Reading Aloud: Tips for Captivating Your Audience for Podcasting and Video

Traditionally writers have performed bookstore readings in person, but audiobooks and storytelling in a recorded format is a different animal. There are simple things you can do to improve recorded performances and ensure you’re holding your audience’s attention. The key to all of these is to stay relaxed, open to feedback, and energetically true to the text you are reading.

Warming Up

Have you ever noticed how sometimes at the beginning of a performance the hosts/actors don’t seem settled into their roles yet? Some of them deliver their lines too quietly and slowly, others rush through, tripping over words or accidentally using a booming voice. Once the actors are warmed up, the scenes and dialogue begin to feel more natural. This is true of any performance and certainly pertains to podcasting and reading aloud in general.

(How to Start Podcasting: A Checklist for Writers.)

Ideally, the audience isn’t present until you’re already warmed up and into a flow. In theater or bookstore readings this isn’t always possible, but with pre-recorded media we can capture the best window of the performance. For this reason, warming up your mouth physically with vocal warmup exercises, as well as warming up your brain are crucial to giving the best performance of the text that suits your audience.

Breath and Posture

Most people record in a home studio or a professional but relaxed environment. This comfortability is totally fine and encouraged but can lead to poor posture during recording. If you pay close attention when listening to audio, you can hear the way someone holds their body while speaking, just like how you can “hear a smile” in someone’s voice.

The way we hold our bodies affects our diaphragm and the amount of pressure behind our voice. Slouching forward for example can cause weak sounding delivery. Sitting upright with your body aligned and taking deep breaths into the belly before starting can help make the voice sound full and natural in pitch. Vocal pitch can be heavily affected by posture due to constriction in the chest or a change in the aperture of the throat. To keep your reading voice sounding natural and full, it’s important to sit upright but comfortably with your head, neck and torso aligned.

Pacing

I touched on this when discussing warming up, but it’s very common for people to read faster or more slowly during a recording than they had intended. It can be difficult to judge your own performance while performing. For this reason, it can be helpful to record yourself and listen back, make adjustments, and try again.

Even if you felt as though you were reading at a normal pace, you may listen back to find that you were rushing, failing to take breaths, or perhaps talking much too slowly for the listener to stay engaged.

Body Language and Eye Contact

If you are recording video, not just audio, body language becomes important beyond breath support and vocal tone. Just as you would do at any other in-person reading, make sure that your body language is welcoming and open, and that you glance periodically at the camera as though you were glancing at your audience. 

When people fail to have open body language, or do not look periodically at the camera, it can create a feeling of discomfort in the viewer.

Authenticity

Authenticity is one of the most sought-after host qualities for media consumers under the age of 45. Make sure you are being yourself during the reading. Nerves can obviously get in the way of this, but the warm-up that I mentioned up top is key to shaking this off and feeling comfortable in your own skin as you are recorded. If you are comfortable and authentic, the audience will also relax, fully enjoy, and become immersed in your reading.

Remember that just like a performer in an auditorium, you set the energy and the mood for your audience. If you are anxious, they are anxious. If you are at ease and yourself, they are at ease. Don’t worry about things like correcting for a regional accent, or speaking in a way other than how you normally speak (unless voicing characters, of course). Listeners connect with authentic voices, not newscasters.

Dry Mouth

It might not seem like a big deal, but a dry mouth next to a hot mic creates a lot of unappealing clicking and mouth sounds. Having some water before and nearby during a recording session will make an enormous difference for the listener. This is a complaint I see from listeners all the time on radio and podcast reviews.

These noises are so aggravating to some people that they refuse to listen to content they are interested in due to the dry mouth sounds. It’s such an easy fix, don’t let dry mouth noises chase away your listeners! This one applies to reading aloud in any situation but is especially important when recording professional audio.

Critique and Multiple Takes

Critiquing and doing multiple takes will help with every aspect of podcasting and reading aloud. This can be tough at first, especially if you haven’t heard yourself recorded before or aren’t used to critiques, but it’s very difficult to improve until you have a clear idea of your performance. When you are a little more confident, sharing your recording with a friend or colleague for honest feedback can help get an outside view on your work.

Taking a little time away from the recording process can also help clear your head in order to get a fresher perspective when you come back to review your work.

Lastly, don’t forget to check out other writers and podcasters online who are doing what you want to do! Look at their work critically as well—what do you like about their performance, what would you do differently? Just remember to stay authentic to who you are as a writer.