0665 – Creating a Character Catalogue

2022.10.27 – 0665 – Creating a Character Catalogue

Play around with it and practice and then when you think you have the character, give each a name (‘Smoking Susan’, ‘Sharp-suited Shaun’…) and a bit of a back-story to help you remember them, and then log each one in your ‘voice bank’ of voices that you can use for characterisations in the future. Your ‘catalogue of characters’ may include:

·        their vocal and physical attributes

·        a key catchphrase of theirs that, when you say it, instantly gets you into character

·        what you do physically to ‘find’ the character: maybe a snarled lip, a particular throat swallow, placement of your tongue and so on

·        a recording of you reading as this character, so you can find them again really easily.[1]

·        Voiceover artist Elley Ray www.elleyray.com says “Always know the character laugh. This is key… If you don't have the character laugh, you do not know the character. For joy is the basis of all animation characters, even if they are villains and evil”.

You never know what complete voice or personality you can choose to use in the future, or even what small element you can steal or develop.

[1] In animation you may only voice two or three characters, but in audiobook narration (see the next section), you may have to voice five or ten. The ‘Harry Potter’ series is said to have 772 characters in it, more than 300 of them with speaking roles. Imagine keeping track of all those different voices!

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