A year ago September, I started this blog. My first post, How do you feel?, seems like a lifetime ago — though I still haven’t tackled everything on that to-do list.
I like the slower pace of retirement, and my time easily fills up with fun and productive activities. A few months ago, I got tired of churning out weekly blog posts and baking bread, so I cut back, and did more cycling and socializing. Then I found a creative way to fulfill that “volunteer somewhere or other” goal (from What the heck was I thinking?)
When the spirit moves me, I “volunteer” from home recording audiobooks (novels, short stories, poems, essays, etc.) for Librivox and proofreading ebooks for Project Gutenberg, Librivox’s major source of content in the public domain. Recording audiobooks now ranks as my second-favourite pastime — after cycling.
As one of the thousands of dedicated Librivoxers who’ve uploaded over 40,000 free audio recordings (of every genre) for anyone to enjoy, I’m having a ball! To prepare, I read aloud in my head first (then reread out loud) to figure out if my voice suits the content, wrestle with technology (Audacity digital audio editor), and hone my reciting/dramatic skills (just a little; no awards expected). As a bonus, I get to “meet” interesting folks from all corners of the world (though mostly the US and Canada).
I had a few technical hiccups at first. Once, as I was editing, the program started turning functions on and off, as if it had a mind of its own. I panicked and force-quit Audacity, scrapping an hour and a half of good work. Then immediately discovered that that my iPad (which I read from) was resting on the keyboard.
My mic is super sensitive, and my living room “office” isn’t sound-proofed. Recording on weekdays picks up noise from construction, traffic, sirens, float planes, the river, etc. Sadly, most recordings aren’t enhanced by the sound of a toilet flushing. It’s easy to eliminate an ongoing background drone; far harder to edit out intermittent sounds. So I limit myself to recording in the evenings and on Sundays — in between float plane arrivals/departures and Mr. Fluffster’s guitar practice. I’ll soon have that float plane schedule memorized, and maybe I can incorporate the guitar as background music. [Mr. F’s note: NO!]
Then there’s pronunciation, which I once thought I was good at. I recently had to re-record the word “cupola” in a chapter of a children’s story (KYOO-puh-luh, not cup-POLE-ah!) Eight times. It took longer to replace one word than to record the whole chapter. Lesson learned: I now Google pronunciations obsessively.
I don’t do accents — not my forte. I need to focus just on not stumbling over the words. Occasionally, I experiment with a different voice (the rasping New York landlady was fun, but hard on my throat). Volunteer proof-listeners sit through hours of recordings to ensure the text is correctly pronounced and read in its entirety. I think of them, as well as my listeners, when I try to inject life and expression into my voice.
Check out Librivox if you’re an audiobook lover. Or aspiring voice actor.
Proofreading ebooks isn’t as entertaining, so I do only enough to feel virtuous. Beginner proofreaders (called “P1s”) compare OCR-scanned text to the originals, correct “scannos” (incorrect characters; kinda like typos, but the result of blots on the original pages), and close up end-of-line hyphenation. Starting out enthusiastically, I quickly racked up the 300 pages required to graduate to the next proofing level, “P2,” which isn’t nearly as satisfying because so few errors remain. I may demote myself just to go back to “P1” content. What can they do — fire me?
Do I miss paid work and the office? Not a bit.
