet words tucked between larger moments.

And yet those can be the words that stop us.

Perhaps it is because we recognize something in them. Perhaps they name a feeling we have carried without knowing how to say it. Perhaps they simply arrive at exactly the right time.

Actors learn to respect those quiet lines. Narrators must, too.

Not every important sentence needs to be underlined by the voice.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is simply speak it—and leave enough room for the listener to hear what is really there.

— Roger Arnold
Actor • Director • Narrator
Roger Dodger Audio

The Kissing and the Strangling: A Narrator’s Love Affair with Editing

"I love the editing, and I HATE the editing!"

That is about as accurately as I can describe my relationship with the part of audiobook narration nobody hears.

Recording is the visible—or at least audible—part. Editing is where you meet every breath, stumble, click, pause, retake, and sentence you were absolutely certain you had read perfectly.

There are moments when editing feels almost surgical: clean this, tighten that, replace a word, smooth a transition. And there are moments when you wonder how one human being managed to make quite so many noises while supposedly sitting still.

But then the pieces come together.

The distractions disappear. The pacing settles. The performance sounds natural. And the listener hears the story rather than the work that went into producing it.

That is why I keep both kissing and strangling the editing process.

The best editing is the editing nobody notices.

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MORE STORIES

MORE STORIES TO COME

Every Voice Has a Story

The Story Behind the Story will continue to grow with memories from the stage, experiences behind the microphone, people I’ve encountered, books I’ve narrated, and those unexpected moments that become stories of their own.